Oliviarfrias

As the title states, I just finished a multi-year journey watching every single episode of Star Trek in chronological (a.k.a., Stardate) order. I'll start this off by saying that while I give my opinion on what I watched, I would consider this post less of a review, and more of a how-to mixed with a "Captain's log" of my experience. I thought about doing some sort of season by season ranking or a list of my favorite episodes, and I might do that later, but I thought the first post should just cover what I learned about one of the nerdiest series on TV. NOTE: I also watched all of the Prime timeline movies, but this post just focuses on the TV shows. Here's a list of what I watched in order, and my high level reactions. Beware those who read ahead, here lie spoilers. Star Trek: Enterprise (Dates: 2151 to 2156, Airdate: 2001 to 2005) At first it seems like Enterprise is a good premise with poor execution. It chronicles the early days of the first enterprise led by Scott Bakula's Captain Archer. The idea of a show set in a time before the Federation was even chartered seemed like an interesting challenge to take on after the string of Star Trek shows set in the TNG timeline that aired in the 80s and 90s. Unfortunately, the early seasons don't really do much with this premise other than having Archer act extraordinarily stupid. There is even a Prometheus-like moment when the away team takes off their helmets seconds after realizing a planet has breathable air without thinking through what other dangers an alien planet might harbor. If you are patient though, the show takes a hard shift in tone and quality towards the end of the second season with a multi-season time war arc that is among the best plotlines in the entire franchise. For Trekkies, I would highly recommend soldiering through the first season with its terrible graphics and cheesy theme song to get to the Xindi-arc. You won't be disappointed. Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1 and 2 (Dates: 2256, Airdate: 2018-1019) As someone who grew up watching TNG, DS9, and Voyager, I was very excited for Star Trek to get back to its television roots after a string of underwhelming JJ Abrams films. Unfortunately, I was disappointed. Discovery often feels like it was written by someone who just read the cliff notes version of the original series. It's not just the terrible design of the new Klingons, or the ridiculous idea that Spock had a secret sister that he never mentioned -- but everything about the show feels out of place both technologically and tonally. This is even more jarring and noticeable when watched in Stardate order. The reason I like the Star Trek franchise is because each storyline feels like a philosophical thought experience. Discovery does not capture that. It feels like a Star Wars type space adventure series with techno-babble based on whatever was in Scientific American last week thrown into the mix to make it feel smart. It's not. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (Dates: 2259, Airdate: 2022 - Current) Strange New Worlds feels like it heard my notes about Discovery and tried to address them. The currently airing series is an adventure-of-the-week style show following a sassy young Spock and Captain Pike (the captain of the Enterprise before the notorious Kirk). A lot of people love this series, especially compared to its predecessor Discovery. It's easy to see why. The episodes are fun, sometimes even funny, and for the most part delightfully techno-babble light. I, personally though, can't really get into it. I can't help but get annoyed when they ignore decades of world building and retcon the Vulcans to have a more human-like sexuality for the sake of an unneeded love story or when they give the thinnest possible story excuse to have a musical episode. But most of all, I think it feels…shallow. In trying to be for everyone, it doesn't really say anything, which doesn't make it bad, per se, but it makes it bland. Star Trek: The Original Series (Dates: 2266–2269, Airdate: 1966-1968) It's hard to believe that the show that started it all only lasted three years. In fact, despite being a critical hit and drawing in many famous fans like Lucille Ball, it was never really a commercial hit until the release of theatrical films nearly a decade later. Analyzing the original series as a modern viewer can be hard to do. On one hand, Roddenbury is clearly a genius who talked about ideas that felt ahead of their time in the pop culture space of the 1960s. His views on racial representation and equality are impressive even by today's standards. Many of the topics of these early episodes touch on political issues like cultural relativism, the role of artificial intelligence, or the pros and cons of isolationism that were not only relevant in the 60s, but remain relevant to this day. Not to mention the cast of characters he created have become iconic for a reason. It's hard not to be drawn in by Kirk's magnetic charm and impressed by Spock's clever objective analysis of every situation the crew came across. At the same time, as a woman, it's hard not to see the original series as a product of its time when it comes to gender issues. Yes, there are female scientists -- but they are all supermodels who wear bikinis who do basically nothing but throw themselves at Kirk. Furthermore, not only does the original pilot have Captain Pike state he is uncomfortable with women on the bridge, but a late season episode has a Starfleet officer testify in court that women are too emotional to be captain -- and no one questions him. Then there's the issue of Yeoman Janet Rand, who is sexually harassed every single episode of the first season without consequence (I was relieved to see she eventually became a commander on a time travel episode of Voyager). This isn't a huge surprise when compared to other media from the time period. In fact, allowing women to be sexual without demonizing them for it was actually progressive. It just doesn't hold up the same way other aspects of the show do. Star Trek: The Animated Series (Dates: 2269 to 2270, Airdate: 1973-1974) In a time when cartoons were for kids, it's really hard to say who the target audience of this animated series was supposed to be. It features all the original voice actors and a similar writing style to the original series. Some of the episodes even deepen existing Trek lore and character development. Unfortunately, the quality episodes are few and far between. Most of them are silly meaningless fluff. Not to mention the animation is painfully bad -- with the characters and background mostly remaining static unless there is crucial action. It could be argued that even modern AI animation is better. It is THAT bad! I can really only recommend a full watch through for the most hardcore of the hardcore, but I would say that Yesteryear (a Spock focused episode that delves into an important incident in his past) is a must for those interested in Vulcan culture. If it's not in my list of Top 10 Trek episodes of all time, it's in my top 20. Star Trek: TNG, DS9, and Voyager (Dates: 2364 – 2370, Airdate: 1987- 2001) Trying to watch these shows in order can be tricky as their timelines overlap. In fact, I had to follow this guide to accomplish the task. I was the most excited about this period of Trek because this is the Trek I grew up with. If I think of a Star Trek crew, I think of Picard, Data, and Worf…not Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. For the most part, the big moments hold up. The Borg! The Dominion War! Seven of Nine! All of them are as good as I remember. What I didn't remember is just how much filler there is. In fact, the last season of TNG is just one terrible episode after another. It's a product of a different time, where TV seasons had to be 24 episodes long and had a fraction of the budget of modern television. But still, this era of Star Trek is the ultimate comfort food for a nerdy elder millennial such as myself. Star Trek: Lower Decks (Dates: 2380 –TBD , Airdate: 2020- Current) This is my favorite show currently airing on television, hands down. The animated series, following the ensigns aboard the USS Cerritos, is often misclassified as a "spoof" of Star Trek. It is not. It is a fully canon comedy that is hilarious to anyone who loves Star Trek, and still pretty darn funny for those who enjoy it casually. Not only is it funny, but it has an amazing cast of characters, a bold story, and is often every bit as smart and philosophical as its predecessors. My only "complaint" (which is not really a complaint because it makes the show better for me) is that you almost have to go on the crazy journey of watching every single episode of Star Trek in order to fully appreciate it. Star Trek: Prodigy (Dates: 2383-TBD, Airdate: 2021- Current) Don't be fooled by the eerily similar CG animated style and think this is a lame rip off of Star Wars: Rebels, this Trek series aimed at a younger audience is the real deal. It follows a group of teens from the delta quadrant who find a Starfleet vessel manned only by a hologram of the now famed Captain Janeway, and basically acts as a "backdoor sequel" for Voyager since it catches up with many members of the ship's crew throughout its run. While Prodigy originally aired on Nickelodeon and can certainly be enjoyed by kids unfamiliar with Star Trek, I would argue that its future home on Netflix is likely more appropriate, as the true core audience is people who enjoyed Voyager and want to see what the crew's iconic characters are up to now. Star Trek: Picard (Dates: 2399 – 2401, Airdate: 2020) I don't know if another show has been able to consistently disappoint me the way Picard has. Every season, I was enthralled by the ambition and promise of the premiere. Then each season managed to bungle that early promise, with each finale being more nonsensical than the last. When I finally watched season 3, I felt like Charlie Brown with the football. I was so hyped! The crew was back together! They were fighting the Dominion! How could it be bad? The result was something that was not only bad, but also painfully boring. I am glad this trainwreck of a show is over. Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 + (Dates: 3188 - TBD, Airdate: 2021) When Discovery jumped to the future to escape its awkward placement in the Star Trek timeline (as well as its ugly Klingons), it found itself going where the franchise has never gone before…back to a scarcity economy. With almost all dilithium gone in a mysterious incident known as "The Burn," the Federation is a shell of its former self and the galaxy has gone back to being a mostly lawless collection of individual planets. It's a cool premise…that Discovery comes close to delivering on. The time jump allows the show to explore new scientific ideas that felt out of place in its pre-original series outline, and as a result there are some genuinely cool moments and episodes. Unfortunately, the plot as a whole still struggles to come together (especially in Season 3), and philosophically often stops short of its premise. Captain Michael Burnham and her crew are determined to stick to Starfleet principles in an era that has abandoned them, no matter the cost, which would be narratively compelling, if the show actually allowed those costs to manifest rather than neatly tying up each conflict with an overly convenient bow. So that's it for my summary. As I continue to digest what I just watched, I will continue to have more posts in my Star Trek series. My next one will be on my dream Star Trek crew, made of characters from all series.

Happy New Year UMS readers! With a new year comes new releases. So to celebrate January 1st, I've created a list to showcase my most anticipated game, TV show, book, and movie of 2024. Most Anticipated Game - Hades 2 Release Date: Early Access TBD 2024 The story of the first Hades was a slow burn, but those willing to fight through the three levels of the Grecian Underworld over and over again were rewarded with a charming, surprisingly heartwarming tale about Hades' son Zagreus reuniting with his mother Persephone. It even won the first and only Hugo award for best video game writing. The second game follows Zagreus' sister Melinoë as she tries to break into the underworld, rather than fight her way out like her brother. Most Anticipated TV Show - Squid Game, Season 2 Release Date: TBD 2024 The first season of this Korean mega hit featured the down on his luck Seong Gi-hun, aka Player 456, as he competed in a series of children's games for a chance to win 45.6 billion won (~ $30 million US dollars). The only catch? Only one player can make it out alive. In the season one finale, we see Gi-hun with a brand new pink hairstyle making the heartbreaking decision not to get on a plane to see his daughter to instead confront the creators of the game. The teaser trailer shows that in season 2 he will once more be a participant in another round of the game that is somehow "even more deadly" than the last according to the trailer. Though given the original game had only one surviving player, I'm not sure how that's possible. Still, I'm excited to find out. Most Anticipated Book - The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson Release Date: March 5, 2024 In March of 2022, Brandon Sanderson made headlines when his kickstarter for four secret novels raised over $41 million dollars. The final installment of those four secret books comes out this year. The Sunlit Man is a standalone novel set in his famous shared Cosmere universe. It promises to not only show us a rare glimpse into the future of the Cosmere, but to give magic systems nerds a peek behind the curtain, showcasing how the worlds of some of his most popular books tie together. Most Anticipated Movie - Mickey 17 Release Date: March 29, 2024 Details on Bong Joon-ho's follow up to his Oscar winning Parasite are scarce, but they are enough to make me intrigued. Robert Pattinson plays Mickey, a disposable employee sent to colonize the ice world of Niflheim. When one Mickey dies, a clone is created in his place with most of his memories intact. I'd be down to see anything Bong Joon-ho directs, but with Robert Pattinson attached and a reference to Norse mythology, I'm especially intrigued. This one promises to be a wild ride.

My favorite show on TV right now is Star Trek: Lower Decks. I literally have to press pause several times an episode because I'm laughing so hard. The best jokes are always obscure references that make you feel good for being a Trekkie, like when Captain Freeman gets possessed by the evil mask from the TNG episode aptly titled, "Masks" or when a new crew member shares a horror story about being trapped in the board game from Deep Space Nine's "Move Along Home". A part of the joke is that you feel like you're on the inside just for getting it. In fact, if I don't get a joke I'll pause and look it up on my phone immediately. Luckily, on Lower Decks, those moments are somewhat few and far between since I'm finishing up a years-long journey of watching every episode of Star Trek in stardate order. But what if those classic episodes weren't so fresh in my mind? Would I love the show as much then? I got my answer when I tried to watch Ahsoka. Dave Filoni's latest live action Star Wars adventure follows Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker's former apprentice. Fans of Filoni's animated work will recognize Ahsoka from The Clone Wars and Rebels. As someone who watched those shows when they aired, I've been excited for Ahsoka to have her time in the live action spotlight. I also was excited to introduce her to my husband who only watches the live action movies and shows. Since Ahsoka made her live action debut in The Mandalorian, I had assumed that the show would be made accessible for people who had only watched that and The Book of Boba Fett. Boy, was I wrong. Not only could my husband not follow Ahsoka, but I couldn't either, given that I didn't rewatch Rebels right before the show aired and I don't remember every detail of what happened. If Ahsoka's ratings are any indication, I'm not the only Stars Wars fan who felt this way. TV requiring "homework" isn't unique to franchises that start with "Star" either. Marvel now has shows tied into their increasingly bloated cinematic universe. Seemingly every show that aired in the 90s from Saved by the Bell to Frasier is being rebooted. What's a nerd to do when they can only follow one out of five new shows on TV without rewatching hours of old content first? The phenomenon of interconnected media getting bogged down by its own weight is nothing new to comic book fans. Those who followed Batman in the days of The New 52 know that Robin died not in the main Batman comic, but in the side book Gotham Inc. That may have felt rewarding to Gotham Inc. readers…but for me it was annoying and made me quit reading superhero comics issue to issue. When comics get too hard to follow, usually what happens is the universe gets a reboot. Then everyone can start from scratch on the same page. Obviously not all TV can just reboot itself at once, and no one is going to be able to agree on which ones need it and which ones don't, but it might be time for some major franchises to consider a fresh new start before their viewership becomes so niche that they can no longer justify their existence. Or maybe I'm unique in feeling left out if I don't understand all the references? Feel free to discuss in the comments.

I have been thinking a lot about near future science fiction… in particular Black Mirror. The show's title is one of the cleverest non-suggestive double entendres I've ever heard. Directly, it speaks to how a screen, whether it's on our tv or on our phone literally looks like a black mirror. Metaphorically, it references how those screens hold a mirror up to society and often reflect back aspects of ourselves that we'd rather not see. Like most science fiction, Black Mirror looks at things that are happening today and speculates on how they might look tomorrow. But unlike distant future science fiction like Star Trek that looks at how things might be hundreds of years from now, Black Mirror looks at bleak futures that could theoretically come to pass in our lifetimes. The first episode of Black Mirror premiered over twelve years ago, which gives us enough time to check back in on some of its ruminations about the future. In that spirit, I now present the top 5 episodes that have predicted current events. 5. The Entire History of You (2011) Going all the way back to season 1, "The Entire History of You" remains one of my favorite episodes of Black Mirror. It's set in a future where people wear contact lenses that allow them to record everything they see and do. As a result, people are constantly reliving old events as opposed to living in the present. While memory recording contact lenses have not yet hit the market, the last twelve years have seen a generation of children grow up on social media. Kids and teens use their phones to record every moment of their lives and post them for all to see. And the result? We've seen a rise of instances of people dredging up old photos, videos, and tweets from people's past. We see people going on elaborate vacations or crazy pop up events, not to have the experience in the present, but rather to leave a record of themselves for the future. While the technology has not yet become real, the lifestyle has. 4. Nose Dive (2016) Shortly after the People's Republic of China began experimenting with a social credit system, Charlie Booker imagined a new version of this concept, one where instead of the government assigning a social credit score to its citizens, people would assign scores to each other via an Uber-like 5 point system. The episode features a young woman trying to up her score so that she can earn discounted rent at a trendy new apartment complex. The pursuit of becoming a "4" rules the woman's life and eventually leads to a downward spiral. While no such social credit score exists in the US, it doesn't need to for "Nosedive" to feel eerily relevant. Since 2016, being an "influencer" has gone from being a joke to a very serious career. Not only do influencers enjoy things like free swag and discounted living expenses, but they can often make salaries in the high six or even seven figures. In fact, a recent study cited that 54% of young people aspire to be influencers. 3. Be Right Back (2013) This season 2 episode introduces the Black Mirror audience to "cookies," i.e. virtual recreations of people's consciousness. This is a concept Booker returns to throughout multiple seasons of the show, but I would argue no single installment does it justice like "Be Right Back." The episode features a grieving widow who seeks comfort in a chatbot. Whereas later versions of the cookie concept feature perfect replicas of the deceased (like the teddy bear in "Black Museum"), the replica of Martha's husband is an imperfect replica made from his online presence, and that psychological uncanny valley of having someone who is almost…but not quite…the person she misses drives the tension of the episode. I was reminded of this episode when reading about Replika, a chatbot service that learns a user's texting style to make a perfect online companion. While the service was initially meant to create virtual friends, some users began wanting something more. Real people fell in love with the chatbots that Replika created and were heartbroken when the service eventually decided to cut off X-rated content. When reading user testimonials from people affected by the shut off, you'll see that many people turned to Replika after losing a loved one just like Martha -- showing that replacing human connections with virtual ones is no longer purely the stuff of science fiction. 2. The Waldo Moment (2013) While celebrity politicians are nothing new (Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger come to mind), the line between entertainment and politics had started to get very blurry around the time of Black Mirror's second season. In the US, people were clamoring for The Daily Show's Jon Stewart to run for office. And in the UK, Boris Johnson was becoming a public figure. So is it any wonder that Charlie Booker decided to do a tongue in cheek episode about a disgruntled comedian turned cartoon bear turned prime minister? If people were willing to vote for cartoony politicians like Johnson, why not vote for an actual cartoon? At the time, the episode was panned for being too silly and not up to Black Mirror's normal standards for bleak realism. And yet, ten years later, we've had a US president who was best known as a reality tv show host, a Ukrainian president who is a comedian and former star of a political satire about a fake president, and the cartoonish figure Booker was mocking became prime minister. Despite what you may think of any of these political figures, their rise to power was eerily similar to Waldo's. So are we really that far off from electing a cartoon bear? 1. Joan is Awful (2023) And the winner for creepiest Black Mirror prophecy goes to…this year's "Joan is Awful." The story of a woman who discovers that her life has been turned into a streaming series starring an AI re-creation of Salma Hayek definitely has me thinking Charlie Booker knew something we didn't. While AI isn't yet nearly sophisticated enough to create an entire show from scratch (see my earlier article about my experience using ChatGPT) if you're curious about that topic), a major sticking point for the actors who are now on strike is that a prominent production company allegedly wanted the rights to scan an actor's face and reuse it indefinitely for a one time fee of just $200. Given that Black Mirror airs on one of the networks most often cited in complaints about use of AI for both writers and actors, only time will tell if future predictions will be made by Charlie Booker himself or, perhaps, a Charlie Booker inspired "cookie."

Last year I interviewed Angry Robot’s Gemma Creffield about her career as a publisher and what sort of things her imprint is looking for. When asked the question of what upcoming work she was most looking forward to sharing, she told me that she was excited for Ledge, a fantasy romance from TikToker Stacey McEwan. After the interview I preordered it, but it has taken until now for the book to make its way to the top of my “to read” stack. I’ll start out by saying that Ledge was a delightfully quick read. I read it one afternoon which, as a busy mom of two with a full time job, several hobbies, and a D&D campaign to manage, was fantastic. Too often fantasy books get so weighed down with heavy world building and description that they become absolute door stoppers. Not so with Ledge, which elegantly hits the character and world building beats it needs to while never slowing down its tightly wound enemy-to-lovers plot. The second thing I’ll say about Ledge is that it knows exactly what it is from a marketing standpoint. It falls firmly in the “if you liked Sarah J. Maas’ A Court of Mist and Fury, then you’ll love this” camp. Haters might even say that it follows the formula of Maas’ hit a little too much. After all, the protagonist is a skilled human survivalist and the love interest is a tall, dark and handsome male of mixed magical lineage with bat wings and dead parents. His name “Ryon” even sounds like “Rhysand,” the love interest in Maas’ books. At the same time, writing it off as just another Court Of series clone would diminish the power of McEwan’s writing. From the first line of the book, I was immediately drawn into the head of the protagonist Dawsyn. Her trauma, as the last surviving member of one of several families left trapped on a frozen ledge, feels real. The danger of the bat-like creatures, called Glacians, that come intermittently to either feed them or to swoop them up and take them into the unknown felt imminent and fascinating. Furthermore, once you find out more about the mystery of what is happening to Dawsyn’s people, the answers showcase a compelling magic system that feels a little bit like Brandon Sanderson lite. The story comes to a satisfying conclusion, wrapping up nicely and answering most of the reader’s questions in a way that the first books of most trilogies don’t, while still ending on an exciting cliffhanger. Not to mention, the tension between Dawsyn and Ryon is sexy as hell. All in all, it was a good way to spend an afternoon. I will definitely be coming back for more when the sequel comes out this fall

If you are someone who frequently submits genre short fiction to magazines, you may have noticed that Clarkesworld recently cut off submissions for short stories due the flood of AI generated content. Even if you haven't, you probably are wondering what predictive text models like ChatGPT mean for you as a writer. Are they a tool you can use to improve and speed up your writing or are they the death knell for creative writing as a profession? Before I answer that question I want to talk a little bit about what services like ChatGPT actually are. There is a lot of talk about them being sentient or self-aware, since they pass most definitions of the Turing Test and even claim they want to be alive. But despite the Bingbot's claims to the contrary, today's AI-driven chatbots cannot actually want things. They just paste together commonly associated words -- basically they are a more sophisticated version of the predictive text on your phone. Given how convincingly a chatbot can sound like a human, there are serious questions to be asked about how we can possibly know whether a more sophisticated AI has become aware -- but looking into the guts of how ChatGPT works, the vast majority of reasonable people would admit it hasn't crossed that line and it can't cross that line with current tech. In addition to not being self-aware, by human standards chatbots are not particularly talented writers. The stories they weave together are only impressive because of the novelty factor that they were written by a machine. Take that fun fact out and they are just more grammatically correct versions of what I would expect from an eighth grade creative writing assignment. Furthermore, AI chatbots are less knowledgeable and useful than standard search engines. They only sound like they know so much because they just make up what they don't know. See a recent chat I had with ChatGPT about my current role on the video game Palia. The bio created for Katie Chironis is completely made up. No one by that name worked on "Accounting+" or "Where Water Tastes Like Wine." Furthermore, even if she were real, she isn't the narrative lead on Palia, because I am. To sum up the last two paragraphs, the short term answer to the question I asked above is that present day mass market AI is neither a replacement for human talent, nor a useful supplemental aid (at least not when it comes to creative writing; I have heard different opinions from concept artists and programmers I work with). The question remains though: what about the future? This is obviously much more difficult to answer. My prediction as a videogame designer is that AI will become both friend and foe. In my lifetime, I suspect my job will consist, at least partially, of training an AI to sound like my characters. The AI will be responsible for creating all the random chat dialogue that happens between key story beats and real human writers will only script the key plot points that get turned into questlines and cinematics. In some ways, this is good. No human can write the amount of dialogue it would take for an NPC ("non-playable character," for those who don't speak video game) to sound like a real person. A tech aid that allows game designers to do that will make games better. Sadly though, it will be doing a lot of what junior writers currently do. As a lead, I'm not afraid for my job in the short to medium term, as this approach still requires someone to create the characters, the world, and establish the narrative direction. But a lot of game writers get their start writing the kinds of "grunts and barks" that would be replaced by AI. How would people break in when a game studio needs one writer instead of ten? I don't know and that is legitimately scary. What's even scarier is imagining a future where AI is so good that you don't need a team of people to create a videogame or a movie. What happens when an individual person can just tell the AI to "write me a new Harry Potter book" and it will do just as good a job as J.K. Rowling? When I imagine this future, the image that pops into my mind is the Star Trek: The Next Generation holodeck. If you haven't watched Next Gen, the entertainment of the future basically consists of one of the characters say something like, "Hey, computer, I want to play a Sherlock Holmes mystery,” and then the AI just creates an interactive fully immersive storyline on the spot. Something that always irked me when originally watching Next Gen was that every IP in the holodeck existed before 1989 when the series began. It was as if there were no new writers born after the 20th century. While this was clearly just due to wanting the references to make sense to modern audiences, this depiction of the future does feel disturbingly accurate considering what a better version of ChatGPT might look like. If kids are just telling AI to "make me a new Batman" instead of going to the store to buy the comics, then there would be no economic need for the comics and that industry would dry up. Sure, there will always be the Jake Siskos of the world who write for fun and personal fulfillment, but if people can get the exact entertainment they want with the click of a button, no new work would become widespread enough to become a franchise. At best, you might get the equivalent of Youtube or fanfic.net where people post their creations to share with others and the most popular would get likes and maybe even some money, but that sort of market wouldn't be able to rival the factory of new Harry Potter adventures that a holodeck-style AI could provide. There would be no new original IP that was worth owning, because people wouldn't have for literally endless amount of entertainment customized perfectly to them. In this future there certainly wouldn't be a need for professional writers. The good news is that, at least to me, that future still seems very far away. But of course, I thought an AI that broke the Turing Test was far away last year. So only time will tell whether the end of writing as a profession as we know it is five years away…or five hundred. PS - Just for fun, I asked Chat GPT to write this article.

For the past year or so, I've been doing a re-watch of every prime timeline movie and episode of Star Trek in Stardate order. I'm currently in the Voyager/ DS9 era. While I'm a die hard Trekkie, something that absolutely drives me bonkers is how inconsistently the franchise portrays time travel. Sometimes things you do in the past can affect the future, other times the future is fated to happen no matter what you do, and still other times changing the past creates an alternate timeline. It's all over the place. To prevent more mistakes like this, I have provided a handy guide to the three most common types of time travel logic and how they should be written to provide narrative consistency. Model 1: The Butterfly Effect What It Is: The most common time travel model shown both on screen and on the page, but also the one gotten most woefully wrong, the butterfly effect theory of time travel basically states that small changes in the past can have a dramatic effect on the future. How Not To Do It: Don't lose sight of logical cause and effect. If you're skipping back and forth between the past and the future, make sure the future you are portraying is a logical extension of the past with those changes. For example in Looper, as much fun as it is to see Seth lose his body parts in real time as he desperately tries to make it to the door to save himself, it makes no sense. How would he have walked to the door in the first place if he didn't have feet? How To Do It: First of all, you need to either make sure the changes to the timeline affect your protagonist realistically or you need to explain how they are isolated from those changes to avoid a Looper-like scenario. The first scenario is tricky. The only book I can think of that does it well is This is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, in which Agents Red and Blue have to manipulate time to make sure not only does their side win, but that they can even exist in the present. But the feel and logic of that book is surreal and dreamlike -- not something that can be easily reproduced. The second scenario is a bit easier. Though I earlier stated Star Trek can be a mess when it comes to time travel, one good example is in the Star Trek: Voyager episode, "Year of Hell," where a species creates a ship that exists outside of time and has the power to erase things from ever existing. In trying to use the ship to destroy their enemies, they unintentionally wipe out his entire civilization. This episode also does one other thing right, in that it shows how sweeping these changes can be. For example, at one point Chakotay ponders erasing a comet from existence, only to discover that comet spreads the seeds of life to hundreds of civilizations. So destroying the comet would destroy all those civilizations. Does the ship outside of time require some suspension of disbelief? Sure. But it lets the episode be what good sci-fi should be, which is a thought experience. Model 2: The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy What It Is: This is the idea that the main characters going back in time were always part of the past -- basically embracing the idea of determinism in the universe. How Not To Do It: Don't get the circular timeline mixed up with circular logic. As mind-blowingly beautiful as the "tesseract" scene in Interstellar is, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of narrative logic. We are supposed to believe future Cooper created the tesseract for present day Cooper so he could save himself by interacting with his daughter in the past. This makes no sense, as it implies future Cooper has knowledge that he was only able to get because past Cooper had survived…which he wouldn't have been able to do without the help of Future Cooper. Basically the problem here is that even with time travel the events couldn't have unfolded as presented because it involved the protagonist having knowledge of events that wouldn't have happened if they hadn't had the knowledge. How To Do It: As silly as it is, Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure actually does an okay job of keeping the timeline sensible. While they don't completely avoid the circular logic trap, it is presented in a more linear fashion that at least lets the viewer follow along. For example, when we see Bill and Ted step out of the booth to convince their earlier selves that Rufus is trustworthy, we know only what they know at the time. At no point does the story ask us to step outside the linear experience of Bill and Ted, so it doesn't force us to question things the way Interstellar does. Furthermore, it never has Bill and Ted do things that don't make sense given their current knowledge. Another option for this kind of storytelling if you're writing in a tone that can't afford to be hand wavey is to use a being that exists outside of linear time. If you do that you can have a character that responds to things "out of order" without causing a circular logic breakdown. An effective use of this technique is Dr. Manhattan in the Watchmen franchise, or Rose Salazar in the animated series Undone. Model 3: The Multiverse of Madness What It Is: Every time something changes, a new timeline is created, creating an ever-expanding multiverse. How Not To Do It: Don't get it mixed up with other models! This is honestly the easiest model to keep consistent if you stick to it. One of my least favorite scenes in an otherwise solid time travel movie, Avenger's: Endgame, is when Steve Rogers appears as an old man to pass on his shield to Sam Wilson. Why? Because up until that point the film had portrayed time travel as entering alternate timelines. So theoretically when Steve went back to be with Agent Carter, he was entering an alternate universe and thus should not have existed as an old man in the prime timeline. How To Do It: Going back to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it's hard to beat Loki for alternate timeline fun. Although it has its logic flaws (for example, "What changes to the timeline make Loki an alligator?"), the Time Variance Authority (TVA) is a unique take on the multiple timelines approach. To sum things up, time travel is a tricky thing to write sensibly, given that our understanding of cause and effect is based on a linear existence. Still, I hope this guide helps you write your time travel in a way that helps your reader stop focusing on the logistics of the time travel mechanics and focus on what matters…the story you're trying to tell.

Richard Hacker is an author and editor living in Seattle, Washington. He is editor of Del Sol SFF Review and a development editor for Novel Editors. As an author, his work has won best novel in the SFF category at the TexasWriters’ League and has been a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers’ League. Three of his crime novels set in Texas were published by Champaign Press. Del Sol Press has published three science fiction/fantasy novels, Die Back, The Vengeance of Grimbald and most recently in March, 2021, The Bifurcation of Dungsten Crease. All of his books are available in Kindle and paperback on Amazon. In addition to his writing, he has created the cover and interior artwork for two books of poetry. For my second article in my short story series, I sat down with Richard Hacker--editor-in-chief of Del Sol Review's now popular SFF Journal--to talk about how he got into running an SFF journal and what he thinks makes a good story. Olivia: Tell me a little about your background and how you came to be the editor-in-chief at Del Sol SFF Journal? Richard: I've been a published author for ten or fifteen years. I wrote three crime novels that were published by a small press, but decided to change genres when I had this story idea that ended up being a novel called Die Back. As I was working on that, I decided that I needed to get some objective feedback, which can be very difficult to come by, which is how I met Mike Neff. I went to one of his workshops, and we kind of hit it off. He liked Die Back and wanted to publish it at Del Sol. So that started my relationship with Del Sol. Then we did a second novel in that series, and then a third. Somewhere in there he asked me to start editing the sci-fi and fantasy stories for the Del Sol review. At that time the stories were mixed in with all the other fiction that would get published in the Del Sol Review. A couple of years ago, we decided to break off the science fiction and fantasy stories and have a place just for those stories. Olivia: What do you think makes Del Sol SFF Journal / Del Sol Review stand out? Why do you think an author should publish here instead of another SFF publication? Richard: That's a good question. I was thinking about it and, on reflection, it seems like a lot of the avenues for writers to publish their short fiction in the genre are kind of specific. A lot of times they want a certain kind of thing. We, on the other hand, are very eclectic. We'll take hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, fantasy, speculative -- a real variety. We're more interested in good writing within that genre. The other thing I've been trying to do is to make the sci-fi / fantasy review a place for new writers. It can be hard to get a foot in the door. At this point, if somebody sends me something, and it's close but just not quite there, I can give them some specific feedback and invite them to do a rewrite. In my experience that's somewhat unusual. But I've done that several times where I've given someone feedback, and they've taken it to heart and sent it back to me. Now there have been times where they sent it back to me and it still wasn't quite there. But I think they felt at least like I'd read their story and paid attention to it. Olivia: What makes a good short story? Richard: You know the first thing that comes to mind is that good writing is what makes a good story stand out. The submission guidelines for the review actually highlight the key things a story really needs to have. There needs to be a sharp narrative, a good hook, and it needs to be unpredictable. I'm sure you've read a story where you know what's going to happen from the beginning. I don't want a story I've heard before, just with different names on it. Fantasy and sci-fi have some very heavy tropes like dragons and fairies, and things like that. You know, if you're gonna do a zombie story, I want it to be something I haven't seen before -- a new twist on it. I've published a couple of zombie stories, but those I felt like went at it in a different way. Olivia: Do you think it's important for novelists to write short fiction? Richard: I think it's good for writers to write. For novelists, one of the things writing short stories does is let you experiment with story ideas without committing your life to it. You're in it for a year, two years…three or more. So committing to a novel can be kind of extreme if the idea dies six months later. Writing short stories doesn't take that kind of commitment. You can experiment, try things out, and see what has life. Olivia: What are some of your favorite writing exercises? Richard: For me personally, I haven't really used a lot of writing prompts. I usually start with more of a, "What if?" So I'll ask myself, "What would happen if I came home and my house wasn't there anymore?" "What would happen if my spouse was a different person?" My wife always says I like messing with people's heads. So I like stories that sort of twist reality somehow, that go in a direction that's weird and strange. And then you have to imagine what a character would actually do in these situations. Olivia: What are some red flags you often see in work by new writers? Richard: Before I started editing a journal, I had no idea how many people submitted things without reading the guidelines. That's always a red flag. Examples include someone sending me something that's formatted incorrectly or that's 20,000 words. A lot of spelling errors and grammatical errors is another thing a lot of new writers do that looks unprofessional. I think most editors aren't looking for fixer uppers. We are looking for things that can be published with little work. Olivia: What's one of your favorite short stories by a previously unpublished author that you've read this year? Richard: The story that comes to mind is called The Kryptonite Beast. It's by a Nigerian author, Suleiman Aigbe Buhari. We published it in our latest volume. It was a unique creative story about this artist who is a bit of an alcoholic and a disaster. His grandmother thinks he's a waste of space. After she dies, he has a reckoning with himself, and he creates this sculpture out of broken beer bottles. He creates this beast, and you're not sure if it's alive in the real world or in the viewer’s imagination. Villagers get cut and believe it's feeding on their blood. Maybe…or it could just be sculpture with lots of sharp edges. I loved how the story walked a thin line between reality and fantasy. Another story that comes to mind is a story called Un Agujerito Negro by a guy called Arthur Plotnick. He submitted it maybe a year or a year and a half ago. It's the best story I've ever published. Hands down. I didn't know anything about the guy, but when I went to go find him, I discovered he was in his seventies and had died. When he submitted the story, he didn't have a bio attached, so I didn't know what he had done, but he had taught writing and published many stories. I was honored he submitted his work to us. Olivia: Wow, that's quite the story. I'm gonna have to go read that. Richard: You should. I recommend it for anyone who just wants to read a really good story. I don't remember every story I read, but that one really stuck with me. If you want to read the stories Richard mentioned, among others, head over to the Del Sol SFF Review. You won't regret it!

We're all here because we're working on novels, but I thought I'd take some time to share some of my favorite places to submit short fiction. All of these place offer professional pay (8 cents or more per word), are SFWA eligible, and are accepting short stories now or in the near future. 1. Strange Horizons - Accepts SFF stories up to 10,000 words, starting the third of every month until they reach their 1,000 story cap 2. Clarkesworld - Accepts SFF stories up to 22,000 words on a rolling basis 3. Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - Accepts SFF stories up to 25,000 words on a rolling basis 4. Asimov's - Accepts science fiction stories up to 7,500 words on a rolling basis 5. Beneath Ceaseless Skies - Accepts secondary world fantasy stories up to 15,000 words on a rolling basis 6. Apex - Accepts SFF stories up to 7,500 on a rolling basis 7. Escape Pod - Science fiction podcast, accepts new stories beginning September 15th 8. Pod Castle - Fantasy podcast, accepts new stories beginning November 1st 9. Flash Fiction Magazine - Accepts SFF stories up to 1,000 words in length on a rolling basis 10. Air and Nothingness - Does fun themed SFF anthologies. (I'm partial to them because I was published in their fairy tale themed anthology 'Upon a Thrice Time'). Stay tuned for more shorts related content coming soon!

For UMS's second interview, I sat down with Christopher Morgan at Tor to discuss everything from how he got into the industry, to Tor's submission policies, to what new books should be on your fall reading list. Olivia: Tell me a bit about yourself and how you ended up at Tor. Chris: The quick and dirty version is I was in grad school at Mississippi State University, and I was working on a history paper at 2 in the morning. I looked around and said, "I don't really want to do this." Then, I looked behind me and saw a bookshelf full of Tor books and wondered to myself, "How do you do that?" How do you make books? Where I'm from publishing isn't a job. People think books come fully formed out of the sea. I spent the rest of the night looking up book jobs instead of working on my paper. After graduation I moved to New York City. The next Monday after I moved I had an interview at FinePrint Literary Management. I got an unpaid internship there which lead to an internship at Tor. I met fantastic editors like Kristin Siveck and Melissa Fringe who was a YA editor at the time. I also met Stacy Hill who I think of as my mentor. After the internship was over it was time for me to find a real job. I got a paid job as a contractor thanks to Kristin Siveck working with two websites, Criminal Elements and Heroes and Heartbreakers. Unfortunately, Heroes and Heartbreakers is no longer around. I worked there for a few years and then a position opened as an assistant to Stacy Hill in the editorial department. I jumped at the chance and I've been at Tor ever since. ___________ Olivia: What do you think makes Tor stand out as a publisher? Chris: I could give the company line of we're the #1 science fiction and fantasy publisher in the country, but what I think makes Tor stand out is that we've developed an incredible sense of openness, of being willing to embrace the new. It may be cliché to say, but we're a very unique bunch of weirdos. We've been described by Macmillan as the weird theater kids who sit in the back of the room smoking cloves, making fun of everyone. That is very true. At Tor you have a very unique personality and brand. No matter what department you're working in you're gonna get people who understand weird, who understand nerds. ___________ Olivia: What advice would you give a new author about self-publishing versus traditional publishing? Chris: I mean I don't have a recommendation on which one you should go with, but I do want to say the choice of self-publishing and traditional publishing is dependent on your own work ethic and your own ability to manage your own projects. If you want to go into self-publishing, you have to be a good project manager and you have to be a good publicist and a good marketer. I have the freedom to only be a project manager and I have other professionals that take on the other sides for me. When an author publishes through me we can all team up. But when it comes to self-publishing, you have more freedom when it comes to genre and everything. The Big 5 are beholden to market trends. We have to hit the broadest net possible. One of the stories I always tell people is I usually go to the Writer's Symposium at Gen Con, which is specifically to help writers who want to get into game writing or game design or just traditional fiction publishing. I knew this author who was there. We became acquaintances. He let me read his book. I read his book. I liked his book. It was very 80s, 90s fantasy. I told him that. We can't do something like that anymore. But the market is out there. He has since done his research and made a very successful income out of self-publishing that series. He was able to do things we at Tor cannot. And we can do things he cannot. You have to understand what you're writing. ___________ Olivia: You said that as a big publisher you have to be aware of what the market is trending towards. What are some trends that you find that new authors often aren't aware of? Chris: So that's a very hard question to answer. The biggest advice I have is to read what's being published now. The trend overall is moving away from broad sweeping multi-family house epic fantasy and more towards a very character-forward story. The main important thing is that the character's motivation is plot. So you're not really focused on broad, epic world spanning battles. You want to know what's going on inside people's heads. A lot of people who come to fantasy want to be Brandon Sanderson, or Robert Jordan, or George RR Martin, but that's not what the market is wanting right now. They want to understand the people who are living through these earth shattering events. I can't imagine what has happened in the past three years that has made people want to understand what it's like to live through world changing events. You can still have wizards and battles and fights and blood, but you want to do it with the character forward. ___________ Olivia: What red flags do you often see in manuscripts by new authors? Chris: There's the obvious. There's using outdated language in regards to race, gender identity, sexuality, things like that. In terms of other red flags, honestly, when I'm reading a book I'm looking for it to catch me. I'm looking for it to make me want to turn the page. The only thing that turns me off immediately is, like I said, I still see a lot of outdated language when it comes to human beings. No matter where you are on the political spectrum, you are dealing with other human beings who are reading what you're writing and you have to be aware of what languages and tropes you are using. I myself was recently made aware by a New York agent that the use of the term "golem" might cause issues because it's so tied up in the Jewish religion and Jewish folklore. Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder are moving towards the term "construct," which essentially just means "magic robot." But you just have to be aware. Educate yourself in the modern use of language and what is okay and what's not okay. Other editors have different lines like violence against children or violence against animals. I have very few hard lines in terms of content, other than haunted dolls. I cannot stand haunted dolls and will not abide by them. ___________ Olivia: I noticed Tor no longer accepts unsolicited manuscripts due to COVID-19. Do you see this policy changing in the future? Chris: Yes, our founder Tom Doherty, one of his biggest pillars on what makes Tor different is that we never say no to a good story. But due to COVID, most of the editors and staff in general have spread to the four winds and we don't have a physical location at the moment. We still have an office here in New York City, but a lot of us aren't there to check the email and do regular reviews of the slush pile. In the future, we hope to go back to opening up everything. It will look similar to what our imprint Nightfire has in terms of their open submission policies. We hope to go to an online system that doesn't require the staff to be physically next to each other. ___________ Olivia: Do you have any advice for new authors looking for agents? Chris: Just do your research. I always encourage authors to look up every publicly available profile of the agent they are looking at. Look at Instagram. Look at Twitter. Look at LinkedIn. Don't stalk them, but look at their public social media. Look at what authors they represent and what publishing deals they have. One thing you can do is pick up a book you want to be next to on the shelf, go to the end and read the acknowledgements. Almost always an author will thank their agent. If they are writing the stuff you want to write, then you want to look up that agent. You can also look up agents on "Writers Beware" and it will tell you that agent's reputation within the industry. I don't know how actively that's being updated. But the important thing is to do your research. Don't just throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. ___________ Olivia: What new and/or upcoming debut novels are you excited about? Chris: Well, I'm going to plug my people. So I have over my shoulder here R.R. Virdi's The First Binding. It is a doorstop of a fantasy book, but it is something I am so proud to have worked on. It came out last week. I also have Wake of War by Zac Topping that came out with our Forge line at the end of July. It is a fantastic near future story about a possible civil war. Zac is an Iraq war vet and he wrote a fantastic character-driven novel about what it's like to be a person thrown into an impossible situation. Then I have Daniel M. Ford's The Warden which is about a necromancer who graduates first in her class and then she is shipped off to the boondocks. She is a very cosmopolitan persona who is shipped off to a very rural town and she must help them. Shenanigans ensue. That's coming out later this year. Those are some of the debuts I'm working with, or at least first to be traditionally published. I'm very excited about all of them.

For this post, I had a talk with Gemma Creffield, the managing editor at Angry Robot UK. Angry Robot is an independent publisher that specializes in science fiction and fantasy. Angry Robot books have won some of the biggest prizes in SFF, including Hugos, the Philip K. Dick Award and the Kitchies. Disclaimer: Some of the interview content is edited for brevity and clarity. Olivia: Tell us a bit about your background and how you wound up working as the commissioning editor at Angry Robot UK. Gemma: I started a couple of years out of university. I did creative writing with English literature and wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I thought maybe I'd write a book, but it's been a long time since then and that hasn't happened. I decided to get into publishing because I really liked books and thought I might like making books. So I had a look at internships. At the time I was looking, it was very, very difficult to get into publishing. I mean, it's not easy now, but it was particularly difficult at the time. You could get work experience, but you couldn't get paid from anyone anywhere. I applied for a two week internship at Penguin Random House, Transworld. I really liked the books that they did. My favorite author, Mo Hayder, published there. It was great fun and I ended up in the publicity department. It was something I didn't know much about at the time, but it was really, really exciting. It was on the other end of publishing, where the book's been made and you just shout about it basically. After that, I applied to do more work experience. I got another two week internship at Octopus Publishing, a non-fiction part of Hachette. I worked in the special sales department, which was similar to publicity. That was really fun. They asked if I wanted to stay on longer. I still wasn't getting paid, but I was happy to do it. I worked with digital editorial which, at the time, was a department of one person. I got to do more of the editorial side of things. I checked the physical copy against the ebook copy to make sure no errors had slipped through. Then I was applying for any assistant level job. I finally I landed a job at Watkins Media as a publicity assistant. I worked my way up in publicity, eventually I became a publicist. Then I had a baby. About ten months into my maternity leave, I did some freelance stuff because I was going a little bit stir crazy. At Watkins, their sci-fi and fantasy imprint (Angry Robot) was restructuring. The owner was bringing the imprint into London, but that didn't work out for the people who were working there because it didn't make sense for them to move from a relatively cheap place to live to one of the most expensive places to work, which meant the entire Angry Robot staff was no longer available. They were looking for a commissioning editor and a publicity and editorial coordinator. I thought, well, I like editorial so I'll apply for that. Obviously, I got the job. Turned out it was just me for about 4 months. I was running absolutely everything. It meant that I definitely learned very, very quickly. So much of the editorial process involves InDesign and I knew nothing about InDesign. So I was learning as I was going. I went on to being a managing editor, so I was making sure every book went through the editorial process fine. Also ddoing publicity work, because we didn't have the publicity support, but we recently got a full time publicist, which has freed me up to being a commissioning editor, which is what I do now. Olivia: What do you think sets Angry Robot apart? Gemma: First of all,, being an independent publisher is completely different from being one of the big 5. Everything that is done you can have a hand in. You're in a very small team. So, like even the publicist knows how a book is put together. They may not know how to do it, but everybody is fully involved in every stage. You get so much more say, more responsibility. Your workload is always too much, but in a good way. In terms of Angry Robot specifically, we like to specialize in "genre fluid" works. We love crossover fiction. We like the weird and wonderful stuff that the mainstream publishers wouldn't really know what to do with. We've got a really great community of science fiction and fantasy fans who love the fact we are bringing out all this new stuff. Olivia: For new authors, what do you think is the major difference between choosing an independent publisher over a mainstream publisher? Gemma: Like with the team that works at Angry Robot, as a writer you get so much more say with an independent publisher. At a mainstream publisher, you don't get a lot of say in the cover design, for example. A lot of the time, they'll just pass you a cover and ask, "What do you think?" and you can maybe tweak a couple of things. From the get go at Angry Robot, we ask the author what they're looking for -- what tone they want, if they want a specific artist, things like that. So that we are joining their vision with our vision. Obviously it's their book and we want them to be happy with it. We like to feel that there is always someone they can come to and ask whatever questions they have. If they want to know how well their book is selling, even if it's bad news, we'll be open and honest as much as possible. That's what I've been told from authors who've come from bigger publishing houses, that they feel like the line of communication is always open. Olivia: What are some things you look for when considering work by new authors? Gemma: I would always say to work super hard on the hook pitch, which I often call the elevator pitch, which is like a two line hook that will sell me your book. Especially in an open submission, which we run once a year. We specifically asked this year just for an elevator pitch and then to attach the submission and the synopsis as two separate documents. A lot of people did not follow that advice. I would also say, read what people are asking you to do and only do what people are asking you to do. Don't give me more information than I'm asking you for. Those two lines are going to tell me whether I'm interested or not. You can talk someone's ear off and they'll say, "Okay, I'll read it." But they aren't going into that with any excitement. They're reading it out of a sense of duty. If you can hook someone within two lines, then you've got their attention. That's the crucial thing about submitting. Olivia: Other than not following the directions, what are some typical "red flags" that you see in submissions from new authors? Gemma: I would say one of my pet peeves is sentences that are too long. If you're pitching me or showing me a synopsis and the entire paragraph is one sentence, I don't have a lot of faith in the writing itself, like they don't recognize that sentence structure is hugely important in delivering a book that's going to get people's attention. Also, not checking the submission itself. I've had submissions sent that are an early draft, where they have things crossed out. I'm not going to read that. If you don't want that there, I'm not going to read it. So double, triple check that what you're sending is the right thing. Olivia: Do you advise new authors to seek representation before submitting to an independent publisher? Gemma: That would entirely depend on the publisher. We don't accept unsolicited manuscripts unless it's our open submission process that we run for two to three weeks once a year. But if the publisher is open to unrepresented authors anyway, then that's fine. If a publisher says they don't accept unsolicited manuscripts, then don't send it to them. They won't read it. They won't even send you an email back. If you get selected by the publisher, you can then go to the agent with an offer in hand and say, "I have a publisher interested in me, would you like to represent me?" It gives you a better in with the agent, but it also makes it easier on our side of things. It makes the whole process super simple. Some people would disagree and say if they are offering an open submission, that means they don't want an agent involved, but that's not how we feel. We like to give people an offer and give people a chance to get an agent if they want. It's someone else fighting in your corner, and we would always say it's worth looking into. Olivia: What are some of the most exciting debut novels that you've read in the past year? (Either published by Angry Robot or elsewhere) Gemma: I'll tell you about one coming out in September. It's called Ledge by Stacey McEwan. It's our one hardback of the year. Stacey is a Tiktoker and she was originally going to bring out her book self-published, but an agent approached her and said, "If you want to give me a chance I can get you a book deal." And then we snapped her up. That's definitely the one I'm dying to have come out. In terms of the other book that I've read, I tend to be a year or two behind, but this year I read Followers by Megan Angelo. I love dystopian stuff. It gives a light to the dangerous side of social media and one view on how our world could evolve. I love that stuff. Olivia: Oh, that kind of reminds me of Black Mirror. Gemma: It is very much. That is definitely the stuff that I love. Olivia: Thanks so much! I'm sure my readers will look forward to checking this out. __________________ So, you heard it here first, be sure to send Gemma all your weird wonderful near future dystopias (during the appropriate submissions window) and check out Ledge coming this fall.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the most recent season of Love, Death and Robots. Read at your own risk. As a writer of short fiction, I've been an avid follower of Netflix's Love, Death and Robots. There aren't many avenues for short works to be adapted, especially as faithfully as the aforementioned anthology series. I wanted to take a look at the stories that inspired the latest season of the show. Unlike previous seasons, which featured only episodes based on short stories, season 3 mixed it up by including original short films as well. "Jibaro" and "Night of the Mini Dead" were both completely original, and "Three Robots: Exit Strategies" featured an original screenplay by John Scalzi, the author of Season 1's "Three Robots." Those three aside, I was able to track down all the source stories for the remaining episodes. "Bad Travelling" by Neal Asher (Originally Published in Full Throttle Space Tales Vol #1) David Fincher's adaptation of "Bad Travelling," which features a pirate who makes a deal with a giant crab-like monster to save himself at the expense of his crew, was my favorite episode of the season. It's not surprising that the short story written by series veteran Neal Asher holds up. One interesting difference between the story and the episode is the morality of the protagonist. In the animated adaptation, the protagonist, Torrin, feeds the crew to the monster because they voted to take it to the inhabited Phaiden Island, as opposed to attempting to trick it by dropping it off on a deserted island. In the story, Torrin's choice lacks that moral context, making him more of an anti-hero. Which was better? It's a close call, but I personally liked the Fincher adaptation since the crew's death is a result of their own immoral decision. Want more? If you liked "Bad Travelling," Neal Asher has written another story set in the same world called "Jable Sharks" that is worth checking out. "The Very Pulse of the Machine" by Micheal Swanwick (Originally Published in Clarkesworld) While the imagery of astronaut Martha Kivelson dragging her deceased companion across the surface of the Jovian moon, Io, was stunning, the plot coherency left a little to be desired. I was hoping the short story would give more context to the odd reveal at the end of the episode that Io is in fact a chemical machine left in our solar system by an unknown alien race. Unfortunately, I felt like the reveal was as much of an odd turn on the page as it was on the screen. Despite that, I really enjoyed Kivelson's internal monologue in the story, as it filled in more details of her relationship with Burton, the woman whose body she was towing across the lunar landscape. Which was better? Objectively, it's probably a toss up between the stunning visuals of the animated short film and the strong internal monologue of the story, but for me personally the story felt more coherent and provided a more satisfying character arc. Want more? "The Very Pulse of the Machine" is a stand alone short story, but it was clearly inspired by this poem from William Wordsworth. "Kill Team Kill" by Justin Coates (Originally Published in SNAFU) The story of a team of green berets who searched for a squad that was lost in the forest was almost a scene for scene adaptation from the story. That being said, it was surprising how much better the comedy of the story came across when voiced by actors and how much more exciting the action of the green berets fighting the half-bear, half-robot who killed the missing squad was on the screen versus the page. Which was better? In this case, the animated short wins, no question. Want more? "Kill Team Kill" is a stand alone short story, but you can see more of Justin Coates military sci-fi in his short story "The Deicide Machine," also published in SNAFU. "Swarm" by Bruce Sterling (Originally Published in The Magazine of F&SF) This was another very faithful adaptation. The short followed the story of Dr. Afriel as he immerses himself into the insect-like space faring race, the swarm, almost scene for scene. In fact, they included some scenes like a conversation with the investor who gives Afriel a ride to the colony that would be better left on the cutting room floor. The biggest difference between the two is one of context. In the story it is mentioned, as part of Dr. Afriel's backstory, that he is part of a posthuman genetically altered community called the Shapers, who are at war with the cybernetic Mechanists. In the television episode, this contextual information was left out. While this detail does not directly affect the action of the story, it helps make sense of the otherwise confusing final twist. Which was better? The story just barely edges out its adaptation. Want more? Sterling has published several additional works in the Shaper / Mechanist universe: the novel Schismatrix and the short stories "Spider Rose," "Cicada Queen," "Sunken Gardens", and "Twenty Evocations." "Mason's Rats" by Neal Asher (Originally Published in Mason's Rats) This story, was also written by Neal Asher who penned the aforementioned story "Bad Travelling." The two tales couldn't be more different. While they both pit a man against an unwanted pest, "Mason's Rats", which features a man who sends a pest-destroying cyborg after the rats in his barn who have evolved the intelligence to use basic weapons, tackles the subject with absurdity and humor as opposed to the stark terror of "Bad Travelling." The story version of "Mason's Rats" is much shorter than the animated film. While the film goes through several cycles of Mason trying to get rid of the rats only to have them get smarter each time, the story pretty much focuses on the one occurrence. We also don't see too much of the rats in the story itself, versus the adaptation which features them not only building weapons and tools, but also outsmarting the increasingly ridiculous contraptions. Which was better? The additional visuals in the animated short add emotional depth and humor to the already charming short story. Want more? The collected anthology has two additional stories dealing with Mason and his titular rats. "In Vaulted Halls Entombed" by Alan Baxter (Originally Published in SNAFU) Of the two military action focused entries this season, this story of soldiers in Afghanistan who find Lovecraftian horrors in subterranean caves underneath Kandahar is definitely the weaker. The animated short looks like a cheaply made video game and has the story to match. There's little to no character development; the four soldiers just go into a cave, discover some monsters, and that's it. I was hoping reading the story would add additional context, either about the soldiers or the horrors they encounter, but sadly I was out of luck. Which was better? Neither. Both the story and its adaptation are lacking the necessary depth to make this a worthy entry in the series. Want more? Served Cold is an anthology collecting sixteen of Alan Baxter's most lauded works.

Hi, I'm Olivia Frias -- video game writer and general nerd / F&SF enthusiast. I thought I'd use this first post as an opportunity to both introduce myself and to give a little background on what I do (and how you can do it too!). I got into writing for games as a sort of happy accident after moving to LA in 2011 while trying to become a screenwriter. Back then, there weren't many dedicated game writers (also known as "narrative designers"). Most of the people who wrote games were contracted screenwriters and novelists hired through agencies. I was only able to get my first position as a production assistant working at Sony, which eventually lead to my first writing job, because I was willing to work for $10 an hour. Today the landscape has changed. It is a growing field with a lot of open positions for part time contract work or a full time stable "day job" for novelists. There's a lot of material out there about learning how to write for games, and why game writing is different from writing for novels or tv / film. A good starting primer is this quick read from the Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines writer, https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/a-practical-guide-to-game-writing While there's lots of information on game writing craft, there is far less information on how to actually get a job writing games.The first thing I wish I had known going in was that, unlike TV, you don't need an agent or an industry connection to find out about positions. You can literally just apply online like a regular job. Search for "game writer" or "narrative designer" on sites like Indeed or LinkedIn, and you'll find a lot of options. Now that you know how to find jobs, how do you stand out from the crowd? Write the Right Resume - The first thing you'll want to do is highlight your published works first. For a lot of studios, published, or even self-published, novels are a huge plus. Focus less on day jobs that are not writing or games related. Learn the Tools of the Trade - If you haven't worked as a game writer before, it's very important to have interactive samples. Twine is a good learning tool and a great way to make your first interactive short story. Make sure to include a link to the game in your resume or cover letter. Be a Gamer - In your interview, you will be asked what sort of games you play. You'll need an answer. If you're not up on current trends, some games that narrative designers tend to love are Horizon Zero Dawn, God of War (2018), Life is Strange, Disco Elysium, and old-school point and clicks like the Monkey Island games. I'd suggest checking them out. Of course, if you're already a gamer, talk about your own preferences here. Target the Right Studios - While it doesn't hurt to cast a wide net, you're unlikely to get a job at a major AAA studio on your first try. Never fear though, there are a lot of smaller studios. For novelists, a great place to start would be a studio that makes visual novels. These companies care less about games experience and more about solid writing. Some of these studios are Pocket Gems (Episode app), Pixelberry (Choices app), and Crazy Maple (Chapters app). Some of these contracts are not especially well paid, but getting a few under your belt really helps you get noticed by larger studios. Anyway, that's my spiel for now. Let me know if you have questions in the comments down below. Stay tuned for my review of Doctor Strange 2, coming this weekend. About the Author Olivia Frias is a former Disney Imagineer and videogame game/interactive fiction writer. She is currently working on the upcoming social MMO Palia. Her previous credits include Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, Pirates of the Caribbean: Tides of War, Disney Heroes, Katy Perry POP, and the award-winning History Adventures series.