Seven chapters have miraculously appeared as the start of my new novel (although Chapter 7 has to be significantly rewritten to accommodate my plan for #8 – I hate when that happens). Regardless, I’m starting to enjoy my characters. I started … Continue reading
Enthusiasts keen on the search for extraterrestrial life always present this justification for their interest: we must find out: Are We Alone? This topic comes to mind again today (7/14/15) after reading a New York Times article (http://nyti.ms/1dWlI2y) on the … Continue reading
What To Assume About Aliens Lem, Stanislaw (1968). His Master’s Voice. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (199 pp.) It barely counts as a novel, this story presented as a single scientist’s memoir of a project he worked on long ago. … Continue reading
I’m going to a meeting of local screenwriters and wannabe screenwriters (like me) tonight, to see if 1. I can learn anything, 2. If I can survive without being totally intimidated, and 3. If I might meet some interesting people. … Continue reading
A milestone for any project is first words written. Page one, Chapter one: actual words. They are probably not the right words, but you have to start with words in sentences. The sequel I’m working on now will be my … Continue reading
In setting up my new novel, a sequel to the android novel I just finished, I listed my cast of characters, and wrote a few sentences under each name to describe what that person is like. But who are these … Continue reading
Why would anyone want to be a public defender? The pay is terrible, most of the clients are poor, uneducated and probably guilty; there’s no time to prepare, the caseload is overwhelming, and failure is the most likely outcome. Who chooses … Continue reading
I’d finished my android novel and was brainstorming the next big thing (NBT). I had created a NBT document and made a list of 11 topics I really would like to write about. These ranged over music, money, magical realism, crime, … Continue reading
Surprisingly to me, definitions of science fiction differ significantly. I may have just written a sci-fi novel and if so, I’m interested in understanding what I did. Authors seem to agree that science and technology feature as necessary elements of … Continue reading
I recently discovered a category of sci-fi called “mundane” sci-fi. (See https://sfgenics.wordpress.com/2013/07/04/geoff-ryman-et-al-the-mundane-manifesto/) Mundane sci-fi eschews aliens, intergalactic travel, and interstellar communication, as these are entirely unrealistic and qualify as fantasy, not sci-fi. Instead, the “mundanes,” … Continue reading