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a. reid johnson Posts

Riot Baby – Tochi Onyebuchi

I bought this book earlier in the summer because I specifically wanted to broaden my horizons and read books by Black authors. Later, this book was nominated for several awards and it kept appearing on lists. It is a novella, so at the end of a busy and stressful couple of days I decided to sit down and read it yesterday. I read it in two bursts, and I’ll be honest, this is not my…

Embers of War — Gareth L Powell

I only learned of this author this past summer as I began more deeply (broadly) exploring the world of speculative fiction after attending the virtual con. Actually, I first discovered Gareth because someone I followed on Twitter shared his space art and I really loved it. Then his name started popping up more and more frequently on lists of space opera authors and I figured I had to give this book a try. I was…

The End of All Things – John Scalzi

Well, I finished the series. This book, like the one before it, was a collection of related novellas that worked independently as well as telling a whole story. I really am impressed at his ability to pull that off. The series ended well, in my opinion. Not everything was tied up in a neat bow, but the major antagonist was handled and the future is uncertain. Not a cliffhanger, but certainly a way back in…

Writing Critique Club

I joined a discord server back this summer after the Flights of Foundry con I attended. It has been refreshing to hear from other writers (most of them being actual writers and not aspiring like myself) but I have critiqued and received critiques from several members of the group, which was the main thing I wanted to get out of the con. Well I was recently invited to join a small “local” writing group that…

The Human Division (John Scalzi)

I was really going to read a different author but I’ve also really wanted to finish the Old Man’s War sextet so I went ahead and read this instead. I loved it. Which is really no surprise. I really like Scalzi’s writing style, sense of humor, and the OMW universe. I started reading this book about 6 weeks ago and got hammered by work and only finished it this past weekend while on a short…

Zoe’s Tale – John Scalzi

I read this book about 3 weeks ago while backpacking in the Eastern Sierra. I enjoyed it. It was the tale of “The Lost Colony” from Zoe’s perspective, and after reading the afterward, I felt like I understood the difficulty of writing such a piece. Scalzi says there that writing a story that fit between the cracks of another story was way more difficult than he thought it was going to be. I can see…

submission!

I made a goal for myself for the coming 12 months and that is to submit at least 8-10 stories over the next year. I have a lot of stories that are close to being submittable, and I just need to focus on them and just get over my fear of submitting. So, when I heard about the Cast of Wonders flash contest (https://www.castofwonders.org) I just knew I had to do it. The word count…

Spin

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson. This book was a trip. I really enjoyed it. 3 teenagers, one October evening, sneak outside during a grown up party. And the stars and moon disappear. The Earth has been encased in a permeable membrane that slows time, so that for every minute, 3 years go by outside. This novel is broadly sweeping, discussing the technological, social, political, and religious fervor that grow up as millions of years go…

flights of foundry day 2

so tired. I took 36 pages of notes (9300 words). I have a lot to think about but now I am going to go check on my family and see if they are still alive.