How to use this Page

The end of the world has become a popular theme over the last few years, spread by the popularity of vivid stories like The Walking Dead and The Hunger Games. If you want to write a book about our unhappy future, you should study the science and history of mass extinction.

io9 editor and author Annalee Newitz published a nonfiction book about the subject (Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction), giving writers some valuable insight into the different catastrophes that have wiped out life on planet Earth.

We asked Newitz three questions for writers over email, and she responded with a long list of new ideas and reading suggestions for all authors writing about our future on this planet. All her answers follow below…

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Now that it’s been circulating around for a while, I thought I’d show off the gorgeous Diverse Energies cover right here, in case you missed it in the hundred other places people are talking about it. In other news, I haven’t had much time for blogging lately, but I am working hard on Awakening by Karen Sandler (Tankborn 2) and New Worlds by Shana Mlawski (spring books) as well as books for next fall that include Joseph Bruchac’s next book. Here’s the description we sent to Publisher’s Marketplace:

Stacy Whitman at Lee & Low Books has bought world rights for Wolf Mark author Joseph Bruchac’s newest YA Killer of Enemies, a post-apocalyptic science fiction novel with a steampunk twist, for publication in fall 2013 under the Tu Books imprint. Described as “space cowboys in the new Old West,” it retells the story of Lozen, the monster slayer of Apache legend, in a world where space dust has rendered digital technology obsolete.  Barbara S. Kouts of the Barbara S. Kouts Agency did the deal.

Awesome, right? I’m SO EXCITED for it, you guys. And, without further ado, check out this gorgeousness from designer Ben Mautner. And the lineup? If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out after the cover.

No one can doubt that the wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. No one can doubt that cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge must lead to freedom of the mind and freedom of the soul.

—President John F. Kennedy, from a speech at University of California, March 23, 1962

In a world gone wrong, heroes and villains are not always easy to distinguish and every individual has the ability to contribute something powerful.

In this stunning collection of original and rediscovered stories of tragedy and hope, the stars are a diverse group of students, street kids, good girls, kidnappers, and child laborers pitted against their environments, their governments, differing cultures, and sometimes one another as they seek answers in their dystopian worlds. Take a journey through time from a nuclear nightmare of the past to society’s far future beyond Earth with these eleven stories by masters of speculative fiction. Includes stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, K. Tempest Bradford, Rahul Kanakia, Rajan Khanna, Ursula K. Le Guin, Ken Liu, Malinda Lo, Ellen Oh, Cindy Pon, Greg Van Eekhout, and Daniel H. Wilson. Edited by Tobias Buckell and Joe Monti.

Originally published at Stacy Whitman's Grimoire. You can comment here or there.

Danger UXB . DVD; 13 Episodes. Copy from library.

The Plot:

It's World War II; setting, Great Britain.
The good news? Brian Ash, you are now an officer!
The bad news? Brian Ash, you've been assigned to the bomb disposal unit!

The Good:

I remember watching this on TV in the early 80s. Sigh... Anthony Andrews. I was totally in love with him in Brideshead Revisited. And yes, was inspired to read the book & loved it (yeah, I was that annoying girl in high school. No wonder I didn't date much.) And remember him in Ivanhoe? And when he dated Julie?

Brideshead has one of my favorite quotes, ever:

"But, my dear Sebastian, you can't seriously believe it all."
"Can't I?"
"I mean about Christmas and the star and the three kings and the ox and the ass."
"Oh yes, I believe that. It's a lovely idea."
"But you can't believe things because they're a lovely idea."
"But I do. That's how I believe."

Right, Danger UXB. Topic.

Danger UXB follows Ash's journey, from being scared of the bombs to realizing this is the thing he does best. OK, let me explain: WWII, Germans are dropping bombs, including bombs that don't go off on impact. So Ash & his crew go around finding and defusing the unexploded bombs (hence the "UXB"). Except, of course, defusing requires trial and error (BOOM) and sometimes there are booby traps (BOOM) and not much is left of a person after that. So Ash's job has a short life expectancy.

Danger UXB follows Ash, and the members of his squad; it also provides a glimpse of life in Britain during World War II.

This show was originally produced in Britain in 1979; and is a great example of why a true mini series is often the best way to tell a story. It's 13 episodes, set over a few years. I adore that it didn't go on needlessly, just to create more episodes. I love that it's tightly plotted, with months passing between episodes.

Also good: that a story must be told in more than two or four hours -- hence a series -- but without it being looked at as a cash cow (it must be 100 hours!) I truly believe that some stories are best told when the writers, and actors, know how and when it will end. I would LOVE to see more real mini series. And no, a four hour show broadcast over 2 nights doesn't count.

Anyway. Topic.

Danger UXB: watch it. You'll like it. We'll be arguing over Anthony Andrews as our TV boyfriend. And did I mention Judy Geeson is in it? Don't even get me started on the awesomeness that is Poldark!