If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! The winner of our quarterly writing challenge for January is writer E.J. Tett, known on these forums as Mouse. Each quarter, the Challenge is to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image chosen by [...]
Writer Dan McQuain, (known on these forums as Grinnel) is the winner of our October 300 Word Challenge. He wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As always, participants were challenged to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image that our moderators [...]
Writer Anna Dickinson, (known to members of these forums as Hex) has won our July 300 Word Challenge. She wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As always, the challenge that participants faced was to write a story of 300 words or less, inspired by an image [...]
The Winner of our April 300 Word Writing Challenge is writer John J Brady, (known on these forums as alchemist). He wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired [...]
THE OBJECT OF DESIRE — AN INTERVIEW WITH TANITH LEE In a remarkable career, spanning four decades, Tanith Lee has written stories in practically every genre or subgenre of speculative fiction one could imagine: dark fantasy, children’s fantasy, gothic horror, steampunk, science fiction, mythic fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, fairy tales, contemporary fantasy … and the list goes [...]
Forum member Teresa Edgerton is the winner of our January 300 Word Writing Challenge. She wins a £10 voucher to spend at The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired by an image selected by our moderators. For [...]
The following is based on discussions on these forums and materials I have prepared for clients, but I am, I think, bringing all of it together for the first time. Though it is principally addressed to fantasy writers, it applies to science fiction, too. ON WORLDBUILDING Back in the days of my youth, I used [...]
THE WINNER OF OUR 300 WORD WRITING CHALLENGE #3 is writer Samanda Primeau, known on these forums as TheDustyZebra. The quarterly challenge requires entrants to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired by a picture chosen by the moderators. The image is above, and the winning story is below. Congratulations TDZ! To [...]
I recently had the opportunity to interview award-winning author, Elizabeth Bear. It was a remarkably challenging and candid interview — much, one imagines, like the writer herself, who displayed a marked disinclination to whitewash the truth or tell comforting lies. She is the author of more than twenty published novels and a long list of [...]
VEGETABLE COMPUTERS, NARCOLEPTIC SNOW, AND THE EVOLUTIONARY HISTORY OF LIFE I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Stephen Palmer: writer, space-rock musician, and artist. One of the most intriguing and eccentric writers on the Science Fiction scene ever since his debut novel Memory Seed first appeared in 1996, Stephen has released several albums with his [...]
Less than a month after its release in trade paperback, GOBLIN MOON is now available in the amazon Kindle format. When the Goblin Moon rises, strange things happen … Coffins float down the river, hobgoblins emerge from their dens, alchemists pore over ancient texts in search of the secret of creating life — and one [...]
Over the years, I’ve been in a position to read a considerable number of unpublished manuscripts, and to hear (or read) a considerable number of new writers discussing their ideas. And one thing I’ve noticed is how very, very often the writer who is straining every nerve to write something that will redefine the fantasy [...]
A trade paperback edition of this classic swashbuckling fantasy adventure is now available through the Lulu store and is expected to start appearing at amazon.com and other online outlets in late November. Kindle and other ebook editions are expected to appear in October. WHEN THE GOBLIN MOON RISES, STRANGE THINGS HAPPEN … Coffins float down [...]
(This article first appeared in my forum several years ago. I post it now — slightly revised — because I believe the subject is more relevant than ever. It is not intended to single out any one author, but to address a general trend.) Is Fantasy Becoming More Realistic or Simply More Cynical? After using [...]
The following was written essentially to let off steam after various discussions, and is not to be taken as an attempt to bring others around to share my opinions — excellent and worthy as those opinions may be. THE RULES — Love them? Or leave them? When it comes to the rules of good writing, [...]
REVISIONS — HOW TO HANDLE THEM AND STILL RETAIN YOUR SANITY Some writers love doing revisions. Now that they have taken care of the basics they can have fun filling in the details. Others regard the process as sheer drudgery after a purely creative phase where their ideas flowed freely. Most are intimidated by the [...]
Congratulations to forum member The Judge for winning our July 300 Word Writing Challenge, which was open to all members of the sffchronicles forums. She wins a £10 voucher to spend at The Book Depository. As before, members had to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired by an image chosen by [...]
TAMING THE WILD SYNOPSIS For many new writers in the process of preparing to submit a first novel to agents or editors, the very idea of writing a synopsis sends them into a panic. They have been told so many times how much depends on it, how difficult it is to do right, that the [...]
THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS IN WRITING For many of us, the first impulse to write a novel comes with an idea that we have only to get our wonderful story down on paper, polish it up a bit, and we’ll have a finished book, one that wins instant acclaim and makes us very, very rich. [...]
ON THE SAD IMPOVERISHMENT AND THE THREATENED DEMISE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE I was recently poking around a website I sometimes visit, and came across a thread in which members were complaining about authors who seem to do their writing with a dictionary or a thesaurus in hand. They started out (quite properly, I thought) [...]
Man of Steel teaser trailer released
If you’re sick of comic-book adaptations and film remakes, the last thing you might expect to get excited about is a new Superman film. That’s right: there’s a new Superman film scheduled for release in 2013. However, before you run off groaning at the idea of yet another mediocre cash-in, this one comes with caveats. [...]
Penguin owner buys ASI self-publishing company
According to the BBC, Pearson, which owns Penguin books among other things, has bought Author Solutions Inc in a £74 million deal. The deal means that Pearson now has control of a self-publishing interest. The news has raised concerns among some writers that intellectual property (IP) rights for new writers may be at risk, especially [...]
The Winner of our April 300 Word Writing Challenge is writer John J Brady, (known on these forums as alchemist). He wins a £10 voucher to spend at Amazon or The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired [...]
Forum member Teresa Edgerton is the winner of our January 300 Word Writing Challenge. She wins a £10 voucher to spend at The Book Depository, our quarterly prize. As usual, the challenge our members faced was to write a story of no more than 300 words, inspired by an image selected by our moderators. For [...]
All Zombies Must Die hits the Xbox
At the weekend, All Zombies Must Die was unleashed on Xbox Live. As you can probably guess from the title, this is a rather tongue in cheek game developed by Doublesix with a focus on multiplayer zombie slaying. Set in the town of Deadhill, All Zombies Must Die offers a huge variety of weapons (such [...]
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