Kittens need saving, too: How Blake Snyder’s beats can work for short stories
Reading Time: 3 minutes Can the Save the Cat method release the hidden kitten in a crouching cat? That is, is the method applicable to shorter works?
Nonfiction
Free Friday: Today’s top free Amazon sci-fi and fantasy books for Mar. 12, 2021
Reading Time: 9 minutes Did you know that Amazon has a list of the top-selling and free sci-fi and fantasy books? Here are the top ten — and my takes on each of them.
Smart AR glasses will change how we shop, work, and learn
Reading Time: 5 minutes Smartphones touch nearly every facet of our lives. The transformative effect of smart glasses can be equally dramatic, experts say.
Roll for Narrative: An Interview with Spencer Campbell, Making Sci-Fi Playable on Your Table
Reading Time: 11 minutes I sat down digitally with Spencer Campbell of Gila RPGs to talk about his new tabletop roleplaying game FRAME, currently gearing up for a Kickstarter campaign later this month. I wanted to learn where the game’s concept came from and how Spencer drew upon the sci fi genre to build a speculative fiction narrative within the medium of a roleplaying game.
Buehler’s ‘The Forest Bride’ will satisfy your craving for fantasy romance
Reading Time: 2 minutes “The Forest Bride: A Fairy Tale with Benefits” by Jane Buehler is a cozy, sexy, fantasy romance that follows Princess Rose through a series of challenging, sometimes terrifying, events that ultimately lead her on a journey of love and self-discovery.
Flash fiction submissions due April 1
Reading Time: 2 minutes The spring flash fiction submission cycle opens today. Stories can be submitted anytime from now until April 1, 2021.
The best free* books to help you battle procrastination
Reading Time: 6 minutes Here are seven books on Amazon with over a 100 positive reviews that will help you finish your writing project — are free to read with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.
Cancer survivor heading to space as part of all-civilian crew
Reading Time: 3 minutes Hayley Arceneaux will become the first astronaut with a prosthetic limb when she goes into space later this year on a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission.
The Bone Ships wins 2020 British Fantasy Award
Reading Time: 3 minutes The British Fantasy Society announced the winners of the 2020 British Fantasy Awards yesterday, and RJ Barker’s The Bone Ships was selected as the best fantasy novel of the year.
New postage stamp honors Chien-Shiung Wu, trailblazing nuclear physicist
Reading Time: 4 minutes On Feb. 11, 2021, the sixth International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the U.S. Postal Service issued a new Forever stamp to honor Chien-Shiung Wu, one of the most influential nuclear physicists of the 20th century.
Where One Vulnerability Researcher Sees AI in 2030
Reading Time: 4 minutes Looking at least one decade into the future, I believe we will see significant advancements in three areas by 2030 as a result of AI — personal assistance devices, genomics, and space exploration.
The first Mars photos from Perseverance are here
Reading Time: 3 minutes NASA has been releasing photos as they arrive from Mars and they are awesome.
Perseverance lands tomorrow; lead scientist explains tech and goals
Reading Time: 5 minutes On Feb. 18, NASA’s Mars 2020 mission will be arriving at the red planet, and hopefully will place the Perseverance Rover on the surface.
Aliens in Lagos: sci-fi novel Lagoon offers a bold new future
Reading Time: 4 minutes Lagoon, through its shapeshifting alien protagonist, challenges long-held ideas of how gender and sexual identities are considered in Africa.
How Old is ‘Warp Drive?’ Where was ‘Zap Gun’ First Used?
Reading Time: 3 minutes Do you “grok” jargon? Does your “filk” contain references to “BEM”s or “BDO”s? And do the goings-on in Washington make you want to go into “cryostasis” in your “hobbit-hole”?
Is the Double-Consciousness of ‘Invisible Man’ by Ralph Ellison Still Relevant Today?
Reading Time: 6 minutes I learned by listening. Dad and his friends did not know it then, but they were describing their experiences with double-consciousness, living as a Black man in a white-dominated society.
New CRISPR technology could revolutionize gene therapy
Reading Time: 4 minutes The head of the US National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins had joined forces with Harvard University professor David Liu and others to tackle progeria, a genetic disorder that causes children to age rapidly.
‘The Damned Place’ by Chris Miller
Reading Time: 4 minutes Chris Miller, with The Damned Place, has written a novel that deserves to launch beyond the trappings of indie horror and into the stratosphere.
Ten ‘Keys to Reality from Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek
Reading Time: 4 minutes To understand ourselves and our place in the universe, “we should have humility but also self-respect,” the physicist writes in a new book.
Scientists: Super AI will be beyond our control
Reading Time: 3 minutes While more progress is being made all the time in artificial intelligence, some scientists and philosophers warn of the dangers of an uncontrollable superintelligent AI.
Sci-fi legend Ursula K. Le Guin to get her own postage stamp
Reading Time: 2 minutes The U. S. Postal Service announced its new lineup of stamps for 2021, and sci-fi legend Ursula K. Le Guin is the latest addition to the Literary Arts series.
‘The Girl Who Owned A City’ Asks What Would Happen if Only Children Survived a Pandemic
Reading Time: 2 minutes Perhaps our contemporary crises brought it back into my mind, as the events of the book take place in the wake of a devastating pandemic that has swept across America, sparing only those under the age of twelve.
Nalo Hopkinson is first black woman and youngest winner of Grand Master award
Reading Time: 2 minutes Nalo Hopkinson is the first black woman to win the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award for her lifetime achievements in science fiction and fantasy writing.
Galactic Civilizations 3 is free from Epic this week
Reading Time: < 1 minutes Every Thursday, Epic offers a PC game for free. Yesterday that was Stardock Games’ Galactic Civilizations 3, a critically-acclaimed, popular game that’s like Sid Meier’s Civilization, but in space. Other differences include the fact that you can play the game in multi-player mode, battling your friends for control of the galaxy. That’s nice, considering that, …
Galactic Civilizations 3 is free from Epic this week Read More »
Science fiction builds mental resiliency in young readers
Reading Time: 5 minutes Reading science fiction and fantasy may help young people cope, especially with the stress and anxiety of living through the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘Renna’s Crossing’ is a progressive, magical coming-of-age story
Reading Time: 4 minutes I just finished “Renna’s Crossing” by Geordie Morse and was surprised, and humbled, by the author’s approach to gender issues.
Don’t hold your breath for a real-life Matrix
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you’re hoping or fearing that new technology can put you in a Matrix-style virtual environment — it’s not happening in 2021, judging by what we saw at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show.
Cli-fi short story contest offers $8,700 in prizes
Reading Time: < 1 minutes Grist, a publication that focuses on climate, sustainability and social justice has announced a contest for short stories that focus on climate change. Entry is free, the deadline is April 12, and the short stories should be between 3,000 and 5,000 words in length. “We’re embracing the opportunity to look beyond the confines of the …
Cli-fi short story contest offers $8,700 in prizes Read More »
Fragments of energy – not waves or particles – may be the fundamental building blocks of the universe
Reading Time: 4 minutes Matter might not be made of particles or waves, as was long thought, butm more fundamentally, of fragments of energy.
28 ways to beat procrastination for writers
Reading Time: 22 minutes Have you ever stared at your screen or typewriter or notebook and couldn’t force yourself to write? I have, and here’s what I do to fix it.
Experts: Ethics a must in AI
Reading Time: 5 minutes Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives, both in the workplace and at home. Some AI experts are stressing the need to focus on making AI ethical and keeping it human friendly. Bias in programming, security concerns, and a lack of public knowledge about how AI works are all issues that …
Mermaids aren’t real – but they’ve fascinated people around the world for ages
Reading Time: 3 minutes Just because mermaids are not real does not mean they are not meaningful.
Best AI startups of 2020
Reading Time: 2 minutes The global artificial intelligence market is expected to grow by 46.2% from 2019 to 2025. That type of growth can’t be matched by almost any other industry in the world. Artificial intelligence solutions are particularly relevant for the IT, healthcare, automotive, and manufacturing sectors. However, practically all other businesses can find a use for this …
Five speculative fiction authors killing it on Instagram
Reading Time: 3 minutes Wondering what some of your favorite fantasy, horror, and sci-fi writers have been up to on Instagram? Here’s a short but sweet list of popular speculative fiction author’s Instagram accounts.
Major changes coming for the global space industry
Reading Time: 4 minutes A quiet revolution is taking place in the global space industry and its full impact on global space industry should be measured over the next decade.
3 questions I still have after watching ‘Wonder Woman 1984’
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you haven’t seen this excellent movie yet, go watch it on HBO Max, then come back. I’ll wait.
Pandemic bingewatch: Tony Shaloub is at his best when infected by space bugs in ‘BrainDead’
Reading Time: 4 minutes I came for Tony Shalhoub and I was not disappointed.
AI in 2020: Facial recognition discriminates against race and gender
Reading Time: 3 minutes One thing we learned from 2020 is not to trust AI facial recognition –it’s biased against race and gender.
AI expert: Don’t fear the robot apocalypse
Reading Time: 2 minutes With talks of large companies investing in AI weapons, brain-chips being developed to enhance soldiers, and the head of the British armed forces saying that robot soldiers could make up a quarter of the army by the 2030s, people might have some doubts about where this is all going — a recent survey citing twelve percent of Americans see the possibility of human extinction.
Companies to up use of AR, VR in 2021
Reading Time: 2 minutes Around 35 percent of businesses plan on implementing virtual or augmented reality technology in 2021 according to a recently published research report.
Celebrate New Year’s Eve with a free virtual concert
Reading Time: 2 minutes Iceland will celebrate New Year’s Eve with a live and fully virtual concert with Northern Lights and fireworks guaranteed.
New app turns your room into a 3D workspace
Reading Time: 3 minutes You can now join virtual meetings in any location and see avatars of coworkers or friends. The VR and AR collaboration platform Spatial released a free AR app for iOS and Android last week. Instead of using a bulky and expensive VR headset, the platform now works with just a phone or tablet — though …
Report: VR revenue expected to reach $12.2 billion by 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes Sales of virtual reality hardware and software will grow at double-digits rates over the next four years, according to a report by ARtillery Intelligence.
Free Will in an Algorithmic World
Reading Time: 7 minutes In this brave new world, many of our choices aren’t choices at all.
Star Trek: Lower Decks: A refreshing take on a well-established franchise
Reading Time: 3 minutes I don’t consider myself a hard-core Trekkie by any means, but I sure have watched a lot of Star Trek. “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” or TNG, had its seven-season run when I was just a kid and I watched almost every episode as I was growing up, often with family.
Space-based nuclear reactors a boon to thriller writers
Reading Time: < 1 minutes Yesterday’s directive promoting the use of nuclear power in space, including in low Earth Orbit, presents lots of interesting plot possibilities for thrillers.
Body language master list for writers
Reading Time: 6 minutes A very, very long list of ways to show emotion through body language or actions.
Where to find low-cost, pre-made covers for spec fic books
Reading Time: 10 minutes Pre-made book cover sites offer low-cost, professional-looking covers for independent authors.
Top 3 VR Headsets for Half Life: Alyx
Reading Time: 5 minutes Half Life: Alyx is the 2020\’s VR game of the year. If you want to play the game the best way, we’ve put together a guide to the best VR headset for Half Life: Alyx. What is Half Life: Alyx? Half Life: Alyx is a VR game built from the ground up for virtual reality. …
Enter VR with one of these popular headsets
Reading Time: 8 minutes 2020 has been a challenging year and nobody could be blamed if they were looking for a little reprieve from reality. One outlet that’s gained in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic is virtual reality or VR.