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U=(N/T)M*G: Antikythera

While I was searching for something completely different (read fandom stuff), I came across a pretty interesting bit of science that got me thinking. Meet the Antikythera Mechanism, an ancient, and pretty accurate for its day, advanced clock/computer. This thing is seriously cool. It’s also some 2,000 years old, give or take a few decades. We don’t know who made it, or exactly why it was made beyond the obvious, but pretty sophisticated for back during the Hellenistic Period. I loved it instantly. The world hides all kinds of neat stuff from our ancient ancestors. Like the Native American arrowheads … Read more

Queer Fantasy Roots: Gender Transformations in Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Ovid Metamorphoses

(My apologies for posting this a couple days late. I’m deep in editorial revisions of my current novel Mother of Souls and am scrambling to keep up with my blogging schedule.) We sometimes think of Greek myth as representing an ancient pre-Christian religious tradition, but many of the most elaborate and familiar sources for these stories come from relatively late, primarily literary authors who were re-working fragments and allusions into carefully crafted stories with a didactic or satirical purpose. Many of the familiar Greek stories of transformation come down to us in their most elaborate form, not from an early … Read more

Sources of Inspiration: Shape of a Flower

I remember taking pictures of this flower. It grew on a tree in a little garden in Ajaccio, Corsica. Ever alert for potential blog and column pictures, I photographed close up after close up of this particular blossom. Its petals flared out, reminding me of a girl’s skirt, when she was spinning in the middle of a dance. Yes, ‘Fantasia’ is one of my favorite movies. Yes, I’ve watched the sequence with the dancing flowers many times. Of course, it worked its magic on my imagination. Perhaps I would have visualized something else, if I didn’t still carry that imagery … Read more

Asta’s Annotations: Editing Tips for Sci-Fi/Fantasy Writers

Today I thought I would cover three of the common editing queries I see from science fiction and fantasy writers. 1) World and Race Names The common issue here appears to be whether or not to capitalise. My advice is to follow standard English conventions, unless you have a strong reason not to do so. In either case, the real key is consistency. Don’t swap and change from chapter to chapter; make a decision on your preference and stick to it. Here is an example based on common English usage, followed by a fantasy rendering. In Denmark, many Danes enjoy … Read more

Jeff Baker—Boogieman In Lavender

The View From Worldcon, or Down On The Swanwick River by Jeff Baker A stack of autographed books and a head full of memories. Those are the souvenirs from a few days at MidAmeriCon II, the World Science Fiction Convention, held in Kansas City, MO August 17 through 21, 2016. We got there Thursday the 18th in time for me to drive over to the Crown Center (the vast convention facility where the convention was being held) and see it all for myself. I had been to Bouchercon (the Mystery Writers of America Convention) in Cleveland in 2012 so I … Read more

Angel’s Bits – Author as Reader

It bothers me on a wince-inducing, cellular level when an author says these words: I don’t have time to read. Dude (used in the gender-neutral, collective sense) – that’s part of your job as an author. To read. Oh, I know. We can’t read everything. Sometimes it’s difficult to grab enough time to read, certainly. Most of us don’t have the time to read all the books we’d like. But we have to grab, borrow and steal some time. Somewhere. Especially when an author writes genre fiction, it’s a good idea to understand what’s out there. Are we being too … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Leech

It’s no secret that modern medicine is a strange mix of old and new practices. Re-purposing is very much part of medicine too. Ancient practices like leeches for bloodletting are now used today for bloodletting. Ha! Nothing new under the sun, I guess. While that sentiment may be true, we are finding new ways to use what we have on our world all the time. From the old stand-by of breaking leg bones to make them longer, to using shit in medicine, humanity has turned ancient “cures” into actual, medically sound, treatments as our technology and intelligence advance. Helminthic therapy … Read more

Dispatches from Hogwarts G.S.A.: In tribute to a Hero: Perry Moore

Perry Moore

For this month’s dispatch, we thought we’d write about an innovator and an activist in queer fantasy who left us much too soon. Perry Moore (1971-2011) was an author, screenwriter, and a film director. He was probably best known for The Chronicles of Narnia franchise. Widely regarded as smart, influential, and not incidentally a handsome guy, Moore accumulated an impressive Hollywood resumé by his mid-thirties. Though his work was behind the scenes, he seemed to fit the moniker “golden boy” in a lot of ways. Moore was also an openly gay man in an industry where, if being gay was … Read more

Where No Gay Has Gone Before: First Tattooine, now Vulcan

NASA announced earlier it might have located Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tattooine.  For the past nine years, NASA has embarked on a planet finding mission, SIM PlanetQuest to find Mr. Spock’s home Vulcan.  Astronomers at Jet Propulsion Laboratory are searching for a planet orbiting 40 Eridani, a triple-star system about 16 light-years from Earth.  ‘Vulcan’ is thought to orbit the red-orange K dwarf star Eridani A. K-stars are orangey stars, slightly cooler than our sun.  They are hotter, brighter and bluer than M stars, but cooler, dimmer and redder than O, B, A F and G stars.  Did you get … Read more

Ayres and Graces: Queer Author Interview

Being a writer is already a huge challenge and being a queer writer brings with it a whole new set of challenges. This week we have queer writer and artist duo Finn Lucullan and Kate Larking who jointly create the queer space opera webcomic Crash & Burn. I spend my entire first impression explaining what I am rather than what I do. — Finn What challenges have you personally faced as a queer writer? Finn: Hello! I’m Finn, a 22 year old queer (agender aromantic, would call my sexuality “queer” for lack of a better term) writer and artist from Canada. … Read more