As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

FOR READERS/WRITERS: Why Do You Like Audio Books?

by
audio books - pixabay

FOR READERS & WRITERS Today’s reader/writer topic comes from QSFer Eric Alan Westfall: With a theatre background I certainly don’t want to deprive voice-actors of income, but I’ve never understood the attraction/value of an audio book, except for the visually impaired, or someone driving long distances where holding a book isn’t possible. I was given an audio version of a book that’s 8 hours long. I can read it myself in probably 3 hours. So why would I sit somewhere for another 5 hours, to accomplish the same goal? Why would anyone? And given the probable cost of the audio … Read more

Stewart+Mckellan = TLA?

by
Stewart and McKellen

Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart kissed each-other on the red carpet for Star Trek: Picard and the power of their loving friendship has resorted our strength. The famously best pals greeted one another with a kiss as they arrived at the screening at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square in London. Dozens of cameras clicked to capture the tender moment between friends, and McKellen made it even more memorable by getting down on one knee and jokingly proposing. Full Story + Photo From Pink News

REVIEW: The Bear at the Bar, by J. Scott Coatsworth

by
The Bear at the Bar

Title: The Bear at the Bar Author: J. Scott Coatsworth Genre: Magical Realism, Gay Romance LGBTQ+ Category: MM Gay Publisher: Self Pages: 29 Reviewer: Pat Get It On Amazon About The Book Dex is a gay Adonis. When he walks into Seattle’s Ransom bar, heads turn. He can have just about anyone he wants, and he does, every night. Until he meets a bear at the bar and everything changes. “The Bear at the Bar” is a short story originally published in 2014 in the “A Taste of Honey” anthology. The Review I met J. Scott Coatsworth in Seattle’s Ransom … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT: Strays, by Elizabeth Noble

by
Strays

QSFer Elizabeth Noble has a new LGBT sci fi novella out – “Strays.” Kyle Anderson grew up with the lie that he was among the last babies born before a pandemic decimated the human race. Then Kyle’s quiet, lonely life as a research assistant and student is shattered when he discovers the government has been lying to the world for more than twenty years. Now on the run from authorities who would kill for his silence, Kyle is taken in by Daniel Shanks, a member of a militia group dedicated to discovering the truth. Daniel has seen death and violence … Read more

FOR AUTHORS: Writing What You read

by
writer - pixabay

FOR WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Kari Trenten: Do you like to write what you like to read about? Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about the topic. Join the chat: FB: http://bit.ly/1MvPABV MeWe: http://bit.ly/2mjg8lf

Climate Change Update

by
climate change - pixabay

Here are some of the latest updates: Ocean Temperatures Have Reached a Record-Breaking HighOur planet’s oceans are warmer than they’ve ever been in recorded human history. And ocean temperatures are not only increasing, they are heating up at an accelerating rate, according to a new analysis. In 2019, the ocean temperature was about 0.135 degrees Fahrenheit (0.075 degrees Celsius) higher than the average between 1981 and 2010, an international group of researchers reported on Jan. 13 in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. “The amount of heat we have put in the world’s oceans in the past 25 years equals … Read more

ANNOUNCEMENT/GIVEAWAY: Breaking the Surface, by Rebecca Langham

by
Breaking the Surface

QSFer Rebecca Langham has a new FF sci fi tale out, book two in The Outsider Project: “Breaking the Surface.” Alessia is an Outsider—a member of the not-quite-human community that has recently been released from their underground prison. Shortly after their liberation, Alessia is given an ultimatum: obey all the United Earth Alliance’s demands, or her mother will forever remain a hostage—a mother she’d believed dead for fifteen years. Reluctantly, she agrees, though she has no idea what those demands may be or how she will balance her obligations to the UEA with her responsibilities to her people and her … Read more

FOR READERS & WRITERS: Beyond Human Genders

by
water fluit - pixabay

FOR READERS & WRITERS Today’s writer topic comes from QSFer Jim Comer: What about genders or gender-free aliens that are based on a dynamic other than male-female? Ie: where the genders are based on the Four Elements, or the signs of the Zodiac, or the mammalian orders, or something different? Not human genders in the usual sense, or about Earth. Writers, share your works; readers, your fave reads. Writers: This is a writer chat – you are welcome to share your own book/link, as long as it fits the chat, but please do so as part of a discussion about … Read more

SPACE: Did Our Solar System Have a Cosmic Gatekeeper?

by

The rocky planets closest to the sun are made up of very different materials than the gas giants in the outer solar system. That’s because billions of years ago, our baby solar system was divided in two by a cosmic gatekeeper that prevented materials in the inner and outer regions from mixing. It turns out that gatekeeper was a ring of dust and gas, according to a new study. The fence, or “Great Divide,” a term coined by the authors, is now mostly empty space just inside Jupiter’s orbit. About two decades ago, chemists realized that the building blocks of … Read more

Lewis Padgett’s “Mutant,” Jewelle Gomez’ “Gilda” – Boogieman in Lavender

by
Jeff Baker

LGBT people are regarded as “the Other,” and sci-fi and fantasy specializes in characters who are “the Other.” And “the Other” is often perceived as a metaphor or stand in for minorities and the oppressed. Queer people were not a regular topic of public discourse in the closeted world of the Golden Age of Science Fiction of the ‘30s through the 50s. And in this world, two very heterosexual writers wrote a series of stories about a very science-fictional form of “the Other.” Beginning with the story “The Piper’s Son” in February 1945, Lewis Padgett told of a near-future group … Read more