Hi, I thought this might be useful for people:

"Xenology - An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization" is the almost complete, free online version of a comprehensive resource book for sci-fi writers and other interested people. It's from the 1970s, so the science isn't entirely accurate anymore ( ( Read more... )

 

I would love some suggestions for a story that I'm plotting. This is a near future setting where the protagonist is a history student. For the setup of the story, I need her to research a historical figure or place that an entire society uses as an identity touchstone. This needs to be a situation where if she can disprove a cultural assumption it ( Read more... )

I'm writing a novel that starts off in Baltimore, MD 1923 and will eventually move to Philadelphia (thanks to some WONDERFUL help from LD on another post -- seriously, thanks all) and during the research process I sort of fell in love with the whole Harlem Renaissance movement.  It actually led to me realizing that I really didn't have enough ( Read more... )

My story is present-day. It takes place in a university town where there isn't very much to do so even the non-goth kids hang out at the big graveyard in town so they can drink, carouse, whatever. (I think this is Ripon, WI, but haven't decided for sure yet ( Read more... )

Setting: Modern day Washington State small town in the mountains, with magic ( Read more... )

I have another question for the same story; googles firing squad + blindfold, but anything I could find was stating that a blindfold was used, but not why, or people answering the same question with "Well, I think this is probably why, but I don't really know ( Read more... )

This is--probably more a matter of opinion than fact ( Read more... )

This is a back-to-front sort of query, so I hope it’s on-topic for here ( Read more... )

Character A is a male in his late forties, high on the smarts and low in machismo, scared of everything, and something of a shut-in. For the purposes of my fic, he's currently in a poorly-defined relationship with Character B ( Read more... )