Sarah Crown has started a fascinating discussion on the resurgence of fabulism in literary fiction over on The Guardian book blog, brought on by Tea Obreht’s surprise win in the Orange prize. I didn’t need to read the comments to know there would be at least half a dozen from irate members of fantasy fandom,Continue reading “Genre needs to stop applauding crap, and respect its best writers”
Category Archives: Writing & Publishing
GROWL
GROWL for SF Fandom I. I saw the best minds of my genre destroyed by sanity, well fed, rotund, naked. dragging themselves through the convention centre at lunch time looking for affordable beverages longhaired hippies hunting for the dusty hardback collectible anthology of Hugo winners in the dealers room at night, who poor and t-shirtedContinue reading “GROWL”
Why SF is not genre
Originally written in response to the SF Signal Mind-meld question: What non-genre books have influenced you in some way? I’m fascinated to see this issue discussed at the moment. If I was to place one major criticism at the door of Speculative Fiction, it would be the way it continues to segregate itself from theContinue reading “Why SF is not genre”
Why do you write?
This week I have been following with interest the rise and rise of indie-publishing phenomenon Amanda Hocking. In case you missed it, Hocking has over the last year or so been building considerable sales of her self-published paranormal romance novels through the Kindle store. Estimates of her sales run at on average 100,000 a month.Continue reading “Why do you write?”
Literary SF
A friend on Facebook has asked to make a few suggestions of Speculative Fiction that straddles both mass market and literary audiences. I thought the answer might be of more general interest, so here we go… It’s a good question. As I suggested last week over on The Guardian, while SF is generally perceived asContinue reading “Literary SF”
Wordcount – an overrated measure of progress?
As writers it is natural that we look for some measure of our progress, day to day, when it comes to the work of writing. And make no mistake, writing is work. Yes, it’s inspiration also. But in truth, most things worth doing require some element of inspiration. And they also all require work, theContinue reading “Wordcount – an overrated measure of progress?”
Great art is connected with courage and truthfulness
A quote from Iris Murdoch, interviewed in the Paris Review, that I want to remember – To write a good book you have to have certain qualities. Great art is connected with courage and truthfulness. There is a conception of truth, a lack of illusion, an ability to overcome selfish obsessions, which goes with goodContinue reading “Great art is connected with courage and truthfulness”
The SpecFic books I read again and again
John DeNardo challenged a number of writers to think about the speculative fiction they return to again and again. My response is bellow. I would love to see a similar challenge for the nonSF books that Sf writers are influenced by, that would be fascinating. Also, I seem to have declared the death of ScienceContinue reading “The SpecFic books I read again and again”
The now of the book
Since I began writing, the book has been dying. No one has time to read any more. In our busy digital lives prose needs to readjust itself to fit in. It needs to be sliced in to ever tinier sections. The blog-post. The status update. The tweet. These things have their purposes, but they doContinue reading “The now of the book”
Five lessons learnt at Clarion
The Clarion Writers workshops http://clarion.ucsd.edu/ and http://www.clarionwest.org/ are now taking applications. At the suggestion of Jim Kelly, former Clarionauts are sharing five things we learned at Clarion as a Facebook meme. Here are my five for non FB people. I want to be a great writer. Which is a real bummer, because being a greatContinue reading “Five lessons learnt at Clarion”
Locus Round Table Group
Locus discuss my suggestion that to be true, Science Fiction must be beautiful in their Round Table feature. Thanks to Karen Burnham for starting this conversation. Other participants include Paul Graham Raven, Gary K. Wolfe, Andy Duncan, Russell Letson, John Clute, Cheryl Morgan, Paul Witcover and Terry Bisson. You can read the full conversation here.Continue reading “Locus Round Table Group”
To be true, Science Fiction must be beautiful
One of the interesting things about Science Fiction is the way it straddles that gapping canyon of division in contemporary culture between art and science. Fiction is an art. Science is, of course, science. So what do you get if you make art about science? (I strongly object to the idea that Science Fiction hasContinue reading “To be true, Science Fiction must be beautiful”
Damien Walter 