The science inside the story

My winning science fiction story for Writers of the Future vol. 34, “A Bitter Thing,” was inspired by hard science. In the story, an intergalactic traveller falls for Ami the moment he sees her. It seems to be love at first sight, but can she really trust her understanding of his alien emotions?

The story revolves around the intergalactic traveller, Teese. His alien emotional system was inspired by two disparate pieces of real, Earthly biology. The first is the biology of cephalopod skin, and the second is known as mirror-touch synesthesia. Continue reading “The science inside the story”

Advance Reading Copy

Galaxy Press sent out a PDF Advance Reading Copy of my story and others in WoF 34. Anyone want to be an Advance Reader? Copies are free but Galaxy Press kindly asks that you leave an honest review wherever you buy your books (or otherwise post your reviews… goodreads, blog, etc) when the book comes out in April. Message me via FB, Twitter or the comments section if you’d like a copy.

Interview on Daytime Ottawa

Yesterday I was on Daytime Ottawa with host Dylan Black.

I was incredibly nervous, which probably shows. Dylan has a gift for putting his guests at ease, though, so I managed to get through the 5 or so minutes without sticking my foot in my mouth too seriously.

The best part was meeting the other guests, including a candy store owner who brought a Japanese whistle candy and a prominent local doctor, Dr. Lise Bjerre, publicising a report by her working group Rational Therapeutics.

Dr. Bjerre was very interesting to talk to: she’s both an epidemiologist and a family physician. But if I were watching the show at home, I don’t think anything would’ve topped that whistle candy.

There’s always new SFF to discover…

In a perfect world, I’d have time every month to read every sff magazine and zine and listen to every sf, fantasy, and horror podcast. In the real world, of course, I rarely make it beyond my 4 or 5 favorites. But… sometimes I’ll write a story, or a poem, and when it’s done, it doesn’t seem quite right for any of the magazines or zines I read every month… Hooray, it’s time to go market-hunting! I get to explore and discover new magazines, zines, websites, podcasts, communities, etc. I’m nominally looking for a place for a given story, but the fun is really in reading the free issues online. Continue reading “There’s always new SFF to discover…”

Philosophy and Science Fiction

I first encountered Dr. Eric Schwitzgebel’s work in the Sept. 2017 Clarkesworld, which published his story Little /^^^\&-. (That’s neither a typo nor an encoding error. If you haven’t seen the story, I recommend it.) Dr. Schwitzgebel, a professor of philosophy at UC Riverside, writes philosophical SF and also maintains a list of philosophical spec-fic recs here: http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~eschwitz/SchwitzAbs/PhilosophicalSF.htm Continue reading “Philosophy and Science Fiction”