by Jason Joyner | Aug 23, 2011 | Blog, ResAlien, Residential Aliens, sci-fi, space pirates, speculative fiction
Welcome back, science fiction fans!
The CSFF Tour is featuring Residential Aliens, the sci-fi zine that features online and print/e-reader science fiction/speculative fiction with a spiritual bent.
The site has an impressive amount of authors who have contributed. It isn’t such a niche product that there’s only five people who have written for it. I recognized a few names from our very own tour, which was way cool.
One thing you
should check out is the contest to win a
free copy of Dead or Alive – An Aston West Collection by T. M. Hunter. Mr. Hunter has written a few novels and several short stories featuring Aston West, a good old fashioned kind of space pirate – the kind that gets into trouble and scrapes to get out of a mess. Fan of Han Solo and Mal Reynolds? Aston fits the bill. I read his short story
“Some Assembly Required” featured on the front of the ResAliens page this month. It was entertaining and drew me into Aston’s world without boring me with backstory. It was a thoughtful story contemplating the thought of free will and individual freedom, without being preachy. The ending felt a little rushed – maybe he had a word count he had to hit – but it was a worthwhile read.
In honor of the CSFF Tour, ResAliens is offering a free download of a recent issue for e-reader format. Check
this link to try it out for your e-reader of choice.
Finally for today, if you like to write sci-fi or other speculative fiction, ResAliens takes submissions. They pay a small stipend, but it is a publishing credit nonetheless. Checking out the submission page today, out of 32 submissions, only 8 were accepted. They are discriminating.
Tomorrow I want to discuss a story I read on ResAliens that was particularly well done, as an example of the quality that smaller outfits like ResAliens can highlight.
As always, if you’re looking for more, go to Becky Miller’s website where she keeps track of all the posts for the tour. Don’t be blazing by in light speed – stick around and enjoy!
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by Jason Joyner | Aug 22, 2011 | Blog, ResAlien, Residential Aliens, speculative fiction, the shorter the better
Welcome back Tour!
It is time again for the Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy Tour. My favorite time of the blogging month. We took a hiatus last month due to the busy summer, but we have some interesting things in the works to make up for it.
This month we’re focusing on the
Residential Aliens zine, featuring “spiritually infused speculative fiction.”
According to editor Lyn Perry,
his goal is to “embrace literature from a spiritual perspective. Combining spec fic and spirituality, and wanting to contribute to faith-informed genre fiction, ResAliens Press offers fans of science fiction, fantasy, and spiritual & supernatural thriller a quality venue in which to share their passion.”
I know the quote gives the whole gamut of speculative fiction as targets, but it seems to me that ResAliens really caters to spiritual science fiction. Some would argue that sci-fi and religion are mutually exclusive – the “science vs. religion” divide. I disagree. There are many ideas in science fiction that have greater resonance with spirituality mixed in with it. Why cut off a longstanding vital aspect of human culture?
You can find out more at the ResAliens editor’s blog, and Lyn’s personal blog discusses other aspects of ficiton writing as well.
I’m enjoying delving into ResAlien so far, and I will be back the next two days to hopefully point you to some quality short stories. Until then, check out my tourmates below for more fun and madness!
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Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
CSFF Blog Tour
Carol Bruce Collett
D. G. D. Davidson
Dean Hardy
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Lyn Perry
Sarah Sawyer
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
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by Jason Joyner | Aug 22, 2011 | Blog, ResAlien, Residential Aliens, speculative fiction, the shorter the better
Welcome back Tour!
It is time again for the Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy Tour. My favorite time of the blogging month. We took a hiatus last month due to the busy summer, but we have some interesting things in the works to make up for it.
This month we’re focusing on the
Residential Aliens zine, featuring “spiritually infused speculative fiction.”
According to editor Lyn Perry,
his goal is to “embrace literature from a spiritual perspective. Combining spec fic and spirituality, and wanting to contribute to faith-informed genre fiction, ResAliens Press offers fans of science fiction, fantasy, and spiritual & supernatural thriller a quality venue in which to share their passion.”
I know the quote gives the whole gamut of speculative fiction as targets, but it seems to me that ResAliens really caters to spiritual science fiction. Some would argue that sci-fi and religion are mutually exclusive – the “science vs. religion” divide. I disagree. There are many ideas in science fiction that have greater resonance with spirituality mixed in with it. Why cut off a longstanding vital aspect of human culture?
You can find out more at the ResAliens editor’s blog, and Lyn’s personal blog discusses other aspects of ficiton writing as well.
I’m enjoying delving into ResAlien so far, and I will be back the next two days to hopefully point you to some quality short stories. Until then, check out my tourmates below for more fun and madness!
—
Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
CSFF Blog Tour
Carol Bruce Collett
D. G. D. Davidson
Dean Hardy
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Lyn Perry
Sarah Sawyer
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
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by Jason Joyner | Jun 20, 2011 | Blog, CSFF, I hear the soldiers marching myself..., Mike Dellosso, speculative fiction, supernatural suspense
June is here. Time for campfires and spooky stories. And the CSFF Tour has the book for you.
We are featuring the latest from Mike Dellosso, Darkness Follows.
Continue on with the tour, if you dare…
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Sam Travis is an out of work carpenter, on disability due to a recent fall and head injury. He’s struggling with his slow recovery and the natural need of a husband to provide for his wife Molly and daughter Eva.
One night he is awakened by the sounds of battle. Living near Gettysburg, the sound is not unusual due to the frequent reenactments.
Except that is November, long past the time for it.
He investigates the sounds, and it leads him to a journal written by a Union officer named Samuel Whiting. The entry speaks of darkness and death. The despair of battle.
And it is written in Sam Travis’s writing.
The despair from the journals invade Sam’s life. He is reminded of his dead brother Tommy, and the memories that are supposed to be locked away in the recesses of his mind. He wonders if he is dealing with complications from his accident, or if the darkness that follows Samuel Whiting is coming after him next.
As mysterious deaths pile up around the area, and an influential senator plans a major speech at Gettysburg, Sam’s hold on reality is tenuous. His family is fighting for him, but he doesn’t know if it is enough to keep him from doing something terrible, something calling from the darkness…
—
Interested? Then check out
Mike’s blog for more information, my faithful friends in the CSFF Tour below, and I’ll have a review of the book tomorrow.
Julie
Carol Keen
Inae Kyo
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Sarah Sawyer
Kathleen Smith
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
by Jason Joyner | Jun 20, 2011 | Blog, CSFF, I hear the soldiers marching myself..., Mike Dellosso, speculative fiction, supernatural suspense
June is here. Time for campfires and spooky stories. And the CSFF Tour has the book for you.
We are featuring the latest from Mike Dellosso, Darkness Follows.
Continue on with the tour, if you dare…
—
Sam Travis is an out of work carpenter, on disability due to a recent fall and head injury. He’s struggling with his slow recovery and the natural need of a husband to provide for his wife Molly and daughter Eva.
One night he is awakened by the sounds of battle. Living near Gettysburg, the sound is not unusual due to the frequent reenactments.
Except that is November, long past the time for it.
He investigates the sounds, and it leads him to a journal written by a Union officer named Samuel Whiting. The entry speaks of darkness and death. The despair of battle.
And it is written in Sam Travis’s writing.
The despair from the journals invade Sam’s life. He is reminded of his dead brother Tommy, and the memories that are supposed to be locked away in the recesses of his mind. He wonders if he is dealing with complications from his accident, or if the darkness that follows Samuel Whiting is coming after him next.
As mysterious deaths pile up around the area, and an influential senator plans a major speech at Gettysburg, Sam’s hold on reality is tenuous. His family is fighting for him, but he doesn’t know if it is enough to keep him from doing something terrible, something calling from the darkness…
—
Interested? Then check out
Mike’s blog for more information, my faithful friends in the CSFF Tour below, and I’ll have a review of the book tomorrow.
Julie
Carol Keen
Inae Kyo
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Sarah Sawyer
Kathleen Smith
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
by Jason Joyner | Apr 20, 2011 | Blog, cheap real estate in Greensboro, CSFF, speculative fiction
People are strange, when you’re a stranger…
Yep, we’re wrapping up the CSFF Tour featuring The Strange Man by Greg Mitchell. I wanted to look at one interesting tactic he used, after highlighting a couple of blog posts from my tourmates.
Jessica Thomas takes an in-depth and thoughtful look at the book and issues raised by it, including discussing the nature of Satan.
Bruce Hennigan looks at the way Christian fiction has changed by accepting a book such as The Strange Man. (Even though it is labeled “supernatural suspense,” it really is a horror story).
And our intrepid leader Becky Miller discusses the elephant in the room, considering the theology of being saved and bearing fruit as it plays out in the book.
Oh, and the book comes with a bonus short story, “Among The Dead,” set with the same characters and location but 10 years prior. It gives a nice context for the book, and is plenty creepy in only a few pages!
One trick Greg used that I liked is making the quiet, struggling town of Greensboro a character in the book. The town has a role to play as pivotal as most of the characters in the book, with only the Strange Man, Dras, and Rosalyn taking a bigger part.
The town had thrived in the past, but a new highway left it behind, and the town was dwindling. Dras’s best friend Rosalyn wants to get out partly due to the lack of a future there (partly to escape her past as well). Many times in the book Greg gives Greensboro enough personality that it stands out as part of this drama, instead of just being the setting for it. When the ancient evil that has been hovering about, abiding its time, decides that the spiritual climate has diminished enough in the town to allow evil to show itself, it is really the inciting event of the book.
I’d like to see a little more description of Greensboro and its layout, but Greensboro makes for an interesting part of the story in its own right.
There’s more opinions and discussion out there, and I invite you to check out the other fine folks talking about The Strange Man at Becky’s blog.
The Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy Tour – the best blogging of the month!
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