Sable Aradia's Blog, page 56
October 22, 2017
Virtual Fantasy Con 2017: Fantasy Mashups Panel
The last of the three panels I had the honour of hosting for the Virtual Fantasy Con this year! In this one we discuss fantasy mashups. What happens when you blend fantasy with another genre? What are the benefits and the drawbacks? And at what point does a blend become a genre of its own? We have a panel full of fantasy mashup authors, and this was a lot of fun!
You can watch the entire playlist of the Virtual Fantasy Con panels HERE.
October 21, 2017
Let the Crazies Begin, or: Why I’m a Wrimo
Couldn’t have said it better myself! My friend A.M. Offenwanger on NaNoWriMo.
“What’s the point?” someone asked the other day, when the conversation came around to NaNoWriMo. (NaNo-whatmo? you say. NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month. You know, that Novemberly craziness where I, and several hundred thousand others across the globe, vanish into a deep rabbit hole of mad, bad and dangerous-to-know novelling, aiming to write a 50,000-word novel in the space of 30 days. I might have mentioned it a time or three [dozen] before.)
What’s the point, indeed. Why do this to yourself? Why engage in such a bout of insanity? And don’t get me wrong, it is insane. Every year, I get stressed to the hilt, moan and whine, say I’m not going to finish (my fellow local Wrimos can attest to that). And every year, I sign up again. This will be my seventh NaNo in a row. But why?
Grant Faulkner, the current executive director of…
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October 20, 2017
Virtual Fantasy Con 2017: Realism in Fantasy Warfare Panel
This is the second of three panels I had the privilege of hosting for the Virtual Fantasy Con 2017, and this one just might be my favourite. I was honoured to have a truly expert panel at my disposal, whose background and expertise included both studied and practical, hands-on experience. From logistics experts to medieval recreationists to real-life military personnel, all of whom are also fantasy authors, I think we’ve provided an excellent starting resource for fantasy writers who want to write about war.
You can watch a full playlist of all the VFC2017 panels HERE.
October 19, 2017
Book Trailer: Way of the Gun (Wyrd West Chronicles #4)
I’m excited to announce the book trailer for Wyrd West #4, releasing Halloween 2017!
October 18, 2017
Virtual Fantasy Con 2017: Gender Issues in Fantasy Panel
It was my honour and pleasure to host three panels for the Virtual Fantasy Con this year! Our first panel was on Gender Issues in Fantasy, and we had so much to say that it had to be broken into two parts! Here they both are:
You can watch the entire Virtual Fantasy Con 2017 Panels Playlist HERE.
October 17, 2017
What Does the Higgs-Boson Look Like?
By Kate Kershner
In July 2012, the whole world came face to face with the Higgs boson: a sparkly, little light that danced across our screens like Tinker Bell. Wait, that’s not right.
While physicists jumped for joy to “see” the Higgs boson — that elusive particle that composes the Higgs field, which allows particles to gain mass — the truth is that they actually saw a whole bunch of numbers, graphs and general data that told them that the Higgs boson was detected. And even saying that it was “detected” deserves some explanation.
Read the full article at HowStuffWorks.com.
October 16, 2017
Book Review: Dragonwriter by Todd McCaffrey
Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern by Todd J. McCaffrey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Read for the Genre Non-Fiction Challenge.
This is a tribute to Anne McCaffrey, author of the Pern series, the Acorna series, the Pegasus series, and the Crystal Singer series, among many others. McCaffrey has long been a personal favourite author of mine. Pern was one of my earliest introductions to science fiction. I saw a lot of myself in the character of Menolly and the impression stayed with me, so I was excited to read this biography, edited by her son and sometime co-writer, and the one to whom she left the legacy of the Pern books.
I was struck by this portrait of a woman and a writer with whom I have much in common. I was also struck with how her stories have touched the lives of so many. This tribute was pieced together by people who knew her personally and professionally, and people who served such roles as organizing her fan club and Dragon*Con, her illustrator, and her co-writers and peers.
I found it moving and engaging. It made me cry a couple of times.
So why did I only give it three stars? I guess it’s because the writing styles varied so much that I found it a bit inconsistent, and I thought it was edited in a weird way. The story that I would have put last, the one I would have thought made the deepest impact on the most people, was near to the end but not last, for example.
Definitely worth reading if you want to know about Anne McCaffrey in particular or sci-fi writers in general. Anne McCaffrey was a key figure in the development of modern sci-fi, so it also has historical value.
October 15, 2017
Middle-earth Cage Match: Bill the Pony vs. Shadowfax
By Judith Tarr
Here we have our two contestants for this week’s match, the first in SFF Equines history (but not, perhaps, the last): on this side the tall, white, shining, magical, beautiful king of stallions who deigns to carry the great Wizard; and over on that side, the short, brown, fuzzy, unromantic, pretty definitely not-a-stallion who is not asked whether he wants to carry the Fellowship’s baggage (but as far as Sam can determine, he’s willing).
A serious mismatch, you say?
That, I reply, remains to be seen.
Read the full article at Tor.com.
October 14, 2017
13 Ways to Help an Indie Author with Their Book Release
Just thought I would point this out, since I have a release coming up that’s been scaled back to October 15! Save the date!
By Helen Scheuerer
As the launch of Heart of Mist draws nearer and nearer, a lot of my readers have been asking: how do I help you with your book release?
Firstly, just asking a lovely question like that means the world to just about any author. Writing and publishing a book is a huge undertaking, and so any acknowledgement of this is greatly appreciated.
But of course, there are a number of other ways you can help authors with the impending release of their book…
Read the full article at WritersEdit.com.
October 13, 2017
Lessons I Learnt from Writing My First Book Series
By Angeline Trevena
Coming to the end of my first series, and starting on my second got me thinking about what I wanted to do differently. About the mistakes I made, and the lessons I learnt.
Read the full article at Angelina Trevena’s blog.
