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Sideways: how fiction writing can be effective in an activist age
What good does writing fiction do in a world torn by political tensions, some of which are urgent matters of life and death? I take some solace in these wise words from author Ray Bradbury: “And what, you ask, does writing teach us? First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it…
Drawings from the novel ‘Infinite Things’
Visual art and creative writing work together. Many authors routinely drew pictures to explore their worlds and imaginations, and many fine artists routinely write poems, stories, and even technical writing (grants, artist’s statements, blog articles). Like handwriting, the amazing art of drawing often relies on pen or pencil. To that I like to add marker,…
Speculative Story Bites Anthology now available
Howdy everybody. I’m delighted to announce the release of a new ebook, which contains one of my stories. 🙂 August 9, 2016 is release day for the new World Weaver Press anthology, SPECULATIVE STORY BITES, edited by Sarena Ulibarri and featuring stories from Shannon Phillips, Adam Gaylord, Rebecca Roland, Dianne Williams, M.T. Reiten, Larry Hodges,…
How to Start (or Restart) Learning Quantum Physics
If you’re a non-scientist like me, then learning good science can be difficult. One of the trickier arenas is quantum mechanics. I hope this post gives you a few ideas about where to learn or review the main ideas. 🙂 How to Start Learning Quantum Physics I just returned from a crash course in quantum…
What is the Future of the Mind? Neural Lace and Meshnet
Neural Lace, Meshnet, and What Is the Future of the Mind? Where does thinking come from? How does it work? Science fiction has some ideas. Like no other genre, science fiction is able to question the human condition while imagining new potential for human growth. Such changes might be beneficial or destructive. One of these…
What is Science Fiction?
Essay by Gregory Scheckler What Makes Science Fiction ‘Science Fiction?’ What is Science Fiction? There’s probably as many ways to think about science fiction as there are scifi authors. I like the broad, eclectic overview best: science fiction is storytelling that involves imagined futures. That’s a short-cut approach, and like any summary it risks leaving…
On composing pictures: clouds and disappearing elephants
Despite how our visual senses don’t always tell us the truth, they always seem quite trustworthy even when images are fictions, fakes, or misleads. Perhaps most of the time visual perceptions are reliable – and good artistic metaphors do lead towards important meanings and experiences. But when perceptions aren’t reliable, artists also gain ripe opportunity…
On composing pictures: shape recognition and mind
In composing artworks, we are often told that geometry matters. “Treat nature by the cylinder, the sphere, the cone” — Paul Cezanne to a student. The traditions of art education in European and American art schools are clear: use geometry to create art. But which geometry is most useful? Why aren’t we using the crenallated,…
Online Markets for Short Science Fiction
Based on a variety of sources, including Locus Magazine‘s February 2016 issue with Book and Magazine Summaries from 2015, I put together the following listings of viable online (or mainly digital) locations to publish science fiction and fantasy fiction stories. I hope the listing is useful to you and might offer expanded options for places…
Science Fiction Notebook: Gunn’s ‘The Road to Science Fiction’
Among the great many novels and stories that he wrote (and is currently writing!), James Gunn’s historical and scholarly series of four volumes, “The Road to Science Fiction” clarifies and intensifies a variety of definitions and viewpoints about the development of science fiction as a genre. Gunn’s summary strikes me as correct: “Science fiction is…