Today’s topic comes from QSFer Alicia Nordwell: “I adore medical technology in science fiction. You see a lot of fictional weapon, electronic, and spaceship technology advances in stories, but you don’t see a lot of stories focus on that aspect of a futuristic tale. I like playing with nano technology, personally, but I’ve also done a combination of mechanical devices and a healing biological fluid. What are other author’s favorites?” It’s an interesting topic… where will medical technology take us in the next ten years? Twenty? Fifty? And more specific to the LGBt community, what effect will it have on … Read more

One of my favorite things to read is Epic Fantasy – especially the kind that spans multiple books. These heavy doorstop-tomes can run to 1,000 or 1,200 pages, and are often filled with bunches of characters that would do those old “cast of thousands” Hollywood epics proud. But most forms of fiction do not lend themselves so readily to large casts of characters. Short stories, in particular, can quickly bog down with too many viewpoint characters. I’ve developed a simple rule of thumb for myself when writing short stories. If I want to write 5-10k, I use one viewpoint character. … Read more