Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America

Archive for February, 2011

A Valentine’s Day Guest Post: Tentacle Sex

Monday, February 14th, 2011

After reading, Kij Johnson‘s Nebula Award-Winning story, “Spar,” do you find yourself longing for more tentacle action? Sure there’s H.P. Lovecraft, H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, C.L. Moore, and hundreds of other writers who’ve had literary dalliances with calamari, but this Valentine’s Day, we invite you to consider the wellspring. It’s time to put on some Barry White, take a bubble bath, and cuddle with your favorite cuttlefish.  -Ed.

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Tentacle Sex

by PZ Myers

Doesn’t everyone just love cephalopods? I find them to be a fascinating example of a body plan radically different from our own, the closest thing to a truly alien large metazoan on our planet. I try to keep my eyes open for new papers on cephalopod development, but unfortunately, they are rather difficult to study and data is sadly thin and tantalizing.

I just ran across a pair of papers by Jantzen and Havenhand (2003a, b) on squid mating. That’s close enough to development for me!

First, let me explain a few general features of squid sex. Males produce elaborate spermatophores, illustrated to the left, which are complex packages of sperm. Huge numbers of sperm are stored centrally (1010 sperm, in some species), enclosed in a discharge mechanism that is triggered osmotically or mechanically—basically, it’s like those joke peanut cans that fling out a springy surprise when opened. Squid sex is a process of passing one of these clever novelty items to a female, where it will then go sproing when she lays some eggs.

Male squid do not have a penis. Instead, they have a pouch that opens into the mantle cavity, called Needham’s sac, where spermatophores are stored, and they have a specially modified tentacle, the hectocotylus, which is used to reach into the sac, scoop out a spermatophore, and and place it inside the buccal or mantle cavity of the female. In some cephalopods, the end of the hectocotylus snaps off and remains imbedded in the female.

Simple, hey? Of course, in the real world, it becomes much trickier, more exotic, and beautiful.

(more…)

Tags: Kij Johnson, PZ Myers
Posted in SFWA Blog | 1 Comment »

Deadline for Claiming Cash Payment Under Google Book Search Settlement May Be Extended

Monday, February 14th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

This just in from the Authors Guild. My bolding.

Authors, publishers and Google have filed a stipulation asking the Court to extend the deadline for filing claims to receive an upfront payment -- a "Cash Payment" -- in the Google Book Search settlement. The current deadline under the settlement, which is being reviewed by the court, is March 31, 2011. If the extension is granted, authors and publishers will have until one year after the Court approves the settlement to make a claim for a Cash Payment.

Under the settlement, only those rightsholders whose works were scanned by Google on or before May 5, 2009, are entitled to claim a Cash Payment. Payment for the unauthorized digitization of entire works will be at least $60. (This payment is separate from the settlement's revenue-sharing arrangements.)

If you are not claiming a Cash Payment, you may file at any time.

Follow the filing instructions here: Google Book Search Claims.

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-02-14

Monday, February 14th, 2011

• Congratulations to SFWA member @nalohopkinson who will be an Prof. specializing in SF & fantasy at the UC Riverside. http://3.ly/cTYw #

Tags: twitter
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Quick Updates for 2011-02-13

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

Member News

• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Active member Eugene Myers author of FAIR COIN (PYR).
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Associate Member Brit Mandelo. Look for her qualifying story “Though Smoke Shall Hide the Sun” 2/14 on tor.com.
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Active member Karen Azinger, author of THE STEEL QUEEN (HarperCollins, 6/11).
• Welcome to SFWA’s newest Associate member Steve Feldberg of Audible.com.
• SFWA member Tony Pi sold a short story, “We Who Steal Faces” to Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show.
• Congratulations to SFWA member Yasmine Galenorn whose novel BLOOD WYNE hit #15 on the New York Times list this week.
• SFWA member Jennifer Jackson has been promoted to VP at Donald Maass Literary Agency, where she will continue to represent talented writers.
• Congratulations to SFWA members Nancy Kress and Jack Skillingstead who were married on Thursday.

Tags: Brit Mandelo, Eugene Myers, Jack Skillingstead, Jennifer Jackson, Karen Azinger, Nancy Kress, Steve Feldberg, Tony Pi, twitter, yasmine galenorn
Posted in News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

Key Conditions for Suspense:
Part 9 – character draws 9-10

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

by John D. Brown

The following is part of a continuing series. If you wish to start at the beginning, head to It’s All About The Reader.

In my last two posts, I identified a number of things that make people and, therefore, characters interesting to us. In this post, I’ll present the last two draws and introduce the next condition for reader suspense.

Surprise

We are intrigued by characters who play against type, even if it’s only a little. So maybe you have a plumber who quotes Shakespeare or William Blake to his customers. Maybe you have a mixed martial arts fighter who is a woman with three kids. Maybe the hero hates dogs. Maybe he’s a bee keeper. Maybe the villain has a fear of spiders or tends lovingly to his daughter. Maybe the cutthroat millionaire businessman secretly goes to poor neighborhoods to find folks to help. Maybe the bearded and tattooed biker carries around a Book of Mormon and reads it during quiet moments. Maybe, like Michael in the series Burn Notice, the super spy loves yogurt. Anything that runs against, or just doesn’t fit, our expectations of the type. This includes motives as well as external character tags.

Cast Variety

Finally, because we almost always deal with a cast of people in our stories, we need to make sure they’re interesting as a group. You will increase reader interest if you give each character some memorable and interesting trait, but you’ll get the most bang for the buck if you make those traits different.

For example, let’s say you have a team of characters who need to go behind enemy lines to find and dismantle a radar station. If every one of those team members is exactly the same–they’re all wise-cracking blond farm boys from Oklahoma–we might find it funny and odd at first, but it will soon lose its appeal as they all say and do the same things.
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Tags: John D. Brown
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Tips for Beginners, Writing Technique | 6 Comments »

Quick Updates for 2011-02-12

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

• @lightspeedmag Technically, you only become eligible in June. It still requires a board vote. #

Tags: twitter
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Guest Blog Post: Book Review — "The Street-Smart Writer"

Friday, February 11th, 2011

Posted by Victoria Strauss for Writer Beware

Today, author Marian Perera reviews a book I often recommend for writers who are interested in learning the basics of self-protection in the shark-infested waters of writing and publishing: The Street-Smart Writer, by prolific author Jenna Glatzer and publishing attorney Daniel Steven.

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by Marian Perera

When writers are curious or concerned about literary scams, they can check out websites and discussion boards, of which there are several – such as Writer Beware and Preditors and Editors. Or they can pick up one book: The Street-Smart Writer, by Jenna Glatzer and Daniel Steven.

Subtitled “Self-Defense Against Sharks and Scams in the Writing World”, this book is both a good introduction to and a comprehensive overview of just how many ways writers can be taken – not only by outright scammers, but by well-intentioned people who nevertheless lack relevant experience or resources. It was released in 2005 but is just as timely today, with one exception that I’ll mention later.

(more...)

Tags: Writer Beware
Posted in SFWA Blog, Writer Beware | Comments Off

Quick Updates for 2011-02-11

Friday, February 11th, 2011

• SFWA member @arcaedia has been promoted to VP at Donald Maass Literary Agency, where she will continue to represent talented writers. #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Eugene Myers (@ecmyers) author of Fair Coin (PYR). #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate Member @BritMandelo. Look for her qualifying story "Though Smoke Shall Hide the Sun" 2/14 on tor.com #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Active member Karen Azinger, author of The Steel Queen (HarperCollins, 6/11) #
• Welcome to SFWA's newest Associate member Steve Feldberg of Audible.com #
• @GayleWriter Thanks! They've joined over the last couple of days but I was offline for part of that so had some catching up to do. #

Tags: twitter
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Ten Terrific Resources for
Writing Space-Based Hard Science Fiction

Thursday, February 10th, 2011

by Mike Brotherton

Hard science fiction is science fiction without mistakes in the science, at least not very big ones. You can still be very speculative and far out, but you can’t violate what we know about how the universe works without spoiling the suspension of disbelief. While there’s a lot we don’t know, there’s wikipedias full of what we do, and it can be intimidating even if you’ve got a PhD in a scientific subject. I’m a professional astronomer, but there’s plenty of room for me to screw up when it comes to geology, biology, or any of another half dozen subjects.

I would like to share ten resources, more or less, that I think are really terrific when it comes to getting the science right. These will be biased toward my areas of expertise, and will span books, websites, and software. Old-fashioned books first.

1. Mallove, Eugene F., and Matloff, Gregory L. The Starflight Handbook: A Pioneer’s Guide to Interstellar Travel, Wiley Science Editions. New York: Wiley, 1989. This book is one-stop shopping for nearly every serious idea put forward in the last few decades, although it is not 100% complete (e.g., the Alcubierre Drive is missing). The relativistic rocket equation is a bonus. Maybe you could search dozens of wiki pages for the same information, but this is a book worth having on the shelf.

2. Stine, G. Harry. Living in Space: A Handbook for Work & Exploration Beyond the Earth’s Atmosphere. 1st ed. New York: M. Evans and Co., 1997. This is the book I go to when I’m worrying about what kind of accelerations humans can survive. Or radiation doses. Or any of a bunch of dangerous things my characters might encounter in space. (Also worth checking out: Mullane, R. Mike. Do Your Ears Pop In Space and 500 Other Surprising Questions About Space Travel. Wiley, 1997.)

3. Sheffield, Charles. Borderlands of Science. This book is a readable summary of a number of areas of science: physics, astronomy, chemistry, biology, etc., with an emphasis on topics most likely to concern a science fiction writer. The solar system and space flight both get long chapters to themselves, for example. Chaos theory gets a big chapter too — bigger than it deserves probably — but is interesting enough. This book is a handy starting place for an sf writer, but doesn’t really go into enough detail to do more than spark a story. The bibliography is therefore unfortunately thin (but at least there is one!).
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Tags: Mike Brotherton
Posted in Advice for New Writers, Information Center, SFWA Blog, The Craft of Writing, Tips for Beginners | 3 Comments »

WSFA Award Announced

Wednesday, February 9th, 2011

The Washington Science Fiction Association has established a literary award to honor the work done by small presses in promoting and preserving science fiction. The award, now in its fifth year, is given annually for short fiction works (17,500 words or fewer) of imaginative literature (e.g., science fiction, fantasy, horror, speculative fiction or like literature) published by a small press. Stories may be nominated by SF authors and small press publishers. Details of the nomination process and contact information can be found at www.wsfasmallpressaward.org. If you have any question email: admin (at) wsfasmallpressaward (dot) org.

Tags: contests, WSFA.org
Posted in Contests, News, SFWA Blog | Comments Off

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