Tobias S. Buckell's Blog, page 11

Media consumed: Midnight Special

I watched this last night. Directed by Jeff Nichols, this is a strong echo of two of my favorite childhood movies: Firestarter and Race to Witch Mountain.

But like, moodier.

The basic tension is the same, with a modern twist. A young boy with what seems like supernatural abilities is on a car race across the US. The news is reporting he’s kidnapped, but it is by his dad. They’re fleeing a cult that seems to believe the kid has some inside scoop on the end of the world. They’re well armed.

The...

Open thread Saturday

How is your weekend? I’ve been out writing in a local coffee shop and ran into an old work buddy at the diner at lunch. I also attended a book launch by local mystery author Judy Clemens who had her latest book out from Poisened Pen Press.

My kids are apparently selling lemonade from our front lawn while I plink away at this rewrite. Thalia seems to have sales in her blood.

Media consumed: Preacher episodes 4 & 5

I’ve never read the comic, but while out at Rae Carson and Charlie Finlay’s place last month to spend a week focused on revisions of the current novel, I watched the first few episodes of a TV series called Preacher. I wasn’t entirely sure where it was going, but Ruth Negga is a pretty talented actress and I was psyched to see a vehicle for her. Joe Gilgun on E4’s Misfits was pretty freaking hysterical (he also starred across from the actor in Misfits who went on to play the freakishly easy t...

Summer revisions

I’ve spent the bulk of my day working hard on a novel rewrite due by the middle of summer. This is a weird thing because this is the 3rd novel in the last couple years that I can’t tell you anything about, but is hella fun to be working on.

I’d love to talk more about what I’m up to, but it’s been a weird year and a half in that respect. But, what’s cool about this one is that soon enough I’ll be able to talk more openly about the project. I’m just not allowed to say anything about it until t...

Open thread Friday: what are you up to this weekend?

I’m looking forward to seeing some family and grilling some hot dogs. I think there’ll be some semi-local fireworks.

What are you up to?

First death of someone while using Tesla Autopilot

We learned yesterday evening that NHTSA is opening a preliminary evaluation into the performance of Autopilot during a recent fatal crash that occurred in a Model S. This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated.

(Via A Tragic Loss | Tesla Motors.)

I mentioned to someone that I thought that this would be the moment that cracks open a lot of angst about autopilots, and could be the inflection moment that either slows down adoption or demonstrate...

How to collaborate on fiction in 2016 using pair programming, Skype, and Google Docs

I just finished a new collaboration. It’s a short story of nearly 10,000 words that will be in Bridging Infinity (you can pre-order here), edited by Johnathan Strahan “The latest volume in the Hugo award-winning Infinity Project series, showcasing all-original hard science fiction stories from the leading voices in genre fiction.”

The writer I collaborated with was Karen Lord, who currently lives in Barbados (author of Galaxy Games, Redemption in Indigo, you’re reading her, right?).

There ar...

Dear new writers: you do have the power to speak

Several times a year I encounter moments where a writer, or a new writer, or a writer yet to be, is reluctant to write an essay or talk about a position they are passionate about. This is doubly so if it’s political. They believe that they’ll be blackballed from publishing or their career will falter.

Since it’s a political election season, I’d like to note:

The ‘industry’ of writers/critics/readers/etc are not nearly monolithic enough to blackball you. It’s easier to die quietly in a midlist...

Node has a collection of interviews with science fiction writers, of which I’m one

James Cambias, Ahmed Khaled Tawfik, Vandana Singh and I all responded to a number of questions about SF/F for Node:

Do you think that science fiction can or should predict the future?

I think science fiction should engage with the future. That doesn’t mean predict it, though that’s often the common perception. We also warn about the future. Beg you not to go down a certain path. Warn incessantly about horrible possible futures. Wonder if a certain future would be interesting. Dream about a c...

Ultimate weeding tool recommendation

The front of house was getting a bit weedy, despite all the mulch put down at the end of last summer when I paid to have the entire front area re-graded, as well as the beds pulled out. Our suspicion, confirmed by a recommended landscaper, was that the large raised beds along the front of the house were holding water against it, adding to our basement wetness issues we’ve been struggling with since 2008.

I hate weeding. One thing I’m quite fond of is using a flame thrower to keep the weeds ba...