Is Robert Heinlein still relevant?

Image via WikipediaRobert A Heinlein is considered one of the most influential writers in the history of science fiction -- but are Heinlein's works still relevant today? Thus is the question posed (and, ostensibly, answered) in my latest SF Signal podcast appearance.

Not to worry, my inane babblings are more than compensated for by contributions from Fred Kiesche, Derek Johnson, John DeNardo, Jeff Patterson, Patrick Hester and the music of John Anealio.

As always, you you can hear my previous SF Signal audiocrimes here.

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All the SF writing advice you could ever want

Image by B_Zedan via Flickr

The awesome gang over at SFSignal have put together probably their best Mind Meld column to date, offering up writing advice from over a dozen published and professional science fiction writers and editors. It has some great advice, including how to embrace hate mail, where Robert A. Heinlein was wrong, and exactly what it is that HarperCollins' new SF imprint is looking for. For the sake of example, we give you this paraphrased list from just one of the contributors, author Matt Hughes:

1. Leave out the passages that readers love to skip. (Those would be the ones you worked hardest on).
2. Never open a book by describing the weather.
3. Never open a book with a prologue. They are usually boring.
4. Never describe the physical appearance of a character with details that the reader will soon forget.
5. Use exclamation points sparingly.
6. Never use another verb instead of "said."
7. Never use an adverb to modify "said." The tone of the dialogue should be contained within the dialogue itself.
8. Never use a colon or semi-colon in dialogue.
9. Don't change your writing for the critics who know nothing about writing.
10. Tell the editor not to let the copy-editor mess with your punctuation.

Now go one, get to reading the whole thing.

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The 2009 book onslaught

Cover of Toast

My time is grandly overcommitted these days, so it is with extraordinary stupidity that I steal a New Year's resolution from my colleague and friend Michelle and foreswear to read 25 books in 2009. It's pretty crazy, since I'll be working three jobs this year (at least) and I'm also vowing to get at least one short story published in one of the Big Three sci-fi magazines (to say nothing of plans to lose 20 pounds, attend the Final Four, get back into shape, buy a new house, plus all the commitments native to being a decent friend, husband, father, and professional). But those are insanities for later discussion, as we've got books to showcase, beginning with...

Jay's Wonderous Christmas Book Haul:

• The Electric Church by Jeff Somers
• Shaping Things by Bruce Sterling
• Fathom by Cherie Priest
• 1633 by Eric Flint and David Weber
• 1634: The Baltic War by Eric Flint and David Weber
• Northlanders - Sven the Returned by Brian Wood and Davide Gianfelice
  
• Ex Machina - Ex Cathedra by Bryan K. Vaughan and Tony Harris

This, of course, ignores the stack of unreads dating back to last year (or earlier) that I intend to wade through:

• Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi
• Toast and Other Rusted Futures by Charles Stross
• Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge
• Serenity Found by Jane Espenson
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
• Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card
• I Am America (And So Can You) by Stephen Colbert

And, naturally, I can't start on any of those yet, because my sci-fi book club is reading Vellum by Hal Duncan in January and, since I helped pitch the book to the group, it only seems fair to read it. I had to hurry up and finish Saturn's Children, also by Stross, to clear room for it, which means I won't get to count Saturn's Children towards my '09 total. Also, since Northlanders and Ex Machina are graphic novels that took me about 60-90 minutes to read, I'm not counting them, either. Plus, I've read them already because they are awesome.

I expect paper cuts, sleepless nights, and abject self-loathing by mid-September when I'm hopelessly behind on most of my goals. But until then, bibliophilia awaits.

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