Brenda Cooper's Blog, page 45

FiRE (Future in Review) Day 1: The Speed of the Atmoshpere

I’m lucky enough to be the invited science fiction interviewee at FiRE a conference that is not only about the future, but about how to actually do the work to create a future we can thrive in.  Today was registration, a cocktail  party on a lawn by a beach, a lovely dinner, and a dinner speaker.  And after that, I’m impressed.  I love meeting people.  So far, I’ve met:

a man who owns a company that mines kelp and uses it to safely increase crop yields in developing countrieswomen on the boards o

Updates on Social Tools for Writers

About a month ago, I posted about using social tools for marketing and connecting with folks.  This post is an update to the earlier post on the topic.  Then, I said I wanted to learn these tools and figure out how to use them to help me market and be present on the Internet in an organic fashion.  As a writer, it’s important to have way for readers and potential readers to connect with you. I suspect this matters for most forms of creative expression, so it applies to painters and photographers

Announcing a New Column at Futurismic

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be doing a new column at Futurismic. The introduction to the column can be found here.  I’m really pleased to be associated with the site - it’s one of the better science and science fiction sites out there right now.   Futurismic comes in three pieces:  blog, columns, and stories.  Since I sometimes feel like I come in three pieces (CIO, futurist, writer), I hope to fit in quite well.  I’ll link to the column as it goes up once a month, but I encourage you to

Reading Recommendation: Wake by Robert J. Sawyer

I have been challenged finding reading time that isn’t research, blurbs for books, or part of my two reading/book groups.  But I heard so much good buzz on Robert J. Sawyer’s Wake that I ordered a copy and made the time.  I’m glad I did.  This is an intimate and personal look at the familiar sf idea of an AI waking up out of the web.   Sawyer creates a lovely character who could believably be present in the nets, is smart and capable, and has a unique voice.   He also create a believable initial

Getting Ready for FiRE

FiRE is a futurist conference that will be held in San Diego in a week and a half or so.  FiRE is put together by Mark Anderson, who is one of the futurists I most enjoy following.  He is an original thinker and I am always intrigued by his blogs and talks.  I have never been down to FiRE, but I’m really excited about it - the speakers and attendees are all top notch.

Glen Hiemstra, my futurist mentor, will be there interviewing me in my role as a science fiction writer, and today he posted a blo

Interview posted at MILSCIFI.COM

I didn’t set out for these books to be about war, at least not when I wrote The Silver Ship and the Sea.  Current events, however, have a way of coloring artistic work, even science fiction that’s being written about a far future.  The Iraq War and The Silver Ship and the Sea started at about the same time.  So the series ends up being driven by a battle that happened on the colony planet Fremont and driven to a bigger battle that will happen in space between splintered factions of the the Five

Wings of Creation Cover Squeal!

It’s PERFECT.

A Review of The Silver Ship and the Sea

I usually don’t post reviews here, good or bad, but this review at Zeno’s Library tickled me because I truly do think science fiction  is partly about making people think. At least that’s part of why I both read and write sf…

Reading Recommendation: METAtropolis

I just listened to 9 hours of METAtropolis - a podcast of original stories in a linked world, edited by John Scalzi.  The writers are Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, John Scalzi, and Karl Schroeder. Pretty neat list, huh?

I walked the dog, killed weeds by separating them decidedly from the soil, walked the dog, tugged up more stubborn roots, sorted the laundry, walked the dog in Discovery Park, and finally fed the rhodies (all the weeding was to expose the rhodies so I could feed them -

Four Twitter Observations

One:  Twitter is actually a lot of fun.  I suspect this is part of its popularity.  Things to enjoy include putting a whole page worth of data into 140 characters (Haiku for modern times), hearing engaging snips about your friends’ days (and yes, what they had for breakfast is generally noise.  But there are clever fun updates like sold a story, got a ticket and the cop was cute, walking on the beach in Hawaii, found a new way to use Twitter….).   There’s also art out there:  Fiction flashforwar