Tag: fiction

authors, writers, writing10 Comments

The #Scrapslush campaign

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I already knew this, I can’t say I didn’t, so why then do I feel  disquiet at the notion of the ‘slush pile’? It’s not the fact of being in a queue or of waiting for an evaluation of suitability, those are regular experiences in my world. It isn’t even the element of subjectivity, the lack of control, or the length of time invested in the wait because these too are familiar in matters such as applications for research funding. In both circumstances, there are rules to be followed; this many words or characters, this kind of remit, and that … Continue reading The #Scrapslush campaign

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sci fi8 Comments

SF might just have become too dangerous to write

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Not content with using a pre-discovered planet for a story, I’m a bit bothered I might have stumbled over another cosmic event. I have a story out to a publisher (or on its way back with a note on its collar) about the threads of the universe unravelling and now this Knot in the ribbon at the edge of the solar system ‘unties’ I’m wondering if I should develop a taste for historical tales before I accidentally destroy life as we know it.. Continue reading SF might just have become too dangerous to write

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sci fi4 Comments

That’s my planet!

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

  In 2012, I wrote an SF story about a planet in the Gliese (gleesh) system, first identified in the early 2000s as an extra solar planetary system. Not long after, the first potentially inhabitable extra solar planet was identified – in the GLIESE system! OK, so my story, ‘Journey Home’, didn’t cut the mustard but surely there’s got to be points for being on the astronomical button! And where’s the silly-big-grin icon when you need it? Once at PopSci, here’s the story below. ‘Asimov’s‘, you could have had the story first – I know what these people look like! … Continue reading That’s my planet!

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Got NOT-ted!

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Look at that, two watershed moments in one title! The first, the NOT, is a bit of news I’ve been sitting on for a couple of weeks now – an actual, whole, bona fide ( or in this case, more aptly perhaps, bony fido) *publication!! Ok, so another 79 people won the competition too but what good company my junior offering is in! Fancy a look at a real feast of bite-sized fiction? Get yourself over to Michael J Solender’s blog ‘NOT from here, are you?’ and download the e-chap. The out-and-out winner was Sam Adamson whose story ‘The Pit … Continue reading Got NOT-ted!

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authors, short story writing, writing6 Comments

If not the blog then, where?

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I’ve seen this debate elsewhere, publish on your blog so you have a ‘presence’ or keep your work to yourself so that it remains saleable. So far, I’ve just put up early pieces; exercises, bits and bobs that might entertain but that wouldn’t make it into a slush pile, never mind a magazine. Last week though, on leave and with only myself to entertain, I wrote what I think is one of my best short stories EVER (nah – doesn’t take much!) and, it being under 500 words, I was about to sling it up here for my many thousands … Continue reading If not the blog then, where?

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authors, publish fiction, sci fi, short story writing21 Comments

Hugo Nominee – are we suckered by techno-twaddle?

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

I like my sci-fi, really I do, and having been inducted at the age of eight into this genre, I am more than familiar with the essentials of pseudo-scientific terminology. Heck, I write it myself and I appreciate both the value and the pitfalls of inventing tech-speak to describe something that isn’t yet in existence. For me, the best tech-speak conveys a sense of familiarity so that, on reading it, I have a feeling I know what this is even though that has to be impossible. The worst offers a stream of multi-hyphenated guff and tells me this is ‘normal’, … Continue reading Hugo Nominee – are we suckered by techno-twaddle?

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Double or dilute?

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Chances, that is. Last week, after mercilessly punching out redundancy and pruning my tiny story down to the even tinier requisite of 500 words, I submitted the final product to an online competition. My first. Virgin territory. Exhausted, I crawled away to bandage psychic wounds (all those abandoned and unwanted words, left unloved by the literary roadside) and to sleep off the emotional ravages of exposing my soul to public judging. Well ok, bit of dramatic licence there but you know where I’m coming from, right? Anyway, two days later and an acknowledgment appears. Yes, they received it, yes, the … Continue reading Double or dilute?

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