What did you blog about today?

[The Big Peat]

A breakdown of the opening scene in Rainbow Six

 

[Bick]

At Vince's suggestion: added BSFA and Arthur C. Clarke award lists.

 

[Vince W]

A bit of an overview of what I found interesting on the webs this week. I hope to do this more regularly.
Things and Places of Interest to Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans – 20 November 2020

 

[Bick]

Some very appropriate comments about Chrons and Wertzone and also very gracious comments on my site, thanks.

 

[Vince W]

Some very appropriate comments about Chrons and Wertzone and also very gracious comments on my site, thanks.

It's very deserved. I find it very inviting and easy to read.

 

[Rodders]

Thanks Bick. Saved.

 

[Bick]

I concluded my selective read through of 2014 Analog, and made some comments on differences in quality and awards to 1970's and 80's Analog here.

 

[Vince W]

I concluded my selective read through of 2014 Analog, and made some comments on differences in quality and awards to 1970's and 80's Analog here.

Great reviews, Bick. Some interesting conclusions about the overall quality of Analog's modern output and the dilution of the pool of available talent and stories. I wonder if the advent of self-publishing is part of the problem as well. Authors used to prolifically send stories to magazines in order to be noticed by publishers, now people who self-publish focus on that and only look at the magazines as an afterthought.

 

[Bick]

Yeah, self publishing may not have helped, I agree. But it the main, I think it’s a shift in the writing/submission habits of the best SF authors. If you think of the best selling names in SF (and they are best selling because they are very good at what they do, in the main) how many submit short stories to the old print magazines anymore? Scalzi, Reynolds, Bujold, Weber, Hamilton, Gaiman, Tchaikovsky, Robinson, Leckie, Corey? Back in the day, authors of this stature published their short fiction in one of only a few magazines, and often in Astounding/Analog. The writers I listed never do now.

 

[Vince W]

Could that not also be a measure of how successful authors in the science fiction field can become. These authors regularly get on bestseller lists, in the 80s that was nearly unheard of. It hardly seems worth it for them to publish short fiction at a few pennies a word.

 

[Bick]

Added a review of The Shrinking Man, and also a short piece introducing a list of Women in SF, in the recommendations section, an area that may have appeared overlooked on the site.

 

[Bick]

Added a piece (with map) on Asimov's New York homes, from growing up, to his final residence. You can find the map and comments on the bottom of the Asimov page of my website.

 

[Vince W]

Added a piece (with map) on Asimov's New York homes, from growing up, to his final residence. You can find the map and comments on the bottom of the Asimov page of my website.

That is a very interesting map, Bick. I've seen similar ones for Philip K. Dick.

 

[Vince W]

An un-review of Ernest Cline's Ready Player Two, a book I haven't read yet.

Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player Two” – An Un-Review

 

[Bick]

I added a short feature on Gordon R. Dickson, following a serial I just read of his in 1973 Analog (which I'm also going through and reviewing here)

 

[Biskit]

The Mind Size - a flash fiction for the #BlogBattle writing prompt Minature.

 

[The Big Peat]

Moved my blog address

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

 

[Vince W]

Moved my blog address

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

The think about Dick is if you understand everything that's going on, you don't understand everything that's going on.

 

[AE35Unit]

Some winter trees!
Winter Trio

 

[The Big Peat]

Getting away with convenient character decisions – Eddings’ Guardians of the West