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5 Fantastic Finds: Spanish Sci Fi Authors, Le Guin, L’Engle and More

It’s been a very busy week for me with both my writing and day job. I also attended UC Davis’s annual Pic Nic Day on this beautiful sunny, Saturday afternoon. It went by really well until we couldn’t get out of the Arboretum forest of no return without being harped on.

A cousin and I were watching the Battle of the Bands there on the way out when two attendants gave us this bull that we were standing in one of the band’s area as if we were committing sacrilege or something, stepping on holy ground! They did not have clear demarcation of where that area was. But the really irritating thing was that right before they told us to get off the “designated” area, we had moved away from the path to let the band march through.

Well, I’m not the one to take things lying down so I went to one of the info booths to write in a complaint. Sometimes just writing about what angers you helps alleviate the mood you’re in even if you don’t get much of an answer back from the person you’re writing to. But still, it delayed me and so I haven’t even resumed work on one of my short stories that I’m already behind on. Let alone I haven’t had time to write a full article for this week’s post. So I thought I would share some discoveries from the ‘net with you that I found to be . . .


A ground satellite pointing up into the sky at an angle.
Credit: OpenClipart.org


Far Out Fantastic Finds


“10 Ways To Create A Near-Future World That Won’t Look Too Dated”, io9.com

“Writing about the world to come is a scary proposition, because nothing becomes obsolete faster than futuristic visions. . . .So here are 10 tips to keep your near-future setting from looking too dated.”

“Spanish Science Fiction: A Round Table Discussion with Spain’s Top Contemporary Voices”, Clarkesworld 

“When I recently heard that Mariano Villareal, editor of the Terra Nova anthology series, was going to be working on Castles in Spain / Castillos en el Aire, a new Spanish-English bilingual anthology of Spanish science fiction, fantasy, and horror, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to speak with him and ask if he could help set up a roundtable with some of the anthology’s contributors.”


“There’s A Brand New Section of A Wrinkle In Time That You Can Read”, io9.com

“A newly-unearthed section of A Wrinkle In Time has been released by Madeline L’Engle’s granddaughter — and it has some strong words about the dangers faced by democracies . . . .”


“Ursula Le Guin at 85”, BBC Radio 4

“Naomi Alderman talks to leading novelist Ursula Le Guin about her life and work and hears from literary fans including . . . Neil Gaiman.”


“Ursula Le Guin talks Sci-fi Snobbery, Adaptations, and Troublemaking”, Den of Geek!

“We spoke to seminal US fantasy and sci-fi author Ursula Le Guin about her career, radicalism, literary influence and more…”


That’s it for now. In light of the above link, “10 Ways to Create a Near-Future World . . .”, I’m planning to have an article here next week about outdated sci fi as alternative timelines.

Until next week . . .


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