Writing Science Fiction: A Toolkit of Links

When you start to write a science fiction story, assuming that the science is important to you, it's often good to have some handy online references for your research.

For example, if your story involves a star in the sky blowing up and a mad scramble for everyone to get to cover -- wouldn't it help to do some research and discover that the nearest star to the Earth aside from the sun is Proxima Centauri? And wouldn't it be good to know the distance (approximately 4.2 light years)? And that if you're seeing it in the sky, the event happened a little over 4 years ago? And that you shouldn't be describing the sound of the star's explosion because, not only does sound travel slower than light, it doesn't carry at all in space.

Even if you're nodding because you knew all this, you brilliant reader you, it doesn't help to double check right? Here then is this week's list of useful science fiction links.

Wikipedia - No brainer, right? And yes, I know that any one can edit this "free encyclopedia", so yes, one should take some of the data on this with a grain of salt. However, pertinent articles usually have good links to other reference sites, making wikipedia visits useful enough to mention.

Grading SF for Realism - Not a science resource per se, but a useful page that helps explain what hard science fiction is, and helps define the degree of science "hardness". It helps authors grappling with the problem of plausibility by coming to terms with the level of scientific accuracy they'd like to achieve.

Project Rho's Atomic Rockets - A must read for anyone interested in writing about space ships and space combat in the science fiction genre (and perhaps even in the science fantasy genre). Aspects of rocketship science, design, and problems are explained clearly, with some occasional dips into heavy science-speak and mathematics.

Time Dilation Hurts My Head

When trying to create a Science Fictional faster than light drive, even assuming that you can handle the "breaking physics as we know it" aspect, you normally still have to deal with time dilation.

It's a pain because it messes up logistics, which is key for things like -- oh say -- military planning. If time moves faster for people on the ship that people off that ship, or if two ships moving at different near-light speeds try to coordinate with people who aren't anywhere near light-speed -- ah, forget it.

Gotta come up with a cool name that sounds like "hyperspace".

Jeanne Cavelos and the Pleasures of Science Fiction

Jeanne Cavelos -- director of the Odyssey Writing Workshop, bestselling author of seven books and numerous short stories and articles, and winner of the World Fantasy Award -- has an intriguing post about the Pleasures of Science Fiction. Go there and read it, then come back.

For those you who weren't reading closely, she lists the following pleasures:

• Pleasure 1-Recovery
  

Recovery -- a term coined by the late, great J.R.R.Tolkien in his essay "On Fairy-Stories" -- is an after-effect of being immersed in a fictional reality. According to Tolkien, it allows one to "regain a clear view" of the truth of reality. After reading a book or a short-story, we look at our reality with new eyes, with an altered perception.


For me, this is certainly true. All of my favorite SF novels have given me "fictional reality hangover", normally requiring a mental gearshift in order to adjust to the 'real world'.


However, there must be at least one fundamental truth that resonates in the text. Otherwise, it is the equivalent of wearing x-ray specs or filtered lenses -- your perception is merely altered but you see nothing truly new.

• Pleasure 2-Escape
  

Escapism is common criticism leveled at SF in general. It's nice to see SF authors 'own' this term and tout it as one of the principal reasons to read SF.

• Pleasure 3-Cognitive engagement
  

Say what? I take this to mean "science fiction makes you think", and will simply agree.

• Pleasure 4-Exposure
  

This is not a cruel practice mean to cut down the number of children. This refers to the therapeutic method of exposing someone to their fears.

I prefer to think of this as a mind-expanding practice of exposing people to new ideas, new principles, and new frameworks of understanding (and thus feel this is very close in spirit to Pleasure 1) -- especially ones that are unfamiliar and threatening and maybe even terrifying.

• Pleasure 5-New insights into the human condition
  

Hm. Very well, though I think all good literature should have some element of this. I suppose that SF's primary contributions are exploring macro-level impacts on the human condition, as well as some radical changes to the status quo of the human condition.

A common theme here is showing how "even in the future, we're still fundamentally human", which is comforting and perhaps in some cases true. It's rare to see books that deal well with radical shifts to human culture and the human condition -- enough to make us wonder if the characters are even human anymore.

Call For Submissions - Philippine Speculative Fiction V

Editors Nikki Alfar and Vin Simbulan are now accepting submissions of short fiction pieces for consideration for the anthology "PHILIPPINE SPECULATIVE FICTION V".

Speculative fiction is the literature of wonder that spans the genres of fantasy, science fiction, horror and magic realism or falls into the cracks in-between.

1. Only works of speculative fiction will be considered for publication. As works of the imagination, the theme is open and free.

2. Stories must cater to an adult sensibility. However, if you have a Young Adult story that is particularly well-written, send it in.

3. Stories must be written in English.

4. Stories must be authored by Filipinos or those of Philippine ancestry.

5. Preference will be given to original unpublished stories, but previously published stories will also be considered. In the case of previously published material, kindly include the title of the publishing entity and the publication date. Kindly state also in your cover letter that you have the permission, if necessary, from the original publishing entity to republish your work.

6. First time authors are welcome to submit. In the first four volumes, there was a good mix of established and new authors. Good stories trump literary credentials anytime.

7. No multiple submissions. Each author may submit only one story for consideration.

8. Each story’s word count must be no fewer than 1,500 words and no more than 7,500 words.

9. All submissions must be in Rich Text Format (.rtf – save the document as .rft on your word processor) and attached to an email to this address: nikkialfar@gmail.com. Submissions received in any other format will be deleted, unread.

10. The subject of your email must read: PSF5 Submission: (title) (word count); where (title) is replaced by the title of your short story, without the parentheses, and (word count) is the word count of your story, without the parentheses. For example – PSF5 Submission: Meeting Makiling 4500.

11. All submissions must be accompanied by a cover letter that includes your name, brief bio, contact information, previous publications (if any). Introduce yourself.

12. Deadline for submissions is October 15, 2009. After that date, final choices will be made and letters of acceptance or regret sent out via email. Target publishing date is February 2010.

14. Compensation for selected stories will be 2 contributor’s copies of the published anthology as well as a share in aggregrate royalties.

Kindly help spread the word. Feel free to cut and paste or link to this on your blogs or e-groups.

Booklaunch: A Time For Dragons

At long last, A Time For Dragons is out!

According to Vincent Michael Simbulan, this book is a collection of new dragon stories by Filipino authors to present the dragon in new and inventive ways, and renew and refresh the dragon for a more sophisticated and mature audience. The kickass cover and all interior art is by Andrew Drilon.

Here's the Table of Contents:

"Glass" by Nikki Alfar
"Dragon Brother" by Cyan Abad-Jugo
"The Annotated Account of Tholomew Mestich" by Elyss Punsalan
"The Clockwork Dragon's Heart" by Vincent Michael Simbulan
"Moondown and Fugue" by Alexander Drilon
"Gunsaddled" by Alexander Marcos Osias
"Lex Talionis" by Paolo Chikiamco
"The Final Tale of Zhang Bai Long" by Elbert Or
"A Fishy Tale" by Apol Lejano-Massebieau
"Johnny Tatô and the Dragon of Pasig" by Joseph Nacino
"Capture" by Gabriela Lee
"3:30pm with Sir Galahad" by Kate Aton-Osias
"A Change of Guards" by Oscar Alvarez
"The Fossil" by Angelo R. Lacuesta
"A Little Knowledge" by Dominique Cimafranca
"The Bridge" by Yvette Natalie U. Tan
"Fallow's Flight" by Dean Francis Alfar
"Dragons Among Us (Essay)" by Charles Tan

And here are some pictures of the launch:

Me:
My Wife:
Authors & Editors (the RPG):

Food for Thought: Writing for the Young Adult market

I visited Locus Magazine's site and found Cory Doctorow's July article concerning the Young Adult (YA) market. I was reading through it and found the following paragraph:

Writing for young people is really exciting. As one YA writer told me, "Adolescence is a series of brave, irreversible decisions." One day, you're someone who's never told a lie of consequence; the next day you have, and you can never go back. One day, you're someone who's never done anything noble for a friend, the next day you have, and you can never go back. Is it any wonder that young people experience a camaraderie as intense as combat-buddies? Is it any wonder that the parts of our brain that govern risk-assessment don't fully develop until adulthood? Who would take such brave chances, such existential risks, if she or he had a fully functional risk-assessment system?

Perhaps this is why some books that we read in our adolescence resonated so strongly with us - they struck a chord that resonated with the issues and difficulties that we faced, consciously or subconsciously. I know that the stereotypical SF/F adolescent power fantasy would certainly resonate with these youngsters - is that an untapped local market here in the Philippines?

On Speculative Fiction, Science Fiction, and Genres

A lot of blogtalk recently on the Alfar publication "Philippine Speculative Fiction" such as the use of the term "Speculative Fiction", the separation and merging of various genres, and even the need for genres as well.

It's good that people are expressing their opinions, discussing these topics, and arguing for their own points of view regarding the matter. So, rather than maintain my own silence (and fighting my desire to place bets from the sidelines), I'll throw my hat into the ring for some of the topics discussed:

1. Why the term "Speculative Fiction"? Dean himself has mentioned that it was a quicker term to use than constantly listing the various genres and sub-genres that fall underneath it. While Dean has listed Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Magical Realism, Interstitial Fiction, Slipstream and (oh crap I think there was one other one, but I'm not sure), if you want a more exhaustive list, here's one definition (yep, like Science Fiction, there are many definitions) of Speculative Fiction (that may or may not be followed by Dean) from the Internet Speculative Fiction Database:

Speculative fiction is defined to include:

science fiction, including works:
- set in a future that is now in the past
- that deal with technological advances that were futuristic at the time they were published
fantasy fiction
alternative history
utopian fiction as long as it is recognizably fiction and not a treatise
non-genre speculative fiction
fabulations
magic realism
slipstream
proto-science fiction, including but not limited to:
- lost world tales
- fantastic voyages
- scientific romances
- pre-historic romances
- future war stories
- the older the book, the more likely we are to include it even if it is borderline eligible. This is caused by the fact that there were relatively few Works published prior to 1800 and by the difficulties with distinguishing between speculative and non-speculative fiction (or even fiction and non-fiction) when you are dealing with pre-1800 Works
the supernatural (with an inclusionist bias), including but not limited to:
supernatural horror
ghost stories
gothic novels with supernatural elements
occult fiction

Yep, that's pretty long. And controversial to be sure. I wonder where "mundane science fiction" falls here.

Then again, one of the originators of the term Speculative Fiction (I'm referring to Heinlein here), posited it as an alternative to the term Science Fiction. Interestingly enough, Science Fiction was only one of the early terms used to name the genre, other runners-up included "Scientific Romance" (an early winner, particularly for the era of H.G. Wells, but it fell into disuse) and "SF" and "S-F" and "SciFi" (a term much reviled by true Science Fiction fans) and "Scientifiction" (coined, I believe, by Hugo Gernsback).

I seem to have digressed. Anyway, if you have a better term, go ahead and use it and see if it sticks.

2. On the opposition to the blurring of genre divisions, I just have this to say - the definitions of the big three mega-genres of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy, and horror) have been debated and redefined across the years, so trying to say that something does or doesn't belong to a particular genre really depends on how well you argue and how broad or narrow your definition is... and how many people actually buy your argument and definition.

3. On the cross-polination of genres - it's already been done, and it's still being done (not just here, but internationally), and folks don't care as long as it's good. One of the earliest novels claimed by Science Fiction under its banner is also claimed by Horror. If you can guess which one that is, you win a no-prize.

Can anyone out there name any Science Fiction / Horror short stories or novels? Or Fantasy / Horror ones? Or Science Fiction / Fantasy ones? I know I can. If you don't like it, that's a matter of preference on your part -- I know certain members of the LitCritters who really hate it when Fantasy novels that they are enjoying turn out to be Science Fiction novels, but would NEVER presume to tell people not to write it.

4. On the perennial cry to dispense with any labels and just call everything fiction, I have two responses: I agree and disagree.

On the one hand, I agree with the belief that genre / sub-genre should not be a barrier to writing a good short story or a good novel. This is because I believe (as should be clear from my response to issue #3) that cross-genre stories enrich fiction rather than detract from it. This is because I believe that genres are artificial, arbitrary, and notoriously elastic categorizations.

On the other hand, being forced to read the back cover blurb of every fiction book out there just to figure out if it's the type of book I want to read can be a real pain. I already do that when I'm looking for a Science Fiction novel or a Fantasy novel or a Horror novel or a Mystery novel, and it's a major headache (especially with hardcovers, which can have a tendency not to have any sort of blurb explaining what the #$(*&!@ thing is about). If there weren't any categories, I'd probably bitch and moan and do what some people do now - go online and browse there, search using tags, filter using tags, read recommendations, and then try to find the I think I want in bookstores or online.

On the gripping hand (Science Fiction reference here, any takers?), I don't think my opinions will stop bookstores and book publishers from categorizing books any which way they feel like, so, I'll just stop right here.