Writing

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

174. Cassandra Rose Clarke at Worldcon (an Interview of Sorts)

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode174CassandraClarkeAtWorldcon/SandF%20–%20Episode%20174%20–%20Cassandra%20Clarke%20at%20Worldcon.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSMad scientists, assassins, and publishing, oh my!  Cassandra Rose Clarke joins Jen and Shaun in a mysterious San Antonio restaurant to talk about her novels, writing, the fantasy genre, galactic empires (well, Shaun talks about that), and much more!  Plus, there may be a few half-truths in here.  We’ll leave you to figure them out! 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 174 — Download (MP3) Show Notes Cassandra’s Website Angry Robot Books 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.

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Out-Brutalling the Last Guy: “Grim and gritty, yes … but make sure it’s doing some honest work” by K.V. Johansen

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I’ve written some reasonably grim stuff. The hero of Blackdog does tend to go for the throat on the battlefield and the assassin hero in my forthcoming series, Marakand, has a past that is decidedly Not Nice (his present just gets worse). Violence, horror, fear, pain, death — these are all part of epic fantasy, which almost by definition is going to deal with war at some point along the way and will certainly throw its characters into nasty situations, both as active doers of deeds and as suffering victims. Sometimes detailed physical description is what you need to do what the story needs done. Sometimes it isn’t. When it is, the detailed physical description alone shouldn’t be the point of the exercise. I was talking about this just last night with the Spouse, and then, while procrastinating on Twitter this morning, I wandered into a conversation with Juliet E. McKenna and Tom Lloyd that touched on the same ideas. This led me to wonder if, as we see the increased brutality inflicted in books praised as some kind of standard that is supposed to be achieved, we fantasy writers don’t sometimes get the feeling that we’d

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Feed the Machine: A God Named Higgs

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Standard Model So the Higgs Boson was confirmed last year was it? I can’t remember. Anyway, it won Mr. Higgs and that other guy who also theorized it a truckload of krona. Meanwhile, the men and women who actually discovered the damn thing got no love. But fear not, you honorable CERN employees, because you still have the best jobs in the world. The article above theorizes about the Higgs particle/field creating an entire particle landscape with its influence. If you could control the Higgs field, could you turn raw energy into whichever particles — both mundane and exotic — that you’d like? Wormholes would become practically commonplace if one could

The Skiffy and Fanty Show Podcasts

172. J.A. Pitts, Emma Newman, and Arley Sorg at Worldcon

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http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/SandFEpisode172JAPittsEmmaNewmanAndArleySorg/SandF%20–%20Episode%20172%20–%20JA%20Pitts%2C%20Emma%20Newman%2C%20and%20Arley%20Sorg.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSGaming, other worlds, and fantasy armor, oh my!  J.A. Pitts, Emma Newman, and Arley Sorg joined Shaun and Jen at Worldcon earlier this year to talk about their work, writing fantasy, tabletop gaming, armor, fandom, and so 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 172 — Download (MP3) Show Notes John’s Website Emma’s Website Arley’s Website Angry Robot Books 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.

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The Sound of Thunder (On Young Adult SF/F)

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This weekend is the Austin Teen Book Festival. I’m excited about attending — not only because a number of the authors making an appearance at the festival share the same literary agency I do and our agency is a pretty tight little community on its own, but because I find YA inspiring and energizing. Also? My next series may be categorized as YA.[1] [listens for the groans] There are reasons for this. I worked at BookPeople in the Teen Book section for six years. Therefore, I have a background in Teen Fiction. My agency specializes in younger fiction (YA, picture books and mid-grade.) But the biggest reason why is because… that’s where it’s all happening. It’s where the LIFE of SF and F is these days. It’s where all the really cool ideas are encouraged and welcomed and nurtured, and where, by the Gods, authors are even paid for their work. Adult SF and F seems to be dying. Here’s where I type “Don’t Panic” in small friendly letters. DON’T PANIC. Or wait… maybe you should. Let’s think about this. The adult markets have been

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Feed the Machine: Black Hole Son

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Goodbye Big Bang, hello black hole? A new theory of the universe’s creation This week’s article is a doozy. It has everything a science fiction fan could want — branes, four dimensional stars, black holes, hyperspheres — and it is all completely true. That’s a bit misleading. Mathematically, the theory is plausible. There are still a few kinks and refinements, but it does posit some interesting possibilities for the origin of our universe. Now let’s get down to making that Purina Machine Chow.

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