A new result from astronomers who have spent years peering toward the center of the Milky Way has led to a startling conclusion: there may be billions of Jupiter-sized planets wandering the space between the stars, unbound by the gravity of a parent sun. In fact, there may be nearly twice as many of these free floating planets as there are stars ( Read more... )

One of my favorite blogs (Gin and Tacos) spends a lot of time harping about how baby boomers have basically enjoyed all the fruits of the post-WWII generation and left nothing for those of us who came later. That we all will be lucky to find full-time jobs with pensions while they'll all be enjoying their cushy retirements and, if the GOP gets its ( Read more... )

Three days after the death of Osama bin Laden, Sarah Palin's official twitter page posted this:


( Read more... )

I've got a lengthy post brewing about the American right wing's ghoulish clamoring for the release of the photos of bin Laden's corpse, what's motivating it and how it relates to the fantasy genre (there's an angle, I swear). But I'm pressed for time at the moment so I'll go ahead and give the TL; DR version now: some of us wish we lived in a bad ( Read more... )

Create a new human-esque race and describe it as thoroughly as possible. Be sure to describe appearance, culture, values, beliefs, etc.

Their sun is a red dwarf, much cooler and smaller than the star we refer to as 'the' sun, and so its planetary goldilocks zone is much closer than that of our own solar system. Thus their world is tidally locked ( Read more... )

So the person on whom I based the antagonist in my main fantasy project is dead. I'm surprised. I was sure he'd been dead for years.

I've always thought he was a fascinating figure, radicalized by a perfect storm of religious ideology and short-sighted cold war policy. In my story the bin Laden stand-in is a preacher for a people caught in the ( Read more... )

Evgeny Denikin and Carolyn Thaller did not depart for the Scattered Disc intending to irrevocably change human civilization but that was what happened. It was a mission by Spacecraft Enceladus to Eris for two working-class astronauts who had yet done little of distinction in their brief careers. They were there partially as glorified repairmen, ( Read more... )

So Kippurbird posted an opening line for a story she says she'll probably never write and it got me to thinking about opening lines in a more general sense. I've spent far too many hours staring at a blank computer screen trying to think of a perfect and memorable opening line. I realized I could recite my three favorite opening lines nearly ( Read more... )