Tech & Trade

 There's a new teaching and assignment over on our Tech & Trade page, and it is one that is not to be missed!  Once again, Author Amanda Bradburn shares hard won knowledge with us and in a really fun way too! As Levar Burton on Reading Rainbow used to say "But you don't have to take my word for it. . ."  go on over to the tech page and see for yourselves. Oh and too, if you have questions or want a specific look at something, post it as a comment!

Seeing through a different set of eyes.

5 Essentials for Space Opera by Kaleb K.

5 Essentials for Space Opera (tongue in cheek of course)

  Space opera is the iconic sub-genre of science fiction for most people. Just mentioning the magic words “science-fiction” brings to mind images of lasers, starships, and colorful (though sometimes flat) characters. I’ve assembled my own personal list of 5 essentials to make a good space opera. Explanations may or may not appear. Starships are definitely an important part, but I couldn’t find room for them in the list.

The Father of Science Fiction

Greetings Scribes! It's Michelle here getting ready to introduce one of my all time favorite authors. He wrote stories about exploration and sacrifice and warned in his work what would happen if we continued to consume technology without keeping our moral compass pointed towards God. With titles like The Mysterious Island, Journey to the Center of the Earth, From the Earth to the Moon, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Around the World in Eight Days, he caught my imagination.

New Challenge Up!

Did you check out the fantastic explanation of similes and cliches by author Amanda Bradburn?  Excellent! Then you're all set to dive head first into the challenge this week.  Time to apply that new knowledge to your work and turn it into wisdom. I have to warn you, this  challenge is really is deceptively simple. Similes are like eels, they are slippery thieves that can make off with an afternoon's hard work and leave you frustrated and ready to give up. However, when properly trained and tamed, they can add humor or elegance to your style and smooth through the plot without disturbing the reader.

Here's the challenge, put aside doubts and build writing muscles!

Paper Tiger Challenge 5/25/11-6/1/11

A New Shiny Page!

Author Amanda Bradburn's teaching is up as our premiere article on the new Tech & Trade page. What will you find there? Think of it as a peek behind the curtain into the machinery of the craft, or where the Master writers will be disclosing secrets. It's definitely a page to watch, and we'll let you know when it's been updated by posting here. Go on over and take a look!

List of Hugo/Nebula award winners

The Nebula Award is a prestigious award awarded by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America annually for books published the previous year. Books are voted by the membership of SFWA. (Science-Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America)

Announcements.

Hullo all, this is Michelle. I wanted to let our visitors know there are some cool changes coming up to the blog. One is that we will be posting and featuring more technical pieces on the craft of writing. Our first article has been  written by author Amanda Bradburn. Look for that post to be here later today or tomorrow on the main page. Another change is that we are going to start posting links to our challenges here on the main page  That way you'll know for certain when we have a new challenge up.

Coming up this week will be a piece on Hugo and Nebula award winning books, and then later in the month some pretty amazing interviews. We're having a blast with our month long look at Sci-Fi and hope you are too! If you have an idea or a question don't hesitated to post it here or e-mail the League at leagueofscribes@gmail.com and we'll get back to you in a day or so.

Challenge for 5/18/11-5/25/11

Recommended Browsing for Sci Fi Month

SciFi name generator: http://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/name/#scifi_location (That's a name generator for an rpg.)
SciFi ship generator: http://d6.ironsind.com/ShipGen/shipgen.php (That's for starships.)
Writer's help for SciFi and fantasy- http://www.writesf.com/
An epic Christian SciFi forum (highly recommended) http://www.holyworlds.com/scifi
Recommended by Jeff Gerke: http://wherethemapends.com/forums/forums.htm

75 words every Sci-fi fan should know!

I copied the following from the TechRepublic. I don't mind telling you, I don't know most of these words. I am putting the link at the end of the document. In the link, each of the words are hyperlinks to their definition in Wikipedia. BEFORE you go read it, how about you tell us how many words you know, and what they mean. ;)

Science Fiction Month!! Congrats Nathanael!

Sci Fi Definition and subgenres!