Judith Moffitt's Blog
June 14, 2021
Upcoming Book Announcement
I have finished The Coup Trilogy and the third book is up for pre-sale (well the ebook is, they don't appear to allow me to pre-sell the paperbacks.)
Rising From the Ashes
I want to talk a bit about The Coup and what I was intending when I wrote it.
It started out as a little thing, as so many things do. Just a 500-word fan fic for a little known (at the time) TV show called Firefly. Then, that expanded to 2500 words.
By the end of it I had a novel idea, but I didn't want to spend time writing a novel that couldn't be published. So I changed the universe to my own, and the story evolved from my original conception.
I started to write, but I was working full-time and somehow it was hard to find the time to concentrate. That was in 2003. In 2018, I retired and decided I would finish it. I published the first book in 2020.
As I wrote, I realized I had three books. Book one would be the origin story. How the war came to happen. Book two would be the story of the war itself. And book three would be the aftermath. Most people only do a chapter or two on aftermath, if they write about it at all. But my background makes me especially interested in aftermath, so it got a whole book. Little did I realize how difficult that might be. It wasn't that I didn't have plenty to say; but aftermaths are messy, they don't follow the regular story structure. Instead of coming together to deal with a major event, they split apart to take up their lives again. The third book turned out to be the most difficult to write.
The whole series is epic in scope. It wasn’t intended to be. But the story wants to be what the story wants to be. One of the many lessons I have learned while writing this. And I have always been a complex thinker. I suppose it shouldn’t have been so much of a surprise that I would want to tell a complex story.
I could have written this as straight up action adventure with epic space battle after epic space battle. It would have been a much shorter story. Maybe even one book. But I find those stories tedious and dull. I needed more.
So it evolved into a study of the personal impact of war. That seems an odd choice for subject matter for someone who didn't serve inn the military. But my father was a doctor in a MASH unit in Korea and the love of my life was a retired Naval Officer who served in Vietnam. Almost all of my childhood friends had fathers who had served and mothers who had dealt with World War II on the homefront. My whole generation was born in aftermath. I also worked for the military as a civilian analyst, and, probably most critical, I grew up on the grounds of a VA hospital where I saw the aftermath of war every day.
And while my subject matter sounds a bit gloomy, in the end, it is a story about hope and resilience. Along the way, we encounter heroism, grief, love, teenage angst, laughter, and surprises. Some characters make terrible mistakes. And everybody grows and changes in different ways, even the artificial intelligences and aliens.
It’s not a safe universe. But if the last year has taught us anything, it is that the universe is not safe. It never has been. We just occasionally get a chance to ignore that for a little while.
We all have favorite characters and authors are no exception. My favorite character is Garret which is surprising since we first encounter him in To the Bitter End doing something stupid. His mistake has an impact far beyond what he could have imagined. His arc is about how he recovers from that mistake and learns as he grows up. Gelb is another favorite character, so much so that he is going to get his own book. An alien exiled from his people for, as he puts it, the crime of being different, Gelb is, like so many of us, looking to find a family when he didn't fit in at home.
My favorite moment is a very human one. A couple separated by the war manages to meet up for the first time in years while both their ships are being repaired. They take a vacation, the first one ever for their children. Just an ordinary, loving family where the parents are trans. I choose a trans couple for this part of the story because I know trans people, and they want what most people want. Ordinary lives. They want love, family, and friends; have ambitions and hopes and dreams. Just like everyone else. So much of what is written about them seems to forget this. They are too often demonized, but they are not demons. They feel the same sadness at the separation due to the war, the same fears that the military person might get hurt or die, the same regret that their children don't know their father as well as they would in ordinary times. And the same joy at a moment of reunion.
There are people who will be mad about this. Why can't I write a regular cis couple instead, why do I have to be so politically correct? But I write it because there are billions of stories about cis couples and trans couple exist and deserve to have positive stories told as well. Stories that only include cis white Christians are the politically correct ones. Other people exist and it is not right to erase them so you can stay comfortable in your bubble. They say to write about what you know. I’m not trans, but I have felt invisible and erased. I have been demonized (not as much or in exactly the same way as a trans person). I write from a feeling of empathy, from knowing that all kinds of people need to show up in stories because they exist in real life. I think of some books which hit me like a ton of bricks because I finally felt seen and how important that was to me. I hope someday someone will read one of my books and say, “Yes. She gets me.”
Hopefully, some of this will have sparked your interest in my trilogy. If you haven't read the earlier books, you can find them here:
The Coup Series
Rising From the Ashes
I want to talk a bit about The Coup and what I was intending when I wrote it.
It started out as a little thing, as so many things do. Just a 500-word fan fic for a little known (at the time) TV show called Firefly. Then, that expanded to 2500 words.
By the end of it I had a novel idea, but I didn't want to spend time writing a novel that couldn't be published. So I changed the universe to my own, and the story evolved from my original conception.
I started to write, but I was working full-time and somehow it was hard to find the time to concentrate. That was in 2003. In 2018, I retired and decided I would finish it. I published the first book in 2020.
As I wrote, I realized I had three books. Book one would be the origin story. How the war came to happen. Book two would be the story of the war itself. And book three would be the aftermath. Most people only do a chapter or two on aftermath, if they write about it at all. But my background makes me especially interested in aftermath, so it got a whole book. Little did I realize how difficult that might be. It wasn't that I didn't have plenty to say; but aftermaths are messy, they don't follow the regular story structure. Instead of coming together to deal with a major event, they split apart to take up their lives again. The third book turned out to be the most difficult to write.
The whole series is epic in scope. It wasn’t intended to be. But the story wants to be what the story wants to be. One of the many lessons I have learned while writing this. And I have always been a complex thinker. I suppose it shouldn’t have been so much of a surprise that I would want to tell a complex story.
I could have written this as straight up action adventure with epic space battle after epic space battle. It would have been a much shorter story. Maybe even one book. But I find those stories tedious and dull. I needed more.
So it evolved into a study of the personal impact of war. That seems an odd choice for subject matter for someone who didn't serve inn the military. But my father was a doctor in a MASH unit in Korea and the love of my life was a retired Naval Officer who served in Vietnam. Almost all of my childhood friends had fathers who had served and mothers who had dealt with World War II on the homefront. My whole generation was born in aftermath. I also worked for the military as a civilian analyst, and, probably most critical, I grew up on the grounds of a VA hospital where I saw the aftermath of war every day.
And while my subject matter sounds a bit gloomy, in the end, it is a story about hope and resilience. Along the way, we encounter heroism, grief, love, teenage angst, laughter, and surprises. Some characters make terrible mistakes. And everybody grows and changes in different ways, even the artificial intelligences and aliens.
It’s not a safe universe. But if the last year has taught us anything, it is that the universe is not safe. It never has been. We just occasionally get a chance to ignore that for a little while.
We all have favorite characters and authors are no exception. My favorite character is Garret which is surprising since we first encounter him in To the Bitter End doing something stupid. His mistake has an impact far beyond what he could have imagined. His arc is about how he recovers from that mistake and learns as he grows up. Gelb is another favorite character, so much so that he is going to get his own book. An alien exiled from his people for, as he puts it, the crime of being different, Gelb is, like so many of us, looking to find a family when he didn't fit in at home.
My favorite moment is a very human one. A couple separated by the war manages to meet up for the first time in years while both their ships are being repaired. They take a vacation, the first one ever for their children. Just an ordinary, loving family where the parents are trans. I choose a trans couple for this part of the story because I know trans people, and they want what most people want. Ordinary lives. They want love, family, and friends; have ambitions and hopes and dreams. Just like everyone else. So much of what is written about them seems to forget this. They are too often demonized, but they are not demons. They feel the same sadness at the separation due to the war, the same fears that the military person might get hurt or die, the same regret that their children don't know their father as well as they would in ordinary times. And the same joy at a moment of reunion.
There are people who will be mad about this. Why can't I write a regular cis couple instead, why do I have to be so politically correct? But I write it because there are billions of stories about cis couples and trans couple exist and deserve to have positive stories told as well. Stories that only include cis white Christians are the politically correct ones. Other people exist and it is not right to erase them so you can stay comfortable in your bubble. They say to write about what you know. I’m not trans, but I have felt invisible and erased. I have been demonized (not as much or in exactly the same way as a trans person). I write from a feeling of empathy, from knowing that all kinds of people need to show up in stories because they exist in real life. I think of some books which hit me like a ton of bricks because I finally felt seen and how important that was to me. I hope someday someone will read one of my books and say, “Yes. She gets me.”
Hopefully, some of this will have sparked your interest in my trilogy. If you haven't read the earlier books, you can find them here:
The Coup Series
March 12, 2021
I was interviewed
I know I'm not a best-selling author who is a household name, but getting interviewed for a podcast made me feel like one. It was so much fun to talk books. Links are below.
https://www.discoveredwordsmiths.com/...
https://www.discoveredwordsmiths.com/...
The pod cast is also on Spotify. Look s=for DescoveredWordsmiths. And check out his other interviews. He was a a good interviewer asking interesting questions. So give him some love, too.
https://www.discoveredwordsmiths.com/...
https://www.discoveredwordsmiths.com/...
The pod cast is also on Spotify. Look s=for DescoveredWordsmiths. And check out his other interviews. He was a a good interviewer asking interesting questions. So give him some love, too.
January 19, 2021
ProWritingAid Interview
This month I am one of the featured writers for ProWritingAid. I use this software to do the final polishing on my books and I highly recommend it.
ProWritingAidInterview
ProWritingAidInterview
November 21, 2020
Science Fiction Reading List
It’s that time of year when many people are setting reading goals and looking for reading lists to expand their usual fare. If you are looking to read more science fiction or if you are using a reading list that asks you to read one science fiction novel and you don't know what to choose, I have made this list.
In my experience, often when people think of science fiction, they think of a narrow idea that they got from one or two books or movies. If they didn't like the first thing they were exposed to, they tend to dismiss the whole genre as bad. But science fiction is much broader than most people think. So let’s look at the various themes and some recommended reading to try in the different themes. Note that many books in science fiction have multiple themes. Many of the books listed are the first book or a series (occasionally a later book if the series as a whole doesn't fit the category).
Space opera - This is what many people think about when they think science fiction. It’s all about space ships, right? Space opera is the fun area of the field, it’s all about the adventure. Sure it is usually involving trips by space ship, but the real key is the adventure.. Star Wars is Space Opera, so are Firefly, Farscape, both versions of Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. Since it is so common in movies and film, it is the most widely known type. There are plenty of books that are considered Space Opera, too.
Have Spaceship Will Travel - Robert Heinlein
Quarter Share - Nathan Lowell
A Long Way to A Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
Hunter of Worlds - C J Cherryh
Romance - Romance novelists sometimes set their books in space.
Accidental Goddess - Linea Sinclair
Gabriel’s Ghost - Linnea Sinclair
A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold
Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
Primary Inversion - Catherine Asaro (This is also vary much a hard science fiction novel, the author has a PhD in Physics)
Local Custom - Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Scout’s Progress - Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Crime - Once you colonize other planets or build space stations that are permanent residences, eventually you have crime. Even on this planet in the future, crime will still be with us.
I’ Robot - Isaac Azimov
The Caves of Steel - Isaac Azimov
The Down Home Zombie Blues - Linnea Sinclair
Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
The Disappeared - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Colonization - Colonizing another world brings inevitable problems
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Dragonsdawn - Anne McCaffrey
40,000 in Gehenna - C J Cherryh
Freedom’s Landing - Anne McCaffrey
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon
Farmer in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Desolation Road - Ian McDonald
The Moon is Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
World Building - Epic in scale and loads of detail to make the universe seem very real
The Sword of the Lamb - M.K. Wren
Dune - Frank Herbert
Foundation - Isaac Azimov
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Aliens - Books that have aliens either meeting humans or in their separate planets
Foreigner - C. J. Cherryh
Enemy Mine - Barry Longyear
The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu
Hunter of Worlds - C. J. Cherryh
Little Fuzzy - H. Beam Piper
The Faded Sun: Kesrith - C. J. Cherryh
The Pride of Chanur - C. J. Cherryh
Brothers of Earth - C. J. Cherryh
Post apocalyptic - what happens after a disaster happens
The Postman - David Brin
Canticle for Lebowitz - Walter Miller
Dies the Fire - S. M. Stirling
Alas Babylon - Pat Frank
The Stand - Steven King
Station Eleven - Emily St.John Mandel
Eternity Road - Jack McDevitt
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
The Breaking of Northwall - Paul O. Williams
Time Travel - what happens after a time machine is invented
Kindred - Octavia Butler
In the Garden of Iden - Kage Baker
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
The Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe - Charles Yu
Medical Science fiction - Concerning medical practice or diseases
The Andromeda Strain - Micheal Crichton
General Practice - James White
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Nerilka’s Story - Anne McCaffrey
Legal science fiction - Includes stories of lawyers, and/or world-building concerning particular types of laws
A Just Determination - John G. Hemry
The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin
Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell
Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Illegal Alien - Robert Sawyer
The Dosadi Experiment - Frank Herbert
High Justice - Jerry Pournelle
An Exchange of Hostages - Susan Matthews
Military science fiction - war in the future
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
On Basilisk Station - David Weber
Dauntless - Jack Campbell
Dorsai!- Gordon R. Dickson
A Hymn before Battle - John Ringo
Hammer’s Slammers - David Drake
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Old Man’s War - John Scalzi
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
With the Lightnings - David Drake
Mutineer - Mike Shepherd
The Warrior’s Apprentice - Lois McMaster Bujold
Valor’s Choice - Tanya Huff
Exploration and/or living on another planet - classic theme in science fiction
Have Space Suit Will Travel - Robert Heinlein
2001 A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
The Martian - Andy Weir
Mars - Ben Bova
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Farmer in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Binti -Nnedi Okorafor
Hard science fiction - Science-based especially concerning physics
Revelation Space - Alistair Reynolds
Leviathan Wakes - James Corey
Seven Eves - Neal Stephenson
2001 A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu
Legacy - Greg Bear
Feminist science fiction - examination of feminist themes in alternate universes or the future
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Native Tongue - Susette Haden Elgin
The Gate to Women’s Country - Sheri S. Tepper
Technology - longevity, cloning, first true space drive et. The impact of technological changes on society and people
Leviathan Wakes - James Corey
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
Cyteen C. J. Cherryh
All System’s Red - Martha Wells
Generation ships - early space colonization before a Faster-than-Light drive is invented,
The Dark Beyond the Stars - Frank M. Robinson
Hull Zero Three - Greg Bear
Dust - Elizabeth Bear
Orphans of the Sky - Robert Heinlein
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon
Traders - The need to trade for things doesn't go away in the future
Quarter Share - Nathan Lowell
Alliance Rising - C. J. Cherryh
Trading in Danger - Elizabeth Moon
Merchanter’s Luck - C. J. Cherryh
The Pride of Chanur - C. J. Cherryh
Lost colonies - We sent them out then lost track of them
All the Weyrs of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon
Forty Thousand in Gehenna - C.J.Cherryh
Off Armageddon Reef - David Weber
Science fiction fantasy - elements of both genres
The Compleat Enchanter - L. Sprague de Camp
Dragon Flight - Anne McCaffrey
The Gunslinger - Steven King
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance
Black Sun RIsing - C. S.Friedman
The Cloud Roads - Martha Wells
Humor - everybody needs a laugh now and then
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Redshirts - John Scalzi
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon - Spider Robinson
The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Space Opera by Catherynne Valente
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
Year Zero: A Novel - Rob Reid
Parallel Universes/Alternate History - Examination of what would change if history changed or how an alternative universe might operate
1632 - Eric Flint
The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal
The Once and Future Witches - Alix E. Harrow
The Crossroads of Time - Andre Norton
The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K. Dick
The Practice Effect - David Brin
Conquistador - S. M. Strling
The Guns of the South - Harry Turtledove
Worldwar: In the Balance - Harry Turtledove
Hells Gate - David Weber, Linda Evans
Crystal Soldier - Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Literary - for the more literary minded
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Kindred - Octavia Butler
Fahrenheit 451 -Ray Bradbury
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin
Corporate - Companies exist in the future, too. Sometimes they affect the story
Little Fuzzy - H. Beam Piper
Fuzzy Nation - John Scalzi
Rissa Kerguelen - F. M. Busby
The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold
Robots and androids - who doesn't love robots and androids? Science fiction readers certainly do.
I, Robot - Isaac Azimov
All Systems Red - Martha Wells
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
Saturn’s Children - Charles Stross
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Clerical/Religious - there is religion in the future and sometimes a conflict of religions from different species
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clark
Calculating God - Robert Sawyer
The Chaplain’s War - Brad R. Torgerson
Coming of age - young people still grow up and their coming of age stories are always fun
Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein
Quarter Share - Nathan Lowell
Space Cadet - Robert Heinlein
Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Binti - NnediOkorafor
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Midnight Robber - Nalo Hopkinson
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
Microbiology, Biology, Genetic Engineering - subset of Hard Science fiction (which many consider the province of physics) based on the biological sciences
Fantastic Voyage - Isaac Azimov
Vitals - Greg Bear
Cyteen - C. J. Cherryh
The Andromeda Strain - Micheal Crichton
The Stand - Steven King
Beggars in Spain - Nancy Kress
The Atlantis Gene - A. G. Riddle
Falling Free - Lois McMaster Bujold
Space magicians -subset of Space Fantasy specifically dealing with magicians in space
Starship’s Mage - Glynn Stewart
The Price of the Stars - Debra Doyle
The Witches of Karres - James H. Schmitz
The Compleat Enchanter - L. Sprague de Camp
Character-Driven - Characters you will never forget. I list the character, then what book or series he/she/it is associated with, then the author. Note the listed character is not necessarily in every book in the series.
Ari Emory II - Cyteen - C. J. Cherryh
Honor Harrington - The Honor Harrington Series - David Weber
Miles Vokosigan - The Vokosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Ishmael Wang- The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series - Nathan Lowell
Murderbot - the Murderbot series - Martha Wells
Ender Wiggin - The Ender’s Game series
Cletus Graeme - Childe Cycle - Gordon R. Dickson
Andrei Koscuisko - The Jurisdiction series - Susan Matthews (Note: Andrei is a very flawed character, he is a torturer and a doctor. This series is often searing.)
In my experience, often when people think of science fiction, they think of a narrow idea that they got from one or two books or movies. If they didn't like the first thing they were exposed to, they tend to dismiss the whole genre as bad. But science fiction is much broader than most people think. So let’s look at the various themes and some recommended reading to try in the different themes. Note that many books in science fiction have multiple themes. Many of the books listed are the first book or a series (occasionally a later book if the series as a whole doesn't fit the category).
Space opera - This is what many people think about when they think science fiction. It’s all about space ships, right? Space opera is the fun area of the field, it’s all about the adventure. Sure it is usually involving trips by space ship, but the real key is the adventure.. Star Wars is Space Opera, so are Firefly, Farscape, both versions of Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek. Since it is so common in movies and film, it is the most widely known type. There are plenty of books that are considered Space Opera, too.
Have Spaceship Will Travel - Robert Heinlein
Quarter Share - Nathan Lowell
A Long Way to A Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
Hunter of Worlds - C J Cherryh
Romance - Romance novelists sometimes set their books in space.
Accidental Goddess - Linea Sinclair
Gabriel’s Ghost - Linnea Sinclair
A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold
Shards of Honor - Lois McMaster Bujold
Primary Inversion - Catherine Asaro (This is also vary much a hard science fiction novel, the author has a PhD in Physics)
Local Custom - Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Scout’s Progress - Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Crime - Once you colonize other planets or build space stations that are permanent residences, eventually you have crime. Even on this planet in the future, crime will still be with us.
I’ Robot - Isaac Azimov
The Caves of Steel - Isaac Azimov
The Down Home Zombie Blues - Linnea Sinclair
Leviathan Wakes - James S. A. Corey
The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
Altered Carbon - Richard Morgan
The Disappeared - Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Colonization - Colonizing another world brings inevitable problems
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Dragonsdawn - Anne McCaffrey
40,000 in Gehenna - C J Cherryh
Freedom’s Landing - Anne McCaffrey
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon
Farmer in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Desolation Road - Ian McDonald
The Moon is Harsh Mistress - Robert Heinlein
World Building - Epic in scale and loads of detail to make the universe seem very real
The Sword of the Lamb - M.K. Wren
Dune - Frank Herbert
Foundation - Isaac Azimov
Ringworld - Larry Niven
Aliens - Books that have aliens either meeting humans or in their separate planets
Foreigner - C. J. Cherryh
Enemy Mine - Barry Longyear
The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu
Hunter of Worlds - C. J. Cherryh
Little Fuzzy - H. Beam Piper
The Faded Sun: Kesrith - C. J. Cherryh
The Pride of Chanur - C. J. Cherryh
Brothers of Earth - C. J. Cherryh
Post apocalyptic - what happens after a disaster happens
The Postman - David Brin
Canticle for Lebowitz - Walter Miller
Dies the Fire - S. M. Stirling
Alas Babylon - Pat Frank
The Stand - Steven King
Station Eleven - Emily St.John Mandel
Eternity Road - Jack McDevitt
Parable of the Sower - Octavia Butler
Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm
The Breaking of Northwall - Paul O. Williams
Time Travel - what happens after a time machine is invented
Kindred - Octavia Butler
In the Garden of Iden - Kage Baker
The Time Machine - H. G. Wells
The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
To Say Nothing of the Dog - Connie Willis
The Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe - Charles Yu
Medical Science fiction - Concerning medical practice or diseases
The Andromeda Strain - Micheal Crichton
General Practice - James White
Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Nerilka’s Story - Anne McCaffrey
Legal science fiction - Includes stories of lawyers, and/or world-building concerning particular types of laws
A Just Determination - John G. Hemry
The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin
Nineteen Eighty-Four - Orwell
Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Illegal Alien - Robert Sawyer
The Dosadi Experiment - Frank Herbert
High Justice - Jerry Pournelle
An Exchange of Hostages - Susan Matthews
Military science fiction - war in the future
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
On Basilisk Station - David Weber
Dauntless - Jack Campbell
Dorsai!- Gordon R. Dickson
A Hymn before Battle - John Ringo
Hammer’s Slammers - David Drake
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein
Old Man’s War - John Scalzi
The Forever War - Joe Haldeman
With the Lightnings - David Drake
Mutineer - Mike Shepherd
The Warrior’s Apprentice - Lois McMaster Bujold
Valor’s Choice - Tanya Huff
Exploration and/or living on another planet - classic theme in science fiction
Have Space Suit Will Travel - Robert Heinlein
2001 A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
The Martian - Andy Weir
Mars - Ben Bova
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Farmer in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Binti -Nnedi Okorafor
Hard science fiction - Science-based especially concerning physics
Revelation Space - Alistair Reynolds
Leviathan Wakes - James Corey
Seven Eves - Neal Stephenson
2001 A Space Odyssey - Arthur C. Clarke
Children of Time - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Consider Phlebas - Iain M. Banks
The Three-Body Problem - Cixin Liu
Legacy - Greg Bear
Feminist science fiction - examination of feminist themes in alternate universes or the future
The Female Man - Joanna Russ
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Native Tongue - Susette Haden Elgin
The Gate to Women’s Country - Sheri S. Tepper
Technology - longevity, cloning, first true space drive et. The impact of technological changes on society and people
Leviathan Wakes - James Corey
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
Cyteen C. J. Cherryh
All System’s Red - Martha Wells
Generation ships - early space colonization before a Faster-than-Light drive is invented,
The Dark Beyond the Stars - Frank M. Robinson
Hull Zero Three - Greg Bear
Dust - Elizabeth Bear
Orphans of the Sky - Robert Heinlein
An Unkindness of Ghosts - Rivers Solomon
Traders - The need to trade for things doesn't go away in the future
Quarter Share - Nathan Lowell
Alliance Rising - C. J. Cherryh
Trading in Danger - Elizabeth Moon
Merchanter’s Luck - C. J. Cherryh
The Pride of Chanur - C. J. Cherryh
Lost colonies - We sent them out then lost track of them
All the Weyrs of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon
Forty Thousand in Gehenna - C.J.Cherryh
Off Armageddon Reef - David Weber
Science fiction fantasy - elements of both genres
The Compleat Enchanter - L. Sprague de Camp
Dragon Flight - Anne McCaffrey
The Gunslinger - Steven King
The Dying Earth - Jack Vance
Black Sun RIsing - C. S.Friedman
The Cloud Roads - Martha Wells
Humor - everybody needs a laugh now and then
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Redshirts - John Scalzi
Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon - Spider Robinson
The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat - Harry Harrison
Space Opera by Catherynne Valente
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
Year Zero: A Novel - Rob Reid
Parallel Universes/Alternate History - Examination of what would change if history changed or how an alternative universe might operate
1632 - Eric Flint
The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal
The Once and Future Witches - Alix E. Harrow
The Crossroads of Time - Andre Norton
The Man in the High Castle - Phillip K. Dick
The Practice Effect - David Brin
Conquistador - S. M. Strling
The Guns of the South - Harry Turtledove
Worldwar: In the Balance - Harry Turtledove
Hells Gate - David Weber, Linda Evans
Crystal Soldier - Sharon Lee, Steve Miller
Literary - for the more literary minded
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Kindred - Octavia Butler
Fahrenheit 451 -Ray Bradbury
Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula Le Guin
Corporate - Companies exist in the future, too. Sometimes they affect the story
Little Fuzzy - H. Beam Piper
Fuzzy Nation - John Scalzi
Rissa Kerguelen - F. M. Busby
The Atrocity Archives - Charles Stross
A Civil Campaign - Lois McMaster Bujold
Robots and androids - who doesn't love robots and androids? Science fiction readers certainly do.
I, Robot - Isaac Azimov
All Systems Red - Martha Wells
The Windup Girl - Paolo Bacigalupi
Ancillary Justice - Ann Leckie
Saturn’s Children - Charles Stross
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
Clerical/Religious - there is religion in the future and sometimes a conflict of religions from different species
The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell
A Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M. Miller, Jr.
The Nine Billion Names of God - Arthur C. Clark
Calculating God - Robert Sawyer
The Chaplain’s War - Brad R. Torgerson
Coming of age - young people still grow up and their coming of age stories are always fun
Citizen of the Galaxy - Robert Heinlein
Quarter Share - Nathan Lowell
Space Cadet - Robert Heinlein
Tunnel in the Sky - Robert Heinlein
Binti - NnediOkorafor
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Midnight Robber - Nalo Hopkinson
Ender’s Game - Orson Scott Card
Microbiology, Biology, Genetic Engineering - subset of Hard Science fiction (which many consider the province of physics) based on the biological sciences
Fantastic Voyage - Isaac Azimov
Vitals - Greg Bear
Cyteen - C. J. Cherryh
The Andromeda Strain - Micheal Crichton
The Stand - Steven King
Beggars in Spain - Nancy Kress
The Atlantis Gene - A. G. Riddle
Falling Free - Lois McMaster Bujold
Space magicians -subset of Space Fantasy specifically dealing with magicians in space
Starship’s Mage - Glynn Stewart
The Price of the Stars - Debra Doyle
The Witches of Karres - James H. Schmitz
The Compleat Enchanter - L. Sprague de Camp
Character-Driven - Characters you will never forget. I list the character, then what book or series he/she/it is associated with, then the author. Note the listed character is not necessarily in every book in the series.
Ari Emory II - Cyteen - C. J. Cherryh
Honor Harrington - The Honor Harrington Series - David Weber
Miles Vokosigan - The Vokosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Ishmael Wang- The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series - Nathan Lowell
Murderbot - the Murderbot series - Martha Wells
Ender Wiggin - The Ender’s Game series
Cletus Graeme - Childe Cycle - Gordon R. Dickson
Andrei Koscuisko - The Jurisdiction series - Susan Matthews (Note: Andrei is a very flawed character, he is a torturer and a doctor. This series is often searing.)
November 14, 2020
First Post
Trying to get the hang of this social media thing. Today I want to introduce myself.
Born smack dab in the middle of the Baby Boom, I, like many of my cohort, was a free range child. Have bicycle, will travel. We roamed the county in search of adventure and I never lost that impulse.
There were several formative experiences from my childhood that made me into the writer I am today. For a time we lived on the grounds of the VA Hospital where my father worked. It was a unique environment similar to growing up on a military base.
We wandered the halls of the hospital and interacted with the domiciliary patients (They were the men who suffered from Battle fatigue, now called PTSD, who were warehoused there because they had no effective treatment.)
We swam at the hospital pool in the late afternoon after the patients were done with their physical therapy. We played tennis and climbed the apple trees and rode our bicycles around the campus.
It was the era before air conditioning became common, so every evening in the summer, our parents would gather outside to talk and the kids would play together.
Almost all of our fathers had served in WWII or Korea or both. My father had been a doctor at a MASH unit in Korea. A close friend was the daughter of a man who had been in a Japanese POW camp. The father of another friend lost an arm in Italy. It was an education in the cost of war.
When I was ten, my father handed me a book that changed my life. It was Starship Troopers by Heinlein. It was the first science fiction I read and I was hooked. And the politics underlying the book fascinated me so much that, years later, when I went to college, I majored in Political Science.
My brother, that same year, handed me a book called the Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the Lord of the Rings. I gobbled that up, too. And eagerly awaited his visits home from college, so that he could bring me the other volumes.
The next year Star Trek debuted, and my brother introduced us to that as well. I’ve been reading and watching science fiction and fantasy ever since.
As a child, I was too smart for a girl and got ostracized and bullied at school. I got no support at home because my father was emotionally and then sexually abusive. It took decades before I was able to say that out loud.
I was also a horse girl. I asked for a horse for Christmas every year from age 2 until 32 when I decided I would have to buy one myself. I owned three horse in the 18 years I had a horse and trained them in dressage. I also acquired several broken bones from the middle horse, the Hanoverian from Hell.
I never married or had children (unless you count my dogs). But I lived in sin with a man for 26 years until his death in 2008.
Most of my jobs were analytical in nature. I was a sewer planner, a manpower specialist, a management analyst, a technical writer/editor, a systems administrator, a computer instructor, and a database developer and data analyst. But I was always wildly creative as well, designing and making quilts, painting, creating fractal art, taking abstract photographs.
As an adult, I have spent years learning to live with depression and anxiety. I speak openly about that because hiding it makes it shameful, and it is not.
In 2003, I wrote a fan fic for a little known show called Firefly. I thought it had the beginning of an idea for a novel. I knew I couldn't publish in that universe, so I took my idea to my own universe and developed my own characters. But life and work got in the way. In 2018 when I retired, I was still stuck at 8 chapters. I decided that I would make it a retirement project to finish the novel. I published that novel, A Line in The Sand, on Amazon in September 2020. Now it is a part of a planned trilogy . The first draft of volume 2, To the Bitter End, is done and I expect it to be ready for readers by early Jan 2021. I'm about 20% done the first draft of volume 3, Rising From the Ashes. Expect to see that one in the Spring of 2021.
Along the way I got hooked on writing and started taking writing classes (and volunteering) at the Muse Writer’s Center in Norfolk Virginia. I wrote the first draft of two other novels and the workshop feedback made all of my work get better. I have more novels in progress as I start to polish the fantasy and science fiction novels and get them ready for publication. I have at least ten more in various stages of early development.
My work has themes about aftermath because so much of my life has revolved around dealing with the aftermath of abuse, bullying, death, rape, sexual assault and harassment. That doesn't mean everything I write is dark; there are beautiful moments of love, humor, and joy in aftermaths.
My characters are diverse because I didn't read a character who I thought of as representing me until I was in my mid-thirties. Representation is important. I also make sure that older women and men are represented because I am an older woman, and I am tired of only teenagers saving the world.
The heroes in my trilogy are mostly middle-aged with a few young ones thrown in. The hero of my second novel is a 66-year-old woman (and a few dragons). The heroes of my third novel are an 11-year-old girl and a middle-aged, blind woman (who kicks ass at unarmed combat, BTW). Other characters include a disabled alien, a dragon with epilepsy, a couple of married tran people who have four children, a gay healer.
My first book is called a Line in the Sand and is available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Line-Sand-Coup...
Born smack dab in the middle of the Baby Boom, I, like many of my cohort, was a free range child. Have bicycle, will travel. We roamed the county in search of adventure and I never lost that impulse.
There were several formative experiences from my childhood that made me into the writer I am today. For a time we lived on the grounds of the VA Hospital where my father worked. It was a unique environment similar to growing up on a military base.
We wandered the halls of the hospital and interacted with the domiciliary patients (They were the men who suffered from Battle fatigue, now called PTSD, who were warehoused there because they had no effective treatment.)
We swam at the hospital pool in the late afternoon after the patients were done with their physical therapy. We played tennis and climbed the apple trees and rode our bicycles around the campus.
It was the era before air conditioning became common, so every evening in the summer, our parents would gather outside to talk and the kids would play together.
Almost all of our fathers had served in WWII or Korea or both. My father had been a doctor at a MASH unit in Korea. A close friend was the daughter of a man who had been in a Japanese POW camp. The father of another friend lost an arm in Italy. It was an education in the cost of war.
When I was ten, my father handed me a book that changed my life. It was Starship Troopers by Heinlein. It was the first science fiction I read and I was hooked. And the politics underlying the book fascinated me so much that, years later, when I went to college, I majored in Political Science.
My brother, that same year, handed me a book called the Fellowship of the Ring, the first volume of the Lord of the Rings. I gobbled that up, too. And eagerly awaited his visits home from college, so that he could bring me the other volumes.
The next year Star Trek debuted, and my brother introduced us to that as well. I’ve been reading and watching science fiction and fantasy ever since.
As a child, I was too smart for a girl and got ostracized and bullied at school. I got no support at home because my father was emotionally and then sexually abusive. It took decades before I was able to say that out loud.
I was also a horse girl. I asked for a horse for Christmas every year from age 2 until 32 when I decided I would have to buy one myself. I owned three horse in the 18 years I had a horse and trained them in dressage. I also acquired several broken bones from the middle horse, the Hanoverian from Hell.
I never married or had children (unless you count my dogs). But I lived in sin with a man for 26 years until his death in 2008.
Most of my jobs were analytical in nature. I was a sewer planner, a manpower specialist, a management analyst, a technical writer/editor, a systems administrator, a computer instructor, and a database developer and data analyst. But I was always wildly creative as well, designing and making quilts, painting, creating fractal art, taking abstract photographs.
As an adult, I have spent years learning to live with depression and anxiety. I speak openly about that because hiding it makes it shameful, and it is not.
In 2003, I wrote a fan fic for a little known show called Firefly. I thought it had the beginning of an idea for a novel. I knew I couldn't publish in that universe, so I took my idea to my own universe and developed my own characters. But life and work got in the way. In 2018 when I retired, I was still stuck at 8 chapters. I decided that I would make it a retirement project to finish the novel. I published that novel, A Line in The Sand, on Amazon in September 2020. Now it is a part of a planned trilogy . The first draft of volume 2, To the Bitter End, is done and I expect it to be ready for readers by early Jan 2021. I'm about 20% done the first draft of volume 3, Rising From the Ashes. Expect to see that one in the Spring of 2021.
Along the way I got hooked on writing and started taking writing classes (and volunteering) at the Muse Writer’s Center in Norfolk Virginia. I wrote the first draft of two other novels and the workshop feedback made all of my work get better. I have more novels in progress as I start to polish the fantasy and science fiction novels and get them ready for publication. I have at least ten more in various stages of early development.
My work has themes about aftermath because so much of my life has revolved around dealing with the aftermath of abuse, bullying, death, rape, sexual assault and harassment. That doesn't mean everything I write is dark; there are beautiful moments of love, humor, and joy in aftermaths.
My characters are diverse because I didn't read a character who I thought of as representing me until I was in my mid-thirties. Representation is important. I also make sure that older women and men are represented because I am an older woman, and I am tired of only teenagers saving the world.
The heroes in my trilogy are mostly middle-aged with a few young ones thrown in. The hero of my second novel is a 66-year-old woman (and a few dragons). The heroes of my third novel are an 11-year-old girl and a middle-aged, blind woman (who kicks ass at unarmed combat, BTW). Other characters include a disabled alien, a dragon with epilepsy, a couple of married tran people who have four children, a gay healer.
My first book is called a Line in the Sand and is available here:
https://www.amazon.com/Line-Sand-Coup...
