ISFDB – A Cool Sci-Fi Resource

I was looking around the net the other day, hoping to find a reference on an old science fiction story I remembered reading years ago, when I came across an interesting resource, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database (http://www.isfdb.org/).

I won’t do yet another Doug list here, I promise, but there is a lot to explore on the site. One of my favorite features, and the one that triggered my Google hunt hit in the first place, was the Author Directory (http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/directory.cgi). Accessible via a straightforward graphical alpha index, the directory contains hundreds of names, with links to detailed entries for some of my favorites, and skeletal ones for others.

Additional features include publisher lists, links to recent and upcoming books, and magazine lists. By looking over their author birthday listing, I even discovered that Alice Cooper, one of my favorite rockers, is also a speculative fiction author. Who knew?

What pushed me over the edge to near worship was the ISFDB’s own page of lists (http://www.isfdb.org/wiki/index.php/ISFDB_Lists), with topics like these:

• Annual Page Views
• Most Reviewed Books
• Author Communities
• Awards

What’s more, on their page of lists is a link to a list of Top 100 Lists (http://www.isfdb.org/top100.html). Yes, it is a list of lists of lists! With this much list candy, I could well become a Listopheliac.

All this content is wonderful, but the site is still a Wiki. I say “but” and "still" only to emphasize that as a Wiki, it is fed, clothed, and supported by speculative fiction lovers like you. Wikis have their gaps, their inaccuracies, and their broken links, and the ISFDB is no exception. But Wikis are wondrous information organisms. I find this site especially wondrous, devoted as it is to the genres, with so many people working together to preserve their history and promote their future.

Go check it out. And if you have a useful tidbit of information to add or see a data gap you can fill, you might even consider lending a hand. No marathon PBS-style bid for pledges here, just a bit of gentle encouragement for you to contribute content or support at some point in the future. The science fiction history you help to preserve may be your own.

D. E. Helbling

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Why do I read more male SF writers?

I've been wrestling with an interesting dichotomy for a while. I'm hoping to stir some good non-healthcare related debate here. I belong to an organization which has as its sole purpose, the advancement of female-written speculative fiction, Broad Universe. I love my club. I have participated in it on many levels throughout the three years or so I've been a member.

Here's my problem. I'm an advocate of women writing speculative fiction because, well, I'm a woman, and more importantly, a woman who writes speculative fiction. But if I'm such an advocate, why do I read novels by men far more than those written by women?

Perhaps it's because I know I won't get any romance in my science fiction. Mind you, when I find romance, I get sucked in like any other warm-blooded female, but afterward, I feel cheated. I chose the book because it promised science fiction or fantasy. And I'm not your typical female. I don't like to shop. I don't like attending baby and bridal showers and Tupperware parties.

We know that men and women think and act differently, overall. Why assume that they will write the same? There have been a few women writers whom I've read that have managed to write a good story without the romance derailing the plot, but it seems like they are few and far between. When men do throw romance in, it's more like how I shop: get in, get out, go back to more important tasks. When men—and the few women who can pull it off like men do—write romance, they do it to add an additional layer to the plot, not to drive it. And when they don't throw in romance, I don't miss it.

From the beginning, when I first started writing science fiction, I assumed that men would comprise the majority of my audience. I thought, and still do, that more men read science fiction than women. That may not be true of fantasy. But I prefer science fiction with a few very special exceptions. Like I said, I'm not your typical female. I have always gravitated to the male conversation at a party. I don't want to talk about diets, shopping and fashion. Maybe it's not just the romance at all. Maybe it's because I prefer talking with men, so I prefer reading from their perspective.

Women are inherently more concerned with relationships. We have to be. We have historically been the ones nurturing the children. It's how we (well, most of us) were made. If you're a female spec-fic author, is it a constant struggle for you to write for a male or mixed audience and keep the romance at bay?

Or could it be that I read more male writers because the women aren't getting the same exposure? Many of the male writers I read are well-established, not an unknown quantity. Are there fewer women writing science fiction? Are there fewer of them getting published?

I want to hear from you. Tell me there are plenty of women who can write without including romance. And please, oh please, tell me who they are. Tell me I'm an unromantic cold-hearted woman. (I love romance out in the real world, by the way.) Or tell me you know what I mean. But don't be silent. Let the discussion begin!

PS – Tomorrow, an interview with a speculative fiction writer. ;)




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Finally Friday, but good things comin'

Finally Friday. It's been a crazy week and I took the whole week off from writing (aside from the day job as a trade journal staff writer). The weekend will be devoted to a rewrite of a flash piece requested by an ezine and finishing another SF story I've been working on. In between I'll be dealing with online forms, Quicken and other assorted tasks I'll have to do on the Mac in the hot office upstairs unless I can figure out how to get my Apple Airport working again after replacing the modem.

Saw Ingrid Michaelson perform at Latitude last Friday. What a talent! And excellent stage presence! She's really funny. And she plays the ukulele. Is that great or what?

So, have I had my head in the sand? Did everybody know about this but me? Well, maybe left coast folks are just now finding it? I found it on LinkedIn. Oh, I suppose you want to know what "it" is. Isn't it annoying how I do that? I like suspense. There's a SF TV talk show that airs in DC but is available online. It's called Fast Forward: Comtemporary Science Fiction.

I have some more great interviews coming up. I just added Jasper Fforde to the line up. :) And Michael Hanlon, science editor for the Daily Mail and author of Eternity: Our Next Billion Years.

And I have some ladies coming up: Juliette Wade, Jennifer Brozek and Cat Rambo.

Because I "see" my novels...because I vomit dialog...because I dream like I'm in a movie...because I've been meaning to write some screenplays...I'm soooo considering going to the Northern California Screenwriter's Expo and Pitchfest. I have a time share next door to the venue in Napa. Very, very tempting. See my smiling profile face to the right? That was on vacation there. See how happy I'd be? I just found out about it this week, from a social networking site, I think. Like I keep saying - social networking pays off.










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