Category: SciFi General

Call for Authors - Last Outpost

9/2/2015

To protect from all enemies… World Weaver Press is expanding the Far Orbit anthology series with a new a new military science fiction anthology, Last Outpost. Last Outpost will be published in 2016. As the name implies, we’re looking for military adventure stories, page-turners that keep us on the edge of our seats. We’re not looking for mindless mayhem; we want compelling science fiction with a military theme.

Send us stories about grunts, space fleets, espionage, alien invasion (even if we're the aliens), hostage recovery, battle bots, drones and droids, cyber wars, special ops, inciting rebellions, or quelling them. Anything in the military action adventure genera is fair game. We’ll entertain biopunk, cyberpunk, solarpunk and other punkish motifs but the story has to be a rip-roaring adventure. Please stay away from fantasy elements (wizards, magic, gods, etc.). Fan fiction is a definite no-no. Fantasy-like adventures (John Carter of Mars) have to be really special to be included in the anthology. Gore is OK but it has to advance the plot.

Please remember that this is a science fiction anthology. The action can take place on far off worlds or on Earth, in the far future or the day after tomorrow. If you can write a military space opera in under 10,000 words, go for it. We’ll be happy to read it.

Here are some submission tips from the series anthologist.

·         I’m not a fan of the “everyone dies horribly” ending unless you can really move me.

·         I’m looking for subject diversity in the anthology. If you’ve written something different in this genera, I want to read it.

·         I love escapist adventures, mind candy, and thoughtful integration of technologies and aliens.

Previously published stories are acceptable but we will not publish stories that have been previously anthologized.

Rights and compensation: Payment: $0.01/word. All contributors will receive a paperback copy of the anthology. For previously unpublished works: Seeking first world rights in English and exclusive rights to publish in print and electronic format for twelve months after publication date after which publisher retains nonexclusive right to continue to publish for a term. For reprints: Seeking non-exclusive right to publish in print and electronic formats for a term. Previously unpublished stories preferred; reprints will be considered. No previously anthologized stories.

Open submission period: September 15 – December 15, 2015.

Length: Under 10,000 words

Submission method: Paste the story into the body of the e-mail message. Include the approximate word count. Subject line: Outpost – [Title]. Send submission to: farorbit [at] worldweaverpress [dot] com.

Simultaneous submissions = OK. Multiple submissions = No.

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6 Tech-Based SciFi Writing Prompts

8/15/2014

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The Plastisphere
Scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have discovered a diverse group of microbes thriving on flecks of plastic that pollute the oceans. Most of the flecks are about a millimeter in diameter. This newly dubbed “Plastisphere” has created new habitats for microorganisms that are different from those found in the surrounding seawater. Researchers have found at least 1000 different types of bacteria thus far including many individual species that have not been previously identified. How will these new microbial communities affect the ecosystem? Can we exploit the plastisphere to sequester carbon dioxide and combat global warming? Will someone exploit the plastisphere for nefarious purposes (i.e., transporting toxigenic or pathogenic organisms, plugging up harbors, polluting beaches, or contaminating water intakes)?
http://www.whoi.edu/news-release/plastisphere

Embrace the Bugs
About a trillion microorganisms colonize our bodies making each of us a walking, talking “superorganism.” Our microscopic passengers play an important role health as well as disease. When our microbiome is imbalanced, we are prone to inflammation, arthritis and toxic megacolon. We also have a decreased ability to digest and utilize vital nutrients. Rebalancing the microbiome seems to be important and medical scientists are now using fecal transplant pills—yup, pills containing concentrated fecal bacteria -- to stop recurrent Clostridium difficile infections of the gut. Our sanitized, disinfectant- and antibiotic-laden Western culture is waging war on the superorganism and the bugs are fighting back! What would happen if we embraced the bugs? Could we use bioengineering to augment our individual microbiomes? Would we become superbeings or organic sludge? Could this be used for nefarious purposes?

Micoorganisms That Eat Fireworks
Every year millions of people flock to their local parks to watch firework celebrations. We’re not the only species that likes fireworks; some bacteria are able to eat the oxidizers (perclorates) used to generate these pyrotechnic displays, What if there were bugs that could eat gunpowder, explosives, and other things that go boom? How would that change our world?
http://www.biotechniques.com/news/A-Microbe-that-Likes-Fireworks/biotechniques-344646.html?utm_source=BioTechniques+Newsletters+%26+e-Alerts&utm_campaign=b0f4ef3d71-daily&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5f518744d7-b0f4ef3d71-87750825

High Tech Space Debris
When NASA landed the one-ton, nuclear-powered Curiosity rover on the Red Planet, heaps of debris were scattered across the Martian landscape. We have landed tons of foreign substances (including radioisotopes) on the surface of Mars since 1971. We know that organisms adapt to new challenges. What if this new set of foreign nutrients stimulates the growth of organisms that thrive on these substances? How would that affect colonization? How would they affect spacecraft returning to Earth from the red planet? Does Mars need its own Environmental Protection Agency? Other foreign objects have been landed or crashed on other planetary bodies, the moon being the largest receptacle of space debris.
http://io9.com/5966206/this-is-all-the-beautiful-space-litter-left-on-mars-by-nasas-curiosity-rover/

Tatoo-based Biobatteries
Sounds strange but the science is real. Could these be used to power wearable or implantable electronic devices?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/tech-edge/4433475/Tattoo-bio-batteries-produce-power-f rom-sweat-

Urban heat’s effect on the environment
Urban environments are hotter than rural environments. This changes the normal flora and fauna. Urban vermin (a catchy name) are not subjected to the harsh winter temperatures that their rural brethren face so they live longer and breed more. What happens to us as the world becomes more urbanized? Sounds like a dystopian theme.
http://www.rdmag.com/news/2014/07/urban-heat%E2%80%99s-effect-environment?et_cid=4064233&et_rid=490707858&location=top

Self-healing smart beads detect and repair corrosion
What if humans are considered corrosive influences to buildings and pipes?
http://www.battelle.org/media/press-releases/battelle-develops-self-healing-smart-corrosion-beads

You may be interested in the following SciFi Writing Topics…
6 Tech-based Writing Prompts
5 Books for Aspiring SciFi Writers

…and general SciFi articles.
SciFi Writers – The Shamans of Modernity
SciFi and the Dangerfield Effect
SciFi Authors and Editors as Agents of Change
What Would Your Robot Say?
What Were the First SciFi Stories You Read?
Earth Day – April 22, 2014

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5 Books for Aspiring SciFi Writers

8/11/2014

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I wanted to share a few unusual book titles from my reference library that may be useful for aspiring science fiction writers.

Guesstimation 2.0: Solving today’s questions on the back of a napkin by Lawrence Weinstein. Published in 2012 by Princeton University Press.

No, you don’t need to be a mathematician to be a science fiction writer, but it is helpful if you can make rough, common sense estimates to check “facts” obtained from the internet. Crowd sourcing facts on the internet is easy but many times the result is based upon word-of-mouth solutions, implausible factoids, and false assumptions. Most editors will not check your math so the ability to do a little fact-checking can keep some smarty pants from pulling the wings off your latest creation after it shows up in print. The first volume of this duo, Guesstimation: Solving the world’s problems on the back of a cocktail napkin is more readable and elementary but Guestimation 2.0 has more examples an author might need to address in an SF story. Written by math and physics professors at Old Dominion University, these delightfully concise works remind us that a close answer - an estimate - is often good enough for everyday activities.

Working with Bitches: Identify the 8 types of office mean girls and rise above workplace nastiness by Meredith Fuller. Published in 2013 by Da Capo Press.

Before you start giving me the stink-eye, let me explain. Stories are about people their passions and anger, revenge and redemption, adversities and triumphs, and how the characters are shaped by, and relate to their environment. The more we know about people, the more believable our characters can be. Writers with a dangling Y chromosome sometimes have difficulties writing believable female characters and creating a believable mean female can be even more difficult. I am not recommending this as a self-help book but rather, a study of negative female archetypes in the workplace. The book provides some potential motivations for these archetypes and examples of how others react to them. The author, a psychologist and career counselor with 30 years’ experience dealing with workplace nastiness, provides an interesting mix of motivations and descriptions that could help your characterizations.

Wondrous Beginnings edited by Steven H. Silver and Martin H. Greenberg (2003) and Before They Were Giants edited by James L. Sutter (2010).

These books contain the first published stories of some of the best known SF authors, past and present – stories written when these superstars were just like us, SF fans with stories and dreams. The interviews (Giants) and introductions (Beginnings) provide glimpses into the genesis of these first stories and the beginnings of a writer’s career. Wondrous Beginnings includes 22 first sales from writers Murray Leinster, Julie E. Czerneda, Orson Scott Card, Hal Clement, Anne McCaffrey, Arthur C. Clarke, L. Sprague de Camp, George R. R. Martin, Lois McMaster Bujold, Jack McDevitt, Stephen Baxter, and others. Before they were Giants has stories and contributions from Ben Bova, Charles Stross, China Mieville, Cory Doctorow, David Brin, Greg Bear, Joe Haldeman, Kim Stanley Robinson, Larry Niven, Michael Swanwick, Nicola Griffith, Piers Anthony, R. A. Salvatore, Spider Robinson, and William Gibson.

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SciFi Writers - The Shamans of Modernity

7/11/2014

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From http://www.old-picture.com

The mention of Shamanism in contemporary culture usually evokes stereotypical images of witch doctors, new age spiritualists, and traditional healers. So what do shamanism, with its 10,000 year old religious and cultural traditions and modern science fiction have in common?

In its simplest incarnation, shamanism is a form of animism practiced by some traditional cultures. These cultures believe that the world is filled with willful spirits that have the ability to cause mishaps, pain, and loss. Traditional cultures were helpless in the face of these spirits and they employed individual and group rituals to appease or neutralize them. Shamans were the spiritual soldiers of these cultures. They warned of dangers; they were the spiritual guardians of the community; and they served as the spiritual compass.

The social forces within our contemporary world are not significantly different from those found in traditional cultures. Our world is shaped by science and technology – whimsical and willful modern-day spirits that can be helpful or cause total chaos. Members of our global village often feel powerless in the face of these pervasive technologies and most of us have only a rudimentary knowledge of the benefits, limitations, and social impact of these technologies, these spirits. Despite this lack of knowledge, our community is often asked through legislative referenda, to judge the social, scientific, and moral impact of cutting-edge technologies. Decisions that have significant future consequences are being made by members who barely have the technological wherewithal to program their DVR. Within this community, Shamans of Modernity, through their science stories help us to better understand the spirit world of modern technology and how these technologies interact and shape our community. Like the traditional Shamans, the Shamans of Modernity act as intermediaries between the human world and the spirit worlds. Unlike the traditional shamans, SF writers cannot compel the spirits to do their will.

The Wikipedia entry on Shamanism tells us that “The shaman […] enters supernatural realms or dimensions to obtain solutions to problems afflicting the community. Shamans may visit other worlds/dimensions to bring guidance to misguided souls and to ameliorate illnesses of the human soul caused by foreign elements.” SF writers as Shamans of Modernity, perform a similar service by transplanting parts of our culture to other worlds so that they can be examined in a non-threatening way. In Charlie Jane Anders post on io9 Lorenzo DiTommaso, a religion professor at Concordia University, tells us “Science fiction is great for proposing answers to huge questions, without being stymied by "theological firewalls," or having to stick to the rigor of formal philosophy.” In the same post, James McGrath, a Butler University theologian who writes for the Exploring Our Matrix blog tells us that “Science fiction provides a great way of asking what theological and philosophical ideas from the past still make sense in our modern context, of winnowing out those that do not, and of exploring ways to adapt and update those that … require a bit of tweaking.” One debated etymology of the word “shaman” is “one who knows.” In my estimation, the Shaman of Modernity is “one who illuminates.” The Shamans of Modernity are not expected to provide the answers – asking questions and exploring alternatives are important (and sometimes troubling) services that should be valued by every community.

In our increasingly interconnected world, we are constantly confronted by others - others who outwardly resemble us but do not believe or act like us. Unfortunately, our reaction to “otherness” has not changed significantly in the past 10,000 years. By traveling to other worlds, the Shamans of Modernity show us the “human face” of the others, placing them into a social context that can make them less (or more) threatening. Their stories often have meaning in our modern world. The Shamans of Modernity have shown us what it feels like to have your culture destroyed by an advanced civilization whose benevolent intent is to uplift the ignorant savages and “improve” their lives. They have described the rise of the Corporations and Super PACs who buy legislators and expect them to pass laws favoring them and their ideological dogma. They told us stories about surveillance and identity theft before they became part of the daily lexicon. Increasingly, the Shamans of Modernity have been exploring how it feels to live an age of unchecked biotechnology and bioengineering advances. By employing the strongest of the shamanic traditions, the Shamans of Modernity provide an allegorical framework for examining our world, our attitudes, and our mores. Their stories help us to understand the consequences of our individual and collective choices.

So how do they do it? To be effective, Shamans of Modernity must understand the society they live in – its ethical, social, and belief structures. They need to be grounded in the “now” so that their exploration of other worlds and other times has relevance to their global village. Do they get it right? Not hardly! But SF is the literature of ideas; it is an illuminating force that penetrates the dark areas of our Id, giving the unseen spirits that lurk there shape, form and understanding.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Our outwardly sophisticated, globally interconnected society is fragmented into nano-techno-bio-eco-geo-ethno-ideo-whatever subcultures. The inhabitants of these villages have the same primitive fears of the unknown, unforeseeable, and uncontrollable spirits their earliest ancestors possessed. Shamans of Modernity, through their allegorical stories, spiritual voyages to other universes, and their ability to humanize the unknown, help us all to better understand who we are and where we stand within our societies.

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SciFi and the Dangerfield Effect

7/2/2014

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Comedian Rodney Dangerfield

I just read Simon Kewin’s blog illustrating how some people have a stereotypical dislike of science fiction, and I was reminded about an incident that happened a few years ago.

I was walking with a colleague along the one of the labyrinthine back corridors of a major medical center and he asked me how I got interested in my career field. I told him that as a child, I read a lot of stories about scientists who did important things, solved important problems, and made the world a better place. Being a scientist was uber-cool and I gravitated toward scientific studies in school.

“What kind of stories did you read?” he asked.

“I read action-adventure stories as most young boys will, some biographies too. But mostly I read a lot of science fiction.”

At this point we heard a snort of derision from a nurse who was following closely and eavesdropping on our conversation. She quickly opened the gap as if the conversation had somehow become unsavory.

I call this the Dangerfield Effect after the American Comedian whose catchphrase was, "I don't get no respect!" Paradoxically, generations of scientists, engineers, and inventors have attributed their interest in science and the “science of making stuff” to SciFi stories.

We all want people to love us and respect what we do. Maybe if we told the SciFi derisionists we wrote about sociology, political intrigues, the long term effects of public policy, and the role of technology in social change, we might get some respect. Maybe if we portrayed ourselves as the literary underdogs, or the little group who could... Maybe...? **Sigh** Maybe not. Rodney, I feel for you, man.

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What Would Your Robot Say?

6/26/2014

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Last August, I read that Kirobo, the first robotic astronaut arrived at the International Space Station. The doll-sized humanoid robot weighs about 2 pounds, speaks Japanese, and has been heralded as the first robot to speak in space. When powered up, its historic greeting was, “On August 21, 2013, a robot took one small step toward a brighter future for all," paying homage to Neil Armstrong’s moon landing speech.

While I understand and appreciate the sentiment behind the message, the SF fan in me wanted to hear something else. I would have been “over the moon” happy if the first words from a robotic astronaut were “Hello Dave” honoring instead, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick’s HAL9000 robot. After all, both Kirobo and HAL9000 have facial recognition, speech recognition, and natural language processing capabilities. Lest you think of HAL9000 only as the villain, the computer saved the day in Arthur C. Clarke’s 2010: Odyssey Two.

If you could write the first words a robotic astronaut would speak in outer space, what would they be? I would love to hear your responses.

You may be interested in the following SciFi Writing Topics…
6 Tech-based Writing Prompts
5 Books for Aspiring SciFi Writers

…and general SciFi articles.
SciFi Writers – The Shamans of Modernity
SciFi and the Dangerfield Effect
SciFi Authors and Editors as Agents of Change
What Would Your Robot Say?
What Were the First SciFi Stories You Read?
Earth Day – April 22, 2014

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SF Authors and Editors as Agents of Change

6/21/2014

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We all know about the technological links between science fiction and invention. Technologies from submarines to cell phones to the internet were first described in science fiction stories and engineers went on to build these devices. Identity theft, once the stuff of science fiction, is not fiction in today’s interconnected world. So yes, science fiction writers and their imaginations can be agents of change in our rapidly evolving technology-driven world. In the face of these feel-good emotions about SF, William Gibson has written that SF writers can’t predict the future and they certainly don’t get it right all the time. While he certainly has a valid point, SF writers do present a number of technological possibilities that sometimes become self-fulfilling prophesies. Computer scientist Alan Kay, is quoted as saying “the best way to predict the future is to invent it."

Less has been written about the role SF writers play in shaping how we feel about science and the future. Stories are powerful things and humans are hard-wired to learn from stories and storytelling. Good storytelling creates strong emotional hash tags that anchor actions and outcomes in our brains forever. If we really are what we consume, a storytelling diet rich in decay, despair, and the evils of science will certainly influence how we, as readers, perceive the world. For this reason, I tend to agree with recent comments and editorials from Elizabeth Bear and Neil Stephenson that we need more optimism in SF. Granted, we may be facing a chicken or egg dilemma on this one. Are we reading depressing stories because we feel we live in depressing times or do we feel we live in depressing times because we read depressing stories?

John Campbell and many other editors have shown that editors too, can be agents of change in science fiction and society. In my role as volume editor and Far Orbit anthologist, I was uniquely positioned to set the tone for the anthology. Rather than writing about my preferences for more optimism, I decided to pay people for their optimistic SF stories. It seemed like a win-win solution to me. The result is Far Orbit: Speculative Space Adventures – a new anthology that’s science positive, fun to read, and embodies many of the elements found in classic, Grand Tradition science fiction. Long story short, we put our money where our heart is.

I hope Far Orbit finds a place in your heart too.

Far Orbit is available in Paperback and electronic versions from
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Books-A-Million
Goodreads
!ndigo
Kobo
Independent Bookstores

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Call for Authors - Last Outpost

6 Tech-Based SciFi Writing Prompts

5 Books for Aspiring SciFi Writers

SciFi Writers - The Shamans of Modernity

SciFi and the Dangerfield Effect

What Would Your Robot Say?

SF Authors and Editors as Agents of Change

@BascombJ

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Call for Authors - Last Outpost

6 Tech-Based SciFi Writing Prompts

5 Books for Aspiring SciFi Writers

SciFi Writers - The Shamans of Modernity

SciFi and the Dangerfield Effect

What Would Your Robot Say?

SF Authors and Editors as Agents of Change

​@BascombJ

Archives

Categories

@BascombJ