Crafting strange fiction from stranger fact.
Bigger planets have more gravity. Most people know the most obvious effect of this: on a planet with higher gravity, you’d feel heavier and it would be harder to move. On a planet with lower gravity, you’d feel lighter, and have an easier time running and jumping. But a planet’s size, and the strength of … Continue reading What’s the Big Deal About Planet Size?
The questions we’ll ask in my upcoming book will open up almost infinite possibilities. They won’t tell you what your alien planet, species, or characters are going to be like: they’ll give you millions of possibilities. So how do you shape this mass of scientific possibilities into a story? Well, if you’re reading this series … Continue reading How to Get Started Worldbuilding with Hard Science
I hope you’re all ready for a super-blog. We’ve got a lot to cover in this introduction to star type + the perils of life around a red dwarf star, so let’s jump right in. The stars in the sky all look pretty much the same from Earth. If we can see them at all, … Continue reading Life Around Red Dwarf Stars
Welcome to the first installment in my blog series based on the presentation we didn’t quite get to finish at Flights of Foundry! Here I’ll be covering a blend of useful principles about storytelling, planetology, and biology, and how to combine them all seamlessly in your science fiction work. “Science fiction” has attracted people since … Continue reading Why Use Hard Science in Worldbuilding?
Good evening lovelies, Well, this was going to be part of my “Christmas gift” blog post – but the data mining took a little longer than anticipated. What data mining, you ask? Why, the mining of information about my favorite 19 speculative fiction markets to submit to. I’ve noticed an interesting dynamic present in many writing … Continue reading Happy New Year! Tools for Writers
I’m pleased to announced that my short story, “The Drake Equation,” will be appearing in the 2017 Writers of the Future anthology! I first became acquainted with the Writers of the Future contest 10 years ago, when I stumbled across one of their anthologies in a used bookstore. From the very first story in Vol. 22 … Continue reading Writers of the Future Win!
“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
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)
Being a writer can be strange. You’ve likely heard all sorts of things about how fiction writers work. Alice Walker and Jean M. Auel were among those who eventually behaved very much as though they were not creators, but mediums – both were known to thank their characters “for showing up,” and suggest at times … Continue reading That Shock of Recognition
C. L. Kagmi 