Addicted to SF and Fantasy

[Nancy Fulda]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Her short stories (which are all I've read so far) are excellent. When I'm buying ebooks again, her stuff will be near the top of my list, although I do prefer collections to individual short stories for convenience in handling (it's easier to do things with one file than a dozen).

Thanks so much for the kind words, pdurrant!

Yeah, I prefer longer books, too. I've had a couple of people ask me to put out a second collection. Hoping to get to that later this year, if real life will stop intervening!

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody! I already feel right at home

>>Well, books we enjoy reading, of course!

Ah, if only it were so easy.... I've noticed there's a bit of a disconnect between writers and readers. I was astonished by reader responses to my SF collection, for example. "Blue Ink" was far and away the readers' favorite... and for years I've been thinking it was rather weak. In fact, I almost didn't put it in the anthology at all. Strange world we live in.

Hey, it wasn't MY favorite!!! I liked Dead Men and Backlash Waaaaay better. Way better. Just because Blue Ink leaves a huge lasting scar, I mean, Impression, doesn't mean it's the *best* story.

Welcome aboard. It's really great to see you here!!!

[Nancy Fulda]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

Hey, it wasn't MY favorite!!! I liked Dead Men and Backlash Waaaaay better. Way better. Just because Blue Ink leaves a huge lasting scar, I mean, Impression, doesn't mean it's the *best* story.

Welcome aboard. It's really great to see you here!!!

Lol! Okay, I take it back. It wasn't the hands down favorite. It was just the most traumatizing

Personally, I think Backlash is the best in the book. Although the next collection's going to be even better. "In the Halls of the Sky-Palace" and "Movement" are both at least as strong as Backlash, and I've got rights reversion on both of them by now.

[lestatar]

Gosh, ain't the internets great? So cool to interact with actual published authors.

Gotta love tech sometimes

[Nancy Fulda]

Originally Posted by lestatar

Gosh, ain't the internets great? So cool to interact with actual published authors.

Gotta love tech sometimes

See, and here I was thinking: Isn't this awesome? I found a place to talk to actual READERS.

I agree. Technology is simply the best.

[Nancy Fulda]

I'm not sure where to post this, so I'll just put it here.

I'm writing a short story set at the Large Hadron Collider. Do we have anyone on MR who's been on-site at the Collider, or has had a research project run there? I'd love to swap a couple of PMs and make sure I've got my facts straight...

[Darqref]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

I'm not sure where to post this, so I'll just put it here.

I'm writing a short story set at the Large Hadron Collider. Do we have anyone on MR who's been on-site at the Collider, or has had a research project run there? I'd love to swap a couple of PMs and make sure I've got my facts straight...

Hmm. Have you read "Einstein's Bridge" by John Cramer? set in (what should have been) the SuperCollider in Texas. Cramer would have been involved in both design and operation had it actually have been built. I also like his first novel, "Twistor", which makes holes in the University of Washington campus. (I managed to escape UW without taking a physics course from Dr Cramer, but only because the stupid admin kept putting me back in a different section.)

Einstein's Bridge describes the SCSC design pretty well.

[Nancy Fulda]

Interesting. I'll check it out.

Incidentally, is this him? (And if so, is he nice? I'm thinking I might just call him up and see if he can recommend a good information source...)

[Cornelious]

Hi Nancy,

I am Dwayne Ladd a writer, I write fantasy and syfy also.

[Darqref]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Interesting. I'll check it out.

Incidentally, is this him? (And if so, is he nice? I'm thinking I might just call him up and see if he can recommend a good information source...)

Yep, that's him. Last year he gave a panel at NorWesCon about an experiment that seemed to show data being transmitted faster that light. (But there are details that imply you can't send *information* that way....)

I always thought he was both nice and informative. But I wasn't a physics major.....

[Nancy Fulda]

Well, the good news is I found a theoretical physicist on another forum, so I won't have to cold-call John Cramer. (I'm sure he's nice. I just hate dropping in to ask people for information out of the blue.)

The bad news is that the details in my work-in-progress are way (WAY!) off base. Turns out, the LHC doesn't allow for small, independent research groups, so I've now got to somehow fit my protagonists and their jaw-dropping research results into one of the multinational research projects currently underway at CERN. And I've got to explain, disambiguate and justify all of that succintly enough to keep it from overpowering everything else in a 2000-word story.

See? This is why I generally stick to distant planets and alternate realities. It's so much easier to just make stuff up...

[lestatar]

lol...! Well, you could always up the word count, Nancy.

From wikipedia:
"...Other definitions place the maximum word count at anywhere from 7,000 to 9,000 words...."

[Nancy Fulda]

Actually, it's technically overlength as it is. It was supposed to be flash fiction and clock in at 1000 words. I'm not sure how pleased the editor will be at the current length, honestly.

Of course, I could always expand this one and write a different flash piece to fulfill my commitments. But I don't really feel like starting over from scratch.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Well, the good news is I found a theoretical physicist on another forum, so I won't have to cold-call John Cramer. (I'm sure he's nice. I just hate dropping in to ask people for information out of the blue.)

The bad news is that the details in my work-in-progress are way (WAY!) off base. Turns out, the LHC doesn't allow for small, independent research groups, so I've now got to somehow fit my protagonists and their jaw-dropping research results into one of the multinational research projects currently underway at CERN. And I've got to explain, disambiguate and justify all of that succintly enough to keep it from overpowering everything else in a 2000-word story.

See? This is why I generally stick to distant planets and alternate realities. It's so much easier to just make stuff up...

Does their work have to be at CERN? I heard a fascinating little radio program about a research place called the Diamond Light Source, a UK-based synchrotron which generates high intensity light beams (up to X-Rays) for research projects. A small independent team could certainly do work there.

http://www.diamond.ac.uk/

Obviously, we're talking much lower energies, but...

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Actually, it's technically overlength as it is. It was supposed to be flash fiction and clock in at 1000 words. I'm not sure how pleased the editor will be at the current length, honestly.

Of course, I could always expand this one and write a different flash piece to fulfill my commitments. But I don't really feel like starting over from scratch.

Ugh. I have a really hard time writing stories under 4000. I've only managed it a few times and then only sold...two? I just don't like writing them well enough to keep at it. I'm a novella and novel-length writer at heart. (Although my work is always better after CUTTING when I get to the end of that process.)

Good luck. Try not to blow anything up and NO home experimenting!