Blog Posts

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Harry Connolly (The Way Into Chaos)

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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 Harry Connolly to talk about how the power of intense focus relates to The Way Into Chaos. My superpower is a little different from most. It’s not something I can do, and it’s not a way I can bend the universe to to what I need it to do. In fact, my superpower is a sort of invulnerability. It’s this: I’m not paying attention to you. That’s it. That’s my power. I’m not paying attention. A boring teacher in a boring class? Their lessons bounce right off. Trying to bend my ear about your favorite programming language/why Tom Bombadil should have been in the LOTR movies/why this season of Doctor Who sucks—again—but you still have hope for the next one? None of that even registers. The words just ricochet off me. I’m not listening. I’m probably not looking at you, either.

Blog Posts

My Superpower: E.L. Tettensor (Master of Plagues)

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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 E.L. Tettensor to talk about how the power of teleportation relates to Master of Plagues. My superpower is teleportation. Cool, right? In the blink of an eye – bamf! – I’m somewhere completely different. Not physically, of course. That wouldn’t work. I get motion sickness. Mentally, though, I can transport myself anywhere, anytime. Even better, I can be in two places at once. One version of me might be sitting across from you at brunch, listening politely as you recount your latest misadventures with Tinder, while another me – the one enjoying herself – is planning an epic battle, deciding whether that flanking manoeuvre is going to be enough to save our heroes, or whether they’ll need more siege engines.

Blog Posts

Book Review: Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear

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In the late 19th century, Rapid City is *the* port in the Pacific Northwest. Much of the foundations are now below ground level, in the muck and mire of the poor soil for buildings and the other things being filled in to raise things. Places like Madame Damnable’s Sewing Circle, whose entrance is 32 feet below the current level of the street, a real old part of the city, then. But to climb down that ladder and go in isn’t to get your clothes mended. Even if there are two sewing machines in the parlor. No, the usual people who climb down and visit the Sewing Circle are men coming from or going to the gold field, looking for a little action, spend a little money. Karen Memery, along with the other women,  practices sewing, to help mend her clothes, see, but she mainly practices a more horizontal trade.  And she is the center of Karen Memory, a new steampunk novel from Elizabeth Bear.

Blog Posts

Short and Sublime: January 2015 Round-Up

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Short and Sublime is a new column spotlighting great short fiction. January stories include optimistic sci-fi tales, feminist subversions of problematic tropes in fantasy, and creatures from mythologies both real and imagined. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Don’t get close, or you will smell. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Here she comes, go run and tell. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Her mama casts them voodoo spells. Michaëlle-Isabelle, Michaëlle-Isabelle, Take your Haitian tail to Hell!

Blog Posts

Around the Podosphere #5: Podcasts of Note for 1/25/15

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As always, the podcast world is full of interesting things.  Here are some episodes we’ve enjoyed last week: On Writing: The Coode Street Podcast brings together Bill Schafer of Subterranean Press and the infamous Harlan Ellison to talk about small presses and writing things. Jeanne Cavelos joins the folks on Speculate! to talk about the Odyssey Writing Workshop. Mahvesh Murad’s excellent podcast, Midnight in Karachi, brings on Adam Roberts to talk about his various novels, including some of his recent satirical work. On Books: The fine folks at Sword & Laser wrap up their discussion of The Sparrow and talk about some exciting book-related news. On Movies: Curious about Dracula Untold?  We Hate Movies covers it in their latest episode.  You may or may not have second thoughts… On Conspiracies: The latest episode of The Doorway to the Hidden World exposes the totally unknown secrets of the Pyramids.

Announcements and Errata

The 2015 “Women and Non-Binary in SFF” Theme Begins: Announcements, Details, and Guest/Author Calls

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As you may well be aware by now, we have a new theme in 2015:  Women and Non-Binary in SFF.  This post will serve as a handy guide to our show for the next 11.5 months and as a nice place to go in case you want to be a part of the show or the blog at some point in 2015. The Theme:  What We’re Doing Throughout 2015, we are going to put particular focus on the contributions of women and non-binary people to science fiction and fantasy.  The majority of our interviewees, as such, will be women and non-binary; additionally, a good portion of movies, tv, and discussion episodes will be in some way related to this theme.  Though we’re not setting a hard quota for the year, we expect that roughly 75% of our content will be women- and non-binary-centered. As such, we have two levels of “open calls” for guests:

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