(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) Before we get to the post itself, a brief housekeeping note: for this Patreon, I’ve committed to four essays a month. But as you may have noticed, I post on … Continue reading
Monthly Archives: March 2017
Protagonists are all very well. You pick a central character whose story you will tell, you get into their head, you understand his or her point of view. A protagonist like that generally has to carry the spear for the … Continue reading
“Have you ever killed anybody?” That question, from a close friend who has read a lot of my fiction, startled me. “No, of course not,” I said. “Why do you ask?” “Well, you write about it a lot.” I suppose … Continue reading
BVC member Linda Nagata is part of the latest science fiction Storybundle. Storybundles are themed collections of ebooks, sold together at discount, and available only for a very short period of time. Lisa Mason — author of the Philip K. … Continue reading
Darwin and I finally saw BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. My thoughts: –Emma Watson isn’t a great singer. Her voice is quite weak compared to Paige O’Hara. Come to that, none of the cast members has a standout voice, except the … Continue reading
The full title of Trevor Noah’s childhood memoir is Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. I picked this audiobook because it had been named a best book of the year by several publications, and because the sample … Continue reading
It’s spring break. Last Friday, my son and a friend decided to do a movie marathon of The Lord of The Rings trilogy. One of his friends had never seen it. I can’t remember if my son had seen it … Continue reading
We rise early, try to chug hot, mediocre coffee, and line up to enter our Bush Cruiser, the faithful Land Rover, with cameras, phones, hats, scarves, bug juice, water bottles all handy and within easy reach. Camera is charged and … Continue reading
How many Sf or fantasy novels have you read, or shows have you watched, that toss you right out when the characters started cussing and the made-up words, or euphemisms, sound totally fake? Some writers solve the problem by … Continue reading
(This post is part of my Patreon-supported New Worlds series.) “I miss seasons.” I hear this sometimes from people who move to the San Francisco Bay Area from the East Coast or the Midwest of the U.S. Truth be told, … Continue reading