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How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (Writer's Digest Genre Writing Series) by Orson Scott Card
If you've ever read any of Orson Scott Card's fiction, you'll understand why he's the perfect author to teach others how to write. Card is a writer's writer, a master at what he does, a person you know without a doubt is giving you good advice. Toss out anything else you've got on your bookshelf about writing and replace it with this one. It's all you'll need, besides maybe his "Characters and Viewpoint"
World-Building (Science Fiction Writing Series) by Stephen L. Gillett, Ben Bova
A blueprint in words, calculations, tables and diagrams, designed to help writers transport readers from this world to another. Using what they learn in Word-Building, writers will land readers on believable planets, real or invented.
Aliens and Alien Societies (Science Fiction Writing Series) by Stanley Schmidt, Stan Schmidt, Ben Bova
A thoughtful, clear and utterly fascinating reference, this book is absolutely vital to writers who want to put extraterrestrial life-forms in their novels and stories.
The Craft of Writing Science Fiction That Sells by Ben Bova
Bestselling novelist and former editor of Analog Science Fact/Science Fiction and Omni Ben Bova teaches science fiction writers not only how to create and run a universe, but also how to write by the rules that will get a book published.
Space Travel (Science Fiction Writing Series) by Ben Bova, Anthony R. Lewis, Tony Lewis
Space Travel explains science, to help you make your fiction plausible. You'll engineer your rockets with accurate technical data. Show your characters' physical responses to weightlessness. Know the environment of space, how inhospitable it is - and how it's opening for business. Build an Earth-orbiting habitat for your story's setting. Discover our solar system ... and the staggering immensity of interstellar space. Consider the prospect of near-lightspeed travel. Imagine the conflicts, legal and military, your fictional missions might spark. In this book, you'll see what is real today - and what may become real tomorrow.
Time Travel (Science Fiction Writing Series) by Paul J. Nahin
Time Travel explains science to help you make your fiction plausible. You'll leave for the future from a solid theoretical launching pad - and you'll see why the idea of traveling to the past violates no known laws of physics. Time Travel explores the theories of relativity, shows you the equations, probes the marvelous possibilities. It's filled with facts you can use in your fiction to cross the filmy borders and take readers along the corridors of time.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer's Sourcebook : Where to Sell Your Manuscripts (2nd Ed) by David H. Borcherding (Editor)
Though they write of the fantastic, writers must work within certain realities: they must write well, and they must market professionally. With its solid guidance and 300 market listings (100 new in this edition!) this book will help them do both. The book also includes sections covering science fiction organizations, workshops, online services, conventions, awards and more.
Dancing at the Edge of the World : Thoughts on Words, Women, Places by Ursula K. Le Guin
Incisive, eloquent, crackling with ideas, this is a "mental-biography" of the award-winning fiction writer, Ursula K. Le Guin. She draws together essays, travel journals, lectures, informal talks and reviews spanning twelve years, for a fascinating peek into the mind of a remarkable woman. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Those Who Can : A Science Fiction Reader by Robin Scott Wilson (Editor)
This unique and provocative collection assembles masterful stories by twelve of SF's greatest practitioners, including Samuel R. Delany, Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Frederick Pohl. Each story is accompanied by an eloquent critical essay in which the writer discusses his or her own story.
The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick : Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings by Philip K. Dick, Lawrence Sutin (Editor)
In a collection of philosophical essays, journal excerpts, speeches, and interviews, the pioneering science fiction writer discusses the union of physics and metaphysics, the impact of virtual reality, and the challenges of basic human values in an age of technology and spiritual decline.
The Writer's Guide to Creating a Science Fiction Universe by George Ochoa, Jeff Osier, Jeffrey Osier
To hold the interest of knowledgeable sci-fi readers, a writer the genre must stay within certain fuzzy boundaries of scientific belief. This volume provides some of the scientific detail that will make a writer's adventures compelling and consistent with current views of the universe. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.
Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy by Gardner Dozois, Tina Lee, S. Schmidt, R. Strock, S. Williams, I. Strock
The articles in this book are Robert A. Heinlein's classic essay "On the Writing of Speculative Fiction," Gardner Dozois's "Living the Future," "Learning to Write Comedy" by Connie Willis, "You and Your Characters" by James Patrick Kelly, and sixteen other articles. "The discussions of characterization and world building inthe context of the demands of science fiction and fantasy, represents some of the more cogent writing on the subject in some time." ---BOOKLIST "There are some good pointers here even for the successful writer." ---SCIENCE FICTION CHRONICLE "Though it's intended more for writers of short stories, this book contains lots of good advice for any form of speculative fiction." ---MINNEAPOLIS STAR-TRIBUNE
How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction by J. N. Williamson (Editor)
THE book on genre writing. Filled with pertinent and insightful information. Features writing advice from the likes of Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Dean Koontz, Marion Zimmerman Bradley and Charles L. Grant. Buy it with Mort Castle's "Writing Horror" and Stanley Wiater's "Dark Thoughts On Writing". An inspirational book. Buy it you won't be sorry.
Paragons : Twelve Master Science Fiction Writers Ply Their Crafts by Robin Scott Wilson (Editor)
A dozen of today's leading science fiction writers provide an inside look at how their craft is accomplished. An invaluable and delightful tool for anyone who writes, Paragons includes advice from Kim Stanley Robinson, Bruce Sterling, James Patrick Kelly, Karen Joy Fowler, Greg Bear, and seven others.
Conceiving the Heavens : Creating the Science Fiction Novel by Melissa Scott
Reflections and Refractions : Thoughts on Science-Fiction, Science, and Other Matters (paperback) by Robert Silverberg
Sci-fi master Robert Silverberg explores science, technology, and society in this collection of opinion and commentary. The nine-time winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards has chosen his most thought provoking observations for this vivid, 20-year chronicle of events in both science fiction and the world in general. "Where Silverberg goes today, science fiction will follow tomorrow."--Isaac Asimov.
How to Write Science Fiction by Matthew J. Costello
Reflections and Refractions : Thoughts on Science-Fiction, Science, and Other Matters (hardcover) by Robert Silverberg
Sci-fi master Robert Silverberg explores science, technology, and society in this collection of opinion and commentary. The nine-time winner of the Hugo and Nebula awards has chosen his most thought provoking observations for this vivid, 20-year chronicle of events in both science fiction and the world in general. "Where Silverberg goes today, science fiction will follow tomorrow."--Isaac Asimov.
Paragons : Twelve Master Science Fiction Writers Ply Their Craft by Robin Scott Wilson (Editor)
Editor Wilson, founding father of the long-running Clarion Writers Workshops for science fiction, is well qualified to compile this anthology that also affords its contributors' instructive behind-the-scenes comments on the sf writer's craft. A virtual who's who of major players in contemporary sf, the lineup includes James Patrick Kelly, Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson, Joe Haldeman, and eight others; each provides insight on the composition of his or her story. Nancy Kress contributes wry social satire in "The Price of Oranges" when a septuagenarian travels to 1937 to kidnap a boyfriend for his granddaughter. Given the form of an academic book review, Bruce Sterling's "Our Neural Chernobyl" describes a future viral outbreak of elevated animal intelligence. Pat Cadigan's "Pretty Boy Crossover" describes the entertainment medium of the future, which involves downloading one's entire existence into a computer. Good reading and an indispensable resource for both aspiring sf writers and curious fans seeking enlightenment as to how favorite authors get and develop their crazy ideas.
Copyright© 1996, American Library Association. All rights reserved
Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction : And Getting Published (Teach Yourself) by Brian Stableford
Science Fiction and Market Realities by Gary Westfahl (Editor), George Slusser (Editor), Eric S. Rabkin (Editor)
The modern marketplace of science fiction and the relationship between art, culture, and commerce as reflected in works of science fiction are the concerns of these original essays. The contributors, all of whom are science fiction writers, editors, or critics, offer a wealth of new perspectives and insights on the forces that both drive and hinder creativity and its commodification. Many of the essays look at how the market constrains a writer's aesthetic and financial development, how changing perceptions of the science fiction audience are "distorting the product," how writers can and must persevere against the problems facing them, and how the market, as a literature-generating machine out of control, has both its down- and upsides. Through case studies, other contributors relate science fiction to other forms of "underground" literature, consider the continual cycle of illegitimate art replacing legitimate art, look at young readers of science fiction, chart the rising and falling "stock" of science fiction writers' reputations, and consider the influence of editors on a writer's work. Finally, in looking at science fiction and market realities in other countries and other media, contributors examine American and British science fiction in the context of the two countries' different histories and market conditions, Russian science fiction and the collapse of the Soviet Union, independent and mass-market science fiction film and video, the opening up of the comic book market, and interactive computer games. This volume is filled with real-world insights into how and why writers, editors, and critics both resist and participate in the commerce of culture. As a forward-looking and often iconoclastic genre, science fiction, in its market context, has much to offer other modes of literary expression that traditionally face future uncertainties with comparatively less relish.
On Writing Science Fiction : The Editors Strike Back by George Scithers, Darrell Schweitzer, John M. Ford
The Sound of Wonder : Interviews from the Science Fiction Radio Show by Daryl Lane, William Vernon, David Carson
Slow Dancing Through Time by Gardner Dozois
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