Tor.com publication! Also, outlining.

So…my Tor.com article about the best Slavic sci-fi and fantasy novels went live a few hours ago. I so very rarely see any discussion centered around Eastern European SF/F or Slavic culture in general.  Possibly because (some) Americans hold the view of Slavic SF/F as part of what’s assumed to be whitebread Western European fiction, or doesn’t constitute as “diverse” enough (example: some of the criticism hurled by Americans at The Witcher 3 and its development regarding cultural aspects). So I’m incredibly happy that the folks at Tor.com gave me the chance to discuss it on their website and bring a new chunk of cultural diversity to the table. There’s a great discussion going on  and it’s great to see that the article stirred so much of it up and to really soak it in. It’s already got 300+ likes on their Facebook page and seems to be doing very very well – I’m seeing it all over Twitter and several page groups, and that makes me pretty happy. My fellow Ruskies would be proud. You should be able to check it out over here.

I’m hoping to pitch another article – or even a series of ’em – that discusses SF/F from each chunk of the world: ie the top five picking from South America, East Asia, Scandinavia. I’d love to bring more diverse fiction to the table, and if that’s my way of doing it, then awesome. Let’s hope that happens.

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The last few nights have been super busy due to the Japanese Film Festival (which has been amazing so far – will write a post about it soon), but between screenings I’ve been outling my next novel. I have a very good idea of the world, character and what needs to happen, it’s just the plot that I need to figure out. But when I do…it’s full speed ahead. I’m going to try and write every day until it’s done and see if I can beat my previous 90 day record. I can’t wait to jump into this one. I almost feel sorry for my protagonist already. <i>Almost</i>.

<a href=’http://www.starshipsofa.com/blog/2016/11/16/starshipsofa-no-460-marc-laidlaw/’>Also, my 100th edited and produced episode of StarShipSofa came up last week.</a> And it’s a Mirrorshades story by Marc Laidlaw. In total it’s estimated that the episodes I’ve worked on have accumulated over one million downloads. Pretty happy with that.