Aaron Buchanan is the husband of Locus editor Kirsten Gong-Wong and the father of Theodora Buchanan, better known to all who have seen her at cons and behind the Locus table as Teddy. To answer my query on children’s literature, Aaron and Teddy decided to respond jointly in the form of this interview.
Aaron Buchanan: Hi Teddy! How would you describe yourself?
Teddy Buchanan: I am eleven years ...Read More
Read moreJim Minz is an editor at Baen Books.
I’ve had a fair amount of experience at polluting young minds with genre fiction, since I have more than a dozen nephews and nieces, not to mention children of my own–though my kids are still a bit young for some of my favorites. And the best part is how grateful my siblings are for turning their kids on to reading.
You want ...Read More
Read moreBlaine Hoak is the daughter of Deanna Hoak, World Fantasy Award-nominated copy editor.
When my mom told me that Locus might like to have an article from me about science fiction and fantasy for kids ten and under, I was incredibly excited. After all, I’ve grown up in a household filled with SF/F books, and even the earliest board books I remember could be considered fantasy, because they were about ...Read More
Read moreStrange Horizons is in the middle of their 2011 fund drive–but they’ve only raised a quarter of their goal of $8000. We all should support them, since they are consistently one of the best venues for genre fiction and non-fiction on the internet. Often we’re happy to support a Kickstarter campaign for something that could be new and cool–but might forget to support an established concern that is already awesome ...Read More
Read moreTricia Sullivan is the author of sf novels such as multiple award nominated Maul and Lightborn. She lives in England with her partner and three children.
Finding SF for younger readers can be challenging. Fantasy dominates the market, but classic SF for children is often out of print, and new science fiction titles are rare. For children under ten the choices are limited.
What there is for ages 0-10 ...Read More
Read moreSarah Prineas is a fantasy author living in Iowa. Her current series is The Magic Thief for children.
Thanks to He Who Shall Not Be Named, there has been plenty of room lately on library and bookstore shelves for fantasy novels aimed at young readers, and for SF as well. Often in the SF/F community such books are referred to as “YA” or “Young Adult,” but in the children’s literature ...Read More
Read moreSam Jordison is a writer for the Guardian newspaper in the UK. He often writes and blogs about matters of interest to the sf/f community.
Dragons are no more absurd or strange to most of the toddlers I know than aeroplanes. They’re just a little bit rarer. Animals talk far more comprehensibly than politicians. And space travel doesn’t seem any more or less likely than the fact that there are ...Read More
Read moreStacie Hanes is a graduate student focusing on British Literature, including authors such as Terry Pratchett and Bram Stoker. She has long been involved with the International Conference for the Fantastic in the Arts.
I have a son named after Robert A. Heinlein, so as you might imagine, I always hoped he’d love reading at least some of the same things I love.
Interestingly enough, it was asking me to ...Read More
Read moreAdam Roberts is a scholar, critic, and author of science fiction. His most recent books include New Model Army, with By Light Alone just out now. He blogs at Punkadiddle, among others.
There has been a good deal of work on the crossover between SF and children’s literature—the YA market, after all, is an important one for the genre (Farah Mendelsohn’s exhaustive The Intergalactic Playground is a key research ...Read More
Read moreTansy Rayner Roberts is a writer, a mum, a doll merchant, and in her spare time (ha!) likes to cut up fabric and sew it back together in an amusing fashion. She lives with her partner and our two constantly alarming little girls in Hobart, Tasmania, and she is one of the three voices of the Galactic Suburbia podcast. Her most recent book is Love and Romanpunk
The first kids ...Read More
Read moreFor obvious reason of impending motherhood, I’ve been thinking a lot about children and children’s things. Between that and this being the back-to-school (in the US) time of year, it seemed like the right time to ask around about children’s literature. There’s been a lot of talk about YA science fiction and fantasy in recent years, with many excellent books and authors coming on the scene. However, there’s been less ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
To wrap up this series on conventions and con-going (See Parts I, II, III, and IV), Jeff Ford reminds us that sometimes weird s–t happens at cons. Read his tale of a stranger dressed in black, and commentary from Stefan Dziemianowicz, myself, Cecelia Holland, Karen Joy Fowler, Gardner Dozois, and Gary K. Wolfe.
As always, this discussion is broken up into multiple pages for ease of reading. If ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
Last time we talked about the fact that cons aren’t always welcoming. (You can also see Part I and Part II.) However, some folks walk into their very first cons and simply find that they’re at home. Today we hear from Ellen Klages, Theodora Goss, Tim Pratt, Liz Hand, Paul Graham Raven, and Karen Joy Fowler.
As always, this discussion is broken up into multiple pages for ease ...Read More
Read moreComing to us from last week’s WorldCon in Reno, NV, we were able to sit down and record a conversation with Kathy Goonan, Eileen Gunn, and Gary Wolfe. Of course we talk about the con itself for a bit, and then we use Kathy’s new book, This Shared Dream, as a lens to discuss utopias and dystopias, education, depicting thought vs. action in sf (with shout-outs to Sherlock Holmes ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
In today’s installment of discussions about conventions (Part I, Part II), we face up to the fact that sometimes cons aren’t terribly welcoming spaces for the uninitiated. Several of us were quite put off by our early experiences. Today’s participants include N. K. Jemisin, James Patrick Kelly, Maureen Kincaid Speller, myself, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Andy Duncan, John Clute, and Cecelia Holland.
As always, this discussion is broken up into ...Read More
Read moreToday’s Roundtable podcast ties in with the recent theme of con-going. Locus editor Francesca Myman and author Gail Carriger have between them covered almost every aspect of the con-going experience: going as a fan, as an up-and-comer, a pro, and a dealer. They’ve got recommendations for conventions you may not have heard of, volunteering, con etiquette, and plenty of shout-outs for favorite cons, from the international to the local. And ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
Continuing our discussion of conventions and convention-going (Part I is here), in this installment we look at those of us who started out as fans. Today’s stories and commentary come from F. Brett Cox, Stefan Dziemianowicz, Russell Letson, Marie Brennan, Jonathan Strahan, Gardner Dozois, Cecelia Holland, and Paul Graham Raven.
As always, this discussion is broken up into multiple pages for ease of reading. If you’d like to ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
I asked our venerable Roundtable panel about conventions and the con-going experience. I got a huge number of responses that cover a wide range of practical and subjective aspects of this part of the sf/f culture. I decided to break up the responses to cover separate themes, and spread them out over two or three weeks. It seems appropriate to surround WorldCon (which I must sadly miss this ...Read More
Read moreFor this episode of the Locus Roundtable podcast, I talk with Karen Lord – recent winner of the Mythopoeic award and World Fantasy Award nominee for her debut novel Redemption in Indigo. She also has a background in physics as well as public policy, giving her a unique perspective on science and literature. We talk (and laugh) about science, science fiction, communication and society, ‘hard’ sciences and ‘soft’ sciences, ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
This Roundtable continues the discussion from two weeks ago on recommending books for fans of George R. R. Martin. The discussion moved away from specific titles and wandered into the way ways that we group fiction. What does it mean when fans of X may like Y? How come X number of people can point at a book and come up with X + N different labels for ...Read More
Read moreIn this episode of the Locus Roundtable podcast, we feature two of the editorial staff of Shimmer magazine. Two of the stories that are mentioned in the podcast are in the current Issue #13, and “The Squid Story,” or “Four Household Tales,” is available to read in full online. Besides Shimmer specifically, we also talk about what goes into publishing magazines, how to promote at conventions, reading the slush pile, ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
Many authors who were published well before J. K. Rowling saw bumps in their sales because kids started picking up their books while waiting for the next Harry Potter to come out. Tamora Pierce, Pat Wrede, and all those other authors were then sold as the ‘next HP.’ We saw this again with Twilight–L. J. Smith’s backlist suddenly became hot property. Every publisher has a vampire series ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
I recently tossed out the following topic to the Roundtable discussion group: The summer blockbuster movie season is upon us, and as usual various forms of genre film are dominating the screens. This year the offerings range from comic book movies (Thor), sequels to sequels (Pirates of the Carribean 4), kids films (Cars 2), and new outings from big-name directors (Super ...Read More
Read moreKaren Burnham
Welcome to this panel on up-and-coming author N. K. Jemisin. Her debut fantasy novel has been nominated for six awards so far this year, including the Hugo, Nebula, and Tiptree awards. Last weekend (after this panel was concluded) we learned that The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (HTK) won the Locus Award for Best First Novel. Last year her short story “Non-Zero Probabilities” was also short-listed for the Hugo and ...Read More
Read more(I’ve very, very, very slowly been re-reading Heinlein. Previous posts are here.)
Heinlein’s The Number of the Beast might just be my all-time favorite of his adult novels. No, it’s not the writing, although it does clip along with that Heinleinian efficiency and knack for phrase. No, it’s not how seamlessly Heinlein creates new worlds and how smoothly he signifies their subtle difference from our own. No, it’s not the ...Read More
Read moreOn this week’s podcast we have Brett Cox (Norwich University) and Andy Duncan (Frostburg State University), co-editors of the anthology Crossroads: Tales of the Southern Literary Fantastic. They discuss being on awards juries, slush pile reading, stories with crazy energy that can inspire strong reactions (both positive and negative), writers and critics, and being Southern writers.
Note: at the end Brett mentions the eBook anthology Southern Fried Weirdness: Reconstruction ...Read More
Read moreFor our final entry in the shorter (short story and novelette) category, this week we have “Plus or Minus” by James Patrick Kelly. He has published other stories with the same characters, including “Tourists” in Jonathan Strahan’s Eclipse 4. Here are some earlier comments on the story:
Lois Tilton, Locus Online
A sequel. Mariska’s mother had her cloned to fulfill her own ambitions to work in interstellar space, so ...Read More
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