Love in the Time of Starships: Foxhole Romance, Raygun Shenanigans, and the N-Ring Circus (Veronica Scott, Kris Rusch, Lois McMaster Bujold)

Posted on January 12, 2015 by epbeaumont
  • Veronica Scott. Wreck of the Nebula Dream
  • Kris Rusch (writing as Kris DeLake). Assassins in Love
  • Lois McMaster Bujold. A Civil Campaign

For better for worse, or: nothing is more romantic than a shipwreck

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, a protegee of mine loaned me the film ‘Titanic’ to watch (on VHS, which tells you how long ago this was).

My partner and I watched it together; the part we replayed was actually the ship rats splashing down the corridor. My partner commented in the persona of young rats watching at home: “Hey, there’s Uncle Lennie! Yeah! He really did make it big in Hollywood!” Tape number 2, in which things get real, elicited from me the comment, “That’s got to be the worst day at work ever.”

At the end of the film, my partner said, “I believed that love story because they stood up for each other.” Continue reading →

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Weekend Writing Warriors: Sunday 11 January 2015 (NaNo 2014 WIP Romance with Rayguns)

Posted on January 11, 2015 by epbeaumont

From earlier in the story: Hernan and Taryn have evaded capture and stowed away with the cargo for an interstellar supply run.

***

No longer quarry, Hernan could now serve Taryn’s role as hunter.

Free-fall.

They felt the acceleration, on the fourth day. It increased till he felt lead weight on his chest, felt the webbing sway under them, but not give way. If he didn’t mistake the signals over the comms, they were entrained to the orbital tender; there was the blast-off, the rig of rockets, and then inertia was on their side, fine-tuned by thrusters, until they reached the Great Yard where another set of voices took over, Sarronny accents and Sarronny songs ringing through the comms as the Ship coupled to the cargo rigs. Deep under the surface of conscious thought, the story of disaster told itself: the coupling failed, and they drifted, lost forever, as one system after another failed, and they died in darkness.

But the clear, no-nonsense voices rang out, the humans alongside the AIs, to say that the coupling was secure, all atmospheric systems were go, and they were set to leave the planetary orbit of Karis.

What he’d only read about, what he’d hoped to accomplish at last in the company of his love.

***

From NaNo 2014, untitled romance with rayguns.

Weekend Writing Warriors offers a selection of eight-sentence excerpts from many different writers. For the full selection, see here.

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Cover Reveal: The Lost Pissarro (forthcoming publication this week!)

Posted on January 10, 2015 by epbeaumont

Last night, finished the semi-final edits on The Lost Pissarro and commended my brainchild to the final reader (QA and continuity). This story, currently at 28,000 words, will be published some time this week!

2014-11-26 LostPissarro-v1-9 5x8 CoverThe Lost Pissarro: A Tale of the Great Change

In a New York where unicorns and werewolves roam Central Park, struggling painter L. A. (Angie) Stavros thinks that she’s found a gig as an art forger. Instead, she’s become a conduit for lost paintings to come back to life, and that’s just the beginning of the complications.

You can read excerpts from the first-draft version here on this blog. It’s a magic-realist exploration of identity and authenticity, rooted in art history and the craft of the art forger.

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Love in the Time of Starships: Reading as Writer & Fan (Ann Leckie, Imperial Radch series)

Posted on January 6, 2015 by epbeaumont

Ann Leckie. Ancillary Justice and Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch)

Other works mentioned:

Laila Lalami. The Moor’s Account
Salman Rushdie. The Enchantress of Florence

Reading as a writer, I: the totally original idea (not)

I definitely came to the Imperial Radch series as a writer . “Ooh, someone else is writing sentient starships?” and then stayed for the awesomeness, and the horror. Continue reading →

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Weekend Writing Warriors: Sunday 4 January 2015 (NaNo 2014 WIP Romance with Rayguns)

Posted on January 4, 2015 by epbeaumont

They dozed, comfortably entangled, sticky and pleasantly sore.

“It passes the time,” Taryn said at length. “And so very delightfully.” She yawned and wriggled closer.

“Traveling companion,” Hernan said in reply, “very interesting way to think about this. Nowhere near the pomp and circumstance of ‘clan-marriage,’ with all the prestige and property and propriety and perquisites, not to mention the tiresome in-laws.”

“Well, if Evil Uncle’s the in-law in question, I wouldn’t wonder you feel that way.” Taryn stretched luxuriously.

***

From NaNo 2014, untitled romance with rayguns.

Weekend Writing Warriors offers a selection of eight-sentence excerpts from many different writers. For the full selection, see here.

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Writer Tech: Interview with Becca Patterson about Writing through Hard Times (141K in November)

Posted on January 1, 2015 by epbeaumont

Welcome to 2015! In honor of the New Year, I’m kicking off a series of posts about Writer Tech, both technique and technology. 

Since technique (how we use the tools) is more important than technology (the tools) this first post is an interview with my friend and colleague Becca Patterson aka mreauow (on National Novel Writing Month and Twitter). During November 2014, Becca wrote over 141,000 words and completed two novel projects. Today I interviewed her about the methods she used to keep writing through a very stressful time. Continue reading →

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Goals: 2014 round-up, 2015 goals

Posted on December 31, 2014 by epbeaumont

It’s a bright clear bitterly cold Minnesota afternoon as I write this. I’m reading the round-ups for 2014 from colleagues around the world.

As usual I accomplished both less and more than I set out to. Continue reading →

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Love in the Time of Starships: Kinship, Families of Affinity, and Grand Passions

Posted on December 29, 2014 by epbeaumont
  • Aliette de Bodard. On a Red Station, Drifting
  • Alexis Hall. There Will Be Phlogiston
  • Julio Alexi Genao. When You Were Pixels

How I met these authors and their work

Aliette de Bodard’s work was listed on the RequiresHate blog in a list of recommended authors. On a Red Station, Drifting was the first of her works that I read. My beta-reader TruantPony was researching Chinese folklore and the history of the famous civil-service exams at the same time, for a fanwork in progress.

I first met Alexis Hall’s work via the witty cover designs for the Kate Kane paranormal mystery series, which use sly art-historical references to communicate “stylish lesbian noirish detective!” The designer, Kanaxa, is the same cover artist that my long-term writing buddy Devin Harnois uses.

Julio Alexi Genao I discovered via Hall’s website. Continue reading →

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Weekend Writing Warriors: Sunday 28 December 2014 (NaNo 2014 WIP Romance with Rayguns)

Posted on December 28, 2014 by epbeaumont

“Well, it’s not been T-7 leaving those mines for us,” Taryn said. “That lot doesn’t have starships; they’ve poured all they have down the rat-hole. Or the singularity, I should say. Pouring it down the rat-hole at least feeds rats.”

“The singularity?”

“I thought you were the best and brightest. The Court of the Labyrinth. Palace guard, secret police, forty-to-the-power-of-forty layers of repression, spies spying on the spies spying on the spied-on, who mind you have their own network.”

***

From NaNo 2014, untitled romance with rayguns. Taryn explains to Hernan the reason behind her diplomatic mission.

Weekend Writing Warriors offers a selection of eight-sentence excerpts from many different writers. For the full selection, see here.

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Love in the Time of Starships: part zero, the manifesto

Posted on December 22, 2014 by epbeaumont

Over the last few years, there have been doctrinal ructions over “purity of genre” in the SF/F world, with definite gendered and racialized intent, not coincidentally as those other than white males have become both visible and visibly successful in SF/F.

Romantic/erotic, relationship, and/or community themes apparently corrupt “hard SF” — particularly if the folks writing them are women, people of color, GLBT folks. Let’s not forget that “genre” and “gender” are two faces of the same thing: subdivisions of the world, often on arbitrary lines. Continue reading →

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