I don’t understand how people just read one genre, like bitch imma read about magic and dragons and then go over here and read about space and then mayhaps I will venture into the present timeline and read about someone in a city I recognize going through stuff I understand like The Social Media and then I will hop back over to the 18th century because I love me some corsets and relentless gossip from society bitches
Most authors take years to write a trilogy, @emeralddodge who wrote one in under a year and has already begun a new series, is an outlier and should not be counted.
What I would really like to see (or be) is an author who can do for science fiction what Lewis and Tolkien did for fantasy.
I don’t mean to write a grand sweeping space epic with an allegory in it. Even if it was set on a space ship, the genre of such a story would still be fantasy.
Fantasy was once considered pagan, and still is by some people, but it was “converted”, if you will, by taking the elements of the genre such as symbolism and supernatural powers and making them Christian. But the thing is, symbolism isn’t the hallmark of the sci-fi story, so it would be a mistake to think you could make a “Christian sci-fi” story by inserting Christian symbolism. You have to actually work within the boundaries of the genre, which is something that I rarely see Christian writers do for sci-fi. Ted Dekker is a great example of how not to do this, since almost all his supposed sci-fi stories rely heavily on symbolism. This comes off heavy-handed and just weird in this genre.
No, the hallmark of sci-fi is posing difficult philosophical questions. And then answering them. Exploring ethical dilemmas or dangers that could potentially be real life. If you wanted to Christianize science fiction then what you would have to do is try to answer these questions from a Christian point of view. If the fantasy genre is perceived as pagan than the sci-fi genre is perceived as atheist, since it is usually atheists or humanists answering the questions in the stories, but they don’t HAVE to be.
This is what I was attempting to do in Copper (the automaton with a human soul) and what Julie Rollins did in her (very edgy) stories discussing ethical issues, which were a big influence on me. For example one of them was about a woman who, in a parallel universe, had an abortion, and another one was about a society where clones are raised to harvest their organs, but considered to not be alive since they’ve never been conscious. I’d love to see more of this sort of thing and if anyone knows of any authors who are doing this sort of thing please let me know.
Can we please not? Tolkien and Lewis did so much damage to fantasy for so long, it’s all built up on Christian bias and “Civilising the pagans” tropes. Sci fi is about the boundaries and social commentary on current world through analogy, we don’t need one of our few outlets dragging into the christianisation and homogenisation of the world. Fantasy is only just getting over this now.
Someone better at wording what I mean, please take over, because this is just wanting more problematic sci fi pushing harmful doctrines… (Such as the heavy handed anti-abortion stuff).
I am a Christian, so you’re not gonna sell me on the idea that Christian doctrines are problematic, and certainly not that Tolkien and Lewis, the fathers of modern fantasy, “damaged” the genre. Sorry.
Tolkien, Lewis, and Godawa improved fantasy, you’re just too cowardly to see you’re own depravity.
👏👏👏
“Tolkien and Lewis did so much damage to fantasy”
Yeah the heavy-handed Christian science fiction & fantasy has to go but the heavy-handed atheistic science fiction & pagan fantasy stuff … that’s OK.
Um, wat.
I mean, the whole point of His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman was to kill God. If that’s not heavy-handed …
And I loved Arthur C Clarke as a kid but since the whole point of Childhood’s End was to leave behind the religious aspect of society and move on with science (which is apparently inherently atheistic), it strikes me as ignorant of history & human nature.
Christians have been using speculative fiction to tell stories for centuries. Read A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Shakespeare.
Damage? Really?
Someone’s not reading the really good stuff.
Honest question, are we considering Lewis’s Space Trilogy science-fiction or not?
Reading about abusive men and the way they think. Very unsettling and an incredible book so far. Here are my very professional notes.
what book is this?
This is from “Why Does He DO That” by Lundy Bancroft.
I’m so glad I’m seeing more and more Lundy Bancroft quotes on my dash because this book CHANGES THE LIVES OF ABUSE VICTIMS.
The programs run for rehabilitating abusive men through the courts? Bancroft DESIGNED THEM. His programs are replicated ALL OVER THE WORLD. He literally wrote THE book on abuser rehabilitation.
Can we talk about how it seems like the entirety of the book is online on PDF, this making it accessible to anyone with an internet connection?
That is how we stop abuse.
We enable everyone to know what it looks like, so that when it happens, they can shut it down.
Arm yrself with knowledge!
Changed my life, would reccomend.
Reblogging for the PDF link.
—BB
Always reblogging because this isn’t just a partner abuse thing, this is a common abuse tactic PERIOD: Parents, siblings, bosses, general assholes, etc…
Pretty sure I’ve reblogged this like eight times, don’t care.
“Always reblogging because this isn’t just a partner abuse thing, this is a common abuse tactic PERIOD: Parents, siblings, bosses, general assholes, etc…”
I spent the afternoon arranging our books by size and color (and it’s so satisfying and looks amazing) and my partner came home and stared in shock at the bookcase and then said “i’m a librarian, you can’t do this.”
him: you split up all the song of ice and fire books
me: yeah i know, they’re all primary colors, it’s perfect
him: [self-destructs]
You’re a monster
As a former bookstore employee, this hurts my soul. I mean, sure it looks nice, but how do you find anything?
it has occurred me during this process that apparently not everyone thinks about books by what color they are? like, literally when i’m looking for a book, i picture it in my mind. i have a very…tactile experience with the books i read and idk! i thought everyone did that lol.
my partner was like “how will i find [this book] for instance” and i replied “easy, it’s purple” and he looked at me like i was a witch.
I need me a superhero or “Chosen One” kid who is homeschooled. Plenty of kids average about 4 hours-ish of schooling per day and go through subjects fast (if they understand the material), so just imagine how much more stuff a homeschooled hero can get done. And none of that trying to keep up with appearences stuff either. Sure maybe they’d miss out on a sports practice or homeschool co-op or date with friends but like??? That happens to anyone? Otherwise people are gonna assume they just home all day.
Are you frickin’ kidding me, best cover ever.
“So-and-so sure is late a lot…” “haha yeah homeschoolers and schedules ammiright”
“Why does he know so much about criminal procedures” “homeschoolers man, I think they have like a junior court or something in the area”
“That’s a flashy outfit” “ugh probably made it himself, one of the drawbacks of not having a student body to bully you”
^the homeschooled kid letting the gossip do its thang
Love this. And part of me sort of wants to see a situation where the kid *starts* homeschooling because of this superhero stuff. Like, “I can’t keep up with this schedule” and then the supportive parent is like “Okay then, don’t” and suddenly we have a teenage superhero with a healthy superheroing-life balance
Yes! This is so much better than the tired trope of “homeschooler is socially awkward and never knows how to interact with peers and is super sheltered.” Give me a homeschooled superhero for whom homeschooling is a strength, not a weakness. (Though you can show some of the difficulties as well, like having a weirdo fashion sense because you don’t really pay attention to what’s in style–just not the stereotyped ones that are so inaccurate they hurt)
*ahem* homeschooled superhero: freakin’ read Shannon Hale’s ‘Dangerous.’ It’s one of her least-known books and that is WRONG because I love it from the bottom of my heart in so many ways. Thank you, that’s all.
Hi, hello, my name is Emerald, and I’m an author. As in, I write books and sell them. Welcome to my TED talk.
Every once in a while, some Creature of Tumblr gets on their soapbox and says that pirating copyrighted books is a-okay because “nobody should pay for art.”
This tells me a few things about them: first, they’re a terrible person who not only is okay with theft, but they don’t even have the guts to admit it, and second, they have no clue how much work and money goes into writing a book.
“But but! Authors just write and submit their book to Amazon! It’s not expensive!”
Here’s a brief schedule of my professional expenses:
Cover: $400 (and that’s the low end for non-premade covers)
Mailing list subscription: $45/month
Editing: About $2000/book
Proofreading: $300 (this is often a different person than the editor)
Workshop subscription: $9/month
Formatting software: $250
Writing computer purchased so I could use formatting software: $1000
Website: $50/month
Costs for print-on-demand: $50 for each book
Buy-in amount for promotional giveaways: $50-$100 a month
Facebook ads: $10-$20 a day/campaign
Key promos like ENT and Robin Reads: $50-$100 each
ISBNs: ~$300/bundle
BookBoast: $10/month
BookFunnel: $15/month
Instafreebie: $20/month
And those are just the expenses I can think of off the top of my head. This isn’t counting what my buy-in expenses were for the boxed set. That’s a whole different kettle of fish.
A crapload of money goes into each title–and no, I’m not rolling in the dough. I saved up and budgeted so I could launch my career, and like most authors, I don’t have a lot to show for it at the moment.
My novels are not ~art~, they’re products of my time, energy, and resources, and if you’re going to use my products, I deserve to be compensated.
Pay for your books.
I’ve received some feedback on this post, some of which is to the tune of, “Well, what about [famous author]’s books? It’s okay if I pirate their books because they’re rich enough.”
My reply to that?
Did I stutter? Pay for your books.
Also, do you actually think the full $20-or-however-much-it-costs goes into an author’s pocket? How do you think the cashier at Barnes & Noble gets paid? The artist who designed the cover? The printing company who actually bound the damn thing? The editor? The 22-year-old at the publisher reading slush?
PAY FOR YOUR FREAKING BOOKS.
Honestly, if you absolutely can’t pay for a book, LIBRARIES EXIST AND MOST PLACES YOU EITHER RENEW YOUR LIBRARY CARD YEARLY OR PAY FOR IT ONCE AND DONE.
Piracy is NEVER the answer unless the question is “what should I never do?”
Wide Spread Interests 