Tag: reading

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Have Book, Will Read #9

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Oh, hey! It’s April already. April means my birthday, which means books. Because a girl can always do with more books, right? And with so many recent releases I’ve been keeping busy. Here are some of my latest faves…

Recent Reads: On the road… Quests, journeys, escapes, and revenge.

I absolutely loved The Art of Forgetting: Rider by Joanne Hall. In fact, I liked it so much I went straight into the sequel and concluding novel, The Art of Forgetting: Nomad. I’m a sucker for a good coming-of-age fantasy tale, and this one takes interesting detours as it follows a boy’s journey to become a cavalry officer.

Hall’s prose is crisp yet flowing, and she does a masterful job of treading the line between overly sparse and heavily ornate description that so many epic fantasies have trouble with. Rhodri’s tale begins with the familiar setting of the military schoolground, but never quite settles into the expected, keeping us constantly on our toes. And when Rhodri eventually turns his back on everything he has worked for, Hall gives readers a refreshing shift in her main character’s viewpoint that sheds new light on the story.

Javelin Rain by Myke Cole was one I’ve been waiting for, ever since Gemini Cell arrived in 2015 and I devoured it in one day. And the sequel certainly didn’t disappoint. Those of you who read my blog will know I’m a big fan of Cole’s high-octane military fantasy novels. He writes incredibly fast-paced stories with great action sequences, but he also serves us well-thought-out characters with a lot of heart.

Javelin Rain begins exactly where Gemini Cell left off, with Jim Schweitzer on the run with his wife and small son. But escape is hard when you’re an undead former Navy SEAL being chased by a hoard of super zombies with a penchant for blood and carnage. And to make things worse, the man behind those zombies may have motives of his own for the actions he carries out in the name of his country. Sounds intense? It is, but at the same time Cole isn’t afraid to take a pause and give his readers touching and very human moments.

I bought Road Brothers by Mark Lawrence a while back, but it got buried under a pile of other to-reads and somehow I never got around to it. Making up for lost time, I ended up gobbling down the whole thing in two days. This one is a treat for fans of Lawrence’s Broken Empire trilogy: a compilation of short stories on Jorg of Ancrath and his band of outlaws.

I loved Prince of Thorns and the subsequent Broken Empire books, so I really enjoyed this opportunity to get a better look at some of Jorg’s crew. The stories bring us a mixture of exploits and backstory, and as a bonus feature they all end with a short commentary by the author on the character and why he chose that particular approach for that story. Written with Lawrence’s trademark poetic flair, the collection plays with different narrative styles so it never feels stale, and you never quite know what to expect as the author skips from one character to another. Well worth reading, but familiarity with the Broken Empire world is helpful, so if you haven’t tried Lawrence’s work I’d recommend starting with Prince of Thorns.

Now Reading: Shivers and shenanigans.

I’m halfway into a brand new anthology by the also brand new Woodbridge Press, The Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel. Now, horror isn’t a genre I’d usually read, but since I’m familiar with quite a few of the authors I was willing to lock away my usual fear of things that go bump in the night and try it out. So far, so good: I’ve already been blown away by the opening stories and I haven’t had to resort to a nightlight yet. Yet being the imperative word here.

To Read: Fight or flight…

Another recent launch on the anthology scene is Fight Like a Girl (Kristell Ink). Edited by Roz Clarke and Joanne Hall, this collection of short stories about female strength sounds amazing. With a great line-up of authors writing everything from space opera to urban fantasy, and a tagline on Amazon that says, “These are not pinup girls fighting in heels; these warriors mean business,” this has to be my kind of book. Oh, and it has an awesome cover, too.

I’m a huge Brandon Sanderson fan, and you can never have too much Wax and Wayne, so up next on my to-read list is Bands of Mourning, the latest in the Mistborn saga. I always enjoy Sanderson’s carefully constructed magic systems, and the swooping, soaring Wax and Wayne stories unite this with a certain element of lightness and fun that are a pleasure to read.

So that’s my roundup for April. I hope you’ve found some great reads of your own; with so many great releases this year alone, the tough decision is where to start!

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Spotlight on Writing Horror with Gwendolyn Kiste and Scarlett R. Algee

Horror narratives are an integral part of our human history. Folktales have dark tendrils that go back for centuries. The Ancient Greeks created gods out of fear and terror. Every culture has a bogeyman, a gashadokuro, a strigoi. From the oral storytelling of the past to the modern day campfire tale, scary stories are everywhere.

Even epic tales of glorious deeds would be nothing without that undercurrent of fear. Remove the ringwraiths from The Lord of the Rings and half the tension immediately falls away. Without a White Witch to face, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is just a tale of talking animals. And A Game of Thrones without the White Walkers is simply a rather bloody story of political intrigue.

In literature, horror fiction harks back to eighteenth century works such as The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole, with nineteenth century gothic novels like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula cementing the genre. By the late 1800’s, horror had already hit the (silent) screen, and horror as a film and TV genre is still wildly popular today.

But what does it take to write a good horror tale? It’s not enough to just throw in a few monsters and things that go bump in the night and hope they’ll do the job. Crafting a good scary story – one that gets under your skin and keeps you awake at night – is an art. My two guests are experts in that creep factor, and they’re here to point your ghosts and ghouls in the right direction. They both have short stories in a brand new anthology by Woodbridge Press, The Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel (“13 Rooms, 13 Guests, 13 Stories”). I haven’t had a chance to peek at it yet, but I’m planning to… Just as soon as I buy myself a new nightlight!

Gwendolyn Kiste is a speculative fiction author whose work has appeared in a wide range of publications including Nightmare, Shimmer, LampLight, Flash Fiction Online, and Three-Lobed Burning Eye, as well as Flame Tree Publishing’s Chilling Horror Short Stories anthology. Gwendolyn edited the anthology A Shadow of Autumn: An Anthology of Fall and Halloween Tales in 2015. She has written and directed several feature-length films, and her plays have been produced as part of the Big Read, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Scarlett R. Algee writes speculative fiction and designs steampunk jewelry. Her work has been published in Cthulhu Haiku I & II, Morpheus Tales, Zen of the Dead and Sanitarium Magazine, among others. She is currently a submissions reader and chapbook editor for Sanitarium Magazine. Besides the upcoming Lake Manor anthology, she has also previously collaborated with Gwendolyn in the anthology A Shadow of Autumn.

Juliana: Welcome Gwendolyn and Scarlett. So tell us, why the interest in horror, both as a reader and a writer? What first drew you into this particular genre?


Gwendolyn: Horror has always been part of my life. Both my parents loved horror, so we were always reading horror literature and watching horror films. So many people think of horror as something dark and subversive, but it seems the most natural thing for me as an artist. I’ve always reveled in my own weirdness, wearing it like a badge of honor since I was a child, and fortunately, horror is a great place for the weirdos.

Scarlett: I had the traditional, religious Southern upbringing, so I grew up with the idea that horror was well, “sinful”. I didn’t agree with that and I still don’t, but for a long time my access to the genre was limited. I didn’t start reading horror till I was in high school, and didn’t start watching it till I was over 30, so I’m making up for lost time here! Maybe for me it’s a belated rebellion. That said, horror is a great medium for working out frustrations and testing limits.

Juliana: The question you’ve probably answered a million times but we still want answered: where do the ideas come from? How do you imagine that lurking darkness while going about your daily life?


Gwendolyn: I’m a visual person, so small images often inspire me. A browned apple. A horseshoe driveway. A clawfoot bathtub. Out of those single images, I like to extrapolate and create a whole world with that focal point in mind. In particular when I’m writing horror or dark fantasy, I’ve found that you can extract a remarkable amount of the foreboding from the mundane. There’s so much darkness hiding in everyday life. All you have to do is look a little closer to find it.

Scarlett: Some days I honestly wish I knew! I get a few ideas from the daily news, or other things I read, or writing prompts on Reddit. But for a lot of my writing, ideas just show up in whole cloth and I often don’t spend a lot of time wondering where they come from. They have fangs and claws, after all.

Juliana: What do you usually build your stories upon? Is it a plot concept, a character, a feeling you want to evoke? How do you like to start out?


Gwendolyn: It often starts with a moment or an emotion. Maybe the way I feel when I hear a song or see a certain photograph or even how reading a specific story has affected me. From there, it’s my goal to capture that subjective experience, almost like putting a pin in a butterfly. What I’ll write tends to have little to no relation to what initially inspired it beyond a small symbol or an aspect of setting. When I start out to write a story, I usually have a general idea of where I’m headed, though I love to discover details about the characters as I go. It makes the act of creating a bit of a mystery when you’re able to learn about this world while you’re writing it.

Scarlett: For me, I usually start with a plot concept, a “what if”. I like to start with an ending, if possible–the whole process just comes together best if I know the end at the beginning. And sometimes, a character will just pop into my head and start talking. You can bet I’m quick to pin that person to the couch and start taking notes, because you can learn amazing things just by listening to that new inner voice.

Juliana: How can a horror writer avoid falling into worn tropes? Or is it more of a case of twisting tropes to create something fresh?



Gwendolyn: There are still so many aspects of horror left to examine, especially the emotional devastation that horrific scenarios can cause. As long as writers push themselves even a little bit, we can find new ground to cover. I’ve seen a lot of great concepts in recent short fiction, so whether a writer creates something entirely different (e.g. a new kind of a monster) or reworks existing tropes, there’s plenty of potential to explore human nature through the lens of horror.

Scarlett: We should always keep reaching. There are so many aspects of human nature that don’t get touched on nearly enough–let’s see more of the emotional/psychological facets of horror. Less gore/vampires/werewolves/zombies; those are getting a bit tired, especially in literature. (No offense to Walking Dead fans!) If you’re into monsters, the world’s mythologies are fulI of critters that haven’t been explored, that need to be dug out and brought to light. For me, the greatest monsters are humans themselves, and we’re still figuring ourselves out.

Juliana: Do you find – as a reader and as a writer – that there are fundamental differences when it comes to horror in short stories and in novels? Are there different expectations, limitations, or allowances?


Gwendolyn: I do think there are differences between short stories and novels. As a reader, I will admit that many horror novels fall flat for me, only because that sense of dread can be hard to sustain through 80,000+ words. However, when I find a horror novel that does work well, it’s truly transcendent. For example, I love Shirley Jackson’s longer works—The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Although short stories will probably always be my first love, a great horror novel is seriously worth its weight in gold, and the reader has the opportunity to learn so much more about the setting and the characters that inhabit it. With short fiction, which is where I have the most experience as a writer at this point, the author is challenged to craft an entire world in a very limited space. So both mediums have their advantages and their drawbacks.

Scarlett: Obviously with a horror novel you have more room for character development and more time, so to speak, to play with those extra little details that make characters memorable. In short stories, you’ve really just got one chance to get everything across because of your word-count limit. At this point I’m entirely a short story writer, and that format really tests your ability to be clear and concise. Your margin of error is tiny. With novels there’s the very real problem of keeping up your pace without lagging, and without giving too much away too early–nothing peeves me more than being able to see the ending coming before I’m halfway through the book.

I’ve actually come to prefer anthologies.

Juliana: Religious tales, folk stories and mythologies are full of violence and the threat of darkness. Why do you think there is such a deep-rooted fascination with evil and horror? Why is this a genre that endures and flourishes?


Gwendolyn: Human beings will always experience fear. It might be the fear of the dark or fear of death or fear of the outsider, but no matter what, we’ll always have something to dread. So that makes horror at once universal and timeless. Across cultures and across centuries, we share that common experience. That’s why you can read ghost stories from the Victorian era or monster tomes like Frankenstein and still relate to the material. Obviously, good writing plays into it as well, but it’s also that universality that keeps us coming back.

Scarlett: I think the human fascination with horror, with darkness and evil, comes at least partially from our understanding of the atrocities we’re capable of. We’re just as afraid of the darkness inside ourselves as we’re afraid of the darkness outside the cave–possibly more.

Fear is such a universal, primal feeling–Lovecraft called it “the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind”–and yet, oddly enough, it can be fun to be frightened. Our brains get some kind of kick out of it. And to that end, horror works really well. You get to explore actions and feelings you’d never remotely consider in real life. You get that jolt of adrenaline, that vicarious thrill, but none of the consequences.

Juliana: To finish up, a bit of fun. Which are your favorite fictional scary creatures? Can be from literature, movies, TV, graphic novels, or any other.


Gwendolyn: I’m a big fan of ghouls. There aren’t nearly enough stories about them, though I love the ghoul segment from the 1980 Vincent Price movie, The Monster Club. And I’ll also give Scarlett a shout-out here and recommend everyone check out her ghoul story, “The Tomb Wife,” in Zen of the Dead. It’s one of the best stories I’ve read in a long time, and she does a fantastic job of exploring the nuances of the ghoul character as well as the world in which the ghoul resides. Great stuff, and very creepy.

Scarlett: Awwww, I love you too!

My personal favorite single character is Cthulhu–but he’s been exploited so much he’s not scary anymore, at least not to me. It takes a lot of work to portray the Big C convincingly. In terms of creature types or classes, I love cryptids. Even though none of them are proven to exist (and some have been explained or disproven), that element of the unknown, of “heeey, this just might be possible,” can be deeply unsettling.

Juliana: Thank you so much for joining me here and giving us a deeper glimpse into writing horror. And now, where’s that nightlight? 

Find book reviews and blog posts on writing and publishing at Scarlett R. Algee’s website, www.sralgee.wordpress.com. Scarlett tweets as @scarlettralgee and she has an author page on Facebook. For her jewelry designs, check out Copperwalk Designs on Etsy.

Visit Gwendolyn Kiste’s website – www.gwendolynkiste.com – for further information on her work, as well as blog interviews, news and posts on writing. You can find Gwendolyn on Twitter @GwendolynKiste and Facebook.

Both authors have stories in the upcoming anthology The Haunting of Lake Manor Hotel, by Woodbridge Press. Preorders should open up this weekend, and publication date is set for April 12th. There’s a terrific lineup of talented authors, so if you’re looking for a great read by a brand new press, remember to check it out.

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Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out February’s Spotlight on Making Time to Write with Anne Lyle and Elspeth Cooper. Next up in April: Spotlight on SFF Forums.

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Have Book, Will Read #8

There’s a steady March drizzle outside, but in here I have tea, books, and leftover Easter chocolate. Seriously, what more could a word-lover want? Here’s what I’ve been up to…

Recent Reads: Battles and books.

First up was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs. My daughter’s been on at me for a while to read this, and after the gorgeous trailers came out for the movie adaptation directed by Tim Burton I thought it was about time I dipped into it’s rather mysterious waters.

The tale of a troubled boy who discovers his own powers along with a whole hidden world of wonder and threat, Miss Peregrine’s was everything my daughter had promised and more. It’s a slow-burning story, which eases you into its often cold and murky waters inch by inch while at the same time pulling you so deeply into its world that by the time things begin to happen you’re right in there with the main character, Jacob, ensnared and enthralled as he is.

My next read was Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Blades. I adored the first book in the series, City of Stairs, and thought there was no way he could top the charismatic Shara as a main character. But then he brought back a side character from the first book, General Turyin Mulaghesh, and I was smitten all over again.

Bennett is a master at producing original and unexpected protagonists. Mulaghesh is a stocky, aging, foul-mouthed, one-armed former war hero with a very dark past and a sense of right and wrong that goes above and beyond the call of duty. She is also deliciously stubborn, so when she is sent by the now Prime Minister Shara Thivani to investigate the strange substance uncovered in ruined and embattled Voortyashtan she resolves to get to the bottom of things no matter what it costs her.

After all the strange and divine powers of the last two reads, it was time for a little science fiction with Pierce Brown’s Red Rising. I’d heard this mentioned a few times but it had pretty much slipped under my radar until one of my town librarians suggested I’d enjoy it (hooray for librarians!).

Set on Mars, Red Rising tells a tale of oppression and the thirst for change, as lowborn miner Darrow infiltrates the elite Golds in the name of revolution. This one will definitely appeal to Hunger Games fans, and it’s not for the faint of heart as the battle scenes of the trials Darrow must go through to truly become one of the elite are pretty horrific. It’s incredibly fast-paced and I tore through the entire thing in one day, breathless and with nothing left of my poor, chewed-up nails.

Last on my list was Django Wexler’s The Forbidden Library, first in his middle grade series by the same name. It’s the story of Alice, who goes to live with her Uncle Geryon after her father dies in a shipwreck. An uncle she’s never heard about, who lives in a house full of mysteries. But the biggest mystery of all is the forbidden library. Until Alice creeps in at night and discovers magical powers she never imagined she had.

Alice shows us a world where books are a source of power – and also of grave danger. The creatures she finds inside them are no sweet fairytale things; they’re often nasty, vicious, and happy to kill. But Alice is both clever and fiercely determined to succeed. After all, if magic is real, perhaps her father is not really dead, after all?

Now Reading: Following the horse trail.

Loaded up on my Kindle and ready to go is The Art of Forgetting: Rider by Joanne Hall. All I’ve done so far is glance at the first page, so I’ll have to fill you in on this one next time round. A coming-of-age fantasy tale following a boy’s journey to become a cavalryman, it may be just what I need after all the strange directions my reading has taken me in lately.

To Read:

I have the first two books in Orson Scott Card’s Mithermages series on request at my library, so I’ll dive into those when they arrive. The Lost Gate and The Gate Thief tell the story of Danny North as he discovers his gate magic and the perils that follow.

I also have three novels on pre-order, all of them out at the same time at the end of March. I love the excitement of waiting for a new book to arrive! Myke Cole’s military fantasy Javelin Rain is the sequel to his excellent Gemini Cell. Sunset over Abendau is the sequel to Jo Zebedee’s dark space opera Abendau’s Heir. And The Adventures of Sir Edric, by Thaddeus White, is a fantasy comedy, with history’s most un-PC knight ever, the drunken, womanizing Sir Edric.

Words to read, worlds to explore. And my tea’s getting cold. Happy reading!

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The (Un)Familiar

I’ve just returned from a family trip to England. We had a wonderful time, with a castle, and wizardry, and a giant Ferris wheel, and a gorgeous baby nephew. And daffodils: lots and lots of daffodils.

It was a strange voyage of discovery and rediscovery. I spent the first eight years of my life in England, and have visited countless times, but it had been almost thirteen years since my last visit. Things change, and your vision of the world changes, so things appeared at the same time familiar and unfamiliar. And my children were visiting their mother’s birth country for the first time, so I was also experiencing everything through their eyes.

And then, when we returned, there was that same feeling of known-yet-unknown that I always get when arriving after a while away. When, just for an instant, you see your home through a stranger’s eyes and marvel at how different it all looks, before the ordinary crashes down and takes over again.

But that small moment in which the ordinary becomes the extraordinary, when what should be familiar looks utterly alien for a heartbeat or two, that’s the sense of wonder that my favorite fantasy writers manage to capture. Worlds that are enticingly new, but feel oddly like home. Stories that mesmerize and draw us in, not just for their freshness, but because, deep down, they are also hauntingly mundane.

Wonder, and yet also recognition. Children’s fiction does this very well. Narnia is a new universe for a child reader, but it also reminds us enough of home that it makes sense. It has lampposts and fishing rods among the swords and talking lions. It feels real, open-the-wardrobe-and-check-for-yourself real. The Percy Jackson imaginary world of Greek demigods is laced through our modern-day life, anchoring it, making it feel possible. In Alice in Wonderland, familiar day-to-day objects like rabbits and watches and cups of tea give Lewis Carroll’s surreal tale enough normality to allow us to navigate its pages.

Adult fantasy fiction often achieves this same sense of the known-yet-unknown through more subtle ploys. Often it’s the characters themselves, with very recognizable feelings, goals, and morals, which anchor the story and give it just enough reality that we can take the leap into a new world while knowing, deep down, that we retain some level of comfort. As readers, we crave the new, but if we can’t find something to relate to, the new can quickly become overwhelmingly alien.

Next time you’re immersed in a book, take a moment to identify the strands that harness you to the tale. What makes the story appeal to you? And then sit back, close your eyes, and remember some of your favorite trips. Why was that place so special? Can you find any common threads between stories and real-life journeys?

Give it a try. Because in every unfamiliar moment, there’s a tiny drop of the familiar. And even the most brazen adventurer among us needs a thin tether to that which we already know. What’s yours?

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Mock up of Diagon Alley at the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London. J.K. Rowling does a beautiful job of intertwining the familiar and the unfamiliar.
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Love, Longswords, and Lightsabers

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With Valentine’s Day approaching, and a serious need to distract myself from all the chocolate treats on sale, I started thinking about romance in science fiction and fantasy. I’m not talking paranormal romance, oh no, that would be too easy. I’m thinking about all the love stories that hide under action-packed tales, weaving their way delicately through the adrenaline surges and the blaster fire, the sword-work and the combat spells.

Take a good look at your favorite novels and chances are there’s a love story in there, somewhere.

Why is love a recurring theme in fiction, even if it’s quietly hidden away under an adventurer’s cloak? For one, it helps ground your characters. Along with pain, fear, and other easily recognizable and relatable feelings, love helps us understand a character and gives that character extra dimension and realism. Even if they’re a magic space knight. An underlying ribbon of romance also provides a secondary plotline that can run alongside the main plot, adding both tension and depth.

Is romance necessary in a novel? Of course not. But sprinkling those action scenes with a little of that loving feeling can be a whole lot of fun. I’ve chosen five fast-paced books with great love stories in them for anyone looking for a Valentine’s Day read. The chocolate treats are optional.

 

Gemini Cell, Myke Cole

A fast-paced military fantasy novel with a killer love story to fuel it on, Myke Cole’s tale about a dead Navy SEAL who turns into an undead zombie warrior may not be an obvious pick for a romantic Valentine’s Day read. And yet the central core of the story is the death-defying love that Jim Schweitzer has for his wife and child. Full review here.

 

The Demon King, Cinda Williams Chima

YA is full of wonderful love stories, and The Demon King and the subsequent books in the Seven Realms quartet are a perfect example. Cinda Williams Chima serves up everything you could possibly want in an epic fantasy series: high magic, low magic, warcraft, sieges, court intrigue, international politics… And of course, a fabulous romance too.

 

Time Salvager, Wesley Chu

This one is a time travelling science fiction tale set in a bleak future. Sounds romantic, right? Not really? Wait until you meet James Griffin-Mars, a depressed chronman bent on self-destruction, who falls for a woman from the past and forfeits everything to be with her. Although Wesley Chu’s novel is packed with intrigue and exciting action sequences, at its heart it’s a love story.

 

Fade to Black, Francis Knight

How about adding a little fantasy noir to the mix? Francis Knight’s Rojan Dizon is a jaded, disillusioned P.I. with pain mage powers. But as he’s unwillingly dragged into a battle for civil freedom that he has no real wish to join, he finds love. Messy, unrequited, ill-fated love, but love, nevertheless. And this love is what keeps him going throughout this and the next two books in the trilogy, pushing him to make ever-harder choices and sacrifices.

 

The City Stained Red, Sam Sykes

Okay, you might say, now you’ve gone too far. Where, you might ask, in this veritable bloodbath of a novel, is the romance? But Sam Sykes does like a bit of loving, and he certainly doesn’t shy away from the sex scenes. Lenk and Kataria’s on-off flirtation is the one constant thing in this novel; whatever mayhem happens to be going on, we know that somewhere around the corner we’ll get another dose of the awkward love and even more awkward lovemaking that is part of the wonderful train wreck of their relationship.

 

Bonus title: The Princess Bride, William Goldman

Yes, I know you’ve probably watched the movie at least a couple of times, and can most likely quote from it with your eyes closed… But HAVE YOU READ THE NOVEL? Because, if not, get thee to a bookstore or library and please, please, please read this immediately. This is the ultimate swashbuckling, sword-toting, cliffhanging, magic-wielding love story: a quest for romance and the best kiss in all time. And it’s incredibly funny, too.

 

All that’s left to say is, enjoy!

*please consume chocolate products in moderation. or not. hey, it’s your call.*

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Have Book, Will Read #7

It’s almost February which means that, given the wintery cold outside and my penchant for hot mugs of tea and sizzling plotlines, I’ve been devouring books non-stop (but not really, because digestion?). I read so many books that I’ve actually lost track of everything I picked up over the last month or two, so I’ve rather arbitrarily chosen three that were particularly enjoyable…

Recent Reads: Swords, spaceships, and science.

First up on the list is Andy Weir’s The Martian. My son watched the movie with friends and then requested the book. Since it was lying around the house gathering dust, I thought I’d take a peek, thinking I wouldn’t like it much as I’m not usually one for the harder sorts of science fiction. Boy, was I wrong!

It turned out to be a real page-turner of a book, where days and months blur together in the race to bring astronaut Mark Watney back from a disastrous mission that leaves him stranded on Mars, while at the same time Watney, a botanist and engineer with the ability to MacGyver the heck out of anything he finds, tries to survive long enough for help to arrive. I loved the way the author jumped back and forth between Earth and Mars, with the prose of his Earth-based POVs contrasting nicely with Watney’s log entries. And his main character’s sense of humor is a lovely counterpoint to the dryer science sections.

While my head was still in space, I turned to a brand new debut. Uncommon Purpose by PJ Strebor is the first of his Hope Island Chronicles, a series that tackles the war between the Athenian Republic and the Pruessen Empire, following Nathan Telford as he grows up and trains to fight against the cruel Empire responsible for enslaving his family in his youth.

Though a little dark and bloody at times, young Telford’s story is a gripping one and you can’t help but root for this determined young survivor. The last third is particularly exciting and I recommend reading it when you absolutely do not have to put it down. Because you won’t want to.

I recently discovered the Pax Arcana series by Elliott James, and read the third book, Fearless, over the winter break. This is urban fantasy at its best, with a great cast of characters and some interesting and unusual mythological creatures added to the mix.

In Fearless, werewolf and former Knight John Charming must infiltrate a secret supernatural fight club to save a blushing virgin from certain death – even though the virgin in question is a nineteen-year-old college boy. John is a great character, and the Pax Arcana stories are always fun and fast-paced, filled with great dialogue and terrific action.

Now Reading: Love me some Viking wrath…

On my Kindle at the moment is Path of Gods, the third and last installment of the Valhalla Saga by Snorri Kristjansson. I’m only a couple of pages in, but the first two books in the series were a bundle of blood, guts, and Viking glory, and this one promises to live up to the others and deliver a smashing great sword-shattering time.

To Read:

For once, despite my self-made promise never to let unread books gather, I actually have both a physical to-read pile and a digital one. Yikes! A few titles that have wriggled to the top of the pile:

Road Brothers by Mark Lawrence, because who wouldn’t want to read more about Jorg’s band? A short story collection that I’m looking forward to tackling.

The Art of Forgetting: Rider by Joanne Hall, a coming-of-age fantasy tale following a boy’s journey to become a cavalryman.

Flesh and Wires by Jackie Hatton, a post-alien invasion story set right here in my current home state of Connecticut.

So there, lots of books to read and lots of tea to drink while outside the frost sparkles and the cold gives me plenty of excuses to stay home with a blanket. If you need me, I’ll be the one keeping warm under all those words and worlds…

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Snow Dragon, because winter.
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Spotlight on SFF Gatherings with Alex Davis, Joanne Hall, and Steven Poore

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Reading is a solitary pastime, yet social gatherings lie at the heart of many reading and writing communities. From small get-togethers, such as book clubs and writer’s groups, to large conventions with thousands of attendees, there is something for everyone. These gatherings serve as meeting places for like-minded enthusiasts to discuss everything from the newest book releases to the trials and tribulations of the publishing world.

Susan Boulton, author of the Gaslight fantasy Oracle, went to her first SFF convention back in 2006. “I went (to Eastercon UK) because a fellow writer had persuaded me to go, saying it would give me a feel for the genre and the publishing business as a whole. I went, enjoyed it in some ways, but in others I found it very overwhelming and intimidating. I decided not to go to another. I then received an email from someone I had met there, saying they had enjoyed meeting me and looked forward to seeing me again at another convention. So I thought I would book to go just for the day to the British FantasyCon.

“I was surprised at how many people, who I had met at Eastercon, remembered me, and introduced me to others. I came to realise that, yes, the business side of conventions is interesting, helping you understand publishing and make contacts, but far more important is the friendships that you make. You share the pleasure of seeing the various guests of Honour, panels and events, but you also enjoy the days and nights spent talking not only about the genre, but everything and anything.”

Sometimes genre gatherings can serve as work inspiration. Librarian Tina Panik, who organizes a yearly local convention besides fandom meet-ups, regularly attends the New York Comic Con fishing for ideas she can use in her job. Tina, the reference and adult services manager for her library, believes that, “The best way to bring the stories, characters, and images from the comic and graphic novel world to life is to attend a con. Between the people, the cosplay, and the guest speakers, your imagination will ignite with ideas. The crowds are friendly, the experts are willing to share, and the merchandise is fantastic.”

There are certainly plenty of reasons to attend genre get-togethers. But what happens on the other side, the backstage, so to speak? What’s it like organizing an event, bringing together readers and authors, fans and trade professionals? I’ve invited three guests to tell us a little about what goes into running SFF meet-ups and conventions.

Writer and editor Alex Davis is the author of The Last War (Tickety Boo Press, 2015), the first novel in his science fiction Noukari Trilogy, besides several short stories. Alex also runs a local press, Boo Books, and organizes a twice-yearly convention in Derby. Edge-Lit – and it’s brand new winter offshoot Sledge-Lit – includes ‘panels, readings, workshops, book launches and plenty more besides’ in a one day event that aims to be friendly and welcoming. Alex is also chairing the 2016 edition of the UK national FantasyCon, organized by the British Fantasy Society.

Joanne Hall, Acquisitions Editor for Kristell Ink, is the author of numerous short stories and novels, including The Art of Forgetting duology (Kristell Ink, 2013-2014) and Spark and Carousel (Kristell Ink, 2015). Joanne has chaired Bristol’s only science fiction and fantasy convention – BristolCon – for the past six years, and also runs the Bristol Fantasy and SF Society Facebook page. The one-day BristolCon has panels, workshops, kaffeklatsches, an art show and a dealer’s section, and aims to be a ‘fun, friendly and informative addition to the UK’s convention calendar’.

Steven Poore is the author of The Heir to the North (Kristell Ink, 2015), the first in his Malessar’s Curse duology (the sequel, The High King’s Vengeance, is due in late 2016), besides the ongoing science fiction series The Empire Dance and several short stories. Steven organizes the Sheffield Fantasy and Science Fiction Social Club (SFSF Social), a semi-regular gathering in an informal setting that brings genre enthusiasts together for author readings and Q&A’s, giveaways, and plenty of good conversation.

Juliana: What were some of the first SFF events you attended, that sparked off your interest for this sort of gathering?

Alex: Most of my initial engagement in writing events was with book festivals and writing groups, so that was all kinds of different genres. But I was always hugely interested and a big fan of genre fiction, so that was always an area I wanted to explore – and I think it’s fair to say genre fiction doesn’t always get a fair crack of the whip where it comes to literature festivals. So when all my volunteering work led me to a paid role as Literature Development Officer, I was really keen to get something going with a real literary feel but looking at genre fiction, which is where Alt.Fiction came from back in 2005. My first convention-going experience was EasterCon in Glasgow, which helped to crystallise a lot of what I really wanted from my event – a focus on writing, pure and simple, without any of the added elements that come at a multimedia convention.

Steven: Before Alex Bardy started up the York Pubmeets, there wasn’t anything happening up here apart from EdgeLit and the usual annual conventions. Angry Robot had brought five of their authors to Sheffield once, for an afternoon, but that really was it. Alex told me about his idea and convinced me to come up to York, with a couple of friends, to attend the first Pubmeet, where David Tallerman and Janine Ashbless were reading. Actually, I didn’t need all that much convincing.

Joanne: The first big SFF event I remember attending was FantasyCon in Nottingham. I’m not sure what year it was but Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker were there. I don’t think I got as much out of it as I could – I hadn’t been to a convention before and I didn’t really know anyone and I was very shy. After that I went to a few commercial events, and for a few years I attended MicroCon, which is the long running convention organised by Exeter University’s SF society, which helped me get over some of my shyness and made me want to attend bigger conventions again!

Juliana: How did you move from simply attending to helping organize SFF gatherings? 

Alex: My role at Derby City Council gave me the freedom to run a host of different events, and I was a bit nervous to pitch Alt.Fiction as an event to my boss at the time. But luckily enough they went for it and I even managed to get some Arts Council funding, which was a huge help. Immediately I had a feel there was a hugely welcoming community there, and people were amazingly willing to help and support me in getting something new off the ground. Having run the one event I found myself getting a lot more active, becoming much more aware of the many conventions going on and attending things like FantasyCon and NewCon.

Joanne: It was a combination of beer and being broke…

I was in the pub with my friend Colin, and we were chatting about what a shame it was a city like Bristol, which has a thriving SFF scene, didn’t have its own convention, and what a financial burden it was to have to travel to London or Nottingham or Brighton for the big three-day cons. We decided what we wanted was a local, affordable convention, and as the conversation became more… lubricated… it sounded like a better and better idea to organise one ourselves. So we did. The first BristolCon ran for an afternoon and had around sixty attendees, but everyone had such a great time that we immediately decided that we were going to do another one.

Steven: I blame Alex. It’s all his fault. 🙂 After the first Pubmeet I talked to him at Fantasycon and said “If only there was something like this in Sheffield.” He vanished, then came back and said, “Adrian Tchaikovsky will do a reading for you.” And suddenly I was an event organiser.

Juliana: Could you tell us a little about the events you’re currently involved in?

Joanne: I’m currently the chair of BristolCon – we have a committee of about 10-12 people who organise it and my job is to keep them on track and to occasionally keep the peace between them! BristolCon is a one-day convention that takes place in Bristol every October; this years’ event takes place on October 29th and our Guests of Honour are Ken Macleod and Sarah Pinborough, while our Artist GOH is Fangorn. You can find all kinds of information about it at www.bristolcon.org. It’s great fun, it’s a really friendly event, and very relaxed.

Steven: Mainly it’s the Sheffield Fantasy & Science Fiction Social, which we abbreviate to SFSF (“We” being myself and fellow fans Kathryn, Darren and Sara). We’ve hosted authors from as far afield as Chesterfield and San Francisco! We’ve found that the structure of readings & Q&A sessions, followed by giveaways, is one that really does work and doesn’t need much fiddling with. SRFC [Super Relaxed Fantasy Club] have really set the bar for us in that respect. We have started to change it up a little as we’ve become more confident – last time we hosted an Ask The Agent session with Amanda Rutter, and our next Social will feature Adele Wearing talking about the award-winning Fox Spirit Books.

Alex: I’ve got two main events on the go at the moment – in July I’m running the fifth Edge-Lit event, which takes place at QUAD in Derby on the 16th July. We had a really big year last year with about 250 people attending, so we’re looking forward to expanding on that while keeping the friendly and welcoming vibe which has made the event so popular over the years.

This year I’m also chairing the British Fantasy Convention, FantasyCon, which will be taking place in Scarborough from the 23rd-25th September – the hotel is right by the beach, so we’ve dubbed it FantasyCon By The Sea! We’re expecting around 500 people for that, potentially more, so it’s definitely a big undertaking but hugely exciting. We’ve already announced a couple of great Guests of Honour, and have plenty more goodies up our sleeves yet!

You can check out those gigs at www.derbyquad.co.uk and Fantasyconbythesea.com respectively. 

Juliana: What are the biggest challenges in putting together an event of this sort?

Joanne: I think the first big challenge is finding a suitable venue – one that’s accessible and affordable, with good transport links and the right sort of layout to run panels and workshops and provide social space. Then you need a good team of people – no one can run a convention without help, but organising a team of unpaid volunteers brings its own challenges. Everyone who is involved in BristolCon is there because they want to support the con, but they don’t always agree on the best way to go about it!

Alex: For me any event is made up of a certain number of processes – there’s a lot of logistics and a lot of ins and outs, and things can live and die on what look like small details. The one thing that’s always difficult is programming, connecting with the right authors and speakers and getting the right kind of balance in terms of panels, workshops and other activities. You need to have things that are insightful but also enjoyable. Guests of Honour are also a unique challenge, as high-profile and bestselling authors tend to get booked up early. 

Steven: Getting the word out to people. This is the frustrating part, and the nerve-wracking part, for me. There must be so many people in South Yorkshire who read SFF, but they don’t know the Socials are there. That means you get folks on the city council who think there isn’t a demand, so they don’t want to know when you’ve got something to offer them and so on… I always worry that nobody’s going to turn up. For someone who has an on-off relationship with crowds, that’s a weird feeling.

Juliana: And what do you find are the biggest rewards? What is it that keeps you going? 

Steven: Meeting new people who are just as enthusiastic as I am about the genre – that’s the big one. And when you hear feedback about the events, that makes it all worthwhile.

Alex: Basically it’s being there on the day, seeing it happen and seeing people enjoying themselves and hopefully being inspired by the event! The whole thing has no life other than on paper for the better part of a year, and to see all of that come together over the matter of a few days is just phenomenal. It’s exciting also to see an event grow and expand – seeing the comments on social media post-event gives you a nice warm glow!

Joanne: The cake (anyone who has been to BristolCon knows about the cake…)

Seriously, the biggest reward is seeing everyone have a good time, seeing people really fired up with enthusiasm for this thing you’ve organised. For me one of the most brilliant things has been watching people who came to BristolCon as novice or unpublished writers go on to write books, sign deals, have great success and come back as panellists. I like to think that the things they gained from attending BristolCon helped them on that path. A big part of our remit is to encourage emerging local talent, with both BristolCon and our Fringe events, and when we achieve that it’s a great feeling.

Juliana: The baby steps question! For anyone interested in starting up some sort of SFF meet-up or event in their area, what tips can you share?

Joanne: I wouldn’t suggest they throw themselves straight into con-running – BristolCon grew from an existing SFF group in the city. But if anyone out there wants to start an SFF group, pub meets or reading nights, I’d say go for it. It doesn’t take as much organisation as you might think. You just need a room or space in a friendly local pub or community centre (and I’d like to give a shout out to The Shakespeare Tavern on Prince Street which is the SFF pub-hub where we have all our pub nights, Fringe Readings and BristolCon committee meetings), and some like-minded people. If you’re doing readings you will also need some kind of portable PA system if your pub doesn’t have one.

We do all our shout-outs and interaction via social media, either on Facebook (The Bristol Fantasy and SF Society) or Twitter (@hierath77).

Steven: Don’t be afraid to ask. Authors want an audience. Even if they have to decline first time around, if you’re polite and professional (hopefully I’m getting there!) they’ll remember you’re there. And be realistic about what you can achieve – don’t try to run a whole con on your first date! And remember that everybody wants an event to succeed and be fun.

Alex: For me there are two things you need to do before starting – find a venue and have a budget that works. If you don’t have those two, then you don’t have any event. Look around for the right place, somewhere you want to work with, somewhere that gets what you’re about. Then make sure you have a few quid to get things rolling – you can often sell tickets, depending what kind of event it is – but you’ll probably need some cash for authors, venue costs, marketing… also don’t be shy to have a word with some other event organisers, most are very happy to help and offer advice! 

Juliana: If you were given an unlimited event-going budget, what would be on your wish list of cons and gatherings? 

Alex: Being as I live in the UK, I’d love to get over to the US and go to some of the big conventions over there! Something like a World Fantasy Convention or World Horror Convention would be fantastic. 

Joanne: I’d like to go to some of the big American conventions – I’ve heard very good things about WisCon and Convergence, so they would both be on my wish list. And I’d like to go to WorldCon in Helsinki in 2017 – that looks like it’s going to be amazing!

Steven: I keep looking at Nine Worlds and thinking if only my budget would stretch… and WorldCon in Helsinki. And the BristolCon Fringe. All of them, to be honest!

Juliana: If you could invite any three authors, living or dead, to attend your next SFF event, who would you pick? 

Alex: Blimey, there’s a question! For living authors I’d absolutely love to have Michael Moorcock, who was such a formative part of my teenage years and a huge influence on me. Unfortunately my other two favourite authors of all time are no longer with us – Ray Bradbury and JG Ballard. That would have been some line-up!

Steven: Tad Williams. Mary Shelley. Iain M Banks. There would be many more, but heck, one event at a time! 🙂

Joanne: I’d like to pick three authors we would have liked to have had at any BristolCon if the circumstances had been different. So, Diana Wynne Jones, Iain M Banks and the late great Colin Harvey, because it was all his drunken idea in the first place….

Juliana: Thank you very much to Alex, Joanne, and Steven for sharing a little of what goes into organizing genre events. Here’s to many more years of successful gatherings! And cake.

Steven Poore blogs at http://stevenpoore.wordpress.com, and you can also find him on Facebook: facebook.com/thestevenpoore. On Twitter, he tweets both as @stevenjpoore and as @SFSFSocial, the Sheffield Fantasy and Science Fiction Social’s account.

For more information on her work, as well as blog posts and reviews, check out Joanne Hall’s website at https://hierath.wordpress.com. You can find Joanne on Twitter @hierath77, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Hierath77/?ref=br_rs.

Alex Davis shares interviews, writing advice, and information on his work at  http://alexblogsabout.com, as well as on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/alex.davis.161446. Alex tweets as @AlexDavis1981.

 

Find further information on the events mentioned at:

http://sfsfsocial.wordpress.com (First social of the year: February 20th, 2016)

http://www.derbyquad.co.uk/special-event/edge-lit-5 (July 16th, 2016)

http://fantasyconbythesea.com/ (September 23rd-25th, 2016)

www.bristolcon.org (October 29th, 2016)

 

 

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out December’s Spotlight on Mythology in Fantasy with Snorri Kristjansson and Kerry Buchanan. Next up in February: Spotlight on Making Time to Write.

 

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Books? What Books? 2015 Reading Highlights

This has been a great year for books. Many, many words have been devoured. I’ve discovered new authors, and caught up with my to-read-list. Well, partially, at least: that thing is a never-ending pit of doom and delight. Hopefully you’ve had a great year for reading too… But if you’re still looking for bookish inspiration, I’ve invited a few guests to share their reading highlights for 2015. Enjoy!

 

Jo Zebedee, author of Inish Carraig, Abendau’s Heir, and the upcoming (2016) sequels Sunset over Abendau and Abendau’s Legacy:

Mother of Eden, Chris Beckett – I really love this series, it’s probably one of my favourite sf reads for a long time. I wondered how Chris would balance the story moving so far forwards and new characters and what not, but he did it beautifully. Love it.

The Minituarist, Jessie Burton – Really enjoyed this. Very clever, very evocative of its time, nice central male character (I found the female ones a little harder to like but overall more intriguing). Well worth a look at.

The Woman who Stole my Life, Marian Keyes – Just finished this. Fabulous. Well worth a look at for use of a frame story and for how to keep the predictable will-they/won’t-they story fresh.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Becky Chambers – This is also nearly on my biggest disappointment list. I enjoyed it but it didn’t come close to the hype for me.

Marina, Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Sumptuous. Just sumptuous. And creepy.

Winter Ghosts, Kate Mosse – I’ve never been a huge fan of Mosse, but this I loved. Very evocative of the time and place.

Finally, one of my very favourite reads was a beta/first read of the Sir Edric books by Thaddeus White. I was begging for the next installment as fast as it could be written. Out next year from Tickety Boo Press and I’ll be getting the nice shiny new version the day it comes out!

 

Steven Poore, author of The Heir to the North and the upcoming (2016) sequel, The High King’s Vengeance:

All That Outer Space Allows, Ian Sales – Tour de force conclusion to the Apollo Quartet that ought to be an award-winner in any year.

A Darker Shade of Magic, VE Schwab – A gloriously fun start to a new series, told with pace, clarity and verve.

The Stars Seem So Far Away, Margret Helgadottir – Fractured stories of a fractured earth; as bleak as the tundra, and as deep as the ocean.

 

Jennifer Carson, fantasy author and editor, has worked for a number of publishers such as Simon and Schuster, currently an editor for Tickety Boo Press.

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline – I read this book at the nagging of my husband, and I have to admit, he was right. It was one of four books I read this year that put me in page-turner mode. Wade Watts is a teen who prefers to live in a Matrix-like construction called OASIS. When the OASIS creator dies, he leaves his vast fortune to the first person who win his easter egg hunt with only riddles to guide them. I’m usually quite put off by VR stories, but I loved this one. Mostly because I’m a closet geek, and I got 90% percent of the references and had played all the major games named in the story. I even out-geeked my true geek husband and got one of the riddles right away. He was floored. “How did you get that?” he asked. To which I replied, “How did you not? We spent our first date playing that game. You introduced me to PCs with it!” So if you love the oldies…or were there when those games were cutting edge (we won’t say which category Hubby and I fall into…but you can guess), this book is most definitely worth the read. The only negatives for me were that I wished the end had been a little stronger, and I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it so thoroughly had I not played these games. But if you like VR stories or video games, it’s certainly worth taking a look at the free download sample. I was hooked by the end of that!

Endeavour, Ralph Kern – This is the only project I’ve worked on that I chose to include. Why? Because in my thirty years of editing, this book was my favorite project. I found myself reading it when I should have been working on it. Even when I came to the end of my editing day, I would read just a few more pages ahead as a sneak peek for the next day’s work. I was quite happy to follow our intrepid explorers as they tried to answer the Fermi paradox: If space is so huge, where is everybody? As they search for extraterrestrial life, we watch the people of earth leap into the future and pass by our team who, as a byproduct of relativistic time issues, become one-way time travelers. The weakness of the book would have to be characterization. The characters are good enough to do the job of carrying their share of the story, but they aren’t deeply fleshed out. Rather, this book is a plot-driven story. I enjoyed how it took a mystery from the past in our real world and used it to generate a science fiction story that answered that mystery (But then, it was one I was always interested in, even did a book report on it in school). All in all, I really feel that Ralph has captured some of the flavor of the heyday of SF and the midcentury greats, then modernized it for today’s audiences. This is true hard science fiction, driven by story and science, and one very enjoyable read.

Dust and Light, book one of the Sanctuary duet, Carol Berg – Carol Berg is a favorite author of mine. I absolutely loved her Lighthouse duet and her Rai Kirah trilogy, so I was thrilled to find out she was doing a Sanctuary duet in the same world as the Lighthouse one. This story is about a sorcerer character whose talent is to sketch the truth of a man’s soul, and just how far others will go to keep those truths covered. Lucian pays the price for a talent he only fully comes to understand through the course of the book, and it costs him everything…family, liberty, even sanity. Angst-driven characters are a specialty of Berg’s, and this one was no disappointment. Following Lucian’s tortured journey kept me turning pages, though they are not necessarily for everyone. My husband doesn’t like the tortured-hero schtick as much as I do. He finds these characters to be downers. But if you like the suffering hero who endures and is transformed, a character who is reforged in the crucible of life, give this talented author a try. I still like the other two I listed above better, but this one did not disappoint. I can’t wait to dive into book two over the Christmas break!

 

Thaddeus White, author of Bane of Souls, Journey to Altmortis, Sir Edric’s Temple (to be re-released in 2016) and the upcoming Sir Edric’s Treasure:

Abendau’s Heir, Jo Zebedee – a deliciously dark tale of empire and family feud in space. It takes the reader into the hearts of its protagonists, and features a number of stellar moments, including a fantastically grim scene two-thirds or so into the book [the best fiction I’ve read this year].

The Greatest Knight, Thomas Asbridge – William Marshal was apparently the first man not a king to have his own biography, and this book reveals why. From being abandoned by his father and threatened with death as a child to rising to prosperity thanks to his military skill, Marshal served multiple kings during one of the most turbulent times in history, and this biography is well worth reading.

Ghost on the Throne, James Romm – when Alexander died his generals and relatives were thrust into a decades-long struggle for supremacy. Akin to a pack where every wolf considers himself (or herself…) alpha, the cadre of bold and clever men and women Alexander left behind engage in ferocious war for the ghost’s empire.

 

Nathan Hystad, author of many science fiction, fantasy and horror short stories and editor-in-chief at Woodbridge Press:

Fool’s Quest, Robin Hobb – She is my one of if not my favorite author, and though the book could have been condensed in the middle by a couple hundred pages, the ending was enough to push this to one of my top reads of the year. She is one of the authors I can’t wait to read.

Salem’s Lot, Stephen King – I am a huge King fan and since he has so many books, I have really only read maybe a third of them. This was a wonderful book, and it was hard to believe it was published fourty years ago. If you haven’t read this book…do it!

Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C Clarke – This was my first Clarke experience, and it was a great one. The sense of tension and build up was palpable. It ended slightly disappointing but the book was so good, it was inspiring. I also read Childhood’s End after it, and really enjoyed it too.

 

A big thank you to all my lovely blog guests and readers. Happy New Year, everyone, and may 2016 be a year of great stories!

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Spotlight on Imagining the Future with Ralph Kern and Stephen Palmer

‘What comes next’ is a big deal if you happen to live on Earth. Trying to predict the future is the basis for pretty much everything on this planet, from governmental policy-making to next year’s spring fashion line. We live in the present, but a good chunk of our energy is invested in tomorrow’s outcome.

So why should fiction be any different? From current trendy post apocalyptic YA, like the Hunger Games or Maze Runner series, to classic dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four or Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451, readers and writers alike have long shared a fascination for the future.

Granted, it’s probably much easier to imagine the Earth in 2235 than to create a ten-year governmental plan with actual consequences, but it’s still a major challenge for any writer to create a believable future that makes sense, culturally, politically, and socially. I’ve invited two talented authors to join me here and tell us how they pulled it off.

Author of nine novels and countless short stories, Stephen Palmer is an old hand at painting the future. In Muezzinland (Wildside, 2003), for instance, we travel through twenty-second century Africa, and Memory Seed (Orbit, 1997) explores a dying human civilization on Earth. In the recently released thriller Beautiful Intelligence (Infinity Plus Press, 2015), Stephen gives us a frantic, fast-paced futurescape. This is a place where western civilization has all but collapsed, leaving great expanses of Europe and the USA an economic wasteland. In Stephen’s world, where everyone is virtually connected via the nexus, and eyes are everywhere, two scientists and their teams race to be the first to create true artificial intelligence while staying a step ahead of the Japanese corporation hunting them down.

Police officer Ralph Kern released his first novel Endeavor in February 2014. Originally self-published, Endeavor was picked up by Tickety Boo Press and the second volume in his Sleeping Gods series comes out in November. The novel, which is in process of being adapted for the big screen, tells the story of the Starship Endeavor on a daring mission to solve the Fermi Paradox. Due to their manner of star travel, each time the ship and crew return home the planet has moved on and evolved. This means that, in practice, Ralph has had to create multiple future Earths: the 2118 Earth the explorers first depart from, and the different future Earths they encounter each time they return.

Juliana: Thanks for joining me on the blog, Ralph and Stephen. Have you always enjoyed reading and writing science fiction? What is it about stories dealing with humanity’s tomorrow that you find appealing?

Ralph: And thank you for hosting us, Juliana. For as long as I can remember, my genre of choice has been science fiction, especially the harder end. I love the hypothesizing of what will happen in our future. What will society look like? How would we deal with a discovery which changes everything? What will our children and children’s children be like? The possibilities are endless, and so often make for fascinating stories.

Stephen: I discovered SF and Fantasy when I was a teenager, and, having a vivid imagination, it was instantly attractive. These days however I don’t read a vast amount of SF, very little in fact – for me the compelling SFnal factor is wanting to know how everything pans out… a hundred years from now, a thousand, a million, or (if I can manage it) 800 million. I’m one of those people who wants to find out everything to satisfy a thirst for knowledge; it really bugs me that everything after my allotted three score years and ten is going to be beyond my grasp. So I write imagined versions instead. The books that inspire me these days are things like

The Life & Death Of Planet Earth by Don Brownlee and Peter Ward, a book that describes how the planet will change as geological time progresses. Much of what I read these days is about the past and future history of something or other…

Juliana: Continuing from the previous question, is imagining the future something that comes easily to you?

Stephen: Well, I suppose I’d have to answer yes to that. Of course, “easy” doesn’t necessarily mean accurate, or even interesting, as some of my fans would tell you. As somebody though who loves nature and is particularly keen to support Green agendas, imagining the relationship between humanity, and individual people, and the natural environment is very high on my list. A lot of my work has this at its heart, most obviously in novels like Memory Seed and Glass, and Urbis Morpheos. I’m truly interested in how it will all turn out for humanity on planet Earth, and that fascination I think comes out in some of my work.

Ralph: Imagining the future I’d like to see is very easy. Imagining a future which I think is realistic is more difficult. Without the benefit of a crystal ball, there are many things you have to take a best guess on but you know what? That’s the fun part.

Juliana: I imagine one of the difficulties of writing about the future is creating technology that is recognizable enough to be believable, yet won’t become outdated after a few years of publication. How do you tackle this?

Stephen: It depends. In Urbis Morpheos I was writing about people on the Earth a million years hence, so there was no point talking about modems and hypertext transfer protocols. Mind you, that was a deliberately “mysterious” work clothed in hints and metaphors. In Muezzinland I did make a stab at deciding what aspect of computer technology might be around in 2130. Beautiful Intelligence was similar: I tried to extrapolate certain things I see now, such as the shocking influence virtual technology has on young people, and the lack of privacy people have these days (if they allow the internet to strip them of their privacy, that is – I don’t). No author however should expect to get it right, or even want to get it right – it’s more about the characters and the narrative. But I do think imagined veracity is important, and at the very least you have to be consistent. Part of the fun of writing Beautiful Intelligence was contrasting the different approaches of the two teams, then messing up their plans for them in a way consistent with the economic and social milieu.

Ralph: Oh I’m very sure that in 10 or 20 years, my work will seem incredibly dated, after all, think how much culture has changed with the advent of the internet and then smart phones to bring it into the palm of your hand! Who knows what paradigm shift is just over the horizon of a similar scale? I can take a good guess – augmented reality would be what I would put my money on and which forms a part of the Sleeping Gods universe. Still, there are many developments which could happen and I say with conviction there will be new inventions we haven’t even thought of which might revolutionize the world as much or even more so – who would have predicted social media even up to a couple of years before it stormed into modern culture? But as writers who want to create a plausible world, extrapolation of existing technology combined with a healthy dose of imagination helps. I apply the Iphone test. We all can probably envisage what the Iphone 7. 8 or 9 will roughly look like. But, assuming Apple is still around in a hundred years, what about the Iphone 100?

Juliana: What are the biggest challenges when it comes to creating tomorrow’s society, with its own distinct culture and linguistic terms?

Ralph: One has to balance readability against plausibility. Let’s take the augmented reality I mentioned. What would a society look and act like where everyone sees the world through that lens? Or has implants wired into them so they can talk to anyone they want just by thinking at them? Would their communication be in terms we can understand? I’d suggest it would be something on par with how we would describe telepathy. But does that necessarily make for an interesting narrative that a present day reader can truly buy into? It would be difficult for us to sympathize with a character who doesn’t speak but thinks at people. An aside, part of Endeavour involves a scene set in the 16th century. Jennifer, my editor, and I did a lot of research into how people spoke back then. It would be comprehensible… just, but not exactly easily readable by any stretch of the imagination so we had to tone it down a touch. Extrapolate that 400 years into the future and it is likely our descendants would think the same of our speech and writing. I don’t know whether the term has an official name, but I often think fiction set in the future, distant past or a fantasy world has the benefit of the story being told by a narrative interpreter who helps us poor present day readers understand and that’s okay – Especially in the realms of hard SF, readers are quite understanding of that fact.

Stephen: I have to admit, I don’t really think of it in terms of challenges. I just imagine it however I like. Even when I was a naïve and dim writer editing the third version of my debut novel I realized there was no point in worrying about such things. As long as the characters were “right” in their setting, and as long as the plot felt good, I was happy. Still am. A few readers of Beautiful Intelligence have remarked that they don’t believe America and Europe will suffer massive economic depressions around Peak Oil, but I think that will happen, so I included it in the setting. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how accurate people see that as – if they should be reading Beautiful Intelligence in 2092 – what matters is whether or not they enjoy the story. I’m afraid I have a bit of a “Kate Bush tendency” when it comes to my work – I hope my fans follow me wherever I lead. I’m not the kind of author who is known for one genre of work, which means alas I will lose fans over the years. Hopefully I’ll gain a few though. That’s the problem with having a muse – you have to follow it regardless of direction.

Juliana: What are some of the common pitfalls that you tend to see in portrayals of humanity’s future?

Stephen: Mostly just being exceedingly dull. My early unpublished work was about the milieu, not the people in the milieu; too many writers take that mistake into their published novels. (I imagine self-published work is full of it.) The good stuff is vivid and different and iconoclastic, like Gwyneth Jones, or Jack Vance. The bad stuff… well, I won’t name names, but endless expositions on future Chinese societies or Martian futures with diagrams does not a good book make in my opinion.

Ralph: What one sees a lot of in fiction is selective adoption of current technology when extrapolating progress into the future. To use a simple example, one of the tropes of science fiction is fighters and warships slugging it out in space. But hold on, what about unmanned aerial vehicles which are fairly mature even now? Or how can some technology be a step down from what we currently use? I’m okay with it as long as there is a reason, even an implied one. But too often authors simply forget or ignore contemporary developments in order to create a plot device to serve their story. That moves things into the realms of science fantasy for me or at best an alternative reality story where whatever that thing was they are ignoring has not been invented.

Juliana: Could you share some tips for science fiction writers attempting to create their own world-to-be?

Ralph: Completeness. A well-realized future world gives the impression of actually being able to function and has the weight of a future history behind it. Think that little bit wider when creating your world. Okay, every aspect may not make it onto the page, nor should it as it doesn’t necessarily have a place in the story, but if you do take that view, I firmly believe it transfers into the writing. One of my favorite bits of writing is the working out of context. Take Endeavour. Some time prior to the main story being set, there was a nano-tech revolution which is on par with the industrial revolution of the 18th century. Do I need to delve deeply into that for the story I wanted to tell? No – but the wider thinking of the profound changes that brought, or brings more accurately, to society helps give context for other elements of the tale. That also may help with the pitfall I mentioned. If you need to have space fighters rather than drones? Well maybe there is some kind of technology which stops drones from being used.

Stephen: Cultivate your imagination. If you’re copying other genres, authors or series because you idolize them, give up now – you’re not destined to be an author. Be a total one-off even if that means you never get anywhere. If you are persistent – by which I mean over years, possibly decades – and if you increase your luck by never giving up and following every lead, you might get somewhere. Or you might not. But the change from writer to author happens because imagining is an inseparable part of your psychological make-up, so questions of writing success don’t enter into the equation.

Juliana: Who are some of the authors you admire for their ability to weave convincing visions of our future?

Stephen: In addition to those mentioned above: William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Bruce Sterling. Alastair Reynolds’ space opera novels were particularly good; reading the Revelation Space trio was a great experience.

Ralph: While many writers invent future societies, there is one who stands out as truly creating convincing worlds – Peter F Hamilton. I’m very sure an editor who is purely plot focused could easily cut down his weighty tomes to half the length or less, but that’s not what his writing is about. Two of his major works, The Nights Dawn Trilogy and the Commonwealth Saga explore every nuance of those universes, from the lowest end of the social spectrum to the highest offices, from slums to palaces. What he comes out with is a universe that can function which he then sets stories within. The Commonwealth Saga is especially interesting as he balances the inevitable stagnation which immortality would bring with the sense that humanity exists in a universe which is evolving – forcing change on people who don’t necessarily want it. Like or loath the hedonistic worlds he creates, they are among the most complete visions of near to far future societies.

Juliana: Thank you, Stephen and Ralph, for a fascinating glimpse into what writing about humanity’s future involves. I’m looking forward to all those new words and new worlds I know you have planned for us!

New work by Stephen Palmer includes the novella Monochrome, in Space Trek (Tickety Boo Press, November 2015), and a new novella coming later in the autumn: No Grave For A Fox (Infinity Plus Press) is set eighteen years after the events of Beautiful Intelligence, in the same world. Also, keep an eye out for the release of an alternate-history trilogy set in Edwardian times, opening with The Girl With Two Souls. For news and updates, as well as information on all Stephen’s work, visit www.stephenpalmersf.wordpress.com or check out his Facebook page and Twitter updates @libermorpheos.

The second volume in Ralph Kern’s Sleeping Gods series, Erebus, will be released in November 2015 (Tickety Boo Press). He also has a short story, Steel Eye, in the upcoming anthology Space: Houston, we have a problem (Tickety Boo Press). You can find Ralph’s updates and news on his Facebook page.

ralph steve

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out August’s Spotlight on Small Press Publishing with Gary Compton. Next up in October: Spotlight on Cover Art.

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Song and Story Structure

The other day I was driving around doing the kids’ after school activity pick-ups and all that jazz. And I was listening to music, as you do. There was nothing particularly interesting on the radio, so I started playing around with song structure and thinking about the parallels to novel writing.

Turns out, there are quite a few.

Now, I’m no songwriter or musical connoisseur. You need my husband – the former band member and absolute music junkie – for that. But I can tap my foot and hum along with the best of them. And from my detailed scientific study (a.k.a. fifteen minutes in the car) I figured out a few things.

For sake of illustration, I’m going to take Taylor Swift’s Stay, Stay, Stay. Why this one? Well, we listen to Taylor a lot because my daughter likes her work, and she tells ‘proper’ stories in her songs, with beginning, middle and end. Also, that particular song cracks me up. It’s the line about the football helmet; it just gives me the giggles (you can find the song itself as well as the lyrics on the interwebs).

This song has a pretty standard layout, so it works well as an example. It starts out, like many others, with an intro verse that is sung as fast as the rest, but sounds slower because the accompanying instruments are lighter. Here she lays out the main plot and introduces the characters, easing you into the song’s ‘world’.

Just like the first chapter or two of a novel.

The song picks up with a second verse, fully instrumentalized this time, so it sounds a little pacier. Writers, you just know we’re heading for some plot action, right? And there it is, the first chorus. The chorus in a song works like a climax in a novel; it changes the speed of the narrative, whips things up a little, adds excitement. But just like a song or novel can’t be all verses, they can’t be all chorus either, so after all that frenzy we’re back to another verse.

But the novel, I mean song, is at a different pace now, and this time Taylor only waits one verse before she plunges us back into another chorus. We’re bang smack in the middle of the novel, I mean song, and things are happening fast. Instead of another verse, we’re sent into the slow-down-to-warm-up-again tease of the bridge, and any reader or writer worth their salt knows that now we’re gearing up for the heart racing end climax, the main fireworks, the mother of all Armageddons.

And there it is: three slightly different versions of the chorus, one after the other, bang, bang, bang. The big jitterbugging, hero-gets-the-kiss climax.

So next time you’re wasting time in the car, have a listen to the songs on the radio. A proper listen. What story structures can you spot?

If nothing else, it’s got to beat staring at the traffic in the rain…

Next week: learn to write a query by reading the back of a cereal box!

(Just kidding. Or am I?)