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discussion

Generational Tech

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Some of us are old enough to remember a time before computers. Some of us are even old enough to recall a time before dishwashers were the norm. What I’m getting at here is how technology becomes a part of the fabric of life and how we react to it when it’s not. My mother resisted getting a dryer for the house for a long time. Why would we need such a thing? We had a laundry line. Now it’s normal for everyone to have them, either in the domicile or the apartment’s laundry room or at the laundromat. They’re … Read more

The Big Sleep

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It’s said that humans are the only organism on the planet who are aware of their own deaths. That’s a bit tough to verify, since we can’t ask cetaceans and cephalopods, elephants and other primates if they’re aware that someday they’re going to die. We do know that humans are aware, though, and for writers, it’s always lurking in the backs of our creation processes. When we write LGBT fiction and especially romance based fiction, a lot of us shy away from the subject because many of us grew up during the literary period where the LGBT character always died … Read more

Tropes We Love

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The word trope often sends unpleasant shivers down the backs of speculative fiction fans. We think of overused themes, tired plots, and situations that have been beaten to death with an Andromedan shock club and then beaten some more. But really, a trope is simply a recurring theme or device when we talk about stories, so all themes when we break them down into their component parts are tropes. Science Fiction and Fantasy are full of them and fans will be able to yell out dozens of examples if you name one. We even have our favorites if we stop … Read more