Diabolical Plots

Hey everybody, just a quick post to talk about voting eligibility for my work for the Hugo (and John W. Campbell). Now, I am not crazy enough to think I have any real chance at either, but I figure there’s even less chance if I don’t tell people what I’m eligible for. So, here’s a quick breakdown of everything that I might be eligible for. If anyone feels inclined to nominate me, you are my personal hero!

This story takes place in 2027, 25 years before the first game in the series, before nano-augmentation is available, in the age of mechanical augmentations (think hydraulics and dermal plating instead of nanites in your bloodstream). Your character is Adam Jensen, head of security for augmentation designer Sarif Industries. In the opening scenes, Sarif industries is attacked by a team of supersoldiers. Adam is severely injured in the attack, losing several limbs. The only way to save his life is through augmentation. Six months later, while he’s still recovering, Sarif calls him back into duty.

First review of the New Year! But what about last year? We have a list of our favorites, but before we tell you which ones we liked the best, let us tell you what we thought of these.

Another year has passed, which brings us to another year’s worth of “Best of” lists. First up, is Pseudopod, the horror branch of the Escape Artists podcast tree. Pseudopod was on hiatus for the first few months of 2011, but they have been publishing stories at a steady rate again since March, and there are plenty of stories to make a list from.

Yeah! Starting Year Two of the most energetic, and wide ranging, speculative magazine available today. Can they keep the quality up? “Why not?” I say. Okay then, can they attract a wider range of writers? Hmmm, I noticed Robert Reed contributing to this month’s offerings, and is that Nebula award winner Eugie Foster I see? It sure is…

This marks the fourth year in which I am reviewing the Writers of the Future contest. As a long time reader (I bought Volume I when it came out), and frequent submitter of the past few years, I have come to appreciate the work K D Wentworth and her predecessors have done putting this mammoth endeavor together every year. In the past, I’ve read issues and thought I can do better than that. It wasn’t until I started writing did I realize it wasn’t as easy as it looked. When I started reviewing, I had begun to marvel the work the authors put into each story.

written by David Steffen Woo hoo!  I just got an acceptance last night from Uncle John’s for their Flush Fiction Anthology for my flash story “Mysterious Ways”.  Yes, Uncle John’s of Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader.  I am very excited about this one.  Uncle John’s has a very wide readership, and this will be the first [...]

This marks the end of Daily Science Fiction’s first year run. We have managed to read and review every story for you. It saddens me that no one else has bothered to do that (at least none who I am aware of), but a lack of reviews hardly is an indication of a publications success.

I wanted to write a post to draw attention to a service that I am offering that I call “pet cartooning”, converting a photograph of an animal into a cartoon image. This could be a fun surprise present for an animal lover, or a loving tribute to your own pet. Here are a couple of examples of the results of this:

“Thief of Futures” by D. Thomas Minton demonstrates value in terms of wealth and talent; the story is only concerned with characters who are either rich or possess a very certain innate skill. Everyone else is consigned to the background. “Antiquities and Tangibles” by Tim Pratt examines value through connections and luck; the more social-oriented tools of achieving success and accruing value. Those without connections and luck have no chance of exploring happiness to the extent the main characters do.