Solar Flare: Science Fiction News

Well if you’ve visited the site in the last two days you may have experienced all sorts of weirdness. Thats because I’ve been upgrading the blog software from WordPress 1.2 to Wordpress 1.5. The actual core upgrade went remarkably smoothly and took maybe 20 minutes. Whats take a little longer is fixing some of the extra plugins that I use and adjusting to the new template system.

I also took the…

Chapters One through Five of Book Two of The War of The World by H. G. Wells:

The Infinity Plus ezine has updated again with a couple of new interviews, two short stories and a novel extract. The most recent additions on February 12th are:

A Woman’s Bones, a short story by Holly Phillips
An interview with Holly Phillips
An extract from Singularity a novel by Bill DeSmedt

Also new since I last check out the site are:

An interview with Justina Robson
The Happy Gang by Neil Williamson

Infinity Plus is edited by…

Thats right, I’m Philip José Farmer, or at least according to this quiz that SFSignal found, I am. This did come as a little bit of a surprise since I really haven’t read much by Philip José Farmer and wouldn’t have picked him from a list. But then thats the point of these little quizzes isn’t it? Well that and to waste 5 minutes at work.

If you’re curious, it turns…

Those of you who regularly read my ramblings (why?) will have noticed an ongoing discussion between myself and the good folks over at SFSignal on the subject of book buying. This Hunter, Gatherer discussion got me to thinking about my own approach to book buying.

My first thought was that I was a Gatherer, not a Hunter since I rarely go to a shop looking for one specific book. Rather I…

John over at SFSignal has been ruminating on the subject of buying books. Hey, its been a quiet week here too, at least he found something original to write about! Anyway the result of these ruminations is John’s Law of Buying Books:

Clearly a thorough individual he then amplifies on this law with the…

The Dragon Page is looking for assistance with their science fiction podcasts. In addition to podcasting their two radio shows each week they are looking to produce a science fiction “variety show” for podcasting. In order to do this they need contributors.

Basically they’re looking for ideas, suggestions, thoughts and feedback on this idea. Check out their post for the full details and how to contact them.

The International Astronomical Union’s Minor planet Center named an an asteroid after Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The asteroid was specifically chosen because its original name was 2001 DA42. This references both the year of Adams death (2001), his initials and the number 42 which is highly significant in his Hitchhiker books.

In 2001, just after his death, the same organization named an asteroid Arthur Dent,…

The DragonPage has a lot to answer for. Turns out that not only are they producing a regular science fiction and fantasy talk show, but they’re subtlety corrupting my innocent mind by sending me to page that teaches me how to have Dungeons and Dragons Sex.

Actually I think that if I was to follow these instructions I’d be far to busy rolling around on the floor giggling to have sex.…

Ever thought that maybe Smallville isn’t an accurate representation of the life of a teenage superhero? Well you may be right. Turns out that life is tough when you’re young and have special powers. Watch Fast Times At Hero High to see what superheroes were really like at high school.