July 2021

Celebrating Diverse Creators

This month’s shoutout goes to FIYAH Literary Magazine of Black Speculative Fiction.

Their current submission theme: LOVE, DEATH & ANDROIDS is about to close July 31st, so get in quick!

I’m excited for their next edition featuring a collection of short stories from Black Authors on the theme above. Keep an eye on their issues page for that release and in the meantime, purchase #19: Sound and Colour to get you through.

Also, FIYAH and LeVar Burton are excited to bring you the first ever LeVar Burton Reads Podcast Writing Contest! Submissions for the Origins and Encounters theme open August 1st.

LeVar Burton has the most magical reading voice, please indulge yourself and give his podcast a listen. Your ears and mind deserve it.

If the submission guidelines above fit you, be sure to submit and let me know so I can watch for your stories and share your work!

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Sci-Fi Novels

Recently Read

I’ve now finished The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku which was as fantastic as I thought it would be. It explores current, coming and future technologies in regards to the brain and consciousness in simple, straightforward language that anyone can enjoy. I highly recommend all of Kaku’s works, though I lean toward his newer novels to see where we’re at right now.

Also read Aliens: Bug Hunt edited by Jonathan Maberry, who collected 18 brand new stories set in the Alien universe to bring us this combat heavy, gore-ridden, excitement fueled anthology of complex characters and their encounters with aliens. I loved Dangerous Prey by Scott Sigler, which was written from the POV of a Xenomorph. Fantastic stuff! The reader gets right into the alien’s head with this one and can feel its connection to the hive and the deep driving instinctual urges. What a ride.

Now Reading

I’m currently reading We, Robots: Artificial Intelligence in 100 Stories, edited by Simon Ings. This collection is huge, the kids keep calling it the bible (but I’m pretty sure it’s bigger). The stories range from the mid 1800’s right through to the modern stories of 2010+ and are organised by theme, i.e. Robots and their creators, consciousness etc.

I’m enjoying it thoroughly, I love experiencing the classics, there’s something that the innocence of pre-modern technological times inspired in writers back then. There’s a vision of unlimited potential seeded within those stories that’s compelling and everything I strive for in sci-fi. While in my own, I blend that potential with current technology and its coming advancements to craft stories that could be real one day.

I’m also reading Hunting the Corrigan’s Blood by Holly Lisle, which is a modern, multi-planetary, far-future sci-fi, with deep and complex characters, doing things that you and I can relate to, while trying to tackle huge corrupt corporations. It’s fun, and the worldbuilding is inspiring.

I love how Holly creates, which is why I’ve purchased all her writing clinics, and her fiction writing exceeds expectations. My other favourite of hers is Enter the Death Circus, of which I’m yet to see the world and culture building matched in any fiction, anywhere.

Check out this link for a preview of chapter one.

CW: gore, death, kidnapping, psychosis, a few others I may have missed. All the good stuff. It’s full on.

With the Kids

The kids and I recently finished The Fallen Hero by Katie Zhao, sequel to The Dragon Warrior. We loved every moment of it. The fast paced plot, the friendships, the strong protagonist, the conflicting themes, the deep dive into Chinese culture. All of it. However, we didn’t realise it was going to be a trilogy! We are now eagerly awaiting the release of the third, that’s for sure.

In the meantime, we’re making our way through some picture books the kiddos have lined up. First up is The Cat with the Coloured Tail by the late Australian author Gillian Mears. A haunting story of love and kindness and loss. I’ve read this before with the kids, when they were very little, and it never left me. Our oldest vaguely remembered it and in her love of cats requested I find it again. I’m glad I did – I’m forever thankful to all libraries everywhere. This book is a powerful example of complex themes written for children, in a way that adult novels cannot achieve.

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Current Projects – Novel & Anthology

This month I completed my plot card stack, with a total of 74 scenes. I’ve started writing out the first draft following the plot cards and have already smashed through 20,000 words in a little over 3 weeks, around the kids, homeschooling, and compiling a flash fiction anthology.

As you may know from previous updates, this is my first time writing to an outline, and it has been a dream.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a shit-tonne of work that goes into the plot to begin with, but I prefer this over scrapping tens of thousands of words at the end after I’d just spent months wracking my brain to get those words to fit in the first place.

Outlining. It’s for me.

Will keep you posted.

Oh! Right. The flash fiction anthology. Yes, I’ve given myself a second project using Holly Lisle’s free How to Write Flash Fiction that Doesn’t Suck course. Try it. You won’t regret it.

The aim of the course is to get writers of any skill level to craft a collection of readable, effective short stories they can begin to sell immediately. If you’re looking to build your passive income, I highly recommend all of Holly’s classes.

How are your writing projects going?

If you don’t write, what creative projects are you working on?

We’re all a little bit creative, we’ve just gotta drag that little sucker out of hiding.

Also, if you have recommendations for my next Diverse Creators shoutout, please do let me know!

Leave your answers and thoughts below. I respond to each and every comment here on my website. Otherwise, pop over to the contact page and send me an email.

I love to hear from readers and writers of all kinds and can’t wait to chat.

For now, remember to:

Explore, create, repeat-

Then thrive.

© 2021 Rebecca Glaessner

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