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Category Archives: Fiction and Its Kin

Free Titles

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Titles come easily to me.
Maybe it has something to do with the way I was introduced to creative writing back in the Fifth Grade, but titles have always been easy for me. Our teacher used to put up titles on the board and we had to write stories that were based on that title. So, [...]

Also filed in Criticism, Marginalia, and Notes, Exercises, Ideas and Suggestions, Writing | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday, William Gibson, Sir~!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Today is William Gibson’s Birthday!
For those of you who have been hiding under a rock for the past twenty years, or have been freshly cloned, William Gibson is the primary progenitor of the cyberpunk movement. He’s generally credited with coining the term “cyberspace” and popularizing a somewhat more realistic, if somewhat bleak, view of the [...]

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Happy Birthday, My Droogie Lad.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Today is the birthday of novelist and critic Anthony Burgess
He was born John Anthony Burgess Wilson in Manchester, England on this day in 1917. Though he had written several novels early in his career, none of them were particularly successful. His career took a different turn, however, when, in 1959, he began to suffer from [...]

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Happy Birthday, Bill.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Today is William S. Burroughs‘ birthday.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri on this day in 1914, he is best known for having written Naked Lunch, which was later turned into a movie that starred Peter Weller. Burroughs started writing while attending Harvard, but when a piece of his was rejected by Esquire magazine, he was so [...]

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Happy Birthday, Bob.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

It’s the birthday of the man who brought us Conan the Barbarian, King Kull, and Solomon Kane science fiction author Robert E. Howard, who was born in Peaster, Texas on this day in 1906. If you’re from Texas, or just passing through, you can find out more about him at the Crossplains Robert E. Howard [...]

Also filed in Adventure Fantasy, Famous Authors, Fantasy, Writing | | Comments (0)

Two Science-Fiction Visionaries, Born Today

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Today is the birthday of two very important science-fiction writers.
The first is science fiction novelist Philip K. Dick, who was born in Chicago in 1928. He began to suffer from visions and hallucinations in the 1950s. He once thought he saw a face in the sky, which he described as “a vast visage of evil [...]

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Happy Birthday, Mr. Lewis!

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Today is C.S. Lewis’ birthday.
For those of you who don’t know him, C.S. Lewis wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, which has been made into movies and mini-series several times. Lewis was a contemporary of J.R.R. Tolkien and, in fact, was part of the same writing group, the Inklings. It was there that the two became [...]

Also filed in Famous Authors, Fantastic and Surreal, Fantasy, Fun, Invented Worlds, Writing | | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday, Mr. Herbert!

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Today is Frank Herbert’s Birthday.
Of course, he passed away in 1986, the year I graduated from high-school, but his work lives on. Mr. Herbert is primarily known for his seminal work, Dune, and the other books in the series that followed. Though, interestingly enough, he never intended to write sequels.
Often refered to as the science-fiction [...]

Also filed in Criticism, Marginalia, and Notes, Famous Authors, Invented Worlds, Science Fiction, Things to Read, Writing | | Comments (0)