How many of you have wanted to go to the moon? Everybody? Well, we’re all nerds here so I’m not surprised. What is a surprise is NASA’s announcement that there is the possibility of astronauts returning to the moon as early as next year. 2018 is the fiftieth anniversary year of Apollo 8, which was the first spacecraft to reach and orbit our natural satellite. Commander Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders left Earth’s orbit, circled the moon a few times and returned home safely. Acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said last month he wants to fast-track the heavy-lift … Read more
Personally, I love it when science is pitted against science and the epic battle that it results in. It never fails to advance our understanding of our home and Universe just that little bit more. And such is the battle I bring this time. The fight over the origins of water on our planet has spanned for centuries, I can imagine, since we learned science. Where did it come from? We aren’t sure, but there are two prevailing theories that are imminently possible: astroscience’s outside interference or geoscience’s native origin. Those two theories have plagued scientific minds for a long … Read more
March is a time of change. The weather is warming up. Time springs forward, depriving us of an hour. The daylight lingers longer and longer in the evenings. With the change comes an awakening, a call to get up and move. Projects await us. The Queer Sci Fi Flash Fiction contest has begun. Blogging From A-Z is approaching, along with Camp NaNoWriMo. Publishers call for submissions, here and there, offering a variety of opportunities. For the beginning of spring is a time of opportunity. I realize this, even as I’m caught up in my own activities. I took a walk, … Read more
Today I thought it would be interesting to discuss our QUILTBAG literary influences. If you’re a writer, this could be authors who inspire you or have influenced your writing. For readers, why not share some of the authors who introduced you to QUILTBAG fiction and/or who keep you coming back for more?
Here’s the big question in writing LGBT fiction; what makes a story “gay?” Gay characters? Gay themes? And how does an author identify a character as gay? This has, I realize, been talked about before. Two obvious ways are number one, the “coming out” story, which as a literary device has been done to death and is somewhat out of fashion right now. Number two; simply have your main character make out/hop in the sack with a same sex character. This sometimes takes the whole thing into the realm of erotica, something I don’t write very well at all. Then … Read more
Especially in this day and age, science is pretty damned expensive. For a long time, science was a hobby for royalty and the wealthy, unattainable to most of the lower classes of society. Even after the industrial revolution most couldn’t afford to science unless they has some kind of access to lab equipment. And even in the age of cheap products and hi-tech, innovative techniques, much less actual science, can cost a pretty penny to start up. Like the 3D printer needed for this idea. But the world of science is changing. Same as other aspects, the equipment needed is … Read more
Elon Musk talked about something interesting recently, which is not surprising at any given time. Musk’s ideas border on hard science fiction more often than not. But in this instance, he was stating a mere fact. Eventually, humanity is going to end up more machine than man. Me personally, I think it will be pretty damned cool. Sort of like Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies books without the over-emphasized idea of beauty or terrorists that started that entire world-building scenario off. I could download a complete manuscript from my brain onto the Net without the whole hassle of publishers, editors, and artists … Read more
This month, my husband and I make our yearly visit to DunDraCon. It’s one of the biggest gaming conventions in the United States. You can find all kinds of games there. Card games. Board games. Games with miniatures. Along with my personal old addiction, roleplaying games. I’ll never forget the moment I found ‘Vampire: the Masquerade’ on a shelf at Game a Lot in Santa Cruz, California. I’d played in a few RPGs before, but that particular book seemed to have been written just for me and for players like me. Creating a character in that universe would be like … Read more
Trickster gods occur in many cultures and often demonstrate a certain gender and/or sexual fluidity. For today’s post I will concentrate on one: Norse trickster Loki.
Loki practices forms of magic which, in Norse culture, mark him as effeminate. He’s also a gender-bending shapeshifter, as demonstrated in the following tale….
“Transcendent,” edited by K.M. Szpara, is the latest “Best Of” collection from Lethe Press. The question arises, would there be enough Transgender-related speculative fiction for a full anthology, let alone an annual series? The answer, judging from the fifteen stories assembled here, is “yes.” The stories display a surprising variety, never straying from Trans characters, (some not obvious) or themes. Transformation is an obvious recurring motif in the stories but when it occurs, it is often in subtle and startlingly different, and entertaining ways. “The Librarian’s Dilemma,” by E. Saxey, features a group “seeding” an archive, The Hairad Collection, which … Read more