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My Superpower: Max Gladstone

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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 Max Gladstone to talk about how the power of Oblivion relates to Full Fathom Five. *** My writer superpower is Oblivion. Obliviousness to surrounding conditions may seem more a liability than a superpower — the kind of “gift” that gets you pancaked by a city bus because you tried to read a Buzzfeed listicle and cross the road at the same time. Obliviousness leads to working through lunch and dinner because you didn’t realize it was 7pm already, to bad plays in poker and go (oh, I didn’t realize there were two kings on the board), to sleep deprivation and household mess (what dust bunnies in which corners, now?). But it does help the writing. See, distraction is an enemy of word count. You know how the Force connects all things, carrying impulses and emotions from one end of the galaxy to the other? Imagine being a Jedi — I mean, a fully-realized one like Obi-Wan in A New Hope or Yoda in The Empire Strikes Back, so in tune with the Force that it’s a state of being, not an ability you turn on and off. Walk down a street, as a Jedi, and emotions overwhelm you. Imagine trying to get anything done in that environment! Sure, Yoda and Obi-Wan lived on barren colony worlds to hide from Imperial death squads, but it’s quite possible that a peaceful remote hermitage is just plain more comfortable for folks with low-level always-on psionics.

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

210. Sarah Lotz (a.k.a. Planecrusher 1000) — The Three (An Interview)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode210AnInterviewWSarahLotz/SandF%20–%20Episode%20210%20–%20An%20Interview%20w%20Sarah%20Lotz.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSCreepy children, fallen planes, and a world gone mad, oh my!  Author Sarah Lotz joins us for our World SF Tour bonanza to talk about her new book, The Three.  We talk about her fascination with plane crashes, horror and religion, writing multiple cultures, and much more! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 210 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Sarah’s Website Sarah’s Books Sarah’s Twitter You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

Mining the Genre Asteroid: PAVANE by Keith Roberts

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In 1588, Queen Elizabeth, the Faerie Queen, was assassinated. Without her leadership, and with the rise of English Catholics in response, Spain found it easy to occupy England and bring her back to Mother Church. And with England so tamed, the throne of St. Peter took back the entirety of Europe from Protestantism, and then the world. James Cook had the flag of the Pope, not of England, when he landed in Australia. Spain controls the entirety of the New World. The Church keeps a tight control over technology and culture, as well, shutting down obvious lines of development. Semaphone wires, coal fired trains, and a residual feudal culture dominate England and the world. Black powder guns are still state-of-the-art weapons. Such tight control has its costs, and its victims. Now, though, almost four centuries after Elizabeth’s death, in a small region of England, the dominance of the Church in matters temporal and spiritual — in England and the world — may finally begin to loosen. All of this can be found in Keith Roberts’ alternate history classic, Pavane.

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Book Review: The Deaths of Tao by Wesley Chu

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After being bonded with the alien Tao, making good strides against the Genjix, and becoming a better man in the process, physically and otherwise, you’d think Roen Tan would have it made. Instead, several years after the events of The Lives of Tao, Roen and Tao have self-exiled themselves not only from Jill and their son, but also from the remainder of the Prophus. It’s a particularly painful separation. And,  sidelined as they have made themselves out to be, Roen and Tao’s side are in a relatively weaker position now, and the stakes are higher than ever. The Genjix are winning their long secret war against the rebellious Prophus. More and more of the countries of the world are falling under covert Genjix control. It’s everything Jill (and her own Quasing Baji) can do to keep things from slipping too badly. In The Deaths of Tao, though, that might not be enough, as the Genjix have a new rising star in their ranks and a seemingly tantalizing approach to an old, old dream. Not the ancient dream to escape Earth, but a different desire entirely…

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

209. South African SF Roundtable w/ Alex Latimer, Lauren Beukes, and Sarah Lotz

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode209SouthAfricanSF/SandF%20–%20Episode%20209%20–%20South%20African%20SF.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSTerrifying malls, time traveling serial killers, and renegade spaceships, oh my!  Authors Alex Latimer, Lauren Beukes, and Sarah Lotz join Julia and Shaun for an in-depth discussion about South African SF, from the influences of Apartheid on contemporary SA literature to the film industry to fandom and publishing.  You won’t want to miss this one! We hope you enjoy the episode! Note:  If you have iTunes and like this show, please give us a review on our iTunes page, or feel free to email us with your thoughts about the show! Here’s the episode (show notes are below): Episode 209 — Download (MP3) Show Notes: Our Guests Alex Latimer (Author of numerous picture books and The Space Race, which involves apartheid, nuclear weapons, and a race to the moon) Sarah Lotz (Author of The Three, which is about plane crashes and creepy kids. Also writes under other names) Lauren Beukes (Author of several books including The Shining Girls, which is about time traveling serial killers, and the forthcoming Broken Monsters) Additional Notes: Nick Wood has written a lot about South African SF http://nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz/?page_id=530 J.M. Coetzee Waiting for the Barbarians Science Fiction and Fantasy South Africa http://nickwood.frogwrite.co.nz/?page_id=530 (Lauren has judged the short story contest) rAge gaming convention (where Lauren went dressed as Cheetara from Thundercats): http://www.rageexpo.co.za/ Another South African Gaming Site: http://www.rpg.co.za/ http://www.roomtoread.org/page.aspx?pid=320 claims that 80% of schools lacked Libraries in 2012. Apocalypse Now Now by Charlie Human (zombie apocalypse entertaining novel, but also political) The Mall by S.L. Grey (one of Sarah’s pen names) and Louis Greenberg dealing with consumerism and the divide between rich and poor. World Reader gives free tablets to people to encourage reading (not SA based, but a very cool idea!) Night Drive is a South African horror movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1610394/ (This is really gross and culturally insensitive, so approach with caution) short film based on Charlie Human’s short story… No More Heroes (not sure where to find this) South African nuclear weapons information http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction South African Space Program http://repository.uwc.ac.za/xmlui/handle/10566/155 South African Rocketry: http://www.sarocketry.co.za/index.html Lauren’s fact checking Twitter bananza (literacy rates, etc.)(check this out if you want accurate stats for some of the things we discuss in the episode) Where to buy SA books: booklounge.co.za — you can order South African books from here. Author recommendations: Diane Awerbuck — Home Remedies (recommended by Alex) Louis Greenberg — Dark Windows set in future South Africa Something Wicked magazine Bloody Parchment anthology and Bloody Harvest anthology Jungle Gym magazine Andrew Solomon — Tokolosh Song Edyth Bulbring Henrietta Rose-Innes Alex Smith SA Partridge Nerine Dorman Liam Kruger Miranda Sherry Black Dog Summer (like The Lovely Bones, but set in South Africa) Sam Wilson You can also support this podcast by signing up for a one month free trial at Audible.  Doing so helps us, gives you a change to try out Audible’s service, and brings joy to everyone. Our new intro music is “Time Flux” by Revolution Void (CC BY 3.0). That’s all, folks!  Thanks for listening.  See you next week.

Blog Posts

This Katamari Feels Limericksish

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(That’s probably because you rolled up nothing but Limericks about exciting things!) I’ve been like a magpie lately, collecting shiny things from here and there. There’s no unified theme to this post, except everything in it is an awesome idea. So I decided to force a theme in a way that will likely yield terrible results:  Limerick writing! I am making these all up on the spot, and giving myself no more than 5 minutes to do each one. So, hang on tight; this may be a bumpy ride! Gears for Queers

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