When I think of writers of future fiction, I think of the admonitions of almost every good manager I ever hand. “Don’t tell me problems,” they would say, “bring me solutions.” Fiction writers could keep that advice in mind, and in particular, authors of future fiction or so-called speculative fiction. It is not particularly speculative…
Looking for a Few #SciFi Beta Readers
I have six completed science fiction manuscripts, penned over the last couple of years, that have gone through my alpha readers and are ready for some quality road testing. Each of the tomes takes place in a fictional universe I’ve created, and while the stories often interlock in some way, each is an independent novel…
The Idea that #Writers Must #Read Everything Is Absolute Bullsh*t (Unless you know how and why to read)
Okay, I will admit that this idea is a recurrent theme of mine. Anyone who has heard me talk about writing has heard me call bollocks on the idea that novelists cannot hope to become good writers unless they read every novelist they can find. Stephen King is a particular advocate of this way of…
Excerpt – WIP #7 from a Collection of Short Fiction
I am working on a short fiction collection that gives canon-level stories to accompany my (at least 10-book) future fiction collection. This is an excerpt from a novelette called The Dragons of Koet’sö. I’ve also penned a novella and one short story for the collection, so I’m making good progress. Not sure of the order…
When is Science Fiction Simply Future Fiction?
In recent years, science fiction has moved from the publishing mainstream–a position it enjoyed during the 1980s and 1990s–to genre fiction’s place on the sidelines. As sales fell, fans and critics began whinging that true sci-fi is dead, replaced by plot-driven stories that happen to be set in places that do not, and likely will…
Is Perfect Better than Good?
I’ve often heard the aphorism that “the best is the enemy of the good.” It’s most often attributed to Voltaire, but being dubious of quotes where there’s no video evidence, I wonder. Shakespeare (“Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.”) and Confucius ( “Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.”) also…
First Paragraphs
I have been reading and thinking a lot about first novel paragraphs. In part it is because I am nearing the end of the first draft of my sixteenth manuscript. However, it is also because I have been curious at how the masters begin their greatest works. I’ve come to the conclusion that there is…
Writing without Joy; Reading without Enjoyment
I must admit, that even after having written twelve novels and three collections of short fiction, I do not understand what readers find to be enjoyable. As an example, I recently completed reading a collection of short fiction by an author I will not name. The collection has received thousands of reviews, both on Goodreads…
In Too Deep to Quit
So, I’m officially 16,237 words into Book 16, which my word count estimator tells me is around 19% complete. Sixteen thousand words feels like too many to throw away, so even though it’s slow starting writing again after my nearly six month layoff, I will keep going. That, among many other reasons, is why I…
A Rant Against Artificial, Time-Delimited Technological Barriers and the Engagement of Future Technologies in the Mind of the Modern Fan, or Why New Tech Still Sucks
Once upon a time, on a WOW Air flight from Reykjavik, Iceland to Baltimore, USA, a twenty-something man named Abraham turned to the totally doesn’t look forty-something woman in the next seat and said, “I wish I could go back to the eighties [or before] and experience what it was like to see the Star…
