Speculative Fiction Writers Association
An Online Critique Group with Members from Coast to Coast
Naomi Jacobs 
PART ONE: THE PROBLEM What do L. Frank Baum, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Orson Scott Card, Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman. H. P. Lovecraft, J .K. Rowling, and J. R. R. Tolkien have in common? Each is a beloved author who has written foundational speculative works that continue to inspire today. In …
Chris Marker’s 1962 film, La Jetée, clocks in at a mere twenty-eight minutes, but once seen, will stay with its viewers forever. In French, the phrase la jetée denotes “a pier,” and it is one man’s childhood memory of standing on a pier, watching planes take off, that forms the linchpin of this sf …
FRANK ROBINSON AND HARVEY MILK For many years, I knew of Frank M. Robinson (1926-2014) as the highly gifted speechwriter of gay rights visionary, Harvey Milk. In tapes recorded by Harvey before his death by assassination in 1978, he spoke of Robinson as the one person who was most familiar …
Sensitivity Readers: What They Do and Why You Need Them Learn From My Mistakes It all began with my fascination with the Navajo Code Talkers. Their ability to rapidly send messages in a code they invented, using their native language, provided a huge advantage to U.S.Forces fighting in the Pacific …
What if? What if the Neanderthals had become the dominant species of Hominids? If Napoleon had conquered America? If there had been no Industrial Revolution? If space aliens had come to Earth to fight for African-American civil rights? Welcome to the world of Alternate History. When I first had the …