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Review: Storm on Mars – Kate Rauner

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Storm on Mars - Kate Rauner

Genre: Sci-Fi, Colonization Get It On Amazon About The Book Something weird happens? Zeker swears it’s not his fault. An AI may be a psychopath’s only friend. Zeker sets out to make a difference in the expanding colony. Gaining a place in the elite Tower Guild proves others recognize his talents, and the AI embedded in his brain helps keep his impulses under control, usually. But when his temper lands him in a lawless burg among desperate outcasts, and one special lady, he discovers humanity’s survival on the Red Planet is in peril. Will he care enough to save them? … Read more

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Point of View: What Will It Mean to Be Human in an AI Future?

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humans staring at a robot in a job interview waiting room - deposit photos

I’m a sci-fi writer, which means, among other things, that I am tasked with thinking about the future and how it will unfold and sharing this with my readers. And there’s a lot to think about these days. There’s climate change, first and foremost – if it goes unaddressed, it will eventually smash human civilization to bits. There’s the rise of right-wing populism, which threatens to upend democratic institutions around the world (and already has in many places). But nothing has captured the public imagination at this moment more than Generative AI, and its impacts on the human condition. Something … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Mark McElroy

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Mark McElroy

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: After escaping his home town of Anniston, Alabama, in a rainbow-hued balloon, Mark McElroy was kidnapped by post-modern minimalists at the prestigious Center for Writers (University of Southern Mississippi), where he earned an MA in creative writing. During that time, he designed and taught in the nation’s first computer-aided collaborative writing classroom, earned his first writer’s paycheck with a wince-worthy comic book script, and began coming to terms with the fact that, … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Seven

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Down the River Header

I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets! Today, Carmelina gets a bit of a surprise… < Read Chapter 6 | Read Chapter 8 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter SevenItalian Surprise Carmelina swept into Ragazzi like she owned the place, which was not … Read more

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Point of View: I Am Not Alone

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QSAC at Sac Pride

A bit of a short column today because I’m still catching up from an absolutely amazing Sacramento Pride this weekend. It was our best sales event ever – but more than that, it was filled with readers who stopped by our booth, whose faces lit up with excitement at meeting local queer authors… us. It was a wonderful validation of what we do, and why we do it, something most of us are sorely lacking as we plug away in our writer caves. But beyond that, I realized how lucky I am to be surrounded by such a fantastic group … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Six

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Down the River Header

I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets! Today, the bi high-school student is all grown up, and has a new crush, and an old flame too… < Read Chapter 5 | Chapter 7 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter SixThat Was Then Marissa … Read more

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Point of View: The Birth of a Book Festival

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Sacramento Book Festival

Yesterday, it finally happened. For years, I’ve been whispering in the ear of anyone who would listen. Sacramento needs its own book festival. We got so close in 2020, when my own group QSAC was ready to launch a queer book fest at a local arts center. And then Covid intervened and shut everything down. But still, the dream lingered, kept alive by a series of conversations with the library folks, readers and authors in our little Sacramento valley. I even spoke with the President of our local writer’s club about the idea, at a book reading at Ruby’s Books … Read more

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Author Spotlight: Grant Edward Miller

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Grant Edward Miller

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work. Today: Grant has authored many unpublished short stories and plays since he was a young boy, when he first realized he was different from those around him. The realization of his gay identity, experiences of alienation and bullying led him to immerse himself in his writing and science fiction in all its forms. Later in his adult life, Grant became aware of the lack of representation for gay men in science fiction resulting in … Read more

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Serial: Down the River – Chapter Five

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Down the River Header

I’m finally revisiting the characters from The River City Chronicles nine years after their original timeline. I’ll be running the series weekly here on my blog, and then will release it in book form at the end of the run. Hope you enjoy catching up with all your faves and all their new secrets! Today, we check in on a writer, who loved and lost… < Read Chapter 4 | Read Chapter 6 > Join my email list to get my weekly newsletter with notifications of new chapters. Chapter FiveLoralei Ben pecked at the keyboard, willing the words to come. … Read more

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Point of View: It Matters What We Do, and that We Do It

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artist - deposit photos

I recently saw a disturbing quote from Elon Musk (I know – is there any other kind?): “It’s hard to say exactly what that moment is, but there will come a point where no job is needed,” the tech billionaire said. “You can have a job if you want to have a job — sort of personal satisfaction — but the AI will be able to do everything.” I normally try to keep this column (and my life in general) a Musk-free zone, but I think he’s getting at something important here. We are moving into an era where it’s … Read more