Labyrinth
It’s fun watching an aspiring writer succeed, even if it’s sometimes difficult to watch what the pace of success means these days for many writers. Mari Ness is one of those writers I’ve been seeing...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Dance in Blue
Catherine Asaro does, well, everything. She is a scientist and science teacher who has published several novels, along with plenty of shorter works. Her book The Quantum Rose, part of her epic science...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Wing
There are a million and one ways to write a love story. Maybe more. Each of them will appeal to someone. Amal El-Mohtar is a poet, writer of short stories, and editor who is doing her PhD on fairies....
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Your Last Apocalypse
Sandra McDonald is an award-winning author of young adult mysteries and a short story collection featuring LGBTQ protagonists. This particular story, as is often the case with short fiction I point to...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Trixie and the Pandas of Dread
Eugie Foster writes rather amazing short stories. She’s won the Nebula for her novelette “Sinner, Baker, Fabulist, Priest; Red Mask, Black Mask, Gentleman, Beast” and published a collection of short...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Casualties
Alec Austin brings us a story of prices paid. The press around the bar of the Unstable Alembic was as thick as ever, but sharp elbows and my coldest stare let me wedge myself between Jorge Hoestler and...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Inventory
The classic advice for writing a sex scene is to make sure it advances plot or character. [Note: Advice may not apply when you're writing pornography.] When you write a story that is made up of sexual...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Gravity
Ezrebet YellowBoy normally works in fairy tales. From the journal Cabinet de Fees to her novel Sleeping Helena, she creates new art from an old form. Here, however, she is working in science fiction,...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Dead Girl’s Wedding March
Cat Rambo is an award-nominated editor in addition to writing lovely, odd short stories. I’m not sure what color her hair is today. She is also one of the few authors in the pending anthology Glitter...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: My Voice Is in My Sword
Apex Magazine published a Shakespearean issue this month. Some retellings, some stories set around the plays themselves. Kate Elliott, whose recent Spiritwalker series combined magic and technology in...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Nanny’s Day
One of the great things about fiction award season is that authors have come to understand that making good fiction free to read increases the number of people who can vote for it. That’s this case...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Fragmentation, or Ten Thousand Goodbyes
Continuing with the theme of Nebula nominees, today’s SF story is one of those where the technology is integral, but the story is still not about the technology. This isn’t Tom Crosshill‘s first award...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Immersion
Aliette de Bodard is the author of the Obsidian and Blood trilogy, a mystery-fantasy hybrid set in an Aztec world in which the gods and magic are quite real. This story continues her trend of setting...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Give Her Honey When You Hear Her Scream
Maria Dahvana Headley’s first novel, Queen of Kings, combines magic, mythology, and a love that is powerful enough to transform the landscape around it, not necessarily for the better. Those are themes...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species
This is hardly the first time Ken Liu‘s work has been featured here. As long as I keep post award-nominated stories, I doubt it will be the last. The Hesperoe once wrote with strings of symbols that...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Robot
This week’s Nebula-nominated story comes from Helena Bell, who is also a poet. You might have figured that part out, though. This is a list of the chores you will be expected to complete around the...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: Five Ways to Fall in Love on Planet Porcelain
It’s only been a couple of months since Cat Rambo appeared in this feature, but she has a short story nominated for a Nebula that you probably ought to see. Places to take tourists on Planet Porcelain:...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Day Coffee Stopped Working
Science fiction doesn’t have to be serious in order to be serious science fiction. Take this story by John Bailey Owen, odd duck and coauthor of The Hunger But Mainly Death Games: A Parody. “…And that...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Lure of Devouring Light
Sometimes dark fantasy gets quite dark. This story by Michael Griffin is on the dark end. Those of you who don’t want to read about sexual or emotional abuse will want to skip this one. The door to the...
View ArticleSaturday Storytime: The Siren
Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam has reviewed more stories than she’s published, but I’m not sure that will continue to be the case for long. The song came again at midnight; it seeped in through the windows of...
View Article