Crafting strange fiction from stranger fact.
Survival has a cost. None knows this better than the man styling himself Lou Jackson – who may not be a man at all. When Jackson takes an innocent child into the desert under the guide of a religious rite of passage, she will be changed in ways no one ever imagined. Is this an abomination, … Continue reading Twiceborn, by C. L. Kagmi
This is the best story I’ve ever read from the viewpoint of a machine. There is growing consensus that automated drone warfare is the wave of the future, particularly in the conflict-torn Middle East. Malak’s viewpoint character, a next-generation drone named Azrael is “smart but not awake.” It is named after the angel of “a … Continue reading Malak, by Peter Watts
This story is the rarest of gems – that which shows us something truly different from our own experience. Grandmother-Nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds weaves a tale that is extraordinary even for its own setting – a place which is itself extraordinary to us. In the heat of a baking desert, a culture that never was … Continue reading Grandmother-Nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds, by Rose Lemberg
To start off this promising New Year of 2016, I submit for your consideration what we will call a shining vision of a better future. Fritz Leiber’s “Catch that Zeppelin!” is not in fact a shining vision of the future – but rather a shining vision of a better past. Written as the endearingly self-depricating … Continue reading Catch That Zeppelin! by Fritz Leiber
This wonderful story crossed my dashboard, very appropriately, just in time for Christmas. It has always been clear that Octavia Butler must have a pretty interesting view of God. She has never shied away from addressing questions of worship and spiritual community – such as in her Parable series, which follows the founder of a … Continue reading The Book of Martha, by Octavia Butler
“Libellago lineata male-Kadavoor-2015-08-21-001” © 2015 Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India is used here under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License The Oatmeal once gave a very good piece of advice: if you want to succeed at something creative, think about it really, really hard. Then forget about it. This has been one of the hardest … Continue reading The Value of “Down Time” for Writers
Hello lovelies, Since I’m not ready to talk too much about my own work yet – I’m still waiting to hear back from two publishers and holding off on announcements until then – I wanted to talk a bit about drastically underrated work by other people that are already published. “Hardfought” by Greg Bear was … Continue reading Hardfought, by Greg Bear
I am one of those writers who has more trouble writing short than long. Several of my most beloved novel concepts started out as short story concepts – and then just kept growing. I’ve had other writers tell me the same thing – that they just don’t see any point in writing short stories because … Continue reading Why and How to Write Short Stories (Even If You Normally Don’t)
What does the bleakest book of the Bible have in common with the planet Mars? Quite a lot, it turns out, as Roger Zelazny had the insight to see in this 1963 short story, which has been collected in Volume I of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. Our understanding of life on Mars has … Continue reading A Rose for Ecclesiastes, by Roger Zelazny
Good afternoon, everyone. Some of you might be wondering about my Facebook cover photo. Many will recognize it as the “Live long and prosper” symbol from Star Trek; many might connect it to the recent death of Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock and who originated that symbol. Here is a little-known fact: the hand symbol … Continue reading On my Facebook Cover Photo
C. L. Kagmi 