Blog Posts

My Superpower: Michael J. Martinez

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My Superpower is a regular guest column on the Skiffy and Fanty blog where authors and creators tell us about one weird skill, neat trick, highly specialized cybernetic upgrade, or other superpower they have, and how it helped (or hindered!) their creative process as they built their project. Today we welcome Michael J. Martinez to talk about how his super-powered burrowing writer-mind relates to The Gravity of the Affair. The scene:  a typical weekend, with my daughter and her friends running about the house, doing the inexplicable, strange and occasionally cute things girls do. My wife is reading. I’m in my favorite chair, laptop on lap, fingers flying through The Gravity of the Affair, my novella set in the Known Worlds of the Daedalus series. A ship is under attack by unknown privateers. Alchemical cannon fire lances through the Void into wooden hulls,

Podcast Updates

Update: Blog and Podcast Feed Changes!

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TheSkiffyAndFantyShowRRSFeedAndITunesUpdate/The%20Skiffy%20and%20Fanty%20Show%20–%20RRS%20Feed%20and%20iTunes%20Update.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSI’ve attached a brief audio explanation for the feed changes for our blog.  This is to make sure folks who are subscribed to the old feed will get the update, as the following things have changed: I have split the podcast feed from the regular blog feed to facilitate iTunes’ rules. That means there are two feeds:  one associated with iTunes (which is the feed most of you are subscribed to; this feed now only includes media items) and a new feed which includes all content. Why did I do this?  Simple.  The way iTunes works is it recognizes every item in the RSS feed as a “post.”  However, it only adds to its own feed those items which contain media elements.  If we have 3 podcasts and 7 posts over the course of a week or something, it will only recognize the podcasts, but count the posts against the “total.”  This means that our iTunes feed will show considerably less content in podcast form than we actually have.  Why?  I don’t know.  That’s just how things work. And that means anyone who reads this blog, rather than subscribes via iTunes, will have to update their feed.  If you look to the right, you’ll see two RSS feeds (Full Feed and Email) and the iTunes feed.  If you don’t use iTunes (or you use both so you can read the posts), you’ll need to update your feed to the new one there.  Just click the link and update what you’ve got. And that’s it.  Sorry for the inconvenience.  Hopefully it won’t be too big of a deal for everyone. Thanks for listening.  Have a great holiday!

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

#11 — Catching Fire (2013) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/ShootTheWISB11CatchingFire2013/Shoot%20the%20WISB%20%2311%20–%20Catching%20Fire%20%282013%29.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSMockingjays, rebellions, and dictators, oh my!  Shaun, Mike, Paul, and Keffy join forces to tackle the newly released film adaptation of Catching Fire, starring Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Woody Harrelson, and many more! Spoiler Alert:  the following podcast contains spoilers for the film being reviewed; if you wish to see the film without having it ruined for you, download this podcast and save it for later. Download the episode here. Show notes (info about our contributors can be found on the about page): Catching Fire (IMDB) “What Really Makes Katniss Stand Out?  Peeta, Her Movie Girlfriend” at NPR Note:  We’re shifting over the Shoot the WISB segments from my personal blog to The Skiffy and Fanty Show.  Why?  It just makes more sense, I suppose.  If you’ve never listened to the Shoot the WISB casts, you’ll likely see them pop up in your iTunes or RSS feeds over the next few weeks.

Blog Posts

The Disquieting Guest — A Panel on Horror Writing

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Friday afternoon, I took part in a panel on horror writing organized by the Manitoba Writers’ Guild and hosted by the Arts and Cultural Industries Association of Manitoba. Chaired by Maurice Mierau, the panel consisted of Chadwick Ginther (author of the Norse urban fantasies Thunder Road and the recently-launched Tombstone Blues), Michael Rowe (in Winnipeg as part of the book tour for his ghost story Wild Fell) and myself. It was a very cozy setting to talk horror while a -30 C windchill howled outside, and while the event is fresh in my mind, I thought I’d touch on a couple points that came up in the discussion (and I thank Chris Borster for the idea of doing so). So here we go; any misrepresentations in the paraphrasing that

Blog Posts

Mining the Genre Asteroid: The World of Tiers series by Philip José Farmer

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Robert Wolff has had a series of hard knocks in his life. He can’t remember anything before the age of twenty, and in fact was fostered and taken care of by a family whose last name he now borrows. He has a wife and  is looking to buy a new house, but being on the verge of a nervous breakdown and at his retirement age to boot, not even the end years of his life seem to be set to be peaceful or happy. So, when he discovers a strange inter-dimensional portal in the basement of said house and an invitation to use the aural horn-like key to open it, Wolff doesn’t hesitate. On the other side, he finds a wondrous artificial universe built like the layers of cake, with creatures out of mythology, magical portals, dread forces working against him, and the true secret of who and what he *really* is. Welcome to the World of Tiers.

Blog Posts

Adventures in SF Parenting: The Cell Phone Dilemma

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Parents are continuously struggling to keep up with the technology that their children are using.  We’re rather like the federal government in that our policies are often decades behind the technological curve (hence the NSA communications debacle).  As such, we tend to treat things like cell phones the same way we would, say, a personal diary.  If we’re the type of parent who fundamentally doesn’t trust how our children will interact with the world, then we are perfectly willing to violate trust by reading a diary, right?  So, therefore, we should also be able to monitor text messages and other interactions that our children might have using their cell phones. Here’s the thing though…  We’ve spent decades letting our teenagers talk on the phone without listening in on the other line or hovering over their shoulder, haven’t we?  The only difference between a phone call and a text message is that the latter makes it EASIER for us to keep tabs on our children.  However, I’ve always been uncomfortable with what these actions (reading texts, instant messages, facebook conversations, reading diaries, etc) teach our children.  Particularly given broader questions of privacy in modern society.

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