A Far Out Fantastic Site

Credit: Wikipedia I didn't know it until this week, but January 1st is Public Domain Day! This means that on the first day of the year any works of art or literature--paintings, movies, novels, music, etc.--that’s copyright has not been renewed are considered Public Domain works and so are free to use without acquiring permission from the creator or a license. However, Public Domain law does very between nations. So, always look at the public domain notice that's stated in the source where a copy of the work exists before using it. It was when I came across author Jacqui Murray 's blog post last week [link to interview] when I found out about this special day. So, thanks to her for letting us know about it and please take a look at her blog post on it if you get a chance; it's really interesting. To celebrate this day, even though it’s a little late, I thought I would provide a short list of science fiction and fantasy books that have gone into the Public Domain this y

Credit: Pixabay I have my writer’s resolutions for 2024. I also had plans to see my first movie of the year on the big screen this past weekend but the movie seemed to be missing.  The ‘Missing’ Big Screen Film I was getting ready to see “Distant”, the new science fiction film by Amblin Entertainment that was supposed to release last Friday January 19th. However, when I tried looking for it on Fandango, it wasn’t listed anywhere. I did a Google search for it and checked the movie’s official website which stated that its release date was January 19, 2024 . Other results that came up from the search seemed to be contradicting information of when it was due for release and in what venues, such as theatres and streaming video. Of what I had read back in December, the movie was supposed to release on the big screen.  Then I came across an article about “Distant” on Wikipedia. It said that, ever since 2022, there had been several planned releases but it kept getting postponed and that it mo

Credit: Pixabay Today in the U.S. is Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. For those of you outside of the US, Martin Luther King was a Christian minister who led the fight for the civil rights of Black Americans in the 1960s. Besides this movement winning such rights as the right for blacks to dine in the same section of a restaurant as white people, it would eventually lead to the wide recognition of African American and other minority science fiction and fantasy writers.  Even though Dr. King’s leadership in the civil rights movement brought many opportunities to blacks and other Americans of colour, the demand for civil rights still goes on because, unfortunately, racism and bigotry still continue in many of our country’s institutions. This is also the case in science fiction and fantasy culture. As much as writers of colour have become recognized by publishers of speculative fiction such as TOR in the last 10 years or so, there are still groups of white fans and creators trying t

Credit: Pixabay   I can't believe that, myself, a science fiction writer, only found out yesterday that January 2nd is National Science Fiction Day for the United States! Maybe that's just because it's unofficial. But I'm delighted that the new year can be opened with such a holiday! I'm also delighted to write this first post of the year which will serve both as my contribution to today’s Insecure Writer's Support Group (IWSG) blog hop and as a late version of my weekly blog post which I moved to today due to the New Year’s weekend. In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. Normally I've been answering the optional IWSG question of the month which this month’s is:  Do you follow back your readers on BookBub or do you only follow back other authors? But I’m going to pass on this one since I don't use BookBub and so know very little about it. Instead, I