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Dreaming of Electric Sheep
Pareidolia was an exclusively human trait, until researchers taught a neural network to imagine animals in the clouds. Read more…
Review: Amazon Echo
When my Amazon Echo was delivered, I wasn’t sure what to make of this plain, black cylinder nestled in its plain, black box. But from the moment I asked it a question and the top lit up like my very own Knight Industries Two Thousand, I was hooked.
Read more…
An Epidemic of Cute
The 1980s saw an outbreak of an insidious disease that ravaged the entertainment industry: the plague of Muppetitis. Read more…
The Ethical Author
The Alliance of Independent Authors has always been a wellspring of useful information for aspiring and established authors, but their newest resource struck a particularly resonant chord for me. Read more…
The Nuclear Boy Scout
David Hahn was not a gifted student. At the age of 17, he lagged behind his classmates and struggled with his high school courses. But in his battered garden shed, Hahn set out to build a nuclear reactor. Read more…
Prose and Cons: Tiffanie Rushton’s Plagiarism Not an Isolated Incident
When sharp-eyed readers hunted for evidence of Tiffanie Rushton’s plagiarism, they found something more heinous than they ever expected. Read more…
Prose and Cons: A Plagiarist Faces the Judge
By day, Tiffanie Rushton teaches schoolchildren. By night, she steals authors’ work and sells it as her own. Now, this brazen plagiarist is being held accountable for her actions in Federal court. Read more…
Embracing the Apocalypse
From the oracles of ancient Rome to modern shows like Doomsday Preppers, history is littered with failed predictions about The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI, in prepper parlance). What’s the appeal of these apocalyptic fantasies? Read more…
Jimi Hendrix, Sci-Fi Fan
Few people know that Jimi Hendrix was an avid reader of science fiction, or that one of his most famous songs, Purple Haze, was inspired by a sci-fi novel. Read more…
Facebook Page Moderators, Stay Out Of Jail
I attempted to log on to Facebook today and discovered that I had received the Edmond Dantès treatment, unjustly cast into the Facebook dungeon and left to rot.
Sure, I was only banned for a week, but that didn’t stop me from voicing my displeasure with a few inventive epithets and some paint-blistering profanity.
You can avoid my sorry fate by following these seven simple rules. Read more…
Writers Aren’t Fortune Tellers…
Science fiction predicts the future with startling accuracy. Perhaps we should set up hotlines where you can call a sci-fi writer for $3.99 a minute. Read more…
Meet the Sarcastic Fringehead
When two sarcastic fringeheads battle for dominance, they expand their mouths and wrestle to determine which is the bigger fish.
Could there be a more perfect analogy for internet flame wars? Read more…
Read/Write: Spunk and Bite
The best authors use language as a playground, and Arthur Plotnik swings from those monkey bars with abandon. Read more…
Reality 0 — What We Can Learn From This Terrifying Experiment
Audience members were modest at first, repositioning her arms, using the items nervously…. Then they became more bold. Then they became aggressive. Read more…
Bok-Bok-Bockulus Rift
An assistant professor at Iowa State University has proposed a solution to the inhumane overcrowding of chickens in factory farms: virtual reality headgear that convinces the birds that they’re in a free range environment. Read more…
Zombie Apocalypse? The Pentagon is Ready!
The Counter-Zombie Dominance Plan is the DoD’s plan to counter an outbreak of zombies (Zombie Conditions, or Z-CONS for short). Read more…
Read/Write: Lexicon, by Max Barry
Readers enjoyed last month’s tandem review with author Corey Furman so much, I just had to invite him back for another round. Read more…
Predicting The Future: Women In STEM
According to one publishing expert, women accounted for only 22% of science fiction submissions.
Why is this a big deal? Read more…
The Bombardier Beetle
Meet the bombardier beetle, the bizarre and wonderful insect that brews boiling chemicals in its abdomen. Read more…
Read/Write: Book of Poisons
Like many authors, I’d probably be held for questioning if the FBI searched my bookshelves. My reference library includes books on knives, books on explosives, books on improvised anti-personnel devices, books on hacking computer security, and books on building nuclear devices in your bathtub. But I think the one book that would raise the most eyebrows at Homeland Security would be The Book of Poisons, by Serita Stevens and Anne Bannon. Read more…
Read/Write: vN, by Madeline Ashby
I enjoyed vN; it’s a lively cyberpunk action-adventure coming-of-age robot cannibalism story set in a world where synthetic humanoids — the Von Neumann androids — are built to serve man. Read more…
Language Is The Key To Being Alien
There is no aspect of a culture more pervasive and more influential than language. Language is a reflection of thought, and in turn influences thought. It separates us and unites us. And for writers exploring new species and new cultures, it ultimately defines what is alien. Read more…
The Untold Story
There is no agony like bearing an untold story inside you. — Zora Neale Hurston Read more…
10 Books I Loan To Friends and Never See Again
I’m a bit of a story evangelist. Throughout the years, I’ve cornered many a friend and, brandishing a dog-eared copy of a novel that’s caught my fancy, demanded to know if they have accepted the author as their prophet and savior. If the answer is no, I thrust a copy of the book into their hands with the stern admonition to give it back when they’re done, because it’s my only copy.
They rarely do. Read more…
The Future of Mind-Reading
In Spectra, researchers use a fictional device to read the patterns of thought and perception as they flash through the synapses of the brain. It’s mind-reading without the psychics… and now it’s becoming reality. Read more…
Tardigrade Vengeance
Tardigrades may only be one millimeter long, but they’re indestructible… and they’re pissed. Read more…
Read/Write: Structuring Your Novel
K.M. Weiland’s blog is a tremendous source of inspiration and practical help to aspiring authors, so it was with considerable excitement that we awaited the publication of Structuring Your Novel. Weiland did not disappoint. Read more…
Read/Write: 14, by Peter Clines
Peter Clines is a veteran of the film industry, and his love of pop culture is evident in his blog. That background is an incubator that gives birth to wonderful stories like 14. Read more…
Fiction is a Puzzle
As a wordplay enthusiast and puzzle designer, I’m often struck by the similarities between puzzle design and writing fiction. Both writers and puzzle constructors engage their audiences in a competition they have every intention of losing. Read more…
Elusive Dreams, Part 2
Dreams have sparked countless artistic breakthroughs, but to the author who sits at the keyboard struggling to squeeze a drop of creativity out of his or her parched brain, dreams can be one of nature’s cruelest taunts.
Three simple habits can help us to hold onto more of those details. Read more…