Blog Posts

Blog Posts

On Recent South(east) Asian SF/F by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (Guest Post)

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When I first started publishing in 2012, I felt I’d come into an already established community, one thriving with international writers. It’s an environment that I’ve always found welcoming, and doubly so once I started discovering and meeting (online) other writers from my region, wherever in the world they are based. So I’d like to give an overview of what I’ve been seeing in this regard — any excuse would do to talk about these wonderful writers! — and talk a little about my publishing experiences these last couple years, though only a little; it’s not too charming to harp on about myself! I’m covering Southeast Asian and South Asian writers, though (as everyone who follows the state of short genre fiction would be) I closely follow mainland Chinese ones as well, most of whom we’re now seeing in Lightspeed and Clarkesworld through the diligent translations by Ken Liu. Some of the most recent are the lyrical Invisible Planets by Hao Jingfang and the fairy tale-like Grave of the Fireflies by Cheng Jingbo.

Blog Posts

Book Review: The Burning Dark by Adam Christopher

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Captain Abraham Idaho Cleveland is a hero, but he certainly doesn’t feel like one. His gambit at Tau Retore to defeat an immense Spider ship was, charitably, a pyrrhic victory. Worse, he has a bum mechanical knee from the experience. Also, in keeping with tradition, instead of being immediately cashiered out of the Fleet, he has been given one final mission. There’s a space station around a mysterious star that radiates an almost evil, alien sort of light. It’s being decommissioned, and ‘Ida’ has been given the task, the privilege of overseeing that decommission.  But why does no one on the station know that he is a hero? And why are people disappearing or just acting strangely?  And most importantly, who and what is that signal Ida is getting in a forbidden radio band on his homemade radio set?

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Kip Manley

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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 Kip Manley to talk about how knowing he doesn’t know a damn thing relates to City of Roses. ———————————————– There’s this proverb, and you have to imagine I’m opening a drawer as I say this, in the cheap pressboard desk between us, and I’m pulling out a bottle with a little green label, and a plain white paper cup, and where are my manners? Would you like some, too? Rye whiskey, but you know what they say:  makes the band sound better. I don’t know how it got such a reputation as rot-gut. Is it really such an acquired taste? Maybe it’s just that it’s hard to make well, and bad rye’s just that much worse than bad scotch, or bad bourbon. Anyway. Ice is in the bucket there, if you like, and would you look at that:  there’s a second paper cup, just for you.

Announcements and Errata

Top 10 Episodes and Blog Posts for March 2014

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No introductions needed.  Here goes. Top Episodes: #17 — Babylon 5 Re-Watch (S1D4: Eps. 13-16) — A Shoot the WISB Subcast w/ Jamie Wyman & Erika Ensign 195. Sons of Steel (1988): A Torture Cinema “Adventure” w/ Danny Oz 116. Season of the Witch — A Torture Cinema “Adventure” Episode 96 — An Interview w/ Sherwood Smith (a.k.a. Scribbles and Cream) Episode 4.2 — Torture Cinema Meets The Wicker Man 190. Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen (2009): A Torture Cinema “Adventure” #16 — Godzilla (1954) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion 193. New Zealander Speculative Fiction w/ Helen Lowe, Norman Cates, & Stephen Minchin #15 — Babylon 5 Re-Watch (S1D3: Eps. 9-12) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion #10 — Babylon 5 Re-Watch (S1D1: Eps. 1-4) — A Shoot the WISB Discussion Top Blog Posts: Mining the Genre Asteroid: The Saga of Pliocene Exile by Julian May (by Paul Weimer) My Superpower: Marianne de Pierres The Disquieting Guest — The Sublime Terror of Kaiju by David Annandale My Superpower: Steve McHugh Business Time: Self-publishing vendors and ‘royalties’ by Mike Underwood For Your Hugo Award Consideration: A Very Big, Non-Endorsement List of Things to Love by Shaun Duke Book Review: Debris by Jo Anderton (by Paul Weimer) A (World) SFF Film Odyssey: Mutant Girls Squad (2010) and Anime’s Excesses by Shaun Duke Cultural Tourists (Part 1): Publishing and Representation by Charles A. Tan The Masks the Monsters Left Behind by Romeo Kennedy (Guest Post)

Announcements and Errata

A Note on Hugo Awards and The Stars Change by Mary Anne Mohanraj

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Today is the deadline for Hugo Award nominations.  If you haven’t voted yet, get your ballot filled out right now!  We are, of course, eligible in the Best Fancast and Best Fanzine categories, along with a lot of other wonderful folks.  So…vote! In the interest of ballot-related things, I’d like to draw your attention to Mary Anne Mohanraj’s The Stars Change, which we talked about briefly in an upcoming episode recorded at ICFA this year (along w/ Cecilia Tan).  I knew I wouldn’t be able to get the episode up in time for folks to listen to it pre-ballot-deadline, so I promised to write a little post about the book.  In short, it’s an intriguing work, and our discussion covered such interesting topics as sexuality, Sri Lankan politics, and more.  If anything, this post should serve as a reminder that it is, in fact, eligible this year. Here are some details about the book, which is published by Circlet Press:

Blog Posts

My Superpower: Marianne de Pierres

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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 Marianne de Pierres to talk about how the power of resisting organization relates to Peacemaker. ——————————– So here’s the thing:  I have an uncanny and deep-seated ability to resist being organised. It’s quite the talent. I mean I’ve written nearly twenty novels, raised three sons and worked at various day jobs. It’s hard to know how it was at all possible really, because the moment someone says, “Oh, you can manage that, no problem, you just need to be well organised”, a veil descends across my mind and my limbs become heavy. I begin to daydream and can find endless distractions in odd and obscure time-gobbling pursuits; my junk drawer needs sorting, the car needs a vacuum, I simply must read this article about prescriptivism versus descriptivism in linguistics, all the twitter feeds of people I don’t know, and my favourite advertising-riddled celebrity gossip blogs.

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