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Showing posts from October, 2015

10 Questions with World Fantasy Award-winning Author Lewis Shiner (@lewisshiner)

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This Author Spotlight features Lewis Shiner World Fantasy Award Winner and Author of Seven Novels Exciting news, gang: a brand new round of Author Spotlights is on its way, featuring a number of accomplished and talented writers. The first of these is Lewis Shiner. Lewis Shiner is the author of BLACK & WHITE, FRONTERA, and the World Fantasy Award-winning GLIMPSES, among other novels. He's also published four short story collections, journalism, and comics. Virtually all of his work is available for free download at www.fictionliberationfront.net . 1.How did you get into writing and why do you write? I've been writing fiction since I was four and started my first novel at seven, so it's hard to remember exactly what prompted it. I got uprooted a lot as a child (my father was in the National Park Service and we moved at least once a year), so books were one of the few constants in my life. I expect that's why I came to love them and w

There Grammar Matters!

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Grammar matters? Where? There? Here? Everywhere! Wait, whose grammar? Their's? Over there? Never mind, they're over there, practicing their grammar. Seriously, though, how is it that in the Information Age (where we all are and have been for nigh 20 effing years), the need to write has increased yet the ability to write has decreased? Want to make yourself insane? Read the comments on virtually any YouTube video. How the hell are we even able to understand one another? Consider the following: And because I can never have enough Ryan Gosling Hey Girl memes...

Did You Watch Back to the Future on Back to the Future Day?

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The historic day has come and gone. October 21, 2015. A long time in the making. It was a fascinating opportunity to compare science fiction with science fact. For example, no flying cars yet. But we're also not still using fax machines. Much. What are your predictions for the future? Thirty years from now? Humans routinely living and working on Mars? Jurassic World? With people bored by the run-of-the-mill T-Rex? The Singularity? aka the point at which Artificial Intelligence surpasses human intelligence? And if we apply the Turing Test, which asks you to discern whether you're communicating with a person or a computer A.I., we already have such machines. Refinement and evolution is inevitable. Such was my fascination that I wrote my novel Eye Candy. Inspired by the work of Isaac Asimov, it's a hoot. With an ensemble cast and an exciting story, as many Easter eggs as Ready Player One, and a bang-up ending, it's worth a read. Check it out:

When You Put Your Heart and Soul Into Your Writing

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THAT is when you absolutely positively MUST remember that you write for yourself first. That's why first drafts are so much fun. One time at UCLA one of my screenwriting professors said, When you write yourself into a corner, change corners. So when you're struggling to find inspiration, and it happens to all of us, try to find a way back.  Try thinking about all of us fellow writers out there... banging away at our keyboards. Try reading the first few pages of one of your favorite books. Try watching a beloved movie, perhaps one about writers. Try this writing exercise: set the timer on your phone for 10 minutes. Grab any book at random. Close your eyes. Open the book to any page and put your finger down. Open your eyes. Read the sentence your finger is on. That is your opening sentence. Open a new document. Type that sentence. Start your timer and WRITE AS FAST AS YOU CAN WITHOUT STOPPING. Whatever comes through is what was supposed to come through. Because you're

Last Call for The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle by Lisa S. Mason (@LisaSMason)

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Last Call for The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle by Lisa Mason Today, October 15 , is the last day for The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle ! The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle includes Aestival Tide by Elizabeth Hand (PKD Finalist), Life by Gwyneth Jones (PKD Winner), The Cipher by Kathe Koja (PKD Finalist), Points of Departure by Pat Murphy (PKD Winner), Dark Seeker by K. W. Jeter (PKD Finalist), Summer of Love by Lisa Mason (PKD Finalist), Frontera by Lewis Shiner (PKD Finalist), Acts of Conscience by William Barton (PKD Special Citation), Maximum Ice by Kay Kenyon (PKD Finalist), Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams (PKD Finalist), and Reclamation by Sarah Zettel (PKD Finalist). Download yours today at http://www.storybundle.com/pkdaward and enjoy world-class, award-winning reading right now and into the holidays! Thank you, Lisa. This has been an exciting series of blogs sharing the Philip K. Dick Award Storybundle. So many talented writers a

Reclamation by Sarah Zettel (PKD Finalist) is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle (@sarah_zettel)

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Reclamation by Sarah Zettel (PKD Finalist) is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle Set in the far future, RECLAMATION centers on The Realm of the Nameless Powers, a world so ravaged by age that only a portion of deep canyons is habitable. The Realm has degenerated into a harsh caste system and Middle Ages technology. Their religion strictly enforces the castes who can marry, and which children are allowed to live. Eric Born is a lapsed priest and a son of one of the noble families. Like all members of the priesthood, he possesses very precise telekinetic abilities, but he also has the rare gift of healing. Stifled by the backward ways of The Realm, he escapes to make a new life among the stars. Since then, he has established himself as a freelance computer engineer. He is employed by the Rhudolant Vitae, space traders who travel between star systems trading their technological and management skills for raw materials and political influence. The Vitae&#

Other Renowned Authors Who Have Won the Philip K Dick Award #SFWApro by Lisa Mason (@LisaSMason)

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Other Renowned Authors Who Have Won the Philip K Dick Award #SFWApro by Lisa Mason It should also come as no surprise that other renowned authors and their books have been Philip K Dick Award Finalists or Winners over the years since 1983. The list reads like a Who’s Who of Science Fiction, such as Carnival , Undertow , and Chill by Elizabeth Bear , At the City Limits of Fate by Michael Bishop , Mindplayers by Pat Cadigan , Voyager in the Night by C.J. Cherryh , Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler , Neuromancer by William Gibson , Neon Lotus by Marc Laidlaw , The Remaking of Sigmund Freud by Barry N. Malzberg , Memories by Mike McQuay (deceased), The Scar by China Mieville , The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson , Subterranean Gallery , Carlucci’s Edge , Carlucci’s Heart , and Ship of Fools by Richard Paul Russo , Green Eyes and Life During Wartime by Lucius Shepard (deceased), Leviathan, Vol 3 edited by Jeff VanderMeer , Millennium by John Varley

Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle!

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Knight Moves by Walter Jon Williams is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! A Philip K Dick Award-nominated novel. Eight hundred years ago Doran Falkner gave humanity the stars, and he now lives with his regrets on a depopulated Earth among tumbledown ruins and ancient dreams brought to life by modern technology. But word now comes that alien life has been discovered on a distant world, life so strange and impossible that the revelation of its secrets could change everything. A disillusioned knight on the chessboard of the gods, Doran must confront his own lost promise, his lost love, and his lost humanity, to make the move that will revive the fortunes both of humans and aliens . . . “ Knight Moves is an engrossing and evocative read, a tale of immortality and love and death rendered in a style that reminds me more than a little of the early Roger Zelazny. Williams’ people are intriguing and sympathetic, and his portrait of an Earth left transf

Unique and Diverse! The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle

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Unique and Diverse! The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle by Lisa Mason Author of Summer of Love and Curator of the Philip K. Dick Storybundle What the authors and books of The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle share is the award itself, whether the book was a Finalist or Winner. Above and beyond the prestige of the award—and the superb quality of the work—you will find a diverse array of protagonists to root for and startling worlds to visit. In Aestival Tide by Elizabeth Hand , come to Araboth—the majestic, domed, multi-tiered city of the Ascendants as the once-in-a-decade Aestival Tide approaches and destruction looms. In Life by Gwyneth Jones , meet Anna Senoz, a scientist who makes a momentous discovery about the X and Y chromosomes. Anna’s discovery provokes shocking reactions and impacts her career, her marriage, and her child. In The Cipher by Kathe Koja, join Koja’s artists of the modern-day demimonde as they experiment with the mys

Maximum Ice by Kay Kenyon (PKD Finalist) is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! (@KayKenyon)

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Maximum Ice by Kay Kenyon (PKD Finalist) is in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! They thought Earth would always abide. But it hadn't, not at all . . . . Zoya Kundara has lived on the space vessel Star Road for 250 years. As Ship Mother, she is awakened from Deep Sleep in times of crisis, providing counsel to generations of its Romany crew. Now the starship has returned home, only to discover an Earth on the verge of extinction, blanketed in a crystalline substance called Ice. But it's not ice. This pearl-white mantle is a grand and mysterious ecology of information-bearing crystals. And it is relentlessly enclosing the last free lands. To find a home for her crew, Zoya must approach the denizens of this strange new Earth. She will discover the Ice Nuns, who seek sole control of the physics-defying crystals; people huddled like moles in underground techno-warrens; and the snow witches, creatures of Ice, both mad and prophetic . . . and one snow w

Authors and Books with Recognition and Multiple Awards are in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle!

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Authors and Books with Recognition and Multiple Awards are in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle! by Lisa Mason  It should come as no surprise that the authors participating in The Philip K Dick Award Storybundle and their books have received recognition and awards in addition to the Philip K Dick Award . Elizabeth Hand has received the Nebula , World Fantasy , Mythopeoic , Tiptree , and International Horror Guild Awards , and her novels have been chosen as New York Times and Washington Post Notable Books . She’s been a Philip K Dick Award Finalist three times. Gwyneth Jones has won two World Fantasy awards , the Children of the Night award , the BSFA award and the Pilgrim award for Science Fiction criticism . Novels of Lisa Mason have been chosen as a New York Times Notable Book , a New York Public Library Recommended Book , and a San Francisco Chronicle Recommended Book . Kay Kenyon has been a finalist for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award an