Speculative Fiction That Asks Big Questions
Hello God, or Goddess, or Universe, or whatever name you wish to be called. I don’t have any requests today. I just wanted to say hello. I just wanted to say that I know you are there, because I am here. I wanted to reiterate that I choose to believe you are behind what…
It’s been almost a year since I last blogged. This may come as no surprise to many writers who’ve said they, too, felt as though their muse has been hiding under a blanket. In the closet. In that back corner that the light never seems to reach. Behind the boxes of clothes you always plan…
By Claire North Redhook, an imprint of Orbit/Hatchett ISBN: 9780316399623 Paperback, 432 pages. © 2014 Harry August is dying for the eleventh time. Every life, he’s reborn in the same year, at the same place, by the same mother, with all his prior memories intact. No matter how he lives his life, world events unfold…
By Emma Newman New American Library, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC ASIN: B00SI0B65W Kindle book, 956 KB, 328 pages. © 2015 As an engineer and a pilot, Renata Ghali earned her place among the population on the Atlas, a small group of people following the vision of Suh-Mi to a distant world, where…
By Sam J. Miller Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers ISBN-13: 978-0062684820 Hardcover, 336 pages. ©2018 Blackfish City is a dystopian, post-climate-change novel set in Qaanaaq, a floating city north of the Arctic Circle. Political corruption, organized crime, and a mysterious illness called “the breaks” shape life in Qaanaaq, where life is gritty and the…
Last year during 2019’s NaNoWriMo (https://nanowrimo.org) I penned an entire medical sci-fi/ecofiction manuscript—Entheóphage—in thirty-seven days. In the months following, and with the help of many wonderful medical experts and beta readers, I honed the manuscript into a complete, focused tale. In mid-August of this year, I decided to submit the most recent draft to Pitch…
By Marisha Pessl Random House, ASIN: B004J4WL2I Kindle, 37654KB, 771 pages, ©2013 Journalist Scott McGrath is obsessed with Stanislas Cordova, a reclusive filmmaker whose frightening night films are eventually banned, driving his fans to host underground showings of new films and—in some cases—copycat crimes. But McGrath goes too far when he states on live television…
On the night of my tenth-year high school reunion (many years ago), I was crossing a dark street with some classmates on our way to a local bar where we could catch up on each other’s lives. We glanced both ways and, seeing no immediate traffic, stepped out into the street at a leisurely pace….
{NOTE: I wrote this in mid-March, but never posted it. Even now, months later, I’m surrounded by people who refuse to wear masks or socially distance themselves. One man came into my office at work and, seeing me wearing a mask, made a disgusted face and said, shaking his head, “Really? A mask?” Some things…
By Rob Ziegler Night Shade Books, ASIN: B01A68YNM6 Hardcover, 341 pages. © 2011 In a world with runaway environmental change and collapsed governments, the remaining humans in the United States have two things in common: hunger, and thirst. Satori, an intelligent, living city rooted in the ruins of Old Denver, is the sole source of…