Having just been to an SF Conference in my capacity as Editor of Futures, the weekly SF stream in Nature
(for those who don’t know, it’s on the back page of the printed issue, and can be found here online for Nature subscribers), I have come over all re-energised and, at the suggestion of Ms S. A. of London, have set up this discussion forum as a kind of ten-forward where those of us who want to can unleash their inner geek on the content of Futures, what should be in it, which authors to look out for or indeed anything else that thrums your antennae.
Come on. You know you want to.
Henry, I find that a bit of antennae wax is quite good for damping down any unwanted thrumming.
p.s. Very relieved by the content of your post. From its title, I feared that Futures was about to vanish again.
Thanks Jenny – do you think I should change the title?
I discovered Futures thanks to one of your earlier posts. I’ve never tried my hand at flash fiction, (the few short stories I’ve written ended up being novellas, and I had to slash and burn) so I’m taking it as a challenge.
Do you accept multiple submissions?
Thanks Ken – I’d rather have one submission at a time (if only so that I am less tempted than I might be to retreat under my desk and whimper). Pieces should be
Hnery – nah, it pulls in the punters, innit?
Henry< is there a reason that you don’t want it as an .rtf mode? You would avoid silly mac/pac miscommunications as well as macros.
[yes, if that smaller thing ever gets as done as I would like it, I will send it away…. it just has to get better in order to be judged.]
Henry: ¿Is possible a short story of 1500 words?
A short story of 1500 words is possible. But not for Futures, I think is the answer here.
Åsa, don’t confuse the poor man.
well, well, well, well!!
rtf is fine – but 1500 words is too long. The stories need to fit on a page of Nature, with a graphic (which we commission ourselves) – so 750-950 words is the length.
Thank you Henry. My story is a trip through the worm hole is a long story.
I can’t figure out how to get a word count in TextEdit, so I’ll wait until I can cut/paste the rtf into Windoze tomorrow AM and edit accordingly. I think the last time I wrote fiction was grade eight or summat. Doesn’t bode well. Heh.
On a somewhat related note: Amon Hen 218 … WTF?!
RG: it is just a pet peeve of mine. Rtf or pdf seems to be what I like :)
Henry, thanks! I will see what happens…. a good try is better than nothing :)
Amon Hen 218. Wassa matter wiv it? The front cover is a bit strange, but it seems much as usual elswhere. Doesn’t it?
well, rtf is best, really, if it’s going to be edited. PDF is essentially read-only. I don’t get what’s wrong with word ’97. .docx on the other hand is seriously painful: although Pages opens the files quite happily.
Åsa, OpenOffice allows you to save documents as *.doc, as does Pages.
I didn’t know Pages opens *.docx files. That’s a useful tip.
You’re welcome.
Wassa matter wiv it?
Several things struck me as odd, but perhaps I was just tired last night, and not processing irony very well. The Reviews, for example – not to fault the reviewers at all, but rather the works reviewed. No, just … no.
I’m still wondering whether it’s possible to get a word count in TextEdit.
What is Amon Hen and what happened to the first 217?
@ Richard: Amon Hen is not, as you might imagine, the Ancient Egyptian God of Poultry. It is in fact the bi-monthly newsletter of the Tolkien Society, and this one is number 218.
@ Kristi – am still bafled. What, particularly, has raised your hackles?
Oh, my hackles weren’t really raised … I think the piece that threw me for a loop last night was The Recidivist. Though I see this morning that there is a wee smilie face at the end of it, so perhaps I really wasn’t processing irony very well.
I still think the artwork is weird. However, I’ve enjoyed my membership in the Tolkien Society, and plan to renew for another year.
Oh good! Mallorn is worth the price of membership all on its own. Mallorn 48 is currently in production.
On the subject of fun artwork, at an SF con at the weekend I bought some great T-shirts from Genki Gear – my favourite was this, but I bought this one for Gee Minima, this one for Mrs Gee, and this one for manga- and cat-loving Gee Minor.
Mike: ahh… I don’t have open office but thanks for letting me know! And I had no idea Pages opened .docx … but I do resent the whole .doc … but I’ll learn and adjust I am sure. “love the .doc love the.doc” ;)
Great news then!… I hope to unleash my inner geek again!
;-)
And I’ll pay more attention to interesting authors too…
I still think the artwork is weird. However, I’ve enjoyed my membership in the Tolkien Society, and plan to renew for another year.
Good news. Mallorn is of course worth the price of membership all on its own, especially as it has occasionally featured stories from rpg and words and pictures from Sir John of Gilbey. Mallorn 48 is currently in production.
Yes, I look forward to more Mallorn contributions from rpg and Sir John of Gilbey. I just wish I could go to Oxonmoot one of these years.
Also … sent my story for consideration for Futures this morning. Just realized that I am not especially primed to recognize word redundancies, perhaps because they’re not such a problem in formal scientific writing.
Henry, all of your tshirt links came to the same page… or was that a prescient (predundant?) nod to Kristi’s unreasoning fear of word redundancies?
@Kristi- ATTENTION ALL PLANETS OF THE SOLAR FEDERATION! Mallorn 48 is currently in production. Mallorn 48 is currently in production. We have assumed control. We have assumed control. We have assumed control.
(And the geek shall inherit the earth.)
Possibly I’m stating the bleedin’ obvious (wouldn’t be the first time…) but I think Henry’s beef is with Word 200 7, not 97. If so, I agree – .docx is a silly idea.
Henry – do you know something about the forthcoming UK honours list that has so far escaped me ? :-)
I’m sure there are laws about a chap claiming ennoblements that a chap doesn’t really have a legitimate call on… I’d hate to end up suspended by my ankles over the scorpion pit…
When does Mallorn hit the streets, by the way?
@John C. – sorry about those redundant links. They all seem to have collapsed into one.
@Richard W – you are entirely correct. But hey, I’m a palaeontologist for whom a decade either way is but a Mote in the Eye of Brahma.
@Sir John of Gilbey – to me you will be forever a Gentleman. Mallorn is currently in production, but should be out sometime before the end of next month, mehopes.