Sci-Fi Time Capsule: Galaxy Quest
This week in Sci-Fi Time Capsule, we are watching Galaxy Quest. This is a comedy sci-fi parody, with Star Trek (mainly the original series) firmly planted in its sights. It stars Santa Claus (Tim Allen), an alien exterminating astronaut (Sigourney Weaver), Monk (Tony...
5 Questions for Building Futuristic Societies
A lot of speculative fiction takes place in a futuristic setting. This brings up the issue of needing to create futuristic societies. There is no pre-existing future to base it on. Unlike historical fiction where you can take what is known of Earth history and reshape...
Sci-Fi Time Capsule: Star Trek TNG “Cause and Effect”
This week in Sci-Fi Time Capsule, one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation: "Cause and Effect," from Season 5, Episode 18. It doesn't involve Klingons, Romulans, Borg, or any mysterious planet or moral dilemma. What classic Star Trek trope does...
Ask an Author: 3 Steps for Marketing Your First Book
The subject of marketing your first book came up again recently, and for some reason people are looking for my opinion on it. Wait ... I've published how many books now? Well, carry on, then. I guess I'm not quite new at this anymore. This isn't a cure-all, a...
Sci-Fi Time Capsule: X-Files “DØd Kalm”
This week in Sci-Fi Time Capsule, we look back at an episode of X-Files that plays on a number of key tropes for the series. There will be spoilers, to say the least, but I plan to keep them below the image, so anyone who wants to check the episode out for the first...
Worldbuilding With Ships
An imagined world will only feel as large as you make it appear. By focusing on a limited part of the world, you make a world feel small and cramped. It's easy at times to forget that the Harry Potter series takes place on Earth, since all you see in the first book is...
Sci-Fi Time Capsule: Star Trek TOS “Arena”
This is the star of a new feature, Sci-Fi Time Capsule, a look back at a classic sci-fi episode. There will be spoilers, to say the least, but I plan to keep them below the image, so anyone who wants to check the episode out for the first time has an opportunity to...
Writing About Monsters: 3 Creatures for Your World
Speculative fiction is a stretching of the world into new shapes, an expansion of ideas to their logical (or illogical) conclusions. One of the many ways in which writers test those limits is by the inclusion of creatures that don't exist in our world. There are good...
Coincidences in Storytelling
One of the complaints about fiction is that so many times a plot is predicated on a number of coincidences. If things X, Y, and Z don't all happen to the same person, then there would be no story, and what are the chances of that? I've always found this a little...
New Series, New Workflow: Scrivener Ahoy!
I've wanted to try Scrivener for ages, but I've been writing a long-running series. It felt like a bad idea to make a major change to my workflow when I'd have to be converting years worth of work into a new format. So I stuck with Microsoft Word throughout the...