Category science fiction
My First Solo Author Reading
Last week I gave my first solo reading. And it was in person. I hadn’t done any public reading since my short story collection came out, but that hardly mattered. There’s a huge difference between being given five to ten minutes with a bunch of other authors and having to fill an entire hour by […]
Setting: A Sense of Place
Have you ever been on a cruise? I’ve only done it once, a small-ship cruise in Alaska’s Inside Passage. The ship had about a hundred tourists and we were able to go into smaller coves and closer to the glaciers than the big Princess ship we saw a few times along the route. The contrast […]
So, Back to Writing
I’m reading a very cool book, In Search of the Canary Tree, by Lauren E. Oakes. It’s early yet, and in it she’s just starting her Ph.D. research project analyzing yellow-cedar forests on an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeast Alaska, near Sitka. What does this have to do with writing? I’m enthralled by […]
Is It Bad for a SF Writer To Be Unimpressed by the Webb Telescope?
The long-awaited first images from the James Webb* Space Telescope were revealed the other day. Would it be heresy for this writer of science fiction to be meh about them? After all, I just released a novel about, well, space exploration. But like much of what I like to read, it’s about more than that. […]
In a Word: Endurance
I’m pretty bad at coming up with titles for my stories, but I love discovering the meaning of titles in other works so should use that as a lesson. One of my favorite books is A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra. The title is a little off-putting. Long, weird. It’s about the aftermath […]
Opening Endurance
My wife once asked me what I like about writing. Depending on the day, like today as I struggle with a scene, I’d say not much. To describe writing as frustrating completely understates the feelings you have when you a) can’t think of what to write about, b) can’t remember that great idea you had […]
Worldbuilding
Each morning, when the weather is nice, I sit on my porch and eat my snack while my second cup of coffee perks. It’s now late June. The yard looks lush and at peak greenery. The mountain laurel are flowering—white and pink snowballs covering the bushes. The smaller sheep laurel dots the surrounding green with […]
Last Endurance Excerpt #19
She worked the buttons, responding as Ani called out instructions. The ship slowed then stilled. Random items continued to ricochet around the bridge. Gravity was off. The red flashing lights switched to yellow. Whatever had breached was sealing itself. The life support siren quieted but echoed in Lyn’s head as she caught her breath, frustrated […]
Endurance Excerpt #18
As Lyn waited for Ani to get to the window, she heard from her first officer. “Franklin to the bridge.” “Randall here, Marc. Where are you?” “In my quarters.” His cabin was the farthest aft on the Bridge Deck, next to the muster area known as the Paddock. A loud thunk came through the link […]
Endurance Excerpt #17
That left manual backups, or Lyn’s mind link. Last resort, but with shipwide failures, it might not work anyway. She pulled herself along railings to the command seat and strapped in. The vibrations had stopped but she could feel every whip and lash as the ship yawed and spun. She lifted the manual console from […]
Elaine Burnes 