Recent Comments
Categories
- Action & Suspense (4)
- Announcements (64)
- Business Side of Writing (1)
- Children's Lit corner (15)
- Community Voices (93)
- Electronic Age (30)
- Funny Stuff (21)
- General (1)
- Horror Shelf (3)
- In Verse (36)
- International Scene (11)
- Literary Views of Scripture (40)
- Mormon LitCrit (80)
- Mysterious Doings (22)
- On-screen (13)
- On-stage (34)
- Personal Narratives (25)
- Publishers Corner (27)
- SF&F corner (42)
- Storytelling and Community (70)
- Stuff of Romance (4)
- The Past through Literature (11)
- The Populist's Soapbox (25)
- The Writer's Desk (102)
- This Week in Mormon Literature (79)
- Thoughts on Language (15)
- YA corner (23)
Category Archives: SF&F corner
The Cranky Curmudgeon: Imagination Isn’t Everything
Maybe it’s an artifact of my odd reading selections, but in comparing classic works with many of the more modern stories I’ve been reading lately, I’ve noticed a trend toward highly imaginative (fantastic) settings with fairly simplistic philosophical underpinnings. It’s as if authors are selling out to cool visuals at the expense of challenging questions; as if pace is a substitute for substance; as if conflict is inherently interesting and requires no consequence.
I think I disagree. In fact, I’m pretty sure of it. Continue reading
Posted in Community Voices, SF&F corner, YA corner
21 Comments
Mentioning Mormons in science fiction
Before I turn to my subject, I just want to call attention to the Nebula Awards ceremony taking place this Saturday at 8:15pm EDT. Two LDS authors, Brad R. Torgersen and Nancy Fulda, are nominees. From what I understand, the … Continue reading
Posted in SF&F corner
14 Comments
LTUE Roundup
Last weekend, science fiction and fantasy writers and fans from Utah and beyond gathered for Life, the Universe & Everything (LTUE): The Marion K. “Doc” Smith Symposium on Science Fiction & Fantasy. After being held at BYU for 29 years, … Continue reading
Star Kvetch: The Next Generation; A Musing on Community over Time
Healthy communities are in a constant state of evolution, self-definition, and fundamental transition. This interaction of old and new ideas is critical to retaining meaning and relevance, at the same time that such evolution can be painful for those invested in their current incarnations. Continue reading
Imaginary Mormons
The first time I read Ender’s Game I loved it, of course, but I hated one very specific thing: Ender’s mom was Mormon. It bothered me, as a child, that Mormons could exist in a universe where Mormonism, as I … Continue reading
Writing the Future
I invented CDs when I was 12. To be fair, CD technology already existed before that, even if it wasn’t very common, and it’s not like I invented a working prototype or anything. What I did do was play a … Continue reading
Posted in Electronic Age, SF&F corner
4 Comments
Publishers Corner: Why Editors Have Claws
Guest post by William Morris Editors are evil. They’re monsters: vampires who suck the life out of your manuscripts; werewolves who tear your stories to shreds; zombies with vacant stares who repeat the same vacant phrases (Show don’t tell!) while … Continue reading
Posted in Horror Shelf, Publishers Corner, SF&F corner, The Writer's Desk
Tagged editing, Monsters and Mormons, William Morris
10 Comments
Boooooooks iiiiiiiiin Spaaaaaaaace! (Which is a better title than ‘Let’s Talk About eBooks for a While’)
Last week I took a walk through one of my favorite local bookstores: the Borders in North Provo, now going out of business and converted into a giant yard sale with a roof. The good news is, the store was … Continue reading
Posted in SF&F corner
11 Comments
