Nick Sagan Online

You Call This The Future?

Happy leap year!  Here's what I've been up to:

You Call This The Future? The Greatest Inventions Sci-Fi Imagined And Science Promised will be hitting bookshelves this April.

It's a collaboration with Mark Frary and Andy Walker, two wonderful science & technology writers.  I'm holding an advance copy in my hand and I'm very happy with what a fun and informative read it is. 

You Call This The Future? is an exploration of technologies that have tantalized us in science fiction for many years but have yet to materialize in the world of today.  We go in search of flying cars, warp drives, artificial intelligence, time travel, terraforming and many more, with a total of 50 inventions in all.  How are we doing on those cybernetic exoskeletons?  What's the hold up on force fields? 

Hope you pick up a copy and enjoy it as much as I've enjoyed working on it.

Rocky Mountain Futurevisions

With all the disturbing, depressing events in the news this week, I'm struck by the forward thinking and all around goodness of Rocky Mountain Futurevisions. Founder Brian Vox states:

We hope to create a sense of wonder, excitement, inspiration, and fun with these visions of a possible tomorrow. It is our mission to help engender a positive attitude toward the future in young and old alike. Please feel free to explore the site and let your mind soar into a better tomorrow.

The site's filled with futurism, technology, artwork of what tomorrow might look like, and a video about nano-replication. Weeks ago, Brian kindly invited me to contribute to the Futurist Forum, which asks intriguing questions like, "If visitors from the year 2057 traveled back through time to the present, what message do you think they would give to us?" and "What do you think is the biggest threat to prolonged human survival?" Among those asked: Sustainability Consultant Daniel Bowers, Musician Mike Garson, and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco. Well worth checking out.

Tees And Sympathy Online

My short story, "Tees and Sympathy," is now available online in PDF format along with the rest of Subterranean Magazine #4. It's absolutely free, and you can download it here.

Are you familiar with Alton Brown? He's a celebrity chef and author, sometimes known as the Mr. Wizard of culinary pursuits for his ability to bring both science and humor to the kitchen. He's the host of Good Eats, a wonderful show on the Food Network. It's the kind of show you can enjoy even if you're not particularly interested in cooking.

"Tees and Sympathy" is my take on what might happen to a show like Good Eats once we encounter an alien civilization. To give you a flavor of the piece, it's Alton's show...

...combined with one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes:

Now pop the "aliens want to eat us" cliché, add a soupçon of vegetarian smart aleckiness, and you wind up with:

(Let cool before serving. Serves 6.)

Beyond "Tees and Sympathy," Subterranean Magazine #4 contains a veritable smorgasbord of tasty science fiction short stories and articles. Guest edited by John W. Campbell award-winning, Hugo-nominated John Scalzi, the contents include:

"A Finite Number of Typewriters" by Stuart MacBride
"Cliché Haiku" by Scott Westerfeld
"Hesperia and Glory" by Ann Leckie
"Horrible Historians" by Gillian Polack
"It Came From the Slush Pile" by John Joseph Adams
"Labyrinth's Heart" by Bruce Arthurs
"Last" by Chris Roberson
"The Last Science Fiction Writer" by Allen M. Steele
"Movie Clichés and the Sci-Fi Films That Love Them" by Ron Hogan
"The NOMAD Gambit" by Dean Cochrane
"Refuge" by David Klecha
"Remarks on Some Clichés I Have (by Definition) Known Too Well" by Teresa Nielsen Hayden
"Scene From a Dystopia" by Rachel Swirsky
"Shoah Sry" by Tobias S. Buckell and Ilsa J. Bick
"Tees and Sympathy" by Nick Sagan
"The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe" by Elizabeth Bear
"The Third Brain" by Charles Coleman Finlay and James Allison
"What a Piece of Work" by Jo Walton

Nutritious and delicious, as a certain character of mine would say. Enjoy!

Worldcon Schedule

So I'll be attending LACon IV this week, boarding my flight west in (yikes) just a few hours. Not 100% sure I should be flying on Doomsday, but hey, what are you going to do? While I highly doubt my flight will run into any trouble, I suppose anything's possible so don't let me leave without thanking you all for your friendship and/or patronage. Deeply appreciated. And thanks for all the comments and email wishing my mother well. Very nice of you, and I've passed those sentiments on to her.

Here's my schedule for the convention:

thu 14:30
POST-APOCALYPTIC SF
John Varley said "We all love after-the-bomb stories. If we didn't, why would there be so many of them?" Why do we all love them? During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear annihilation was very real; today, the world is a different place, but the threat of annihilation is once again very real. Has the sub-genre changed? How are 21st Century post-apocalyptic stories different from those written during the Cold War era?
Panel: Elizabeth Bear(M), Ed Green, Takayuki Tatsumi, John G. Hemry, Nick Sagan

thu 17:30
IS ART THE INSPIRATION FOR MADNESS?
Writers are like gods. Whatever they want their characters to do, they do. If they want lightning to strike, the sky is shattered by electricity. Are they responsible for the themes, the ideas, and the actions in their works? Is there a responsibility not to show how to make a bomb? Should good always triumph over evil?
Panel: Lisanne Norman(M), Joe W. Haldeman, ElizaBeth Gilligan, Tim Powers, Nick Sagan

fri 14:00
AUTOGRAPHING
Nick Sagan

sat 10:00
DESIGNING INTERACTIVE GAMES
What makes for an addictive computer game? What is there about Doom or Halo that made you waste countless hours playing? Game designers discuss what they do.
Panel: Mike Stemmle, Justin Lloyd, Scott Campbell, Nick Sagan

sat 11:30
FRANKENFOOD TO FRANKENPEOPLE
Genetic modification from food to people; how far is too far?
Panel: Sam Scheiner, Nancy Kress, Cynthia Felice(M), Elisabeth Malartre, Nick Sagan

sun 14:30
WHY IS EVERYTHING SO DARK?
Batman has become the "Dark Knight". The X-Files is filled with conspiracies and people wearing dark clothes walking around in dark rooms. Before that, the great New Wave of SF, which called itself literary, was deeply pessimistic. Is this mature, childish, or the swing of a pendulum?
Panel: Adam-Troy Castro(M), Robert Vogel, Alan Rodgers, Bradley H. Sinor, Nick Sagan

Should be fun.

My internet access might be a bit spotty on the trip, so there's a chance you won't hear much from me here for a few days. If so, I'll come back afterwards with a full report. Bye now!

Update: Doomsday didn't happen.  I'm fine and well and blogging from the Hilton business center.  Off to my first panel...

Subterranean Illustration

Well, I've blogged about changing my eating habits, and I thought you might like to see the main staple of my diet...

Mmm... Lovecraftian calamari... high protein, low calorie, and a great source of Vitamin Cthulhu...

Actually, this handsome creature with the soulful eyes is the illustration that accompanies "Tees and Sympathy." What's "Tees and Sympathy?" Why, it's my first published short story. According to the editor, it's "super-fabulous, and very funny." It'll be published in Subterranean Magazine Issue #4, which you can preorder by clicking here.

This is the cliché issue, where clichés are popped and spun on their ears. Er, to the extent that clichés have ears. For a mere six hundred pennies, you get the following short stories and articles:

"Cliché Haiku" by Scott Westerfeld
"A Finite Number of Typewriters" by Stuart MacBride
"Hesperia and Glory" by Ann Leckie
"Horrible Historians" by Gillian Polack
"The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe" by Elizabeth Bear
"It Came From the Slush Pile" by John Joseph Adams
"Labyrinth's Heart" by Bruce Arthurs
"Last" by Chris Roberson
"The Last Science Fiction Writer" by Allen M. Steele
"Movie Clichés and the Sci-Fi Films That Love Them" by Ron Hogan
"The NOMAD Gambit" by Dean Cochrane
"Refuge" by David Klecha
"Remarks on Some Clichés I Have (by Definition) Known Too Well" by Teresa Nielsen Hayden
"Scene From a Dystopia" by Rachel Swirsky
"Shoah Sry" by Tobias S. Buckell and Ilsa J. Bick
"Tees and Sympathy" by Nick Sagan
"The Third Brain" by Charles Coleman Finlay and James Allison
"What a Piece of Work" by Jo Walton
"Editor's Afterword" by John Scalzi

Plus you get illustrations by Bob Eggleton, book reviews, and the sense of satisfaction that comes with responsible magazine ownership.

Post Serling Conference

I couldn't stay for it all, but I had a blast at the Rod Serling conference. Really good insights re: the man and his work, the majority of these provided by my friend Marc Scott Zicree, who (literally) wrote the book on The Twilight Zone. Now I've seen nearly every Zone episode and many Night Gallery episodes, but Marc brought out clips I'd never seen before--some from Serling's early television career, including one starring a young James Dean. Perhaps most interesting to me was a clip of Rod Serling pitching The Twilight Zone to sponsors, laying out what kinds of stories they could expect, whetting their appetites for what the show would become. Lots to learn there. I've pitched my fair share of stories, and I'm not half bad, but man oh man was Serling a master.

Marc makes an interesting case for Rod Serling being the man who best shifted the balance of power in television toward writers. That "showrunner" position--the writer/producer at the top of the writing staff--that's a position that Serling largely carved out. So despite how synonymous he is with genre fiction, even TV writers who don't write science fiction and fantasy may owe the man a great debt.

And I got to meet Carol Serling. We only talked briefly, but she remembered conversations between Rod and my dad. I also met one of Rod and Carol's daughters, who apparently taught my brother back when he went to nursery school. Small world, no?

Rod Serling Conference

Twilight Zone fan? Like conferences? Going to be in Ithaca this weekend?

Friday and Saturday, Ithaca College will be hosting the 2006 Rod Serling Conference, and if you're a fan of Rod Serling's writing, you might have a lot of fun. The keynote speaker is Marc Scott Zicree, whom you may know as the author of The Twilight Zone Companion, or from his dozens of television credits. He's also penned a trilogy of acclaimed fantasy novels about technology stopping and magic returning to the modern day world: Magic Time, Angelfire, Ghostlands.

Also, Carol Serling is going to be there. I'd like to meet her, and I wonder if she remembers any conversations between Rod and my father.

Preordering Subterranean Magazine

Subterranean Magazine #4 (with a grand total of eighteen science fiction short stories including one from yours truly) can be preordered by clicking here. Only $6 if you're in the U.S. and $9 if not. "Tees and Sympathy" is my first published short story, and I had a blast writing it, so I'll be curious to know what you think.

Somehow, I didn't blog as much as I'd planned this past month. Quite a lot going on, and I really should write about it here. Let's see if I can't bump my post count up in the weeks and months ahead.

The Ghost Brigades

Looking for something good to read? Look no further: the second novel in John Scalzi's acclaimed Old Man's War series has hit the stands of a bookstore near you.

Like the first book, The Ghost Brigades is a featured selection in the Science Fiction Book Club, a "Sci-Fi Essential" Book, and a recipient of many glowing reviews. If you're a fan of the great Robert Heinlein or of military science fiction, this series is sure to be up your alley, but even if not, you might want to give it a go. John's a dynamite writer, extraordinarily clever and inventive. And he's named a character after my family in Jane Sagan. It's comforting to know that Sagans will still be around in the future, even if hostile aliens will be gunning for humanity there too. Now I really ought to put a Scalzi in one of my books...

Subterranean Magazine

Short story alert: I've got one.

Over the years, I've been fortunate to work in a variety of formats: novels, screenplays, teleplays, videogames, animation, commercial spots, etc. But never short stories. That's just changed, as Subterranean Press will be publishing me along with a variety of other science fiction authors in Subterranean Magazine #4.

Edited by the prolific and talented John Scalzi, Subterranean #4 tackles popular science fiction clichés, with writers spinning them on their ear. I took on the "aliens want to eat us" conceit, and had a lot of fun doing it. "Tees and Sympathy" it's called, and it should be available this April. Subterranean Press is taking preorders for issue #3 right now, and I imagine they'll do the same for issue #4 soon. I'll post a note when they do.

Many years ago, during a Twilight Zone marathon, I remember my dad explaining the unlikelihood of aliens viewing planet Earth as a smorgasbord. Evolving on an alien world, what are the odds they'd consider human flesh tasty? The prevalence of "they want to eat us" fiction has more to do with our fears than actual possibility. Thinking it over, I wonder if the same could be said for most fiction. Tickling peoples' hopes and fears tends to come before strict believability. And the feeling that something might happen becomes more important than whether or not it actually could.

"Tees and Sympathy" was a lot of fun to work on, and I think there's a lot to like about the short story format. A huge relief to know you don't have hundreds of pages standing between you and the end, and a good challenge to put a lot of story into something short and sweet. I'm happy with how it came together; John gave it a thumbs up; I hope you get a chance to pick up a copy and enjoy it as well. Not to mention all the other stories in Subterranean #4. Looking at the list of authors, I'm in very good company:

"Cliché Haiku" by Scott Westerfeld
"A Finite Number of Typewriters" by Stuart MacBride
"Hesperia and Glory" by Ann Leckie
"Horrible Historians" by Gillian Polack
"The Inevitable Heat Death of the Universe" by Elizabeth Bear
"It Came From the Slush Pile" by John Joseph Adams
"Labyrinth's Heart" by Bruce Arthurs
"Last" by Chris Roberson
"The Last Science Fiction Writer" by Allen M. Steele
"Movie Clichés and the Sci-Fi Films That Love Them" by Ron Hogan
"The NOMAD Gambit" by Dean Cochrane
"Refuge" by David Klecha
"Remarks on Some Clichés I Have (by Definition) Known Too Well" by Teresa Nielsen Hayden
"Scene From a Dystopia" by Rachel Swirsky
"Shoah Sry" by Tobias S. Buckell and Ilsa J. Bick
"Tees and Sympathy" by Nick Sagan
"The Third Brain" by Charles Coleman Finlay and James Allison
"What a Piece of Work" by Jo Walton