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HISTORY: How Did People Wake Up On Time Before Alarm Clocks?

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alarm clock - pixabay

Of all the modern inventions we rely on in our daily lives, the alarm clock is probably the most universally despised. Its jarring morning jangles jolt us uncomfortably out of our slumber, and back to reality. And yet however annoying alarm clocks are, they’re also indispensable in getting us out of bed. That raises an interesting question: How did people wake up before alarm clocks became so ubiquitous? Throughout the ages, even the simple act of telling the time has presented a huge challenge to humans that we’ve tried to solve with elaborate inventions. The ancient Greeks and Egyptians developed … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: All the Odds, by R. Phoenix

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Of All the Odds - R. Phoenix

QSFer R. Phoenix has a new MM paranormal book out: All the Odds. When the fae play such deadly games, falling in love with one of them can have devastating consequences… Fickle and capricious, the fae lack a true understanding of human emotions. Though they can masquerade as human, their behavior inevitably betrays them as something utterly other. When Ichabod bested him at a card game, Sebastian abandoned his human lover, leaving him only with a cursed deck to keep him alive. For a century, Ichabod has waited for his fae lover to return to him. Every day to prolong … Read more

FILM: Was Grindelwald Dumbeldore’s Lover?

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dumbledore-gay-fantastic-beasts-grindelwald

The new Fantastic Beasts movie, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, will, for the first time, allude to Harry Potter favourite Albus Dumbledore being gay on screen. But is the film’s titular villain—Gellert Grindelwald—his lover? The sequel to 2016’s Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them takes us back to 1927 when Dumbledore was a sprightly young man, rather than the elder statesman we see in the Harry Potter movies. Here, the Hogwarts headmaster is played by Jude Law.  Fantastic Beasts hints at a close relationship between Law’s Dumbledore and Johnny Depp’s maniacal Voldemort prototype, Grindelwald. Were they gay? … Read more

FOR READERS/WRITERS: Privacy in Telepathic Societies

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telepathic - pixabay

FOR READERS/WRITERS Today’s topic comes from QSFer Kethric Wilcox: The issue of privacy in telepathic societies, do you prefer the open invasion style of Star Trek’s Betazoid style telepaths or the regimented only with a contract and permission style of Babylon 5’s PsiCorps style or is their a happy middle ground between the two? Join the chat

SPACE: Black Holes Can Raise the Dead (And Then Kill Them Again)

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Zombie Star - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Adding a cosmic “Walking Dead” twist to the most morbid of all space objects, scientists have found that some black holes could bring dead “zombie” stars back to life — and then destroy them. Black holes are invisible “objects” in space where the gravity is so strong that it sucks everything into it, even light. All of the black holes that astronomers have found so far are either superbig — as in hundreds of thousands and even billions of times the mass of our sun — or on the smallish side, as in, say, less than 100 times the mass … Read more

COVER REVEAL/GIVEAWAY: Spells & Stardust, by J. Scott Coatsworth

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QSFer J. Scott Coatsworth has a new queer sci fi/fantasy anthology coming out on December 5th: Spells & Stardust. And he’s sharing the cover with us today. Spells & Stardust is Scott’s first anthology – eight sci fi and fantasy shorts that run the gamut from regeneration to redemption. The Bear at the Bar: A gay fish out of water tale with a pinch of magic. Tight: What happens when your lover disappears in midair? Morgan: The year when everything changed. Re-Life: What if you were reborn in a strange new future? A New Year: They met every eleven years. … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: A Deceptive Alliance, by Sydney Blackburn

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Deceptive Alliance

QSFer Sydney Blackburn has a new MM romance book out: A Deceptive Alliance. Kel and his twin sister Isabel have traded places before—to escape lessons, to prank their royal cousins, and for Kel to flirt with handsome men at royal balls. But when Isabel runs away in tears shortly before her proxy wedding to Prince Darin of Pervayne, Kel takes her place, knowing he could cause serious problems between Pervayne and their home kingdom of Karleed if discovered. Isabel will show up—eventually—and take her rightful place and no one will ever know. The question is, will Isabel arrive before Kel … Read more

INTERVIEW TODAY: Bob Appavu, Demon of the Underground Webcomic

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Bob Appavu

Hey all… We have something special today. At 11 AM, we’ll host Bob Appavu, creator of the Demon of the Underground webcomic for an interview on the QSF Facebook group: ADMIN NOTE: I met Bob at the Dreamspinner Retreat and am so excited to interview her about her web comic and writing. –Scott Bob Appavu is a freelance illustrator, webcomic creator, and author from the Chicago suburbs. Whether writing or drawing, her passion is creating plot-driven stories with complex LGBTQ lead characters. Bob is an avid animal lover and can’t imagine life without furry and feathered housemates. When not at … Read more