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Archive for the ‘Information Center’ Category

Building The Disabled World

by Sandra M. Odell

I love intricate, detailed worldbuilding; it’s the backbone of science fiction and fantasy stories, even those set in the modern era. Sadly, few things make me stop reading faster than the realization that a writer gave more thought to the description of a meal than they did to the how or why an accommodation for a character with disabilities came to be in a story. Inclusion and representation matter, and so do the supports that allow an individual with disabilities to interact with a writer’s world.

The Post Novel Blues

by Paul Jessup

It seems to happen every single time I work on something larger than a novella. The minute I finish it, it seems like all of my creativity for fiction dries up.

10 Reasons to Romanticize the Donkey

by Barbara E. Hill

Because of this diminutive rose-colored darling I learned a lot about life, relationships, and especially about writing.

“But… wait, what? Writing?” you ask. “A donkey taught you about writing?”

The Racial Rubber Stamp

by R.F. Kuang

What I’ve seen is that the lone POCs in largely white writing groups often become tokenized faux authorities. We’re consulted just enough to give other work a stamp of diversity approval, but brutally marginalized when their opinions become inconvenient.

Infringement Alert

The Internet Archive (Archive.org) is carrying out a very large and growing program of scanning entire books and posting them on the public Internet. It is calling this project “Open Library,” but it is SFWA’s understanding that this is not library lending, but direct infringement of authors’ copyrights.

Odyssey Writing Workshop Opens for Applications

Beginning this year, bestselling author George R. R. Martin is funding a scholarship for an Odyssey student. The Miskatonic Scholarship will be awarded to a promising writer of Lovecraftian cosmic horror.

Surviving Times of Stagnation

by Paul Jessup

It will probably happen to you. Almost every career for a professional writer hits a snag at some point. Usually after a huge burst of activity and a feeling of momentum, of going somewhere. It comes out of nowhere, out of left field.

The Impact Different Font Styles And Sizes Have On Readers’ Experience

by Amber Massey

There’s a zen phrase that asks, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” For writers, here’s a different question: If you write a story and no one is able to read it, have you really told it? Typography and fonts have a big impact on readability.

Building Worlds with SFWA

by Jeffe Kennedy

It’s apropos that “Lonen’s War,” book one in my Fantasy Romance series, “Sorcerous Moons,” is featured in the first SFWA Fantasy StoryBundle. That’s because the fantastically smart and helpful folks in SFWA helped me out with a worldbuilding challenge.

The Voodoo of Research

by Tim Susman

Since it’s fall and ghosts are in the air, I thought it might be a good time to talk about my research into vodou/voodoo, the religion and spiritual practices that coalesced on Haiti among the African slaves there and spread to America, most commonly and famously in New Orleans (for the purposes of this article, I use “vodou” to refer to the Haitian religion and “voodoo” to refer to the New Orleans practices).