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Book Review: The Ministry of Time

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Few sci fi books have been as popular lately as Kaliane Bradley’s novel, The Ministry of Time. It’s a beautiful work, but as I’m about to show, it has its flaws. And no, they are not small ones. I’m aware of a certain controversy surrounding this book. When the BBC …

Oil well and old house in front of dead corn stalks and sand dunes.

Climate Fiction

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Climate fiction, often referred to as “Cli-Fi,” is a genre of literature that focuses on the impacts of climate change and environmental issues. It explores how these changes affect individuals, societies, and the planet as a whole. The genre can encompass a wide range of narratives, from dystopian futures to …

Cowboy writing with pen next to a campfire

Showdown, Don’t Tell: Keeping a Consistent Narrative Voice

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Fiction writers have a lot of rules. “Show, don’t tell” sits near the top of the rulebook, right up there with point of view (POV), use of said tags, and eliminating adverbs. But sometimes we follow those rules straight into a literary box canyon. So take off your cowboy hat, …

Smiling writer with headphones on working at laptop as others behind are criticizing

Do Not Take My Advice! Part 1. The Critique

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My advice on writing? Do not take or give advice on writing. There is no one way to write but the way you write. You will most likely be writing differently tomorrow, anyway. That’s my advice: take it, don’t take it, it’s all the same to me. Aw, come on, …

Writer with pen and paper creating new worlds from his imagination

Tips for Building Worlds

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Worldbuilding can be the most liberating piece of telling stories in speculative fiction, particularly in sci-fi and fantasy. Being unbeholden to the limits of our world allows your characters to have an entirely different set of environmental, cosmic, and cultural settings. It’s an opportunity for you, as the writer, to …

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Creative Writing: What does ‘creative’ mean?

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What we writers do is called ‘creative’ writing. But what is that, really? What do we have to do, to be ‘creative’ in our writing? The definition of ‘creative (adjective)’ is ‘involving original ideas in producing an artistic work.’ So, to be ‘creative’ writers, we must make original ideas. Ideas not heretofore conceived …

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Book Series Review: Circus of Unusual Creatures

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Tammie Painter is the author of The Circus of Unusual Creatures series I have recently been binge reading. Not such a binge since there are only four books in the series so far. The narrator of the stories is Duncan, aka Brutus Fangwrath, Deadliest Dragon in the West. He loves …

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Meet Our Member: Bruce Schindler

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What inspired you to start writing?  High school: short humorous story read aloud got positive reaction. Wrote poetry and science fiction while in Vietnam, none published. Was a photographer/editor in the public affairs detachment of the Wyoming Army National Guard. After wife died, remarried horse lady and moved to Nebraska. …

Foundation Book vs AppleTV Production

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Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series is a seminal work of science fiction, prominently topping many lists of ground-breaking and genre-defining works. The original story consisted of three related books: Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. Each represents a step for humanity in the evolving political progression from the current First …