Well. This is my 500th blog post. HHUUUURRRRAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!! Coincidentally, it’s also effectively four years since I started blogging. I opened my blog in April 2006, but did not really start using it fully until August that year, when I moved from Blogger to WordPress. Looking back at my first post, it was quite clear IContinue reading “500th Post – Are blogs good for writers?”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
How big is SF fandom?
Whilst debating the possibilities of tomorrows SF magazines, I began idly wondering how big SF fandom really is. To give the question some parameters, SF fandom in this case means written speculative fiction, not mass media sci-fi. Once you add together all the cons, ‘zines, online and offline communities and all the other ways thatContinue reading “How big is SF fandom?”
There is an untapped audience for SF magazines
Will Ellwood continues our series of guest blogs from The Speculators writing group. Will writes short fiction with a hard edge that comments on contemporary politics and hacker culture. He is also a frequent contributor at the Whitechapel forums. I’m looking forward to seeing his story Freedom Fields in print sometime soon. *** There isContinue reading “There is an untapped audience for SF magazines”
Genres are the fossils left by movements
During a conversation between The Speculators writing group recently, we came up with this idea. Genres are the fossils left by movements. To explain. Movements are conversations between writers, conducted through stories. During the period of movement, writers are talking to each other, exchanging ideas and generally discussing how to move the art of fictionContinue reading “Genres are the fossils left by movements”
Thoughts on The Lifecycle of Software Objects
There is an intelligent question at the heart of Ted Chiang’s new novella, The Lifecycle of Software Objects. The story is set in a near future, where online virtual worlds have grown to such levels of sophistication that they are able to support genetic programmes which can imitate the behaviour of life. Initially marketed asContinue reading “Thoughts on The Lifecycle of Software Objects”
Guest Blog: The Silence of the Limeys
Jim Worrad is a member of of my writing group, The Speculators, and a fine writer of space opera styled science fiction. Jim and I were discussing the logistical problems of getting stories out to American magazines, and wonderful human being that he is, Jim agreed to pen a piece on the subject for thisContinue reading “Guest Blog: The Silence of the Limeys”
The iPad is a notebook replacement
Er…so…I bought an iPad. I tried to resist, but Steve kept telling me that I wanted one, and in the end I just gave up and bought one. I’m still not entirely sure whether I really like the iPad, or whether Steve is telling me that I like the iPad. I feel like I mightContinue reading “The iPad is a notebook replacement”
Where is the Booker winning SF?
The Man Booker prize longlist was announced yesterday. It’s a subject I haven’t been shy coming forward about in the past, having previously stated my hatred for the prize and accusing it of ignorance and bigotry. And this years longlist does nothing to raise my opinion of the award. Narrow and elitist are about theContinue reading “Where is the Booker winning SF?”
Why E-Books Are Winning
I’ve spent a good part of this evening reading an e-book on my iPhone. Which, since getting the new iPhone 4 with the excellent high definition Retina display, has become a regular activity. Combined with the iBooks and Kindle apps, the iPhone is a great e-reader, and has displaced my Sony Pocket, primarily because itContinue reading “Why E-Books Are Winning”
Bizarro fiction. It’s Shatnertastic!
Jeff Burk’s Shatnerquake is the story of William Shatner. Yes: Wiliam Shatner. All of the characters he has ever played are suddenly sucked into our world on a mission to hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner. As one Amazon reviewer insightfully states, if you have ever wondered what would happen if William ShatnerContinue reading “Bizarro fiction. It’s Shatnertastic!”
Show Me the (Urban Fantasy) Money
So. Jeff Vandermeer has called on me as ‘someone who comes from the old-school urban fantasy and an appreciation for it’ to ‘investigate and report back’ on the current state of the urban fantasy genre. Now. Jeff knows of my abiding love for the urban fantasy genre, not just because I mentioned it in askingContinue reading “Show Me the (Urban Fantasy) Money”
Who reads urban fantasy?
Or indeed any other truly mass market fiction? Now, let me contextualise my question. I like urban fantasy. This is not an attack on the genre. And I understand that lots of people enjoy reading it. What I don’t understand is who reads it in the kind of bulk quantities that justify the vast numberContinue reading “Who reads urban fantasy?”
Damien Walter 