Tag: science fiction

  • Researching a Novel: Into the Abyss

    It glows by night, filling the air with a blood-red cloud. By day, its rising steam billows dull gray from an active crater. Either way, it’s a wonder to behold, a doorway to a hot spot of subterranean fires that recalls the opening lines from Canto Three of Dante’s Inferno: Only those elements time cannot wear Were made…

  • Researching a Novel: My Lost World

    Rain forests, deserts, volcanic mountains, green-sand beaches. They’re all part of the alien landscape of a novel project that links and expands my novelettes “Daughters of Prime” and “The Others” (both of which originally appeared in F&SF). Since the alien setting will feature ever-more prominently in the book-length version, I figured it would be a good idea to experience such…

  • From “Starry Nights” to “Life’s Adventures”
    Story Night Rocks!

    In the recent posts “Storytelling Night” and “The Stars Came Out,” I endeavored to cover last week’s “Starry Nights and Celestial Conversations,” which had far more highlights than can be covered in three blog posts. In other words, if you want to get all that Story Night has to offer, you just have to be there. In addition to…

  • Professor Challenger:
    New Worlds, Lost Places

    “The whole matter is very fully and lucidly discussed in my forthcoming volume upon the earth, which I may describe with all due modesty as one of the epoch-making books of the world’s history.” – Professor G. E. Challenger When the World Screamed Featuring cover art by Academy-Award winning artist Dave Kelsey and new fiction from…

  • Who Says You Can’t Repeat the Past?

    The good people at PARSEC, Pittsburgh premier science fiction organization, have posted the audio of my April 11 presentation “Dreams, Memory, and Time Travel.” It’s the first in what I understand will be a series of podcasts featuring speakers from Parsec’s monthly meetings. Held in Squirrel Hill, the meeting gave me a chance to revisit my…

  • Taken Out of Context

    Context always ends too soon. Three amazing days of panels, readings, special events, and networking — and suddenly it’s over for another year. Alas! I’ve been attending since 2007, and in that time Context has become one of my favorite regional SF cons. It’s a small affair with big ambitions, and it always manages to…