By Jeff Baker Not every writer writes short-stories. The form has been described as “difficult” and “challenging.” Some fiction writers don’t write short-stories. I write almost nothing but short-stories. I haven’t discussed the process very often, and I don’t always do it the same way, but this is more or less how I do it. (Sometimes.) First, there’s the idea. Ideas are easy. Everybody gets them. It’s what we do with them that counts. About four years ago we had a storm here and the power went out. It was Friday evening, we had no place to be the next … Read more
FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth: Are we past telling ‘coming-out’ stories? Or is there a way we can make them fresh? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat
I haven’t read every story by Ray Bradbury, but Graham George Barber may have. Barber contacted me to point out that Ray Bradbury did write at least two more stories with Queer characters, after my writing about Bradbury’s story “The Better Part of Wisdom “ (Boogieman In Lavender, July 11, 2016.) None of the stories are science fiction or fantasy, and they all speak of attitudes toward the LGBT community that a straight writer would have had back in the 1950s, but they are Bradbury. By the very nature of this exposition, this review will contain spoilers. In “Long … Read more
QSFer Justin Rodriguez has a new queer alternate history book out: Movement of The New Age is a visionary science fiction drama that takes place in an alternate world where the events of 9/11 lead to an all out war. Themes like revolution, gender, sexuality, liberation round up this riveting story whose lead characters are queer and trans people of color. Get it On Barnes & Noble Excerpt April 2007 Two weeks passed and hoverjets flew across the southern sky as the sun rose in the distance. There were dozens of them in all. Inside one of them was a … Read more
E. L. Reedy & A. M. Wade have a new YA Paranormal book out: Bound by a dark act of hate and despair, high school freshmen, Andrew and Kiernan, learn that their untimely deaths did not bring an end to their pain, but only began the suffering of those left behind. While his lost memories return, Andrew must master seemingly impossible feats, both spiritual and physical. As a dark spirit stalks Kiernan through the borderlands of life and death, he must also face the pain his actions have caused his loved ones. To save both their souls, Andrew must convince … Read more
For today’s topic, and my last post for 2017, I thought we could discuss some of our favourite LGBT writers from history. I know a huge number of my favourite writers from the past were LGBT. Many are the obvious, famous names such as Tennessee Williams, Oscar Wilde, Rimbaud, and Verlaine. Not to mention Marlowe and Shakespeare, if you go along with the suppositions about the two of them.
QSFer Eric Schubach has a new FF Fantasy book out: Found unconscious in an impact crater in the Cascade Mountains, with no memory of who she is or how she got there, Sloan Tesha attempts to start a new life as she tries to discover who she really is. As she recovers, the tattoos that cover her body begin to move and morph under her skin, the threads of ink reweaving to reflect the life all around her. Along with officer Andreya Lisbon, Sloan learns that she is one of the three fabled Fates, the Maiden, and dark forces are … Read more
Save the light reading for later. In 2017, dystopian fiction is all the rage. Gloomy classics depicting societies gone terribly wrong have shot to the top of best-seller lists like Amazon‘s in recent months, including George Orwell’s 1984 and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, prompting publishers to ramp up production decades after the books were first released. Others have followed close behind, such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Some nonfiction works in the same vein have seen similar resurgences, including Hannah Arendt’s 1951 Origins of Totalitarianism. Longtime staples … Read more
