Internet Column from Science Fiction Age,
November 1997 Cory Doctorow
This month's column features the many attractions of sff.net, a kind of Internet
clubhouse for writers and readers. Thanks to Charles Orbendorf for suggesting
this!
A mixture of private and public discussion forums that harken back to the good
old days of GEnie, when the leading lights of the industry let it all hang out,
kidding, fighting and debating. A truly science-fictional experience.
Quirky, award-winning author Terry Bisson (Bears Discover Fire, Pirates of
the Universe) writes brilliant short fiction, nonfic, and novels. Check his
site for complete story-texts, plays adapted from his work, and notes from the
author on his work.
A place where authors directly retail their hard-to-find works to their readers.
Participating writers include Pat Cadigan, CJ Cherryh, Harlan Ellison, Joe
Haldeman, Ursula K LeGuin, Gene Wolfe and Jane Yolen. This resource has been
around for years online, in one form or another, and it's gratifying to see it
on the Web.
Christopher Holliday maintains this resource for genre writers: each month, he
posts a new, extraordinarily complete list of open magazine and anthology
markets. Also here are guest reviews of current issues of genre magazines,
articles and interviews on the writing process, and alerts about defunct
markets, bad contracts and late payments.
"Gentleman Jim" Kelly's homepage is every bit as witty and charming as the man
himself. Here, you'll find complete stories, essays on writing and the state of
the genre, a complete bibliography, and out-of-print works for sale.
Jim Tipton has a rather unusual hobby: he collects earth from the graves of the
rich and famous. No, really. If you ever wanted to take this up yourself, you
could do worse than to use his online resource. He gets a million cool points
for having a picture of him kneeling at Phillip K. Dick's grave.
Breathtaking digital photos from the Hubble Space Telescope: Saturn-storms big
enough to swallow Earth, black holes, distant galaxies, comet bombardment of
Jupiter. Now this is science!
Not the official site (which, FYI, is at http://www.lostinspace.com, and sucks),
but a fan site chock-a-block with obsessive trivia on the original series and
the upcoming feature film.
