World Building: Fashion
Trial and Error Soon after reading Neutron Star for the first time, one of my students appeared with an asymmetric beard, and it actually looked pretty cool. He had very thick facial hair, so he could...
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World Building: Fashion in Speculative Fiction
Fun with Folly Excellent spec fic writers build this absurdity into the worlds they create. Recently, I’ve noticed two wonderful examples of writers or directors who employ this understanding to great...
View ArticleThe First-Contact Mirror
Some of the best spec-fic holds up a mirror in such a way that we see aspects of our species/culture anew. Often this is accomplished by showing first contact. Ursula Leguin’s Left Hand of Darkness...
View ArticleAnother Fun First Contact Scene
The excerpt below is also from Mary Sisson’s Trust (see previous posting). This scene actually precedes the one in the previous post (sorry–out of order, I know). it is actual moment of first contact...
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Re-imagine the Familiar
Tolkein’s Legacy The reason you don’t see lots of new Tolkeinesque stories of halflings and dwarves and elves in the book stores is that those things have been done. Most people want something new. It...
View ArticleAn Unsympathetic Protagonist – Meditation 1.0
I recently attended an author reading of a humorous supernatural fiction novel that shall remain nameless. After hearing several chapters from the beginning and middle, I found my self thinking, “The...
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And You Think Sagging Pants are Ridiculous…
Weirder than Fiction Building Believable (and Fantastic!) Fantasy Worlds Reality is often truly stranger than anything you could make up, so it pays to research. Take this picture from a late 17th...
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