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Moving Beyond MM in Fantasy, Sci Fi and Paranormal

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I know I came to the party a little late. I’ve been writing since I was in my early years, and really made a go of it in my early twenties. But then after a string of rejections, I put things on the back burner, and didn’t really pull it off again until about a year ago. I’m now in my mid-forties. I always kind of figured that I would do some of my best writing at this point in my life, when I had more life experience under my belt. So anyhow, the party. As I’ve gotten more and … Read more

A Cyber(netic) Lover

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“When I started out,” says David Levy, international chess champion and expert in artificial intelligence, “I didn’t know anything about artificial vaginas. It is quite extraordinary how much interest there is in that subject.” Levy’s book, Love and Sex with Robots, is perhaps the fullest exploration of the future of humans and robots, especially their interaction in the bedroom. It explores the details of internet-linked devices that transmit real physical contact. And Levy is no fantasist. He is the only person to win the Loebner prize – an annual competition to determine which chat software is the most realistic – … Read more

Announcement: Hercules, by Cree Storm

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Today we have a historic fantasy / shifter paranormal from QSFer Cree Storm: Erotic Alternative Fantasy Romance, M/M, shape-shifters, gods, public exhibition, HEA] Hera and Aries have taken over Olympus. The other Gods have one chance to free Zeus, however in order to do so the other Gods must be willing to sacrifice their freedom for his. Twelve keys will release Zeus from Icarus and those keys are each a mate to the chosen ones, and the stones will lead the way. Each obstacle is a labor Hercules is all too familiar with. Can they succeed before their time runs … Read more

Writing Bad Characters

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Today’s topic comes from QSFer Hank T. Cannon: “What does one do when everyone is evil? How to handle narratives when “good” is solely defined through POV”. I’m gonna tackle a particular piece of this, and Hank can jump in and steer things his own way too. The best “evil” characters, IMHO, are often the ones who don’t know they are bad, who truly believe in the (usually tragically wrong) cause they are supporting. This allows the writer to create a more complex villain – see Disney’s retelling of the Sleeping beauty tale in Maleficent, a character who did terrible … Read more

Science To The Rescue: Where Do Penises Come From?

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As if men need another reason to pay close attention to their penises, apparently the mystery of how they’re formed at the cellular level is the “key to much of life on earth.” So how are they formed? And why do males have them? These are questions asked by many an inquisitive 8-year-old and distinguished scientist alike. Two teams of researches have come to some fairly conclusive results that begin to tell the origin story of one of life’s little origins. If penises were Batman, this would be Batman Begins. Not only because the research reveals the roots of the … Read more

Announcement: Creature Feature 2, by Poppy Dennison and Rhys Ford

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Dreamspinner has a new paranormal romance out by two QSFers: Two Men. One Apocalypse. Rise of the Revenants by Poppy Dennison Vampyres are on the loose in Detroit, and novice hunter Taz Cohen is on the job. The mission seems simple: stop the vamps. But Taz knows nothing about the mythical creatures, so he’s in for the fight of his life. Then he meets insanely attractive construction worker Darren Foster, who jumps into the battle with both feet. Sparks and bullets fly as they struggle against the vampyre horde and their attraction to each other. Avoiding gruesome death from the … Read more

What is Urban Fantasy?

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We had a question the other day on the Facebook discussion group about urban fantasies, so I thought that would be a good topic for discussion by the whole group. But what exactly is an urban fantasy? Does it have to include elves or dwarves? Does it need to have a magical element? Is magical realism the same thing as urban fantasy? I’ve read a few of these, and the ones that immediately come to mind are Terry Brooks’ A Man of His Word series – in which demons haunt our present-day society. Now you might think this is paranormal, … Read more

Announcement: Time for Destiny, Michelle Rae

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QSFer Michelle Rae has a new book out – a historic fantasy: When Daniel Wilson, oldest of five children in a troubled family, joined the military, he expected to see combat in Iraq. But it comes as quite a shock when a Rupee minted a century and a half ago transports him to that dangerous time in war-torn colonial India. After he meets and falls in love with Vir during his visit to 1857, he faces the greatest challenge of his life. He knows he may ultimately lose Vir because he belongs in a different time. Still, he wants desperately … Read more

US Still Spends More on Space Than All Others Combined

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Ever since NASA retired its last space shuttle in 2011, American space travel has taken a back seat to news of growing Chinese space ambitions, Indian Mars missions, Iranian space chimps, and Russian space geckos. But make no mistake, the United States is still the global powerhouse in space spending. Last year, the United States spent roughly $40 billion on its space program, which is more than every other country combined, according to a new study (pdf) by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). For comparison, China’s space budget, which is the second largest in the world, was … Read more

Will Our AI’s Be Autistic?

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Andrew Sullivan at The Dish flagged this interesting tidbit: Most of the commercial work completed by AI will be done by special-purpose, narrowly focused software brains that can, for example, translate any language into any other language, but do little else. Drive a car, but not converse. Or recall every pixel of every video on YouTube but not anticipate your work routines. In the next 10 years, 99 percent of the artificial intelligence that you will interact with, directly or indirectly, will be nerdily autistic, supersmart specialists. In fact, this won’t really be intelligence, at least not as we’ve come … Read more