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Mining the Genre Asteroid: Time Out of Joint by Philip K Dick

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Mining the Genre Asteroid is Paul Weimer’s look at the history of the science fiction and fantasy field, bringing to light important, interesting and entertaining books from science fiction and fantasy’s past to you. A seemingly ordinary 1950’s slice of Suburbia. Ragle Gumm spends his days working on the “Where will the Little Man be Next” puzzle for the local paper. As the reigning champion of solving the daily puzzle, it is practically a full time job for him. But, then, when a soft drink stand disappears before Ragle’s eyes, to have a piece of paper with the words “soft drink stand” fall to the ground, things are clearly not what they appear. Especially since, judging from the drawerful of paper slips,  it becomes clear that this has happened to Gumm before…

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Adventures in SF Parenting: Retro Playtime

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Technology is awesome, just sayin’.  As I explained in my post “Video Games are Edumacational,” I fundamentally believe that video games can be a wonderful educational tool for children.  Beyond that, merely interacting with technology actually gives children a leg-up in our tech heavy environment.  With schools utilizing iPads, Smart Screens, and computers on a regular basis, those children who have interacted with technology at home on a regular basis have a distinct advantage over those who have not.  Having said all this, there is something equally crucial about putting down the tablet and picking up a game of Pick-Up Sticks.

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My Superpower: Betsy Dornbusch

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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 Betsy Dornbusch to talk about how Writing In Bits helped make her turn in a story for Neverland’s Library… I keep resisting thinking of any aspect of writing as a superpower. After all, there’s a bunch of us writer types around and a lot of what we do is the same: ass in chair, fingers on keyboard, words on page. I don’t think of it as glamorous or magical at all. It’s my job and a hell of a lot of time it’s a slog and I feel like a hack. But I realize other people (readers and maybe other writers) do think there is magic involved. Maybe there is. I got to thinking about life and writing and I

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Genrelogues: Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Episodes 1-4)

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Genrelogues Shaun and Jen’s new column about new and old SF/F television, film, and literature.  This week, Shaun and Jen tackle the first four episodes of Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., airing every Tuesday (8/7c) on ABC.  Though we will try not to ruin whatever we’re talking about with a lot of detail, you should be warned that spoilers are inevitable.  Read with care. If you have any thoughts about the show or what we’ve got to say below, leave a comment! ———————————————————————— Shaun:  Since this is our first Genrelogue, I want to start off by talking about the issue of anticipation in relation to this particular product.  There are a couple things I think are worth exploring here.  First, the simple fact that this is another attempt on the part of Joss Whedon to successfully capture the genre TV market, which we all know he hasn’t been all that successful at in recent years (the early cancellation of Firefly, by many accounts a classic, and the poor showing of Dollhouse, which got off on a bad foot the second the studios nerfed his original beginning).  Since his success with The Avengers, my guess is Marvel expects AoS to be their “in” to the TV market.  And since they’re on a major network — ABC — they will have the benefit of a much larger audience than their competitor, DC, whose only major live-action show, Arrow, appears on the CW — which, though successful within that particular network, does not benefit from

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A Book by Its Cover: The Curiosity

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Timothy “Buttons” McBanks is the greatest door-to-door cane salesman of his generation. There isn’t a cane he cannot sell: bamboo sticks from the heart of the Orient, wrought iron from Detroit City, and even twisted lengths of cursed yew from the blackest depths of the Queen’s England. A plaque set into the

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Geekomancer Under Glass: Beyond the Capes (Part One)

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Hello, my lovely Skiffys and Fantys! I just got back from a delightful evening of talking about comic books at Atomic Books in Baltimore, so I was inspired to start a Geekomancer Under Glass sub-series about comic books. To start, I want to highlight some comics series outside the superhero genre. A lot of people still conflate comics with superheroes, but there’s incredible storytelling being done in the sequential art/graphic novel form outside the supers genre, in and out of SF/F. Hopefully, this series will expose people to some new titles and expand their horizons. It also gives Shaun a chance to come into the comments and tell me how I’m wrong about everything I say about comics. 🙂

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