Hi, and good morning. We're conducting an unplanned test of the emergency backup to the backup comm system today. The local power grid went down about half an hour ago and it doesn't look like it's coming back up any time soon, so I am writing this post on my phone. Fortunately we have a GAS stove, so while the electric igniters are inoperative, I was able to light a burner using a MATCH, and am now making a pot of coffee using FIRE and a PERCOLATOR! Next...
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Saturday, February 25, 2023
“The USS Copernicus Sixth (Semi-Annual) Contraband Run” • by Karl Dandenell
“Listen up!” Chief Susanna Kosonen’s booming voice filled the mess. Everyone immediately gave the spaceship’s Chief of the Boat their full attention. “Phobos supply shuttle ETA is thirteen-fifteen. So that gives us just—”
“Four hours!”
“Nice to see that you can do basic math, Seaman Henderson. Now shut it.” She continued, “Four hours for the race. Six runners, one for each...
Friday, February 24, 2023
Creating Alien Aliens Part 22: Why Do ALIENS Intrigue Us (Well…ME anyway!)?
I’ve been fascinated by “aliens” since I read THE SPACESHIP UNDER THE APPLE TREE when I was in sixth grade. That book propelled me into reading more and more science fiction, until it led to me writing the stuff…and now here I am!The first aliens I really paid attention to – or understood, I suppose – didn’t happen until I reached adolescence. At that point, I got serious....
Thursday, February 23, 2023
The Future of the Writing Business, Part 2 • by Bruce Bethke
We science fiction folk do love our end-of-the-world scenarios. Be it from an alien invasion, a new plague, an astronomical catastrophe, a nuclear war, an ecological disaster, or what the heck, an enormous mutant star-goat, the history of our genre is just one deity-free apocalypse after another. Why? Perhaps it’s from simple failure of imagination. It’s too...
Wednesday, February 22, 2023
The Future of the Writing Business • by Bruce Bethke
I have two things on my mind this morning that are related although perhaps not obviously so. I’m also pressed for time today, so this is going to be more of a series of blunt blurts than a fully developed and cogent post.The first is that just about everyone in the English-speaking world has their knickers in a twist this week because Puffin Books—a small division of Penguin,...
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
“Arfour’s Complaint” • by S. Travis Brown
Meatheads. I’m surrounded by meatheads.
It’s like, I’m rolling into this crummy cantina in some town that’s a
pimple on the backside of nowhere, and the bartender, a sweaty lump of
suet with no discernible neck, looks up at me and scowls. “Hey!” And just like that, the meathead in front of me stops so short I have to slam on the brakes to avoid piling into him.
The meathead...
Monday, February 20, 2023
All praise our new AI overlords
One of my tasks for this long holiday weekend was to spend some time learning about DALL•E 2, the AI art generator from the same people—at least, I assume they’re people; on second thought, I’m not so sure—who brought you ChatGPT, which promises to make paupers of writers everywhere. Fortunately we writers are used to being paupers, so this isn’t much of a threat, but if I...
“On the Conservation of Historical Momentum” • by Bruce Bethke
Political science was not his field,
but Eugene McCarthy Bennett, PhD, developed a new political theory as
he sat on the cat-clawed sofa in his living room, drinking lukewarm beer
and watching the six o’clock news. “The
government has a carefully hoarded stock of old G.I. mail,” he told
Stallone, his orange tabby. “Whenever they plan to launch a really
serious...