Audiobook Fix: WotF XXIII and A War of Gifts by Orson Scott Card

Audible.com is not new to publishing audio short fiction. In 2003, they published audio “Best of 2002″ collections from Asimov’s, Analog, and Fantasy & Science Fiction magazines. They followed that up with a whole year of Fantasy & Science Fiction audio goodness. Here in 2007, Audible offers another innovative audio collection: L. […]

Distillations: Imagery

For many people, poetry is a strange new land, as bizarre as any landscape imagined by Tolkien, Heinlein, or in extreme cases, Lovecraft. As the number of poetry reviewers at The Fix grows, I will be taking some time each month to discuss the mechanics of poetry. This guide will not make the landscape any […]

The Day Job: Being Professional

One of the ongoing arguments in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) concerns what makes a writer professional. A small but influential cadre within the organization defines the term easily: a writer is professional when she makes her living from selling her writing. Anything less makes the writer a […]

From the Podosphere: October ‘07 podcasts

In “Immortal Sin” by Jennifer Pelland (read by Stephen Eley), a man murders a girl who refuses to marry him. His Catholicism suggests that if he repents, he can avoid being damned and going to Hell—except the priest to whom he confesses won’t absolve him because he must first be truly repentant. And since […]

Flickers on the Wall: The Shape of SF Short Films

In my last two columns, I commented on short films that you could acquire for home viewing, either by downloading from a website or by purchasing a DVD.  But the newest short films are rarely available.  This month, I’ll examine some of the best films that are still on the festival circuit.  To see these, […]

Science Fiction and the Two Cultures

In 1959, the noted English scientist and novelist C.P. Snow gave a famous lecture titled “The Two Cultures” about the breakdown of communication between the sciences and humanities, later published in book form as The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution. Snow wrote then that the
intellectual life of…western society is increasingly being split into […]

Audiobook Fix: Dreamsongs Vol. 1 by George R.R. Martin

Audiobook Selections from Dreamsongs: Volume 1: Fan Fiction and Sci-Fi from Martin’s Early Years by George R.R. Martin, read by Claudia Black, Mark Bramhall, Scott Brick, Roy Dotrice, Kim Mai Guest, Kirby Heyborne, and Adrian Paul, is the first of three George R.R. Martin short story collections, each of which contain unabridged selections from books […]

Welcome to the Relaunch of The Fix!

The Day Job: Growth, Learning, and the Search for Teachers

It arrives in snippets.
In high school and college I’m sure my English teachers were caring, competent purveyors of English education. Undoubtedly they offered helpful advice, inspiring direction and constructive criticism. If only I had been ready to learn.
Now I’m ready. Where are they? Where’s the instruction to help me grow as […]

Flickers on the Wall: Halloween is a Time for Elder Gods

A brisk wind rustles the orange and brown leaves that still cling, tentatively, as if they are afraid of what might happen if they let go, to silhouettes of oaks and elms.  A cackle echoes under the sounds of creaking branches.  Or maybe not.  It’s hard to tell.  The light confuses everything; how light can […]