thoughts and opinions by author s. andrew swann
S Andrew Swann | March 1, 2010
Another quick tip while I’m buried in the middle of this novel:
Tropes and clichés are a great tool with which to surprise your reader. Wait, you might say, how can you possibly surprise the reader with a cliché? Well what exactly is a cliché? It is a situation that’s so familiar that the [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 26, 2010
Plot’s one of my strong points as a writer. That’s brought home to me when I see reviews saying that the Apotheosis Trilogy is “tightly plotted.” To my POV that is amusing because it (and its predecessor, Hostile Takeover) are, for me at least, vast sprawling shaggy dog stories that throw in just about everything [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 17, 2010
I09 led me to a post by Ian Sales about the dreaded Info Dump:
Unless the writer has chosen to use an outsider as a protagonist – a common trick in fantasy, but much less so in science fiction – the only way the reader is going to learn anything about the world of the story [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 3, 2010
Today I’ve a guest blog post up @ SciFiGuy.ca wherein I go and mull over my current obsessions on religion and space opera in the Apotheosis Trilogy.
Can you write SF about religion? It’s an interesting question because when people tend to think of Religion and SF, it almost always in terms of opposition. It is [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 2, 2010
Zoe doesn’t seem too impressed, but it may be because she can’t read.
If you want to buy it on-line, but you’re pissed at Amazon’s antics of late, you can buy it here. Or here.
S Andrew Swann | February 1, 2010
I recently read a rather interesting sfnal riff on Obama’s state of the union speech, based on an administration reference to a “New Foundation”:
But I recall reading here or somewhere that Paul Krugman and several other leading economic and legal academic-policymakers had come to their professions wanting to be … Hari Seldon. Deeply attracted to [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 27, 2010
Well finally got to updating the counters for the WIP. And I am now feeling the main issue that faces every writer with a day job, time. There just isn’t enough of it. Once you take time for commuting, writing, taking care of the animals and the day job itself, there’s barely a couple hours [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 18, 2010
In case you hadn’t seen me twitter about this or posting on Facebook, the shortlist for the 2009 Phillip K. Dick awards were announced, and Prophets is on the list!
Here’s the press release:
Philip K. Dick Awards
c/o 153 Deerfield Lane
Pleasantville, NY 10570
(914) 769-5545
http://www.philipkdickaward.org
January 16, 2010
For Immediate Release
2009 Philip K. Dick Award Nominees Announced [...]
S Andrew Swann | January 6, 2010
I’m currently working on Messiah, which is not only the last volume of the Apotheosis Trilogy, it is also quite possibly going to be the capstone on my entire Moreau/Hostile Takeover universe. I won’t say it will be the last book in that universe (never say never) but it is likely to be the last [...]
S Andrew Swann | December 30, 2009
Someone has again scratched a pet peeve of mine, that old pseudo-literary bugbear “relevance.” As in, SF is losing it, and it better get some quick or else be declared “irrelevant.” This is a bit of an oversimplification of the essay by Jetse de Vries, Should SF Die? But it pretty much encapsulates my problem [...]
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