Archive for the ‘The SFWA Blog’ Category

The Past Is Not as Rosy as You’ve Been Led to Believe

by Jeff Reynolds A game we authors enjoy is “discuss how the short story market used to pay so well you could make a living from it.” When the topic appeared again recently, I wondered: Is there any truth to this view? Did writers of the past make a living selling nothing but short fiction? […]

Game Writing with Text Adventure Games

by Misha Grifka Wander When I teach video game analysis to college students, I sometimes tell them that they’re going to make their own games—and their eyes glaze over in panic, thinking of the intense production requirements of a video game: music, voice acting, animation, design, and so on. If you’ve ever been curious about […]

In Memoriam: M. J. Engh

M. J. Engh (26 January 1933 – 11 July 2024), also writing as Jane Beauclerk and Mary Jane Engh, was a librarian, scholar, teacher, editor and writer. She wrote short fiction, non-fiction, and speculative novels, including 1976’s Arslan, later released as A Wind from Bukhara. Engh was honored by SFWA in 2009 with the title […]

(Temporarily) Computer-Free Writing

by N. R. M. Roshak Editor’s note: This piece is part of an occasional series titled Writing by Other Means, in which authors share personal experiences and industry intel around different production contexts and writing tools. My laptop is my mainstay. Between online-only submissions and Track Changes-dependent editorial processes, it’s hard to imagine being a […]

Dance the Exotic Dance for Me!

by Yoon Ha Lee When I was a kid in the 1980s and 1990s, I adored classical mythology, Arthurian mythology, the Cthulhu mythos. I was the weirdo who holed up in the library reading Tacitus, Plato, and Sylvia Plath for fun. I had ambitions of writing science fiction and fantasy. Yet the science fiction and […]

A Brief History of SFWA: The Beginning (Part 2)

by Michael Capobianco Editor’s note: This piece is the second in a two-part overview of the first year of SFWA, curated by a member of the organization’s History Committee. Part 1 is available here. Damon Knight was now president of SFWA, Editor/Writer/Publisher of the Bulletin, and chair of a one-person Contracts Committee/Griefcom.  It was at […]

SFWA Market Report For August

Welcome to the August edition of the SFWA Market Report. Please note: Inclusion of any venue in this report does not indicate an official endorsement by SFWA. Those markets included on this list pay at least $0.08/word USD in at least one category of fiction. This compilation is not exhaustive of all publication opportunities that pay […]

A Brief History of SFWA: The Beginning (Part 1)

by Michael Capobianco Editor’s note: This piece is the first in a two-part overview of the first year of SFWA, curated by a member of the organization’s History Committee. Part 2 is available here. On January 15, 1965, Damon Knight, a well-known author, critic, and co-founder of the Milford Conference writer’s workshop, sent an announcement […]

Discovery Writing Through Gaming

by Austin Conrad How do you move forward when stuck on telling a story? Sometimes the best way is to play your story at the gaming table. A roleplaying game’s collaborative creativity is a fun and effective method of discovery “writing” your way through writer’s block. Better yet, this can be used whether you’re writing […]