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News: So There’s A Working Hoverboard

Lexus Hoverboard

Lexus’s hoverboard uses magnetic levitation, or maglev, to achieve frictionless movement. Liquid nitrogen-cooled superconductors are combined with a magnetic surface to essentially repel gravity. Even though Lexus and Evico were able to pull off the project, don’t expect to see a hoverboard fly past while you’re walking down the street next year. To use maglev technology that would make this sort of hoverboard work, you need a magnetic metal track. Normal concrete pavements won’t do. Lexus solved this issue by converting a skate park in Barcelona into a temporary hoverboard skate park. On an existing track composed of cement and … Read more

Announcement: Snow, by Pelaam

Snow

QSFer Pelaam has a new fairy tale retelling out: Discovering there’s more to the disappearance of his childhood friend Snow than he thought, Nolen heads his team to investigate. His team includes the sexually charismatic Terrian, who’s an ex-lover, and Qamar, an empathic Aeriyan. On the planet Ignis, they find the remains of the ship that had carried Snow, but no sign of the man himself. While escaping a native predator, Nolen falls down a shaft that leads to an underground world. He finds genetically created miners and Snow, who has lost his memory. While Snow and Nolen realise their … Read more

WORLDBUILDING WEEK: Tools and Techniques

Worldbuilting Week

Welcome to the first annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. OK, so you’ve come up with your very own language for your new world. You’ve chosen the most awesome-ever aliens or magical creatures to populate it. You’ve set up a timeline for your history, and you’ve built the culture that they’ll live in. And you’ve figured out the whole sex and marriage thing. Now … Read more

News: USC Class Exploring How Sci Fi Fandom Sparked LGBT Rights Movement

Toward Tomorrow

If you wanted to find life outside the closet in the 1930s, you might as well have started looking for another planet — and that’s exactly what a generation of gay and lesbian sci-fi fans did. They were drawn to a genre that allowed them to imagine new worlds where they could be their true selves and love whomever they wanted. This fall, a senior seminar offered through the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in the Gender Studies Program will look at how Los Angeles’ legendary sci-fi societies overlapped with the early LGBT rights movement, laying the … Read more

Announcement: Echelon’s End, by E. Robert Dunn

Echelon's End

QSFer E. Robert Dunn has a sci fi series out: Just imagine worlds in which harmony between peoples has been established. Where families are cultured and treasured. Where species from different worlds commune in peace. Imagine further these worlds having resolved all misunderstandings between sexualities, a series of planets where same-gender Echelon relationships are the majority and opposite-gender Reproductionist couplings are seen as necessary only to propagate a species. Now, imagine this civilization on the verge of extending itself into unexplored space … sending out the cream of their generation to colonize this Utopian philosophy into the Unknown. Book 1, … Read more

WORLDBUILDING WEEK: Day Five – Sex, Marriage, Reproduction

Worldbuilting Week

Welcome to the first annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. OK, so you’ve come up with your very own language for your new world. You’ve chosen the most awesome-ever aliens or magical creatures to populate it. You’ve set up a timeline for your history, and you’ve built the culture that they’ll live in. Today we’ll talk about the continuation of the species. Elizabeth Barrette … Read more

Announcement: Henri, by Edward Kendrick

Henri

QSFer Edward Kendrick has a new paranormal thriller out: Allyn and Ransom’s new friend coywolf shifter, Henri, has been hiding at Allyn and Madeline’s house to avoid an insane abductor. Finally deciding he’ll be hostage to his fears no more, Henri enlists his friends to help him lure the maniacal murderer into the open so they can catch him, once and for all. They have to get his attention and a ritzy outdoor party thrown by gallery owner Taegan Sauvage is just the place. Taegan doesn’t realize, when he meets his friends at the party, that the man accompanying them … Read more

News: Watch as Astronauts Eat First Crops Grown in Space

Nasa harvest

“A crop of lettuce has been harvested from the ISS plant growth system dubbed Veg-01, Nasa’s plant experiment being used to study how plants can be grown in micro-gravity,” NASA’s official YouTube reads. According to Science Recorder: “Expedition 44 crew members, including US. astronaut Scott Kelly, harvested their first crop of ‘Outredgeous’ red romaine lettuce from the orbiting laboratory. They will clean the greens with citric acid-based, food-safe sanitizing wipes before consuming them.” See the Full Story at Passport

WORLDBUILDING WEEK: Day Four – Navigating Culture & Politics

Worldbuilting Week

Welcome to the first annual Worldbuilding Week at QSF. We’ll talk about all aspects of building a world for your story, including languages; alien/magical races; history and timelines; culture and politics; sex, marriage and reproduction; and tools and techniques. It should be a lot of fun. OK, so you’ve come up with your very own language for your new world. You’ve chosen the most awesome-ever aliens or magical creatures to populate it. And you’ve set up a timeline for your history/ Now you have to build the culture that they’ll live in. Some things to consider – what kind of … Read more

Review: “Burning Intuition” by Makenzi Fisk

Genre: Lesbian Paranormal Mystery/Thriller Length: Novel   MINNESOTAN POLICE officer, Erin Ericsson, travels to Canada to catch a criminal that fell through US cracks. Lily is a killer who is just getting started in her killing career—she’s only a teenager. Besides her trusty knife, the same one she stole from her dead mother who died of suspicious circumstances, Lily uses fire to wreck havoc, and instill terror in her victims. No one is safe. Not Erin or Erin’s loved ones. Not her own family. Not even her friends, including the girl she meets in school, and her family. She’s a … Read more