2023-06-09 11:00
Read What You Love, Part 2
by Karen S. Wiesner
In this three-part article,
I talk about what conditions, if any, cultivate or discourage a love of the
written word as well as about the imp… Read More
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A by-invitation group blog for busy authors of SFR, Futuristic, or Paranormal romances in which at least one protagonist is an alien, or of alien ancestry.
2023-06-08 12:00
As you may have seen in the news lately, dozens of experts in artificial intelligence have supported a manifesto claiming AI could threaten the extinction of humanity:
AI Could Lead to Exti… Read More
2023-06-04 14:07
I may have used "You Can't Make It Up" for an earlier post, so have added a disclaimer. My apologies if the disclaimer [Double Entedre] weakens the title, does not make sense, or comes acros… Read More
2023-06-02 11:00
Read What You Love, Part 1
by Karen S. Wiesner
In this three-part article,
I talk about what conditions, if any, cultivate or discourage a love of the
written word as well as about the imp… Read More
2023-06-01 12:00
Elon Musk's Neuralink Corporation is developing an implant intended to treat severe brain disorders and enable paralyzed patients to control devices remotely. As a long-term goal, the compan… Read More
2023-05-28 20:52
Never in my life have I pleasured myself in front of a computer. Have you? That is rhetorical. I do not want to know. So, today, when I received an email that appeared to come from an I… Read More
2023-05-26 11:00
Reflections of Life, Part 5
by Karen S. Wiesner
In looking back over the course of my life as an author
who's looking forward to becoming an artist in retirement, I've learned to slow
down… Read More
2023-05-25 12:00
A publisher called Obsidian Butterfly is assembling an anthology to be titled "NecronomiRomCom," comprising Cthulhu Mythos romantic comedies:
Obsidian Butterfly
Working on a story to submi… Read More
2023-05-21 15:08
Happily, my title for today's rag bag of copyright-related news from the legal blogosphere is not as nihilistic as it ("NIL Protection") may sound on first glance.N.I.L. is the acronym for "… Read More
2023-05-19 11:00
Reflections of Life, Part 4
by Karen S. Wiesner
In looking back over the course of my life as an author
who's looking forward to becoming an artist in retirement, I've learned to slow
down… Read More
2023-05-18 12:00
Cory Doctorow's column in the May issue of LOCUS discusses what we'd probably think of as paranoid conspiracy theorists, vehemently protesting imaginary global plots against our lives and li… Read More
2023-05-14 13:14
My title for today --which is American "Mothers' Day"-- is a downbeat twist on Gene Kranz's famous quote that "Failure is not an option." There are plenty of inspiring words about the r… Read More
2023-05-12 11:00
Reflections of Life, Part 3… Read More
2023-05-11 12:00
A vintage short story that was filmed as a TWILIGHT ZONE episode features an elderly millionaire who wants to relive his life, with his memories intact, for the thrill of making his fortune… Read More
2023-05-07 13:45
My internet is out, and heavy thunderstorms are impending, so I will keep this short.The copyright alliance has some excellent resources for creators, and membership is free for creators.htt… Read More
2023-05-05 11:00
Reflections of Life, Part 2
by Karen S. Wiesner
In looking back over the course of my life as an author
who's looking forward to becoming an artist in retirement, I've learned to slow
down… Read More
2023-04-30 17:36
I came upon "falsity" within a copyright-related Law Review article about the protected speech, and I was intrigued.Is "falsity" a lesser known synonym for "falsehood"? Apparently, not… Read More
2023-04-28 11:00
Reflections of Life, Part 1
by Karen S. Wiesner
In looking back over the course of my life as an author
who's looking forward to becoming an artist in retirement, I've learned to slow
down… Read More
2023-04-23 14:02
The "natural right" to own property is one of the acid tests of whether a society is a free market democracy or not.Simply from the grammatical perspective, one might call an acid test a "ha… Read More
2023-04-21 11:00
Details of Life
by Karen S. Wiesner
In
this article, I talk about changing your perspective from the negative to the
positive when writing an obituary for yourself or for a loved one who's… Read More
2023-04-20 12:00
A relatively recent (2021) article on plant intelligence, which includes an interview with Monica Gagliano, a professor in Evolutionary Ecology at Southern Cross University in Australia:
Pl… Read More
2023-04-17 19:40
Don't Sleep In The Subway, Darling.There are probably several messages there. For me, one is that this song by Petula Clark did enormous and lasting damage to the English language because sh… Read More
2023-04-13 12:00
According to columnist Tyler Cowen, "In the future, middle-class kids will learn from, play with and grow attached to their own personalized AI chatbots."
I read this essay in our local new… Read More
2023-04-08 21:44
One of the lesser-discussed intellectual property rights is the right of publicity, and until recently, the right to use --or more importantly to stop other people using--ones voice was not… Read More
2023-04-07 11:00
Taking the Bucket Out of the Bucket List,Part 2by Karen S. WiesnerIn this final of a two
part article, I discuss the wisdom and benefits of, and strategies for, drawing
up a personal bucket… Read More
2023-04-06 12:00
I recently read FANTASY: HOW IT WORKS, by Brian Attebery, a distinguished scholar of fantasy and science fiction. In addition to the solid content, he has a highly readable style. While I ca… Read More
2023-04-01 15:54
The earworm is "Call Me Irresponsible". The lyrics are a strange choice to associate with a medication that helps some patients to relieve migraine, but that has side effects such as unrelia… Read More
2023-03-31 11:00
Taking the Bucket Out of the Bucket List,
Part 1
by Karen S. Wiesner
In this two part
article, I discuss the wisdom and benefits of, and strategies for, drawing up a
personal bucket list… Read More
2023-03-30 12:00
Cory Doctorow's column for the March 2023 issue of LOCUS, for once, asserts a position I can support without reservation: End-to-End Concerning the many problems involved in making the inter… Read More
2023-03-26 12:56
My title should be lorum ipsum, but it indicates to printers not to waste ink, and I fear that the bots might over ride publishing when I click the Publish button.The copyright/trademark/adv… Read More
2023-03-24 11:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner Three-Dimensional Writing, Part 3 Based on Three-Dimensional Fiction Writing (formerly titled Bring Your Fiction to Life {Crafting Three-Dimensiona… Read More
2023-03-23 12:00
Last week the annual International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts was held in Orlando (as usual). This was the second in-person conference since the two-year pandemic hiatus (which… Read More
2023-03-18 21:00
One would have thought that drug companies ought to be among the most precise and accurate with the wording of their advertisements. Apparently, some are not.This new "wonder drug" is probab… Read More
2023-03-17 11:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner Three-Dimensional Writing, Part 2 Based on Three-Dimensional Fiction Writing (formerly titled Bring Your Fiction to Life {Crafting Three-Dimensiona… Read More
2023-03-10 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner Three-Dimensional Writing, Part 1 Based on Three-Dimensional Fiction Writing (formerly titled Bring Your Fiction to Life {Crafting Three-Dimensiona… Read More
2023-03-09 13:00
Could techniques that restore markers of youth to old mice have any effect on human subjects? Blood Transfusion Experiment in Mice Cellular senescence, a "state in which cells stop growing a… Read More
2023-03-04 15:46
There was a robot outside my hotel room door last night. It was about the size of R2D2, and its function was to vacuum the corridor carpet. As far as I could tell, and I watched it for… Read More
2023-03-03 13:00
Based on Writing the Standalone Series (formerly titled Writing the Fiction Series {The Guide to Novel and Novellas})“The [series] tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours.”… Read More
2023-03-02 13:00
Arley Sorg's "By the Numbers" column in the March-April 2023 MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION is titled "The Lifespan of a Magazine." After rereading the LOCUS "Magazine Summary" for… Read More
2023-02-25 18:00
I am not going to talk about pronouns! However, that is what "this" and "that" can be, depending on the context. They can also be adjectives, demonstrative pronouns, adverbs, or even definit… Read More
2023-02-24 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner I Want to Write a Series. Now What?Part 2 Based on Writing the Standalone Series (formerly titled Writing the Fiction Series {The Guide to Novel an… Read More
2023-02-23 13:00
To follow up the topic of "creative" artificial intelligence programs, here are some clergy-persons' thoughts about sermons composed by chatbots: Sermons Written by ChatGPT Not surprisingly… Read More
2023-02-19 14:34
This week, the SFWA is talking about Artificial Intelligence, therefore, I will not do so. Any reader of the alien romances blog who wishes to share online-published opinion pieces (about A… Read More
2023-02-17 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner I Want to Write a Series. Now What? Part 1 Based on Writing the Standalone Series (formerly titled Writing the Fiction Series {The Guide to N… Read More
2023-02-16 13:00
Here's an article about an artificial blood substitute being developed by a research physician from the University of Maryland School of Medicine: Artificial Blood One Step Closer It's not m… Read More
2023-02-10 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner The Ins and Outs of Outlining, Part 3 Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS) This is the final of three posts… Read More
2023-02-09 13:00
There's been a lot of news in the media lately about AI programs that generate text or images. One of the e-mail lists I subscribe to recently had a long thread about AI text products and es… Read More
2023-02-05 14:05
Today, my topic is indentity and copyright, rather than Hamlet's existential dilemma.What happens when two creators (authors, photographers, painters) have the same name? In the case of a fa… Read More
2023-02-03 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner The Ins and Outs of Outlining. Part 2 Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS) This is the second of three pos… Read More
2023-02-02 13:00
I recently read a novel with an unusual slant on a world ruled by vampires, DAY BOY, by Trent Jamieson. It takes place in a rather dreary post-apocalyptic world. The narrator is a teenage "d… Read More
2023-01-29 21:14
Two wrongs don't make a right.That is my opinion. It has also been called an idiom, a proverb, occasionally a rebuttal of defence/defense for lack of candour, or for violent retaliatio… Read More
2023-01-27 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner The Ins and Outs of Outlining, Part 1 Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS) This is the first of three post… Read More
2023-01-26 13:00
I've recently read an excellent novel called NEVER LET ME GO, by Kazuo Ishiguro, author of THE REMAINS OF THE DAY. (I've seen the film adaptation of the latter, but I don't plan to watch the… Read More
2023-01-22 22:35
Lollygagging means "messing around" in more ways than one. Delete the frozen, fruity sweet treat portion of the word, and one comes to the meat --if you will pardon the mixed metaphor--of to… Read More
2023-01-20 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner The Four Myths Your Muse Desperately Wants You to Believe, Part 4 by Karen S. Wiesner Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRA… Read More
2023-01-19 13:00
Cory Doctorow's latest LOCUS column explores the breakdown of social networking sites, which he seems to believe is the inevitable culmination of their life cycles: Social Quitting He focuse… Read More
2023-01-15 14:44
There is a big difference between being "in the thick of it" and "in the weeds"....unless one is doing ones American taxes, and that's what I am talking about.Late last year, I wrote about a… Read More
2023-01-13 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner The Four Myths Your Muse Desperately Wants You to Believe, Part 3 by Karen S. Wiesner Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRAFT IN… Read More
2023-01-12 13:00
The cover story of the January 2023 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, a 35-page article titled "The Science of Living Longer and Better," explores several different approaches, both theoretical and pract… Read More
2023-01-06 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner The Four Myths Your Muse Desperately Wants You to Believe, Part 2 by Karen S. Wiesner Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRA… Read More
2023-01-05 13:00
Happy New Year! -- even though it is an arbitrary date. Why not the precise day of the winter solstice instead of over a week later? Or, better yet, the spring equinox? The ancient Romans or… Read More
2023-01-01 15:18
First, I wish everyone a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.Second, I defend the Oxford/Harvard/Cambridge comma. There is no necessary link between health and prosperity, at least, not… Read More
2022-12-30 12:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner The Four Myths Your Muse Desperately Wants You to Believe, Part 1 by Karen S. Wiesner Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRA… Read More
2022-12-29 13:00
Many of Shakespeare's plays have been transmuted into modern settings, such as WEST SIDE STORY (from ROMEO AND JULIET), SHE'S THE MAN (from TWELFTH NIGHT), and 10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU (fr… Read More
2022-12-23 12:30
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner Two Crucial Writing Goal Sheets Based on FIRST DRAFT OUTLINE (formerly titled FIRST DRAFT IN 30 DAYS) Once you become a published author, the… Read More
2022-12-22 13:00
Have I previously recommended POLITICALLY CORRECT HOLIDAY STORIES, by James Finn Garner? Although slightly dated to the specific "politically correct" preoccupations of its publication year… Read More
2022-12-18 12:47
When I play word associations, I go from "wet" to "work". No doubt Clint Eastwood is to blame; I must have watched The Eiger Sanction at too verbally impressionable an age. I had… Read More
2022-12-16 12:00
A Reader's Commentary Presentation is King, Part 3 by Karen S. Wiesner In this final of a three-part commentary using author Christopher Paolini's two series, I talk about the conundrum of… Read More
2022-12-15 13:00
Scientists have discovered and revived a 30,000-year-old virus, not seen since the Upper Paleolithic era, buried under the Siberian permafrost: Ancient Giant Virus This organism is "giant" o… Read More
2022-12-09 12:00
A Reader's Commentary Presentation is King, Part 2 by Karen S. Wiesner In this second of a three-part commentary using author Christopher Paolini's two series, I talk about the conundrum of… Read More
2022-12-08 19:50
Recently I saw a Facebook post lamenting the materialistic nature of the Christmas season nowadays. The holidays focus too much on buying and receiving presents. Advertisers swamp us with me… Read More
2022-12-04 15:18
Today, my theme whistleblowers and the art of whistleblowing. This week, or so it seems to me, the copyright-related legal blogs were replete with whistleblowing, one way or another. To… Read More
2022-12-02 12:00
A Reader's Commentary Presentation is King, Part 1 by Karen S. Wiesner In this three-part commentary using author Christopher Paolini's two series, I talk about the conundrum of how importan… Read More
2022-11-27 15:13
The Electronic Freedom Foundation is a mixed blessing, in my opinion. For alien romance writers, or any published writer, their views on "sharing" copyrighted works without payment or p… Read More
2022-11-25 12:00
Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms: Mass Effect Series, created by Bioware with Drew Karpyshyn, Casey Hudson, and Preston Watamaniuk by Karen Wiesner In this article ser… Read More
2022-11-20 21:52
As of November 3rd, 2022, the massive ebook pirate site Z-Library was taken off line and the people who ran the site were arrested.Read all about it here:https://authorsguild.org/news/statem… Read More
2022-11-18 12:00
Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms: Dragon Age Series, created by Bioware and David Gaider by Karen Wiesner In this article series I'm calling "Fiction Series So Big, The… Read More
2022-11-17 13:00
What is horror fiction (whether in print or on film) good for? My parents certainly took a dim view of my fervent interest in the genre, beginning at the age of twelve with my first reading… Read More
2022-11-13 17:12
The best line of the week in all the copyright-related legal blogs (in my sole opinion) was that from Charlotte K, Newell who wrote, "Emails, like diamonds, are forever." By the way, em… Read More
2022-11-11 12:00
Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms: The Witcher Series, created by Andrzej Sapkowskiby Karen Wiesner In this article series I'm calling "Fiction Series So Big, They Cross… Read More
2022-11-10 21:48
Cory Doctorow's article for the November 2022 LOCUS discusses the ever-increasing reach of monopolies that prey on the work of writers and other content creators, in terms of a parable about… Read More
2022-11-06 15:29
Two days ago, tech support deleted two weeks' worth of research with one over-confident, permissionless click of an X in the upper right corner of a tool bar that came up after a restart. 12… Read More
2022-11-04 11:00
Writer's Craft Article Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 6 Conclusion by Karen S. Wiesner Based on Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2: 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection In th… Read More
2022-11-03 12:00
In Philip Wylie's 1951 novel THE DISAPPEARANCE, an unexplained phenomenon divides Earth into two separate, parallel versions. In one reality, all human males instantaneously vanish; in the o… Read More
2022-10-30 12:51
"Trick or Treat? Copyright My Gourd" doesn't rhyme and it does not scan, unlike the original threat, "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet..." which, by the way, seems to me ought to be punctuated… Read More
2022-10-28 11:00
Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner Writing Holiday Stories: Tricks (and Treats) Who doesn't love to read chilling tales at Halloween that embed inside readers deeply eno… Read More
2022-10-27 12:00
A character in C. S. Lewis's posthumously published novel fragment THE DARK TOWER asserts it is. (Granted, one faction within Lewis scholarship maintains THE DARK TOWER wasn't actually writt… Read More
2022-10-23 02:00
Authors cannot copyright titles, but one always has to be a little careful when the title belongs to a song: sometimes the song consists of very few lyrics apart from the… Read More
2022-10-21 11:00
Writer's Craft Article Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 5D General Revision Choices, concluded by Karen S. Wiesner Based on Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2: 3D Fiction Fund… Read More
2022-10-20 12:00
It's possible that spiders dream. Also octopuses and some birds and fish: If Animal Dreams Imply Sentience This article proposes (following the example of WHEN ANIMALS DREAM, a recent book b… Read More
2022-10-16 00:30
Sunlight is said to be the best disinfectant, so Louis Brandeis said.Eyal Zamir and Christoph Engel ponder cases where anonymity and lack of transparency serve justice better, such as the de… Read More
2022-10-13 12:00
I've just finished reading an essay anthology titled PUTTING THE FACT IN FANTASY, edited by Dan Koboldt. The contents, contributed by over thirty different specialists, explore a wide range… Read More
2022-10-08 21:00
Disclaimer: this is not about Foggy Bottom, the place. "Bottoms" is being used as a verb with connotations of lowness and swampiness for the conduct --alleged conduct-- of a data broke… Read More
2022-10-07 11:00
Writer's Craft Article Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 5D General Revision Choices, continued by Karen S. Wiesner Based on Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2: 3D Fiction Fund… Read More
2022-10-06 12:00
The premiere of the AMC miniseries of Anne Rice's INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE set me thinking, again, about film adaptations of print fiction. Is it an unpardonable sin if a movie or TV serie… Read More
2022-10-01 21:26
At the risk of appearing to pass myself off as someone who would teach a grandmother how to suck eggs, https://wordhistories.net/2016/10/12/teach-grandmother-to-suck-eggs/and also of s… Read More
2022-09-30 11:00
Writer's Craft Article Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 5D General Revision Choices by Karen S. Wiesner Based on Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2: 3D Fiction Fundamentals Co… Read More
2022-09-29 12:00
I recommend that you pick up a copy of the October 2022 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC if possible. You can't miss it; the cover shows a close-up of a sphinx cat. The lead article, "Minds of Their Own… Read More
2022-09-25 01:00
Do you know the saying, "It's illegal, it's immoral, or it makes you fat"? Terms of use are absolutely none of that. They're a long way from sexy, and tend to be boring, long, and hard… Read More
2022-09-23 11:00
Writer's Craft Article Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 5C Editing and Polishing Introspection Tip Sheet by Karen S. Wiesner Based on Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2: 3D Fi… Read More
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