In not unrelated news, YouTube's Jill "the sword lady" Bearup has started a second series of author+main character stories, this time in a sci-fi setting: "Just Space Me Now".
I loved Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones." They were one of several influences on the first story I submitted to Raconteur, "Red River Boots" in Moggies Back in Space. No orphans in that story. 🙂
I continually fight this battle against Hollywoodized science fiction. When I tell people I write sci fi but not military, space opera, time travel, alien invasion (i.e. thinly veiled fear of Other), or the other common categories on vendor sites, the response (even from other writers!) is a head tilt and, "well, then, what *do* you write?" It saddens me that those of us writing literary sci fi can't find readers and readers looking for it can't find us. I've written multiple substacks driven by this topic.
You're absolutely right. One series of prospective fiction I can remember having a variety of tones and stakes, book to book, was the Vorkosigan Saga by Margaret McMaster Bujold. Some of them ended with space-battle, save-the-world stakes, while others were smaller and quieter; Miles himself is additionally supported by a loving family when he's at home, and his parents are adorable and so in love with each other (they have a few novels in which they star). The issues the series tackles are extremely far-reaching and interesting, and it's always good at letting you know what the stakes are... whether they're civilization-ending or not.
I write military sci-fi, and we have a very big world over at Starship Valkyrie, with a huge history, though I am extremely interested in the homefront and domesticity--what the foods are like, what homelife is like, what medical care is like. That's the sort of stuff I've been tackling since I started writing WHAT REMAINS, which is ten military cyborgs basically in residential therapy, moving from being bitter and alone to well and reintegrated. My ultimate goal was to get the main characters to homelife with kids, but the story also just has a more personal and slower paced feeling. It's kind of a medical sci-fi/romantic sci-fi, I suppose, and meets that same need for slower and more personal stories I want in the genre.
I saw on my Amazon search history that there was a spate of quests for "Cal Primer" and the book you referenced, but not apparently successful ones. Could you possibly be more fulsome in your reference to that? Thanks!
I suggest most of "Pam Uphoff" "Wine" stories; as well as Alma Boykin, especially the 'Familiar' Stories
Alma’s books are excellent. I don’t think I’d have categorized Pam’s as small stories!
In not unrelated news, YouTube's Jill "the sword lady" Bearup has started a second series of author+main character stories, this time in a sci-fi setting: "Just Space Me Now".
I loved Heinlein's "The Rolling Stones." They were one of several influences on the first story I submitted to Raconteur, "Red River Boots" in Moggies Back in Space. No orphans in that story. 🙂
I continually fight this battle against Hollywoodized science fiction. When I tell people I write sci fi but not military, space opera, time travel, alien invasion (i.e. thinly veiled fear of Other), or the other common categories on vendor sites, the response (even from other writers!) is a head tilt and, "well, then, what *do* you write?" It saddens me that those of us writing literary sci fi can't find readers and readers looking for it can't find us. I've written multiple substacks driven by this topic.
You're absolutely right. One series of prospective fiction I can remember having a variety of tones and stakes, book to book, was the Vorkosigan Saga by Margaret McMaster Bujold. Some of them ended with space-battle, save-the-world stakes, while others were smaller and quieter; Miles himself is additionally supported by a loving family when he's at home, and his parents are adorable and so in love with each other (they have a few novels in which they star). The issues the series tackles are extremely far-reaching and interesting, and it's always good at letting you know what the stakes are... whether they're civilization-ending or not.
I write military sci-fi, and we have a very big world over at Starship Valkyrie, with a huge history, though I am extremely interested in the homefront and domesticity--what the foods are like, what homelife is like, what medical care is like. That's the sort of stuff I've been tackling since I started writing WHAT REMAINS, which is ten military cyborgs basically in residential therapy, moving from being bitter and alone to well and reintegrated. My ultimate goal was to get the main characters to homelife with kids, but the story also just has a more personal and slower paced feeling. It's kind of a medical sci-fi/romantic sci-fi, I suppose, and meets that same need for slower and more personal stories I want in the genre.
I saw on my Amazon search history that there was a spate of quests for "Cal Primer" and the book you referenced, but not apparently successful ones. Could you possibly be more fulsome in your reference to that? Thanks!