Dirk Strasser

The Australian Writers' Guild's John Hinde Award for unproduced science fiction scripts is open for entries until 2 April! Entries may be feature or short film, TV or web series, audio, animation, children’s television, game or interactive media. https://t.co/ojTITn9Hsi https://t.co/MI6UY59pBr

Five SFF Stories In Which the Best-Laid Plans Are Thwarted Who among us has not been betrayed by the failure of a simple plan that should have worked? This seems to be a perverse tendency of the universe, as well as a popular theme in fiction... https://t.co/b0ELZWXKGq https://t.co/UKG6dfROc1

8 Incredible Examples of Epistolary Horror The epistolary format weaves a powerful illusion of authenticity, framing fiction as real-life, firsthand surviving documentation. In the same way “based on a true story” sends a chill through the spine... https://t.co/Uwo94XedzC https://t.co/lldYnNsjQE

Five SFF Books About Not-So-Dark Lords Readers like dark stuff. They like Dark Lords like Darth Vader and Sauron. And we also love it when it turns out that they are not so dark, after all. https://t.co/EDgv8aRXgS https://t.co/iBcKnl3neT

Five SFF Stories About Lawyers and the Law While a law-based approach to conflict resolution may seem less compelling than danger and violence from a storytelling perspective, there is plenty of drama in legal disputes... https://t.co/aF7hg8ypUf https://t.co/7mOJwIXiZa

Five Books to Pair With a Good Cup of Tea Tea is a beverage that is infused with history. There are records of people brewing and consuming tea possibly as far back as the 2nd century BC. Judy I. Lin highlights five SFF books that feature tea... https://t.co/zScokilJhD https://t.co/qFEXFNWLSL

Treasuring the Books No One Else Seems to Love What does it feel like to love a book no one else seems to have heard of? Molly Templeton dives into the experience of carrying a book inside your heart all alone. https://t.co/Rw3NLtCPnZ https://t.co/0bBRoftI1T

Five Books About Telepathy Telepathy can be an extremely useful tool for SFF writers, especially when thinking about how to have characters communicate over long distances, or in dire circumstances... https://t.co/LCPdAhuUfD https://t.co/s8ez4CiULH

Starting a Home Lending Library Has Made Me a Better Friend For those of us who read a lot, it can be hard to understand people who don’t. Reading 500-page epic fantasies regularly can seem daunting to someone who only reads 2-3 books a year... https://t.co/eXPHo36Nxg https://t.co/mzNkpMo192

Imagining and Understanding the Alien: Insects in Science Fiction Jonathan Thornton examines the influence insects have had on shaping our connection to alien life forms over the last century, from fear to understanding and empathy. https://t.co/cyAZuGLOjR https://t.co/9mfNcpAUJJ

Five SFF Books About Technology and Grief Technological advances impact the way we do everything these days—even the way we grieve. From Instagram tributes to memorial Facebook pages, we’re thinking more and more about the messages we leave behind. https://t.co/PIgB7mzyOQ https://t.co/1d3kn6sEAM

Five Books Featuring Uploaded Minds and Memories Human bodies have their advantages, but in the end they are all too delicate. But imagine if a mind could be backed up or saved somehow. Here are 5 SFF books that tackle the idea of recorded memories. https://t.co/FjqwXeEPCC https://t.co/VxYmNJH6fl

The Books We Read as Children Always Change Us — Let’s Embrace It There is a fascinating conversation to be had about the ways children’s books change young readers for the better. Kali Wallace celebrates the joy of letting books shape us as we grow. https://t.co/cSakQDu4up https://t.co/ZdsmHBwZZi

8 SFF Stories About the Joys of Bread and Baking Bread is a staple in our literature–the universality of bread likely makes it appealing for fantasy authors reaching for something to feed their characters that is fairly historically & culturally neutral... https://t.co/BKSTBiUp8Z https://t.co/QAbCrCaNr2

Is Series Fatigue Real? There is an imagined divide between series readers & standalone readers. But who hasn’t read a standalone novel that they desperately wished was a series? Who hasn’t finished a series & thought that it could’ve been a bit shorter? https://t.co/3xRguYefmH https://t.co/dKzCh9JYfF

Five Stories About Perilous Plant Life and High-Risk Gardening Often in speculative fiction, nature and gardens can be sinister, even threatening. Here are five SFF stories about the dangers of plant life and cultivation... https://t.co/Qy89QnaD9d https://t.co/qFUk0FnBiW

5 SF Works About Fighting Crime in Space When imagining how society might operate in space, inevitably writers will also imagine what human misbehavior might look like—and various ways to prevent it... https://t.co/AXWmcyx86K https://t.co/61DfZ7ZXDY