I can't just push a character around and make her do this or that--if I did that, I'd end up with a character I couldn't believe in. But by thinking about what a particular character wants or needs, I can give her a reason to behave in the way that I would like her to, one that moves the story in the direction that I want it to move.
While finalising Twilight's Sputnik, I got thinking about all the fiction I have read which involves some sort of stargazing. One which came to my mind was Isaac Asimov's classic short story Nightfall, a tale of an alien world which is only plunged into darkness once every 2000 years or so
I'm listening to "Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind", a 2007 lecture series by Eric Rabkin about fantasy and science fiction. In lecture 14, "Frankenstein", he said the story is a warning against "science in the hands of an egotist, alienated from the restraining wisdom of community". He closed the lecture by saying, "To test the relevance of this admonition,
So, in the ten years I've been writing pony fan-fiction, I have had a persistent dilemma: I love sci-fi, but the MLP universe is intrinsically a fantasy setting. Many noble stories have bridged that gap, including some of my personal favorites (Kkat's Fallout, Iceman's Friendship is Optimal, and Arad's Stardust, as a small sampling). But except for a few scraps in my short story collections, I've never tried to write a true Science Fiction story myself.
___________________________
A New Novel Is Coming!
___________________________
Specifically, from me.
Introduction:
My father's a fan of classic radio. His favorite of which is the old CBS radio drama Suspense, but he has a couple of other shows that he's listened to over the years. I remember quite a few long car trips from when I was a kid that involved him putting on tapes of Suspense, or some other old-time radio series.
So I've been working on something. It's not quite there yet, but it's getting there. It needs some love, some upgrades, and maybe some bionic enhancements. But it's going to get there.
It’s that time of year, readers! The nominations for the 2018 Dragon Awards are open!You can click the link and nominate this last year’s (July 2017-End of June 2018) best Science-Fiction and Fantasy novels for the running of … well, the best!
There's this silly meme going around on Twitter where you post four screenshots from films that you feel define you in some way.
Well.
This is messy but lots of us like to do AU's or create entire alternate universes. In this case I made up a game for it. For fun. This is free for anyone to use.
WHAT YOU NEED
>Dice or coin
>Piece of paper or word processor
>checklist at the bottom of the entry.
HOW TO PLAY
>Select two features at random to fill in the blank, the more outrageous the better.
The nominees for 2017 Hugo Awards, presented this summer at Worldcon 75, in Helsinki, have been revealed!
Here's the official announcement video, from Worldcon 75's Youtube channel:
And if you prefer to get it all in a text format, you can go check it out at Tor's website, here:
I'm still sitting pretty at eight finished chapters, with two in reserve on the off chance that life decides to kick me in the ovaries sometime next year. Not sure why I didn't do this with Renewal! It would have made keeping to a schedule a lot less stressful!
Anyway, have fun with the new chapter and let me know what you think! Fingers crossed one of these days, this sequel will show up on the featured tab like its predecessor! :3
Meandering through the Internet link-by-link, I came upon the substack "Sensational Spelling", and the SF story "It Is Sad to Go to Pieces Like This". It's the story of a man whose mother is sinking into a dementia in which she retains lucidity but not memory. At the same time, his high-functioning autistic daughter (my diagnosis) yearns to be a pure Platonic being in her body, actions, and words, untainted by
You'd think someone would have written this crossover given, well, this meme...
...wouldn't you?
(For anyone who hasn't played Elite: Dangerous, it's actually the "frame shift drive". Except, y'know, the voice acting gives rise to this particular mondegreen. And, hey, who knows but frame shift is magic, too.
There may even be another thing to inspire this particular piece of writing: