By Shaun David Hutchinson I tell stories because the real world sucked for me when I was a teen. No. Sucked doesn’t even begin to cover it. The real world nearly killed me. The real world told me that I was going to hell because I was gay. It told me I would die of […]
Read More Representation MattersA series of posts about firearms by William R. Bartlett: A Writer’s Guide to Firearms: Assault Rifles Mar 13, 2018 | My friends’ Guest Posts, Writing This is a guest post by my author friend, William R. Bartlett. It continues his discussion of all things firearms. Assault rifles have featured prominently in the horrific events in Florida, Las […]
Read More A Writer’s Guide to FirearmsI Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison My rating: 5 of 5 stars Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge and the Apocalypse Now! Reading Challenge. This story won the 1967 Hugo Award. I cannot tell you how brilliant, and how deeply disturbing, this post-apocalyptic horror story is. I imagine it […]
Read More Story Review: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan EllisonWhen it comes to crossing the vast gulfs between the solar system and other stellar systems, SF writers turn to two main solutions: small and fast1 or big and slow. Perhaps the best known example of “big and slow” is the generation ship, large enough to qualify as a large town or even a small nation, […]
Read More Generation Ships“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan Ellison My rating: 5 of 5 stars Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge. This story won the 1965 Hugo and Nebula Awards for Best Short Story. In a dystopian future, the forces of order have managed to gain control over everything, including our time. Lateness is punished […]
Read More Story Review: “Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktockman by Harlan EllisonBy Mod Colette We discussed the issues describing People of Color by means of food in Part I of this guide, which brought rise to even more questions, mostly along the lines of “So, if food’s not an option, what canI use?” Well, I was just getting to that! This final portion focuses on describing skin tone, with […]
Read More Writing with Colour: Description Guide for Skin TonesThe Big Front Yard by Clifford D. Simak My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge and the Big Fun in a Little Package Novella Challenge. This story won the 1959 Hugo Award for Best Novelette. This story is a fun speculation about what happens when ordinary folks in a […]
Read More Book Review: The Big Front Yard by Clifford D. SimakThis essay details the history of various cultural groups in the Wyrd West, and how and why they developed the way that they did. With the fluctuating, and often regional, changes in physics after the Cataclysm, a lot of modern technology that we take for granted in today’s world were rendered useless; or, worse, dangerously […]
Read More The History of Cultural Groups in the Wyrd WestThe Star by Arthur C. Clarke My rating: 4 of 5 stars Read for the 12 in 12 Challenge. This story won the 1956 Hugo for Best Short Story. This, along with A Case of Conscience by James Blish, is a story from a similar period in which the author confronts the apparent opposition of […]
Read More Story Review: The Star by Arthur C. Clarke
