What do writers of f/sf read?

It's not surprising to me that they sometimes read out of their field:

• Tim Powers (The Anubis Gates and The Skies Discrowned) recommends Robert Heinlein's 1941 short story, "By His Bootstraps": "I couldn't have written 'The Anubis Gates' if I hadn't read this. Anyone who has written a time travel story in the past 50 years could say the same."
• Rebecca Moesta (Young Jedi Knights Series) chooses Isaac Asimov's 1951 short story, "The Fun They Had": "It was cautionary for me. I highly recommend it."
• Anne McCaffrey (Pern Ser... [More]

Yep, getting back to it. The "it" being writing and my pursuit to get published. The software consulting project I was involved with for the past so many months is over, I just finished Robin Hobb's Renegade's Magic, and things are just getting back to normal all around. So normal, in fact, that I actually found some time to work on the first revisions of the rough draft of my second novel over the past weekend. I didn't make much progress, but I've started the process, and it feels good.

Also, I've dropped most of the pitch concerning my first novel, The Hall of the Wood. It's still in my fiction se... [More]

Interesting debate on Helium concerning whether or not the fantasy genre has stagnated.

I'm in the "No, it has not" camp. There's plenty of fresh writing going on--George R.R. Martin, Ellen Kushner, Steven Erikson, Scott Lynch, and stalwarts like Robin Hobb who always seem to break stereotypes and keep me guessing as to what's going to happen next. These are not the sort of writers who use such tropes as dark lords and elves or dwarves--that's a lesson unto itself for budding writers--but who rely on more meaningful devices to keep their readers interested--intrigue, suspense, characterization.

Sometimes you... [More]

New F/SF Magazine blog.