by Kevin L. O’Brien Welcome to Part Two of a series that examines technology and medieval machines that can be used in worldbuilding. In the first post of this series, I described how a quasi-medieval society could smelt all the iron it needed to generate and sustain an industrial revolution. However, while it could […]
by Katherine Quevedo
A lot of discourse these days builds up the case for why the world needs more empathy. It’s not a hard case to make. When placed against the backdrop of artificial intelligence (AI) and the possible technological singularity, I believe empathy could become a source of competitive advantage for our species as a whole.
by Kevin L. O’Brien
Welcome to Part One of a series that discusses technology and medieval machines that can be used for worldbuilding.
Many fantasy stories gloss over technological details that would be vital in a real-world setting. For example: how would a medieval-level society acquire the iron it needs for tools and implements?
by Richard J. Chwedyk
Theodore Sturgeon once wrote this, emphatically, honestly, and truly: “One should write fiction carefully and consciously to someone, as one writes a letter; and the selection of that someone is the single most important skill that a writer can develop.”
by Sally Wiener Grotta
I write to understand. My characters and plots are formed in a subconscious that churns with confusion or concern about how the world functions (or fails to function). As I write the story my characters tell me, I find myself posing questions that “reflect and even explain the differences and forces that relate them all… hold them together… or tear them apart.” The journey is what matters to me.
by Ethan Ellenberg
Now we are in a whole new world. There are different ways to be published and author incomes are coming from a far wider range of sources. The standard book agreement that routinely grants the mainstream book publisher a license for the ‘term of copyright’ has to be re-considered.
A class action suit for violation of copyright, first filed in 2001, has finally brought checks to writers. The initial settlement in the case, the Literary Works in Electronic Databases Copyright Litigation, was approved in 2005, followed by more years of litigation.
The ArmadilloCon Writing Workshop will take place at the Omni Southpark on Friday, August 3, 2018. This full-day workshop is presented in conjunction with ArmadilloCon 40, Austin’s literary science fiction and fantasy convention. The Workshop is ideal for new and emerging writers but is open to all.
The New England Science Fiction Association (NESFA for short) is running a writing contest. Prizes include free books, and a grand prize of a free membership to Boskone.
SFWA’s Contracts Committee has recently been seeing a proliferation of contracts from small magazines, and a very few established markets, that license all derivative rights in perpetuity. This is a red flag for a number of reasons, even if these rights are licensed non-exclusively
The captain of a family-owned starship arranges a marriage for her son in hopes of achieving faster-than-light travel and maybe, just maybe, marital bliss.
Deborah J. Ross is a former SFWA Secretary and member of Book View Cafe. Recent work includes THUNDERLORD, Lambda Finalist COLLABORATORS, and THE SEVEN-PETALED SHIELD trilogy, and stories in F & SF, Asimov’s, and Star Wars: Tales from Jabba’s Palace.
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