Fantasist's Scroll

Today is William Gibson’s Birthday!

For those of you who have been hiding under a rock, or have been freshly cloned, William Gibson is the primary progenitor of the cyberpunk movement. He’s generally credited with coining the term “cyberspace” and popularizing a somewhat more realistic, if somewhat bleak, view of the future.
He also ran away to Canada in 1968 to avoid the draft. Which is the only bad thing I can say about him. I otherwise admire his work and thought processes. Certainly his literature is beyond compare. I admire his work very much and occasionally will reread some of his short stories, just to capture the feel of his prose.

Anyway, celebrate his birthday with a little science-fiction in thanks for what he’s done for the genre.

Specifically, fantasy writer’s reference articles.
So, the other day, while I’m looking for something totally different, I find Fantasy Fiction Factor – Fantasy Writing Articles for Fantasy Writers. WOW! This is an absolute treasure trove of ideas and suggestions and “gotchas” for fantasy writers. They hit everything here from fantasy animals to forms of government to making magic systems to an article on real horses. Some of this, of course, is pretty common stuff, because writers have to deal with it all the time, but some of it I haven’t seen anywhere else but here. So, it’s well worth a look. You never know what might inspire you!

For a change, this isn’t one of mine!
Though there are several generators here at Fantasist.net, including a title generator, today’s Friday Fun Link comes from off-site. This one arrives via a link on the excellent blog, Shaken & Stirred, and is called, simply, Fantasy Novel Title Generator.

Yeah, that’s it. What do you want from me? It’s Friday and I’m working, even if you aren’t, so just click the link and leave me alone!

It’s the birthday of one of the most prolific writers of the 20th century, Isaac Asimov, who was born in Petrovichi, Russia in 1920. He came with his family to the United States when he was three years old and his parents opened a candy shop in Brooklyn. Issac grew up to become a professor of biochemistry at the Boston University School of medicine and in 1950 he published his first novel Pebble in the Sky.

About the same time Asimov took part in writing a textbook for medical students and he found that he loved explaining complicated things in ordinary language, and so he set out to write about science for the general public, in language they would understand. He said, “Little by little my science writing swallowed up the rest of me.”
Asimov developed a regimen of working ten hours a day, seven days a week, producing between two and five thousand words a day. Asimov’s method was to write a book about any subject that interested him but which he didn’t fully understand. He used writing as a way of teaching himself about everything.
By 1970 Asimov had written more than a hundred books and he began branching out into areas other than science. He wrote about nuclear physics and organic chemistry, history, Greek mythology, astronomy, religion, in addition to his collections of limericks, mystery novels, autobiography and science fiction. By the time of his death in 1992 he had published more than 400 books.

Mostly, these apply to fantasy, too.
David Alexander Smith, a member of SFWA, has written a fine article about things to think about and watch out for while writing speculative fiction. Honestly, though, these are all things that any good writer in any genre should be doing. Certainly, writers of speculative fiction (ie. fantasy and science-fiction) have certain special considerations, but, for the most part, good writing is simply good writing. And, that’s what Mr. Smith has outlined in his article, a short list of 23 things to keep in mind while trying to write good fiction.
I know, I’ll be going back to this article on a regular basis!

Today is the birthday of two very important science-fiction writers.
The first is science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick, who was born in Chicago in 1928. He wrote many novels that pushed the edge of science-fiction a little further out, making room for the cyberpunk movement to follow him. Some of his work includes Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Minority Report (which is a collection of short stories), We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (another short story collection), and A Scanner Darkly. Since his death in 1982, many of his novels and short stories have been made into movies, including Blade Runner (1982), Total Recall (1990) and Minority Report (2002).

It’s also the birthday of the science fiction novelist Arthur C. Clarke, who was born in Somerset, England in 1917. He’s the author of many science fiction novels, including Childhood’s End, 2001: A Space Odyssey(which was written in the year of my birth!), and Rendevous with Rama. He is also famous for inventing the concept of the communications satellite.

Robert Sheckley died on Friday.
I just saw the news today via BoingBoing, but I felt it was important enough to mention. Sheckley was the master of science-fiction comedy and commentary in a single form. The 10th Victim was one of the best books I’ve ever read, and not just because of the infamous brassiere-gun, and even is credited for spawning the Assasination Game, among other things.
He was a wondeful author and will be missed.

Well, and fantasy, too.
I recently read a very good article about religious and spiritual belief and how that fits into science-fiction and fantasy fiction. The article was really an interview, in slightly modified form, with award-winning author and well-known Mormon, Orson Scott Card. (You can read the article here: SciFiEditor.com.) The article brings up some very good points about why religion is often left out of modern fantasy and science-fiction, namely that the SF and Fantasy “Establishment” are practitioners of American Intellectualism, which “rebels” against religious thought and belief. I think he’s quite right in that regard. Also, I agree that such a view is quite unrealistic, considering how widely spread religious beliefs actually are in the world and how deeply they effect our culture and planet. Look at both the Crusades and the current political unrest in the Middle East. Indeed, in many places in the world, political strife is a direct result of conflicting religious beliefs and methods. As important as these factors are in our real world, can we afford to ignore them in a created world? I don’t think so.
In any case, I highly reccomend reading the article if you plan on writing speculative fiction of any kind. Religion in such settings is a very important, but overlooked, topic.