science fiction author
Had a bit of a complicated day yesterday but still managed to submit my application for the Clarion workshop for this coming summer. I was really proud of my stories about a week and a half ago or so but as I kept working and working and working, I found myself not feeling any emotional connection to them anymore at all. By the time I submitted them, I actually thought both of them were terrible.…
This is one of the best craft books I’ve read. It covers everything from what makes a good story to how to learn about your characters to what to do when you get stuck. It isn’t as technical as some more focused books I’ve read, but his down to earth style resonated with me and the exercises he suggests are something I will be considering as I move forward with my next round of stories.…
The novel has been pushed to the back burner for a moment as I am getting some stories up and ready for workshop application season. I have two that have been noodling around in my brain off and on for two and eleven years, respectively. Both were critiqued by my writing group and I have made significant revisions to them. I am very pleased with how they turned out and I am excited to loose…
Of the three books in the Binti series, I definitely liked this one the best, but like the other two books, I struggled to really follow the plot and find meaning in the story. Admittedly, this is not my typical read, and I am pushing myself to read outside my normal space opera (aliens and spaceships) books. And this series did have aliens and spaceships (sentient spaceships even!) but most of the story takes place…
This is the sequel to Binti, which i read long enough ago that I only remembered vaguely what it was about so I did a little research on the in-tar-webz to remind myself of that story. In this story, Binti has completed a year at the big galactic university, the first of her people to be admitted. She is making a journey home in order to do a pilgrimage in her ancestral lands, and travels…
I read Heretics in September and October, and Chapterhouse in October and finished it yesterday. Heretics was not a thrilling read for me and I was not looking forward to slogging my way through Chapterhouse, but I am really glad I did. That book really held my attention and I have very little memory of it from when I read it probably 20 years ago now. This book series concludes on a cliffhanger and I…
At approximately 2:30 in the afternoon on Saturday October 29, I completed the zero draft of my first novel, “The Survivors.” It is a galaxy spanning space opera that addresses unchecked power and control, species-ism, and features a man who is pushed beyond his self imposed limits to break the rules in order to confront an unknown alien attack. I started writing these characters in my seventh grade english class in 1984, and while I…
I had a dim memory of reading this book. Like I’ve said in some of my recent posts, I have read the first 3 books at least twice but the second 3 only once. I had a vague memory of the major plot and what happened at the end, which was confirmed when I accidentally wikipedia-spoiled the ending for myself. In this post I want to focus on 2 things: foreshadowing, and homophobia. Quick summary:…
My first non SF review… although this is technically a speculative fiction book… very little was known about the protagonist of the story except that she really existed. O’Dell created a story of her life, her survival, and her ”rescue” by the Spanish Missionaries in the 1600s. This is a fairly classic young adult book. I remember seeing it in my Jr High classroom, but I never read it… too hooked on space opera and…
Although I have read Dune at least 6 times, I have only read the sequels all the way through once, and only read the first three books one additional time. In any event, it has been a long time and while I remember the big picture, a lot of the details were lost to the sands of time. (See what I did there?) Children of Dune starts 9 years after the events of Dune Messiah.…
