Without Really Trying

Are We at the End of Science Fiction?

2009-01-02T07:25:32Z

I just discovered these interesting articles over at The Fix Online: Are We at the End of Science Fiction, Part I and Are We at the End of Science Fiction, Part II.

I think people are confusing the death of the short fiction magazine with the end of science fiction in general. I know it’s hard to come up with new tropes like Time Travel and Alternate Universes, but I don’t think we’ve stopped entirely. Had anyone imagined downloading yourself into a machine earlier than the 1950? Greg Bear pretty much started off a slew of stories on Nano technology in the 80s.

And since when does “Science Fiction” only encompass the narrow field of “Hard Science Fiction”. Surely Space Operas like Star Wars and Star Trek are alive and well. This is especially true in the video game sectore.

I think the real question being asked, is, “Are we at the end of Clarke style idea-driven science fiction?”. And to that, I think the answer is probably yes. Idea driven stories don’t sell these days (at least in short fiction. The DaVinci Code had very little BUT an idea going for it), and I think that’s a good thing. Character driven fiction is really the only way the field will survive. With video games and TV becoming so prominent, books have to go where they CAN’T–into the characters heads to compete. It’s simple economics.

Anyways, the articles are a little long, but certainly recommended reading. After you’ve had a look, please come back to the blog and share your thoughts in the comments section.

Scalzi on Tor.com

2008-12-24T16:01:11Z

I just read this article on Tor.com over at SFDiplomat. For those of you not “in the know”, Tor has launched a kind of social networking site for fandom, which features articles and short fiction written by their authors.

I think it’s a wonderful idea. A sci-fi publisher has taken their website from a boring, static webpage and turned it into something dynamic that might draw people to the site. This is something along the lines of what Baen’s been doing for quite some time with their magazine Baen’s Universe and their free fiction archive. It’s Web 2.0, and I think it’ll help to boost Tor’s profile.

Jonathan McCalmont disagrees, and while I won’t rehash his arguments here, basically he comments on “over-exposed” authors like John Scalzi blogging on the site. First off, is John Scalzi under any obligation whatsoever to not try and promote himself like any other author simply because his blog is immensly popular? I mean, seriously, is McCalmont arguing that Scalzi should just say, “hey, look, I’m popular enough, I don’t need to self-promote?” Really, Jonathan? Really?

In any case, read the comments section where Scalzi responds. The man is a bulldog, and a very well spoken bulldog at that. It’s worth the read.

Writers of the Future Resource Page

2008-12-23T00:05:20Z

I’m in the middle of putting together a comprehensive listing of all the resources available online on how to win the Writers of the Future contest.

So far, I have articles, interviews, YouTube links, Podcasts, articles on the workshop, forum locations, etc, etc. This page is pretty much everything I used to research the contest and eventually win it. The information is totally invaluable, and centralized! If you’ve read, seen, or experienced something about the contest and it isn’t on this page, please shoot me a link and I’ll include it. I hope you enjoy it!

The Big Rip proven false

2008-12-17T15:10:15Z

As part of the review I’m doing for SFReader, I just read Stephen Baxter’s “Last Contact” in Jonathan Strahan’s Year’s Best Science Fiction and Fantasy. Last Contact is an apocalyptic story about what would happen if Dark Energy pulled the universe apart down to the atomic scale (and beyond). The scenario is called “The Big Rip” and was thought might happen in 10 trillion years or so, but Baxter’s premise is that it happens in the next 10 years, which causes the death of every human on Earth.

The story itself is very well written with compelling characters, but didn’t really do that much for me because the plot is linear (by design), and the protagonists passive. It’s merely an execution story on a grand scale, which we get TONS of in the slush at EDF.

The Big Rip, the driving force of Baxter’s tale, has now been proven false, in the same year Baxter wrote his story. How’s that for bad luck?

Universe Today reports:

Previously, it wasn’t known for sure if dark energy was a constant across space, with a strength that never changes with distance or time, or if it is a function of space itself and as space expands dark energy would expand and get stronger. In other words, it wasn’t known if Einstein’s theory of general relativity and his cosmological constant was correct or if the theory would have to be modified for large scales.

But the Chandra study strengthens the evidence that dark energy is the cosmological constant, and is not growing in strength with time, which would cause the Universe to eventually rip itself apart.

That’s why I’m leery about writing near-term science fiction. Sometimes the science just works against you.

Looking for books by Clarion West instructors - 2009

2008-12-16T20:13:10Z

So I’ve been perusing the bookstores for books by Clarion West instructors. I’m applying for the class of 2009, and I figure it would be good to at least have a passing familiarity with the writing of the people who are going to teach.

First store I went to didn’t have work by any of them. So I went to a Chapters (the Canadian Borders) and found work by Elizabeth Bear, and of course, Karen Joy Fowler, but that’s it. So I guess I’m going to have to resort to Amazon. This makes me unhappy.

The slate of instructors can be found here. I’d like to read at least a book by each of them. Does anyone have a recommendations?

Twilight

2008-12-16T02:04:17Z

I haven’t read the book OR seen the movie, but here I am exercising my God given right to laugh while it is being mocked in this post.

Has anyone actually seen this movie? I’m 33 years old, white, heterosexual, male, and happily married. Is there anything in this movie for me?

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

2008-12-05T02:36:59Z

Yes, gentle readers, I’m reading that book.

Hockey and politics

2008-12-04T01:05:46Z

OMG, the evening news is teaching Canadians about a parliamentary system using a hockey analogy. The reporter is standing in a hockey rink. My faith in Canada has been restored.

The political debacle in Canada

2008-12-04T00:44:44Z

As a Canadian writer, I feel compelled to talk about the political problems we’re experiencing up here.

First of all, Stephane Dion is my boy. I’ve been impressed with him ever since his letters to Bourassa protesting Quebec separatism. Quite frankly, his well thought-out, cogent arguments again separatism made Bourassa and his cronies look like dundering idiots.

I’m not sure that anyone can deny that he’s one of the brightest politicians to hit the hill in quite some time. However, the public doesn’t generally care how smart you are if your accent is so thick that it’s difficult to get your point across. And that, I think has been the main issue that has dogged Mr. Dion in his tenure as leader of the Liberal part. Anglophones, especially in the West, just don’t understand him. I still like Mr. Dion, but I feel like he’s unelectable because of this.

Which makes this end run around democracy extremely unpalatable for me. Mr. Dion wants to form a grand coalition between every political party in parliament except for the Conservatives, who are now in power. This includes the Bloc Quebecois, who are both a party whose sole goal is dividing the country, and also the very same people Mr. Dion argued so hard to squash early in his career.

What has triggered this coalition? Mr. Harper’s brisk method of governance probably played a big part. Every vote in parliament was a “confidence issue”, which meant triggering a national election if the Conservative motion was defeated. He also rammed legislation through without little or no consulation with the other parties. In effect, he was a bully. However, it’s difficult not to see some sour grapes on the part of Mr. Dion. Since he vowed to step down from the leadership of the Liberal party in May, he would be only the second leader of that party in history not to go on to lead the country.

He claims that Harper is not responding strongly enough to the economic crisis. It seems to me that he’s playing on the fact that many Canadians believe that what happens in the States also happens here. There’s a tide of negativity in the media, but in reality the Canadian banking system is currently the strongest and best positioned in the G20. We’re not even in recession yet. In fact, our national debt is actually going down, not up.

Now the Liberals have had a rough time of it. They’re dividing the vote on the political left with the NDP, while the Conservatives have the right pretty much to themselves. However, while the Bloc is in parliament chewing up 50 seats, the odds of a majority government happening any time soon are slim. We need to figure out how to work a minority government because they’re here to stay. This kind of squabbling is poison to our democracy and feels like ignoring the will of the people who voted the Conservatives into power.

I’m disappointed in Mr. Dion, and embarassed as a Canadian.

How are you guys feeling about it?

Typing Speed Vs Words Per Hour

2008-11-27T01:49:51Z

Just a quick note. I took a typing test last night, and it turns out that I can type 70 words a minute. This is when I’m just tearing along, no thought, just typing relatively simple words from the screen.

That makes my theoretical words per hour a MAXIMUM of 4200. Divide by about half, since I write fantasy and sci-fi and therefore have to type names like Norstrilia and Tk’tk’tk and my theoretical maximum is 2100 words. Right now, I’m at about 800 words an hour of first draft. Obviously, there’s room for growth.

So what’s your theoretical maximum vs actual output?