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Why SFF Mentorships Matter

Why SFF Mentorships Matter

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What do James A. Corey, George RR Martin, and Mary Robinette Kowal have in common? Like thousands of their peers, each had a mentor help them navigate the wild world of publishing in some way, shape, or form. For newcomers, that type of support can prove to be the difference between success and failure. Because, lets face it: there have always been plenty of pitfalls and scams waiting to ensnare the next talented writer. 

That support can involve a writing teacher offering key insight or a best-seller giving time and tips to an up-and-comer. No matter the genre, mentors remain as important today as it was decades ago. Among the more renowned programs that facilitate such an exchange is the Science Fiction Writer’s Association’s (SFWA) Mentorship Program.

Mere months ago, I had the opportunity to participate as a mentee in SFWA’s program myself. Here’s what made the experience, and the work of so many writers behind the scenes, so special.

Andrea Pawley may be the most recognizable  member of SFWA’s Mentorship Program but she’ll be the first to tell you about the remarkable team she works with. That hasn’t stopped her from being a bearer of good news for the hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of hopefuls who apply every year.

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Writing Advice: Creating Character (Red Sneaker Writers)

Writing Advice: Creating Character (Red Sneaker Writers)

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It’s been a year, so let’s look at another volume of William Bernhardt’s awesome Red Sneaker Writers books. These things are absolute treasures.

I started reading William Bernhardt’s Ben Kincaid books back in the mid-nineties. I seem to recall I went on a ‘lawyer’ kick and read him, Steve Martini, and Robert K. Tannenbaum, all around the same time. But years later, Bernhardt made a bigger impact on me with his Red Sneaker Writers series. These slim volumes with the brightly attractive colors are jam-packed with great writing advice. The first book I read was on story structure, and I think it’s still my favorite. Though every one has been both interesting to read and thought-provoking. If I ever get my act together, I’ll add “taught me a lot.”

I’ve read through a couple of them more than once, making notes on paper (I CANNOT highlight a physical book. I’m incapable of it). Last year, I decided to be a little more systematic and I went through EVERY title, be it Theme, Plot, Character – all of them: and I outlined the key points in each chapter. I printed them all out and have a very cool binder. Which, if I ever actually sit down and write a novel, will be of great use.

I sent one of the outlines to him, telling him that I’d like to include it in a Black Gate post, promoting the series. He kindly granted his permission. Today, it’s the third outline in this series.

I’m fortunate that many actual, real, Writers (note the capital ‘W’) with books you can buy on Amazon, or at bookstores (if you can find one that is still in business), are friends of mine. And they are FAR more qualified than I am to talk abut writing advice. I think I hold my own as a Black Gate blogger, and there are worse Sherlock Holmes short stories out there than mine (And certainly better ones!). But my unfinished novel is just a bunch of words strung together, until I finish it.

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We Are Not Commodities (Modern Marketing Scares Me)

We Are Not Commodities (Modern Marketing Scares Me)

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An old woman standing in an empty dorm points a shotgun at the viewer. On the wall behind her is scrawled the words “We are not things”
A still from Mad Max: Fury Road

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

You’ll have to excuse me as I’m currently on holidays, and the absence of the routine of heading into the office daily has thrown off my brain a little. Today, I wanted to muse about something quite personal to me. I had, for  quite a while, taken myself off most social media — I was still on Facebook a very little, and continued to watch YouTube videos — but the rest of them were used only to post a link to my blog post (such as BlueSky), or not at all (TikTok, looking at you). But I have since returned, albeit slowly and distantly.

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Back Into the AI Debate

Back Into the AI Debate

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Image courtesy of Pixabay, found under the “authentic only” search (not AI)

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

This post is going to be a little “old lady yells at clouds” today, so prepare!

With the news that Anthropic, the AI company behind Claude Chaptbot, was sued and settled for their large-scale theft of books in order to train its AI model, I have been reading a glut of articles both for and against the use of AI, specifically to write fiction novels. Naturally, not being AI (I swear!), I’m firmly against. The theft of creative works to train these programs, and the environmental damage required to get the up and keep them running aside (and those two reasons alone are strong enough, I feel, to abandon AI) I don’t think AI belongs in creative fields; some aids, perhaps, some tools, yes. But I don’t think creating AI that can “write” a novel is in any way valuable.

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Crafting Sword & Planet: Swords of Talera and Other Tales by Charles Gramlich

Crafting Sword & Planet: Swords of Talera and Other Tales by Charles Gramlich

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Strange Worlds, edited by Jeff Doten, containing the Sword & Planet tale “God’s Dream” by Charles Gramlich (CreateSpace, September 26, 2011). Cover by Jeff Doten

In 1998, my first novel Swords of Talera ran as a four-part serial in Startling Science Stories. It won the “Reader’s Choice” award for each issue it appeared in. The pleasure of having the book first published that way was sweet — the same way that Edgar Rice Burroughs, Otis Adelbert Kline, and Robert E. Howard had much of their stuff published.

After I’d finished Swords of Talera in 1983, I’d started a sequel called Wings over Talera but only wrote the first two chapters. My grad school work was intensifying and it seemed silly to write a second book in a series when the first book hadn’t even been submitted to any publishers. After Swords sold, though, I immediately set to work on the sequel. It was published as a four-part serial in Alien Worlds: Beyond Space and Time, a sister mag to Startling Science Stories.

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AI Could Not Write These Stories

AI Could Not Write These Stories

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Uncanny Magazine, issues 63 & 64, March/April and
May/June 2025. Covers by Galen Dara and Grace P. Fong

With every issue, Uncanny Magazine brings you stories, poems, essays, interviews, and podcasts, all made by actual people! Now more than ever, it is important to support creators who are working to make the art you love. Check out our Uncanny Magazine Year 12: Fly Forever, Space Unicorns! Kickstarter for subscriptions and cool backer rewards, and help us spread the word!

Science fiction has long been enamored with artificial intelligence. As far back as Samuel Butler’s 1872 novel Erewhon, writers have speculated on how machines might develop consciousness and what the world might look like if they did. In modern fiction, we see a vast range of possibilities — stories where robots fall in love, stories where AI can determine anyone’s true cause of death, stories of experimental prototypes reading Western literature as dystopia looms, stories where simulations let us talk to our loved ones after they’ve passed. In R.S.A Garcia’s “Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200” artificial intelligence comes in the form of a loyal farmhand companion, made of nanites, repeatedly eaten by a goat.

In the time since Erewhon was written, we’ve made a lot of technological advances. There are medical diagnostic algorithms, programs that generate images in various styles, and increasingly sophisticated chatbots. As Martha Wells pointed out in her recent interview in Scientific American, humans love to anthropomorphize, and fictional depictions of advanced artificial intelligences often reinforce that tendency. But in reality we are nowhere near the level of sentient, intelligent machines.

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Wrestling With Fan-Fiction

Wrestling With Fan-Fiction

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Image by Лариса Мозговая from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

I’m afraid my Doom hyperfixation is still in full effect. And as with all things that has my attention for longer than a few days my brain has latched onto it and created a story out of it. This one is set in the Doom universe, and deals specifically with Doom Guy/The Doom Slayer. Which means it’s not actually an original. It is, I made the realisation late last week, a fan-fiction (cue horror stinger). I have complicated feelings about this. Let’s dive in.

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The Suspension Bridges of Disbelief

The Suspension Bridges of Disbelief

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A friend and I have been watching The Wheel of Time adaptation on Amazon. Both of us expressed surprise not at the open casting, which we agree is wonderful, but at how that production choice plays out in small hamlets like Rand al’Thor’s “home town” of Two Rivers. After observing that every possible racial group is represented in this isolated, insular mountain community, my friend had an epiphany.

“I had to remind myself,” said my friend, “that if I suspend disbelief to accept that there’s magic in this world, then I might also have to suspend my disbelief in genetics.”

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The Writer and the Boycott

The Writer and the Boycott

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Image by Niek Verlaan from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn!

Well, I’m talking boycotts again, as there is a lot of it going around. And they are absolutely kicking up all kinds of dust. This is great – making your voice heard with the only thing these companies seem to understand; their bottom lines. It’s not so great if you’re an innocent writer just trying to make a living who happens to be caught in the crossfire.

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A Boy and His Dog: How Archaeology is My Biggest Inspiration

A Boy and His Dog: How Archaeology is My Biggest Inspiration

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Image by Siggy Nowak from Pixabay. This looks like a Stargate. Where’s the dial?

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

Once upon a time, a much younger me fell into an obsession… Well, several related obsessions, if I’m being honest. Prehistoric Anthropology and Archaeology dug its claws into my brain and would not let go. In what might have been a profound waste of money, I followed that obsession into university, acquiring a Bachelor’s Honours Degree in the subject, with a focus on Celtic Studies. I wrote a thesis that was four times as long as it needed to be (with permission). I wrote on the Continuity of Religious Iconography From the Upper Palaeolithic to the Pre-Roman Iron Age of the Atlantic Façade. Which is to say, basically, some religious beliefs and practices of the Iron Age Celts might just have had their origin in the pre-Celtic peoples of the Stone Age. That’s a lot to cover in just twenty pages, so I handed in eighty-three.

When I say I was/am obsessed, I absolutely meant it.

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