How I would vote now: 1955 Hugo Award (Best Novel)

The Nominees They’d Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton and Frank Riley (also published as The Forever Machine) The Actual Results How I Would Have Voted Explanation Things worked a little differently back in 1955. This was only the second time the Hugo Awards were given out (the first was in 1953), though it was… Continue reading How I would vote now: 1955 Hugo Award (Best Novel)

How Not To Write An AI-Assisted Novel

The worst way to write a novel with generative AI is to make the AI do all the work. In fact, thinking of it in terms of “how much of the work can I get the AI to do?” is pretty much guaranteed to give you a really crappy book by the end of it.… Continue reading How Not To Write An AI-Assisted Novel

Thoughts on the 2023 Hugo Awards

This video gives a pretty good recap of the endless fountain of scandals surrounding the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon and Hugo Awards. Larry Correia also gives an interesting take on it on his blog, and in his writing podcast. My initial thoughts: Laying aside all of the knee-jerk internet outrage (and schadenfreude), though, I do find… Continue reading Thoughts on the 2023 Hugo Awards

The best take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I’ve heard

This is, by far, the best take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I’ve heard. It’s between a Jew and a Palestinian, but both of them are converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which means that they’re less interested in winning a debate and more interested in coming to a common understanding,… Continue reading The best take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that I’ve heard

Navigating Woke SF, Part 5: Where do things stand now?

So it’s been almost exactly two and a half years since I posted my first “Navigating Woke SF” blog post, where I demonstrated an anti-conservative bias in the responses I was getting to my traditional short story submissions, and predicted a cultural backlash against the woke moral panic of our times. Those predictions are now… Continue reading Navigating Woke SF, Part 5: Where do things stand now?