5 Black Science Fiction/Fantasy Authors Everyone Should Read
It’s been a while since I’ve done a list like this, so I thought this list would be a great way to get back into them. The following are five black authors I think everyone should read, even if only once: 1. Octavia ButlerDefinitely a favorite with me, Butler is the author of some of the best science fiction novels to come out of the era following the Golden Age, rivaling even the greats of the pre-social-revolution period. From Parable to the Sower to her Xenogenesis series, Butler has captivated readers everywhere with her brilliant examinations of the human condition. If you haven’t read her work, you should, and I’d recommend her stuff to anyone who happens to like speculative fiction, even if science fiction isn’t your thing; her work is sort of universal. 2. Tananarive DueAuthor of one of my favorite short stories, “Like Daughter,” Due has captured in so few words some of the most pressing issues of our time, from cloning to the lack of Black “heroes” in fiction. She even works with Blair Underwood, if you believe it, and that’s pretty cool in my book. Fantastic writer and definitely worth reading. 3. Samuel R. DelanyOne of the best literary critics and science fiction/fantasy writers of all time, Delany has a knack for philosophy, world building, and downright in-depth storytelling. His critical essays on science fiction are particularly interesting, in case you’re into that stuff. If not, check out some of his best science fiction works such as Dhalgren or Babel-17. 4. George SchuylerAuthor of Black No More, probably one of those novels you should read even if you’re not a science fiction reader, Schuyler has had a rather strong career dealing with issues of color, humanity, and much more. Black No More is a poignant social commentary on the culture of “whitening” (or creation of products to de-black African Americans so they could fit in) that gained prominence during the early 1900s. Definitely worth picking up. 5. Nalo HopkinsonRecognized as an author who draws upon her Caribbean roots, Nalo has had a brilliant career in the fantasy/cross genre world, writing such greats as Brown Girl in the Ring and working with Uppinder Mehan on the collection So Long Been Dreaming. I’d recommend her works if you like softer science fiction or crossover work, particularly Brown Girl in the Ring, which begs a lot of questions about organ donors in the future and the nature of culture and magic in a dystopic setting. And there you have it. What do you think are some must-read black science fiction authors? Particularly I’m thinking of authors who might not be so clearly labeled as fantasy or science fiction, but the names are escaping me at the moment. Feel free to tell me in the comments! I know I’m missing some folks!
SF/F Links: the Sorta-Bimonthly May Batch
Well, I’ve got quite a lot of links to share with you all. So here goes: Here is some excellent advice on how to take criticism from Copy Write. Great article from Larry Niven on making up words in SF/F. This is a bit old, but I like it: 11 literary references people make without realizing it. I don’t agree that all of them are unknown, but it’s a good list nonetheless. Want to flood the world and see what will happen if Global Warming melts all the ice? Well go no further than here! I’ve used this site for a couple short stories, actually. This writing site is really quite cute. I thought it was for kids at first, but really it’s just using cute monster things to further the writing agenda, which is awesome. Old Bat’s Belfry talks about how she uses social networking for her blog. Might be of interest to some of you out there who are blogging or are interested in it. Also from the author of Old Bat’s Belfry (Mulluane) comes this awesome Squidoo lens that highlights all the twitter feeds for various authors, book bloggers, etc. in the SF/F community. I’m in it, in case anyone is curious (and you can certainly vote me up the list to make me feel more awesome than I already do). I’m not sure how legal this is, but here is a program that allows you to download books from Google Books. The Book Publicity Blog asks whether email is outdated. I don’t think it is, what about you? The Big Bad Book Blog has an awesome list on how much money authors make, along with some nifty sales figures and other interesting stiff about publishing you might want to know. Job Profiles has a list of 50 open source resources for writers. A lot of really nifty stuff there that you might want to check out. Book Giveaways: Books By Their Cover has an enormous giveaway of books. Too many to list here. Go check them out! S. Krishna has a collection of 5 books to give away for Asian American Heritage month! Check it out! Fantasy Dreamer is giving away a copy of S. J. Day’s Eve of Darkness. ScifiGuy has a copy of Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carrey to give away. Reviewer X is giving away a copy of Saundra Mitchell’s Shadowed Summer (a debut novel!). Also of interest is Saundra’s publishing story, which I think is a neat feature over at Reviewer X. Suzanne McLeod is giving away another copy of her new book The Cold Kiss of Death. That’s it for this batch. Enjoy!
Five Oft-Repeated, But Invaluable Writing Tips
I’m not making this list with the intention to simply repeat what everyone else has said, but to offer some notes of advice that I know personally to have worked. Perhaps you can take something from my personal experiences with these tips that you wouldn’t have been able to get from the myriad of repeated versions of the same thing all across the Interwebs and in books. Here they are: Read a LotTo avoid the vagueness of that statement, I’d like to clarify this to mean that you should read “a lot” based on your own pace. We all can’t read twenty novels in a week, so don’t feel bad if it takes you a couple weeks for a 300-page book. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t stop reading.Reading can drastically improve your craft. It has for me. And read outside your comfort zone from time to time. I’m lucky in that I am in college, and thus exposed to a lot of writers I probably would not have read before. The result is that my writing has changed for the better; I can actually see the differences in how I write, what I write, and the quality of what I write. Show Your Work to OthersGetting critiques does actually work. While you don’t always get great advice, you do often find mistakes your critical eye failed to discover. My writing has drastically improved as a result of this and I find that I experiment more and more with style as a result. Write FrequentlyThis shouldn’t be misconstrued as to mean you should have a writing schedule. I find that advice that demands that you write every day only works for people who have that sort of creative brain. But you should write often. Don’t fall into the trap of “Well, I don’t have time.” You do have time, and if you’re in the mood to write, then do it. Writing often has not only improved my craft, but also created more of a drive to write, which I, unfortunately, have to sometimes ignore in order to get other more important things done. Write What You LoveI don’t write what the market wants. I write what I find interesting. This really should be the cardinal rule, but unfortunately it’s been superseded by that bastard “Show, Don’t Tell” one. Trying to write to the market is not only stupid (because the market constantly changes), but really rather pointless. When you force yourself to write a certain thing, it shows. Just write what you like. ExperimentThere’s no logical reason why you shouldn’t try to push the limits and try new things. Your writing will benefit enormously from pushing yourself to fiddle with style, grammar, and words. Perhaps one of the most profoundly important lessons I learned, as my writing has drastically changed from simply trying new things. You should too. You don’t have to write like everyone else! And there you have it. Any pieces of advice that you took that helped you in your writing? What were they? Let me know in the comments and if you like this post, feel free to tell your friends about it or stumble it (or something). Thanks!
SF/F Links: More Early May Stuff
Well, I have many more links. Not much more needs be said. Here goes: From a Sci-Fi Standpoint has an interesting post about why science fiction shouldn’t be seen as an avenue to teach us science. I don’t know if I entirely agree, but it’s still interesting. This is by far one of the coolest things I have seen in a while. It’s called Greater America News and it’s essentially a fake news site set in the future. It’s not completed, unfortunately, but it has a whole bunch of videos highlighting terrorist attacks on a space elevator, and a whole load of other things. You should check it out. Tis awesome and genius. Want to see where popular science fiction and fantasy writers work? Well, go no further than here. Identity Theory has an article on how to read rejection letters. I completely agree. Interested in some interactive maps of war? Well, this site has some in-depth maps showing the various steps during some of the biggest wars in history. Might be worth a look. And now for some book giveaways: Booking Mama has a set of Patrick Carman’s Atherton Series to give away. Suzanne McLeod is giving away a copy of The Cold Kiss of Death. Reviewer X is giving away Prophecy of the Sisters by Michelle Zink. You can also find a neat publishing story by Ms. Zink here. And here is the cover for Cindy Pon’s Silver Phoenix:To add, here is a pretty cool book trailer for the same book as above: You can find more about Silver Phoenix and the giveaway going on here. Prizes include an Amazon gift card! And I think that’s all for this!
Another Literary Meme
(Stolen from Sophie’s World)Well, here’s another literary meme. No other introductions necessary. Here goes: 1) What author do you own the most books by?Probably Poul Anderson. It’s possible I own more of someone else’s books, but I doubt it. 2) What book do you own the most copies of?Either 1984 by George Orwell or Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. Not sure why the last one, as that’s not really one of my favorites, but I have this thing for collecting multiple versions of the same classic. Or I did, anyway. 3) Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?Not really. I tend to not let things bother me much anymore. It makes life easier. Except for annoying people and the Republican Party (right now, anyway). 4) What fictional character are you secretly in love with?I do quite like Pepper from Tobias Buckell’s work (Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose), though, but there’s no love there. 5) What book have you read the most times in your life (excluding picture books read to children; i.e., Goodnight Moon does not count)?1984 by George Orwell. I think I’ve read it five times. I can’t remember, though. I used to read it once a year, but I stopped that. 6) What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?I have no clue. I don’t remember being ten years old. I have terrible memory. 7) What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?It would have to be The First Mother’s Fire by W. L. Hoffman. Could get past the first chapter, to be honest. The cover art was impressive though… 8) What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?Since this doesn’t designate publishing date, I can actually point to books that were written before 2008 that I read last year and loved. The best one? I think Spaceman Blues by Brian Francis Slattery takes the cake, although there were a lot of amazing books last year that I read, including Sly Mongoose by Tobias S. Buckell, The Golden Cord by Paul Genesse, Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale, and much more! 9) If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?I’m not sure. I don’t like forcing people to read books. I’m fond of The House of the Stag by Kage Baker right now, so I’d probably implore people to check that out. 10) Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?Not someone who wrote a bunch of boring books that nobody read. I don’t know who should win, though. Whoever it is, it should be an American, because the bastards at the Nobel committee are openly biased. Maybe Thomas Pynchon? 11) What book would you most like to see made into a movie?If you could turn a Tobias S. Buckell book into a movie, I’d be happy with that. I think Ragamuffin or Sly Mongoose would translate best, to be honest. Crystal Rain is good, but I don’t think Hollywood movie-goers are smart enough to figure out that it’s actually a science fiction book set in a fantasy-ish setting. 12) What book would you least like to see made into a movie?Anything by some author who has been dead for over a hundred years unless it’s Homer, or the folks who wrote Gilgamesh. I’m sick and tired of Jane Austen and yadda yadda. It’s old and overdone. 13) Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.The weirdest dream I can remember involved zombies, but that has nothing to do with a writer, book, or literary character, since I get most of my zombie inspiration from the movies. Still, the dreams are usually vivid right up until I wake up, and I always wake sweating and terrified, because it’s pretty intense in those zombie dreams. Oh, and I always end up leading mankind against the zombie armies and I assume we win… 14) What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. Although, to be fair, that’s not really a lowbrow book, per se. 15) What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?I’m assuming this means a book that I liked enough to finish it. I’m not sure, to be honest. Looking back, I have to say A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess was one of the most difficult books I have ever read. It was interesting, but difficult. 16) What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?I’ve never seen a Shakespeare play. 17) Do you prefer the French or the Russians?The Russians. Sorry to anyone who is French, but croissants aren’t enough to make you better than the French. 18) Roth or Updike?Haven’t read either, so I’m going to stay out of it. 19) David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?Same as above. 20) Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?Milton. I can’t understand Chaucer and Shakespeare is way overdone. 21) Austen or Eliot?Eliot, but I’m kind of tired of Austen. 22) What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?I don’t know if I have an embarrassing gap. I don’t read romance novels, mostly, particularly Harlequin romance. I guess the biggest gap that might be construed as embarrassing, or that I should be embarrassed about, is that I am not well read in the classics. That’s mostly because I really don’t like most of the classics. This has a lot to do with having the stuff crammed down my throat in high school. 23) What is your favorite novel?1984 by George Orwell 24) Play?Andorra by Max Frisch 25) Poem?Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats 26) Essay?Right now I’m really fond of “African-American Women’s History and the Metalanguage of Race” by Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham. 27) Short story?Call Me Joe by Poul Anderson 28) Work of nonfiction?I have no idea. 29) Who is your favorite writer?This implies that I’ve read multiple novels by the same author. Right now it’s Tobias S. Buckell, but I am also
Literary Meme: 50 Bookish Facts About Me
Stella Mutatina had a post not too long ago about the very same thing and I thought I would steal it for my blog. Anyone wanting to do this for their blog is welcome to. Call it a meme or simply something random and entertaining to do! Here goes: My favorite book of all time is 1984 by George Orwell. I’ve finished one novel, which is posted here (called The World in the Satin Bag). I have two novels in the works, with another I abandoned long ago (a historical fiction novel set in WWII). I have more unfinished work than finished work, which proves that I’m a very bad writer indeed. I’ve read a lot more fantasy novels than I have science fiction, yet I talk more about the latter. This is probably due to the fact that there isn’t a lot of science fiction meant for young adults, so most of the genre reading I did when I was younger happened to be variations of horror (in the fantastic vein) and fantasy. I’ve slowly begun to find literary fiction more interesting, although not all of it and only pieces that have some sort of unreality to them (magical realism, or slightly strange stuff). I consider literary fiction that pays too much attention to its language to be the mark of a pompous writer. Salman Rushdie would be a prime example of this, even though I wrote my senior paper on Midnight’s Children (it was sort of unavoidable). If it isn’t already obvious, I believe that science fiction and fantasy are the best genres of fiction in existence. Period. End of story. The Legend of Huma by Richard A. Knaak is the first full-length, high-fantasy novel I ever read and it also happens to be one of my favorites. I absolutely love books. The result of this is that I have more books than I can possibly read unless I retire and spend the rest of my life reading, which won’t happen for obvious reasons. There are few smells that I think are to die for. Pne of them is that “new car” smell and the other is the smell some new books have (not all, obviously, since some smell like feces, but some smell so good they’re addictive). I’m notoriously stubborn when it comes to my writing. I’m working on it and improving, but I suppose the first step is admitting it. Someone very close to me who isn’t just a friend loves books as much as I do, but reads far more than I do and makes me feel horribly guilty as a result. I have a stack of magazines (one of the ones from UC Santa Cruz) sitting on one of my bookshelves. I intend to eventually bring it in to school to distribute, but I’ve been surprisingly lazy on that front. I rarely read books based on recommendation. I’ll often read them if I ask for a recommendation, but if someone simply tells me something is good, I’m not likely to get to it, at least not for a while. Referring to #15: I also will officially ban a book from my reading list if someone repeatedly pressures me to read it. I cannot stand being pressured to read a book, because it ruins the reading experience for me. Referring to #15 and #16: I will almost never read a book that gets a lot of hype (that I’m aware of). This is why I probably never will read Twilight or the myriad of other super popular books out there. I read Harry Potter because I liked the first movie, not because everyone said it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think prose that is intentionally too simple is sh*tty prose. Prose should never be too simple. Referring to #18: Of course, I also hate prose that is intentionally overly complicated. That’s just as sh*tty as overly simple prose. I believe that books were handed down to mankind by a god (not a Abrahamic one or any god mankind currently knows about; I suspect it’s a god that doesn’t exist, which is far more interesting when you think about it). All the talk about reading declining and yadda yadda is a load of bullsh*t and the people who spout that nonsense know it. Do your research; you’ll know this just as well as I do as soon as you know the facts. I’ve read most of the Bible more than once even though I’m not religious. Not sure why that matters, but thought it was worth mentioning. I have a giddy reaction when I get books in the mail that I didn’t order (like when I’ve won books or a publisher has sent me one). Books with ragged-edged pages are my favorite. They remind me of old books for some reason. I have a strange love for writing in third person present. I don’t know why, it’s just fascinating. I happen to have twenty-one movies on my DVD rack that are adaptations of novels or short stories. Granted, some of them are terrible adaptations, but that’s besides the point. If you want details, leave a comment. I have a really old mythology dictionary my grandma gave to me that is one of my most prized book possessions. I hardly ever use it, but I love the thing so much. It’s just…old and wonderful and probably the best mythology dictionary/encyclopedia I’ve ever seen (I think it’s primarily Greek and Roman, though). I have ten college readers that are non-returnable and non-resellable because they are printed by the college and not re-used…ever. Some of them I will find uses for in graduate school, others will eventually be recycled when I have the guts to get rid of them. Last year I was a judge for the Gaylactic Spectrum Awards in the novel category. It was an awesome experience and I hope to do it again one day. I am co-owner of a website for young writers called