Steven R. Southard's Blog, page 30

20,000 Reasons This is the Perfect Holiday Gift

Still looking for gift ideas for the holidays? Youve surfed to the right site. If someone on your list is a fan of science fiction, submarines, steampunk, or just plain adventure, Ive got the perfect gift you can give.

Its called 20,000 Leagues Remembered. This isnt the Jules Verne classic (though that would make a fine accompanying gift). This is an anthology of new stories written by todays authors, all in commemoration of Vernes masterwork.

Inside, your recipient will find adventure,...

Virtually the Best SciFi Conference Ever!

Me, as I appeared to conference attendees. Just hanging out in my submarine.

Just wrapped up a wonderful weekend attending Chessiecon, the scifi and fantasy conference named for the sea monster of the Chesapeake Bay. This year they held it online, which made it easier in some ways, and more difficult in others. The programming team kept me busy, with five panels and a reading. In case you missed it, here’s the recap:

How to Get Published, with Meg Eden, Linda Adams, Nate Hoffelder, and Ste...

My Chessiecon 2020 Schedule

Here’s a rare opportunity, Poseidon’s Scribe fans. You can attend a writer’s conference and see me…for only $10. Yes, you read that correctly. $10.

The Chessiecon 2020 conference is online this year and it only costs a ten-spot to attend. Since it’s online, you can attend from anywhere. The conference runs from Friday, November 27 through Sunday, November 29.

Although things are still in flux, here’s my current schedule (subject to change) (all times are EST):

Date/TimeTitleDescript...

Author Interview — Corrie Garrett

The anthology 20,000 Leagues Remembered contains great stories by sixteen fine authors, and you’ll get to meet another one of them today. She’s Corrie Garrett, author of “A Concurrent Process.”

Corrie Garrett is an indie author of more than ten science fiction and romance novels. She went to school in the Piney Woods of East Texas, earning a degree in Political Science with a minor in Computer Science, since she mistook her love of dystopian novels for a career path. Corrie’s favorite aut...

Protected: Author Interview — Corrie Garrett

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

7 Things to Know Before You Retire to Write Full Time

It’s tough to write part time while still working at your day job. I know. I did it for several decades, all the while dreaming of how prolific I’d be and how much money I’d make when I retired.

Well, I’ve been retired for nearly three years. How’s it going so far?

In truth, things aren’t as good as I’d hoped, nor as bad as I feared. Still, I’ve learned some lessons.

If you’re still laboring in a day job, looking forward to retirement when you’ll write all day and rake in those larg...

Filby’s Question

To begin the world anew, you get three books. Which do you choose? That’s Filby’s question. Let’s explore it.

At the end of the movie The Time Machine (1960), David Filby discovers his friend George has departed in his time machine, again. Filby says to the housekeeper, “He’s gone back to the future, to begin a new world. But it’s not like George to go off without a plan. He must have taken something with him. Is anything missing?”

Credit to https://filmfreedonia.com

Mrs. Watchett repli...

8 Distractoxins and Their Antidotes

Distractions are like poison to writers, interrupting word flow and reducing productivity. They come in various forms, so let’s call them ‘Distractoxins.’ Are there any cures?

First, I must give credit to author Dan Blank, who inspired this post with his hilarious list of writer distraction. Well worth reading.

I came up with my own list of distractoxins likely to interrupt a writer’s work. For each one I’ve got an antidote. You may experience distractions that aren’t on my list, and I...

Rediscover Your Stifled Creativity

Why you aren’t writing fiction? Think you’re not creative enough?

You once were.

You may not remember it, but when you were between three and five, you weren’t afraid to try anything. You were bold, unconstrained, inquisitive. You overflowed with all kinds of ideas, fantasies, and stories. That young version of you wasn’t afraid to talk about them, either.

How do I know this? Most kids that age are like that.

What happened to all that creativity? It got stifled. Someone, or maybe...

Is Science Ruining SciFi?

Fantasy fiction writers have an advantage over science fiction writers—no scientist will come along and say the fantasy writer depicted her dragons incorrectly or that she botched a description of werewolves.

But scifi relies on facts about a field that’s frequently upending previous conclusions, so new scientific discoveries can invalidate your fiction at any time.

Still, do those discoveries render the affected novel unreadable? That is, just because your story, written before 2006, ...