Epic Fantasy Analysis March 14, 2013
This is the fifth in the series and is from data as of 3/14/2013. Links to review previous data: 01/03/2013 01/24/2013 02/17/2013 03/03/2013 As always this data comes from the Amazon Kindle Epic Fantasy […]
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The History of Fantasy, Part III: I Think You Got a Little Grit In Your … Everything
I’d mentioned previously the spectrum of modern fantasy is fairly disparate, but if you go into the library or a bookstore it’s really borne out. So I think the best way to discuss the topic […]
Rites of Spring: The New Horror TV Shows
True Blood stirs no interest in me, I don’t enjoy The Walking Dead, and my feelings about American Horror Story are deeply mixed, but as a fan of horror TV, I owe something to all […]
The story so far: Hunter x Hunter
International stream: Crunchyroll (US, Canada, UK, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand; subtitles in English or French; and for those who may be wondering by now, yes, there are other streaming services, but Crunchyroll is […]
Characters: Nijiri from The Killing Moon
I spent my last weekend in bed, with beers in a cooler a few inches away, and NK Jemisin’s The Killing Moon in hand. I’ve read few page-turners these last few months. But I devoured […]
Deconstructing Horror: Slamming Doors, Rattling Chains
Haunted Sounds We’re very excited for this week’s edition of Deconstructing Horror, in which we will investigate how Haunted Houses have possessed the auditory arts. When I was a kid, I was the weirdo that […]
Review: The Games by Ted Kosmatka
I’m glad I started with The Games by Ted Kosmatka as my first foray into science horror. I don’t think I could pick a better book that seamlessly melded horror and SF tropes. The year is 2044 and […]
Transparency, Wool and the Future of Indie Publishing
This week, I started listening to the Wool Omnibus, the audiobook of Hugh Howey’s infamous cult bestseller. I noticed the book a month ago in my local Waterstone’s but it was only this week that […]
It’s (Not) Rocket Science: John Aaron: “SCE to AUX”
INTRODUCTION This is a blog about rockets and science and rocket scientists. I’ve spent my career in this field, working among the people who make some very, very cool things happen there. I’ll discuss cutting […]
Interview with Pam Uphoff
This week I interviewed another who had taken a less than traditional approach to publishing, Pam Uphoff. Pam has 12 titles on Amazon that I count, and I have been reading her excellent series Wine […]
Special Effects, then and now
When Forbidden Planet came back out way back in 1956, it was on the cutting edge of animation, and lots of people were talking about how it showed things on film which hadn’t been […]
A Night at the Office by Eric Eppinger
I grew up watching Creature Features. It was a late night show where host John Stanley (or, for slightly older kids, Bob Wilkins) would introduce films as the most down-to-Earth horror hosts you’ve ever met. […]
Punk Rock Queen: A Nana Review
[Image from animedepot.net. Nana belongs to Ai Yazawa and Shueisha.] I would like to come forward with a confession: throughout most of college, I largely had to put my anime love on hiatus – not […]
Crowdfunding as a Publishing Strategy
I’m reading a really cool book right now, but in spite of my best efforts, life has gotten in the way and I won’t have it finished in time to meet my deadline for the […]
Is Ender’s Game Really Any Fun to Read?
Troll the internet for “the greatest science fiction novels of all time” and Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game will be at the top of every list you’ll find. (Or it was last time I checked.) […]
No. 10 Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Self-Reliance
No. 10 – 2013Mar10 – Robert Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and Self-Reliance. As a Navy man, Heinlein recruited Isaac Asimov and L. Sprague de Camp into working at the Philadelphia Navy Shipyard. […]
The Howl of Family: A Review of Wolf Children
To smile through any hardship is a commendable virtue for anyone to have. Continuing to do so while having to raise two half-human, half-wolf children is something on a different world of resilience altogether. The […]
Anime roundup 3/17/2013: Showdown time
So here’s how this works: Every week, I commentate on the latest episodes of various anime series, and then we all discuss further in the comments! Then in April, From the New World will end […]
Interview: Alan Tucker
Adam Gaffen interviews Alan Tucker upon the release of his latest book – A Knot in Time Adam Gaffen for Amazing Stories: Please share a bit about your newest release, Knot in Time, without giving […]
Review: Men Into Space by John C. Frederiksen
MEN INTO SPACE John C. Frederiksen Bear Manor Media 2013 314 Pages $21.95 (Kindle $9.95) Men Into Space was a television show that (unfortunately) aired for a single season between September 1959 and September, 1960. […]
The Artful Collector: Collecting Strategies Part 5 “Living Dangerously”
There is one strategy for collecting that I haven’t yet mentioned. It is not only potentially the most expensive, it is also the most dangerous. Buy What Everyone Else is Buying Pick any one of […]
Hybrid Authors: The Best of Both Worlds
I’ve been exclusively published through a small press. I’ve been exclusively self-published. I’ve been exclusively traditionally published. But I’m about to go “hybrid” and I think it offers the best of both worlds, and, like […]
Lessons from the Tolkien Boycott
How times have changed. Back in the late 60s, Ace Books found a loophole in the copyright for The Lord of the Rings that allowed them to publish an “unauthorized” (i.e. pirated) paperback edition. Since […]
Resurrecting the Literary Dead
Though William Faulkner is often attributed with the expression “In writing, you must kill your darlings,” the expression first appeared in a lecture On the Art of Writing by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch as, “Whenever you […]
Nintendo’s 3DS XL
We geeks love our gadgets. Can’t live without ’em. Granted, I have a dumbphone and a laptop—neither a tablet nor smartphone to boast of. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t rather own a Galaxy S-III or […]
Let Us Now Praise Betty and Veronica
I became a comics fan at six years old. Something about the medium exhilarated me–something I still have trouble articulating. Something that made me leaf reverently through my father’s old Marvel back issues, the characters […]
Playing the Short Game: How to Sell Your Short Fiction (Part 9 in series)
Markets, Markets Everywhere: How to select the right market Welcome back. This is my ninth post on how to market and sell short fiction. This series is written in a very specific sequence, with each […]
Cyberstorm: Pack Up Your Water Bottles
Matthew Mather’s new book, Cyberstorm, is a must read for people who understand the world of cyber technology and its vulnerability but unlike many other books on the topic it is the equally enthralling for […]
A Lesson in Suspense
One of the great things about science fiction and fantasy is that it takes us to new worlds and gives us new perspectives on things that we never had before. With science fiction that can […]
The Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop for Writers
I have some news about the workshop, but first, in case you don’t know what it is… Launch Pad is a week-long workshop held every summer since 2007 at the University of Wyoming. I founded […]
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