Ray Tabler's Blog

Was signing copies of A Grand Imperial War at the American Library Association annual conference on Sunday. Pleasantly surprised to find actual, factual fans waiting in line for me before the start time. Thank you. That means a lot. Also surprised to learn that publishers attending the ALA will literally shove free books into the hands of passing librarians, in hopes that they will go home and order more. Picked up a few free books which bounced off of distracted librarians. But I had to control myself. Only so much room in my suitcase. And my wife would’ve been upset had I abandoned clothing to fit more books. Foolish woman!
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by Ray Tabler
Executive Summary
You’re busy, so here’s the main points of this essay, laid out and best understood by reference to the accompanying diagram. Science fiction and fantasy both shelter under the umbrella of speculative fiction. Which encompasses even crazier stuff than you typically find in the fiction section. Both science fiction and fantasy utilize settings and situations which are questionable, if not demonstrably, false. But we don’t let that spoil the fun. The main difference between the two is that science fiction employs some or all of (often technology-based) features (space/time travel, robots, etc...). Fantasy, in contrast, must contain some supernatural element to be considered fantasy. No Sci-Fi element, no Sci-Fi. No supernatural, no fantasy. Logicians will point out that, logically, there may be overlap; items which fall in both categories. And, indeed there are. The, arguably bloated, intersection of Sci-Fi and fantasy has been labeled as Science Fantasy. Examples are plotted and labeled in the diagram, and listed below.
That’s it, in a nutshell. Perhaps it might overflow a walnut shell, but would certainly rattle around in a coconut husk. Explanations, caveats, exceptions, excursions, digressions, and weasel words are stitched to the page(s) below, and troweled into the gaps. Agreements, disagreements, complaints, and quibbles are welcome. That’s what the comments section is for. You don’t have to read any farther, but please do. I’ve thoughtfully arranged plenty of rant fuel for you in an aesthetically pleasing pattern.
What Is and Isn’t Science Fiction?
Please refer to the accompanying diagram. It illustrates what seems to me to be the essential difference between science fiction and fantasy. That difference isn’t each what genre is, but what it isn’t. Because they aren’t mutually exclusive. There’s a big, fat area of overlap, which I have labeled Science Fantasy.
In order to be science fiction, a story must contain one or more science fiction element. Those elements are numerous; space/time travel, robots, extrapolated real world trends, alternate universes, impact of new technologies, etc... There are simply too many science fiction elements to list here. And if I did, someone would come up with more of them.
What will flush a book, story, film, or TV show out of the science fiction crescent is more than a faint whiff of a supernatural element. There’s a dead giveaway in the name; science fiction. At the risk of triggering religious people or non-religious people (possibly both at once), science doesn’t really have a lot to say about religion. At least it shouldn’t, strictly speaking. Science is supposed to deal in facts and data. Reliable facts and data with regard to the supernatural (ghosts, magic, or pick-a-God-any-God) are particularly hard to come by. Atheists might argue that means God’s not there, but there is no proof of his absence. Just as there is no proof of his existence. C.S. Lewis, a staunch Catholic, contended that God set it up that way intentionally. So that each of us, in the solitude of our own hearts, would have to decide to believe or not without benefit of proof.
Simply put, science fiction ignores the supernatural as a part of the universe. This universe or any alternate universes. If some phenomena normally associated with the supernatural is present in a science fiction story, it had darn well better be explained away as some part of the natural world which we don’t yet understand. That might include mental powers (ESP or telekinesis), an ability to predict or control events (time travel or quantum effects), or God-like abilities (trans-dimensional or highly advanced beings).
That said, you can have spiritual people (meaning believers in a given religion or supernatural influences) in a science fiction story, just as we have spiritual people in real life. They can expound their beliefs. Those views can (must) influence their actions just as much as in real life. However, the author cannot overtly confirm any supernatural element, which can’t be explained away by some conventional means (however far-fetched). The author can overtly signal the absence of the supernatural and still reside comfortably within science fiction. It’s not symmetrical, but that’s how it works.
What Is and Isn’t Fantasy?
The price of admission to the Fantasy crescent is simple; some supernatural element. That element might be gods, ghosts, magic, fantastical creatures and beings, or any combination of these or other items. What banishes a story from the fantasy crescent is the smallest hint of the science fiction elements mentioned above. No robots in Middle Earth. No zeppelins above Westeros. No aliens in Narnia. This may seem like an arbitrary constraint, but it’s important. Fantasy stands apart from the real world. Science fiction is, in many ways, a logical extrapolation from reality.
The Messy Middle
And so, we come to science fantasy, that which contains characteristics of both science fiction and fantasy. It is, at first, surprising that two genres with opposing viewpoints can produce such a richly-populated hybrid category. Science fiction is chained to reality, regardless the amount of handwavium required to allow faster-than-light or time travel. With hard science fiction those chains are forged of the strongest alloy steel. As we wander into soft science fiction, toward science fantasy, those chains transform into less durable materials. In fact, they might be made of cheap plastic. Fantasy rejects reality, and substitutes a more pleasing set of universal laws. Science fantasy says, “why can’t we just have both?”
Science Fiction – Examples
It’s informative to list some specimens of science fiction books/movies/shows, to delineate why they fall in that slice of the diagram. The process will then be repeat for fantasy, and science fantasy.
• Star Trek – Star Trek is, arguably, the most popular science fiction franchise in existence. And you will get argument about that. Star Trek is unquestionably science fiction, not science fantasy. While there have been characters in the many books shows, and movies of Star Trek who were religious or spiritual, there are no supernatural elements involved. One movie even revolved around a quest to find God. (Spoiler alert) Who turned out to be an alien, and a rather grumpy one at that. Some of the characters in Star Trek have psychic abilities. But those are genetically evolved talents, which simply tapped into [insert technical term here] particles flowing through the [insert technical term here] subspace continuum.
• Interstellar – This movie is probably one of the most technically accurate science fiction film of recent times. Except for the mysterious wormhole, conveniently hovering at the edge of the solar system, and the enigmatic super-advanced beings who (spoiler alert) rescue the main character from a black hole near the end. Well, they did have to move the plot along, and who cares about a little ET ex machina when you’re trapped below the event horizon?
• Alien(s) – Unexpectedly, the Alien movies (at least the first three of them) are even more technically accurate that Interstellar. There’s no faster-than-light travel, which is used to dramatic advantage when exploring the effects on the relationship between Ripley and her daughter. Consequently, Alien(s) is not just science fiction, but hard science fiction at that.
• Dragon Riders of Pern – This is a series of novels which employs people riding honest-to-God flying dragons. But, it’s still science fiction, not fantasy. Because, the dragons are just beasts on another planet, who really, really look and behave like dragons. The human colonists on this planet ride the flying dragons to destroy invasive probes from a planet in the same solar system, when it periodically orbits close enough to make the jump across the intervening space.
• Wild Wild West – This story was a TV show (and then a movie) following a pair of secret agents in the later 1800s. They utilized what was, for the time of the setting, advanced technology. That wrinkle paints Wild Wild West as science fiction, technically steam punk (before steam punk was formally a sub-genre). An argument can be made that Wild Wild West is historical fiction or alternate history.
• Jules Verne – Two Jules Verne novels are plotted on the diagram; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Master of the World. These stories highlight a unique feature of science fiction. There is a constant, slow bleed of science fiction into reality. That is, given enough time, any science fiction story has a good chance of coming true. Or, at least a portion of it. This shouldn’t be surprising, because science fiction is chained to reality. As the human race advances, and learns more about the universe, we will inevitably drag science fiction stories into actual existence. 20,000 Leagues is about a submarine, an infant technology at the time. Master of the World (two books, and later a movie) warns of flying machines capable of raining destruction from the skies. Both predictions came true over the course of the 20th century. However, at the time of writing, these technologies were brand, spanking new, or nonexistent.
• 1984 – New technologies are not strictly required to tell a science fiction yarn. 1984 is George Orwell’s cautionary tale of totalitarianism run amok. (Even more amok than it already has.) Ironically, Orwell was an avowed socialist. He was trying to warn of the perversion of his beliefs to serve tyrants. The only advanced technology in 1984 which wasn’t in use at the time it was written are the TV sets which Big Brother uses to watch people who are watching TV. That capability is now widespread in our world today. People willingly pay to have such smart TVs in their homes. In fact, we’ve gone big brother one better. We carry smart phones with us everywhere, to listen in on our conversations. Of course, the real-life Big Brother is only using all of this information to sell us (more) stuff...So far.
Historical Fiction Verses Alternate History
Lurking at the bottom right corner of the diagram is the historical fiction bubble. Historical fiction, like the Sharpe Series, or the Three Musketeers, employs actual historical events as a setting, spinning tales within, but not changing, recorded history. It’s debatable whether Wild Wild West should be classified as science fiction (which has migrated into reality) or as historical fiction. 1984 might be in the process of becoming reality (heaven forbid!).
20,000 Leagues and Master of the World, however, changed recorded history (in the story), and, as such, can no longer be historical fiction (or even predictive fiction like 1984). They have migrated into the science fiction sub-genre of alternate history. Prominent examples are Man in the High Castle, and The Two Georges. Such stories rely upon a point of departure from our timeline at some point in the past, and are a first cousin to time travel tales.
Fantasy – Examples
• Lord of the Rings – Tolkien was, to start with, just trying to entertain his kids with an interesting bed-time story. That eventually blossomed into a billion-dollar franchise and changed fantasy forever. Every fantasy tale is measured against LOTR, whether anyone admits it or not. It’s the gold standard. LOTR is set in some other world, universe, or dimension. Bit Middle Earth didn’t branch off of our reality. It just is. There’s magic, gods, “demons,” and other fantastical creatures. It is fantasy. There is a small, possibly science fiction, wrinkle to a part of the story. (spoiler alert) A bad wizard uses what could be gunpowder to breach the wall of a fortress. Readers have elected to ignore this. So, LOTR remains fantasy.
• The Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis and Tolkien were drinking buddies. Both were professors at Oxford, and had a standing weekly appointment at a local pub for decades. Lewis’s fantasy world of Narnia is similar to Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but people from Earth travel to Narnia, and back. The supernatural is definitely, overtly a player in this tale. In fact, God is arguably one of the characters.
• Outlander – This series of books (and a TV show) dances provocatively along the dividing line between fantasy and science fantasy. Time travel is at its core. The main character (and some members of her family) travel back and forth between modern times, and the 18th century. That alone should peg it as science fiction or science fantasy. But, the method of time travel employed is witches’ magic. It’s a judgement call, but Outlander feels like fantasy to me.
• Game of Thrones – Another line-crosser, here. Game of Thrones is, for most of the story, definitely fantasy. It offers magic, witches, active gods, zombies, and flying, fire-breathing dragons. But Game of Thrones doesn’t start out that way. In the beginning, there’s no magic in this world. People live a hum-drum, almost squalid, medieval existence. Legends claim there was once magic in Westeros, but no one believes in it anymore. This is what’s called a mundane, created-world. It’s not our reality, but there’s no magic. A created world can’t be fantasy because there are no supernatural elements. At least by the definition advanced here. An example of a created world is David Gemmell’s Legend novels, which he writes with very little to no magic. Created worlds are a much-ignored genre. Probably because it takes a really good author to keep the story interesting without magic. As for Game of Thrones, (spoiler alert) the “good” guys eventually defeat the evil zombies. Then a surprising thing happens. The magic needed to fight the zombies slowly fades from the story, like wine leaking out of a cracked bottle, and the last surviving dragon flies away. Westeros sinks back into ordinariness. The magic slumbers until it’s needed again. At least, that’s what happens in the TV show. The books aren’t finished yet.
Science Fantasy – Examples
• Star Wars – Star Wars rivals Star Trek in popularity. They provide the perfect pair for comparing science fiction and science fantasy. Both are space operas with galactic sweep (albeit, in different galaxies). Star Trek is squeaky clean of supernatural elements. Star Wars, in contrast, has just enough supernatural to keep it from being science fiction. I refer to “The Force,” a mysterious power which binds all things together. (Like gravity, if some people had more of it than others.) The force is the basis of the Jedi and Sith beliefs. At one point, Han Solo even calls it a “...hokey religion...” Then, the Jedi, and the Sith, demonstrate that the Force is real (in this story). Which is fine. But that aspect of the story dictates that Star Wars is science fantasy, not science fiction. In one of the prequel movies, there is some dialog explaining the Force by concentrations of microscopic beings called “midi-chlorians.” I regard this as a half-hearted, and futile attempt to drag Star Wars closer to science fiction. Nice try. But Star Wars is firmly rooted in the bedrock of science fantasy. In my humble opinion.
• Dune – Frank Herbert’s Dune books also might be mistaken for science fiction at first glance. Dune offers space travel, alien creatures, and advanced technology. But the story revolves around the mysterious, spiritual powers which the main character, the result of thousands of years of selective breeding, awakens through drugs. He can read minds, and see the future, and probably a few other things I forget at the moment. Paul’s abilities start there and get stranger as the novels go on. You could contend that Dune is still chained to reality, and therefore science fiction. But that chain is mighty long.
• Barsoom – Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom stories are set on another planet, Mars. But the method of travel to Mars is supernatural in nature. That makes them science fantasy, if nothing else does. Additionally, we now have proof that Mars is actually a near-airless, barren spot, not really suitable for sword fighting while naked. But Burroughs didn’t know that at the time.
• The Space Trilogy (CS Lewis) – Not satisfied with merely writing fantasy, and philosophical tracts, (and maybe covetous of Tolkien’s royalties) CS Lewis also wrote what he called science fiction. The Space Trilogy is heavy with Christian allegory. Which locates it in the science fantasy sector. I would be remiss in not also mentioning the His Dark Materials series, which Phillip Pullman wrote as a direct and intentional rebuttal to Lewis’s work. Dark Materials would also be in the diagram, but I was running out of room. God is a charadter in Dark Materials but (spoiler alert) he tuns out to be a (sort of) alien. There are enough other supernatiural elements in Dark Materials to make it science fantasy, in my view.
• The Stand – This Stephen King book and TV show qualifies as science fantasy because it contains both science fiction elements (lethal global pandemic) and supernatural elements (divine intervention). When it was written, global pandemics were pure science fiction. Another example of that constant, slow bleed of science fiction into reality. Divine intervention hasn’t manifested in the real world so far...as far as I know.
Horror
Is horror fantasy, science fiction, or science fantasy? Yes. That is, it can be any of the three. Or, it can be something else, altogether. The Alien and Frankenstein movies are horror and science fiction. Pick any vampire book or movie, and that’s fantasy. Vampires in space: science fantasy horror. Unless the vampires are simply blood-sucking aliens. In which case it’s horror science fiction. Clear?
The thing is, though, horror doesn’t need science fiction or fantasy to be horror. Think Silence of the Lambs, or Texas Chainsaw Massacres, or And Then there Were None. I intentionally excluded horror from the above diagram for two reasons. First, that would make it too complicated. You might have to add a third dimension, horror jumping out of the page at you. Wouldn’t that be appropriate? Second, I don’t enjoy horror as a genre. That’s not a value judgement. It just doesn’t turn my crank, and, consequently, I haven’t read or watched enough of it to render an informed opinion. So, I’ll leave adding horror to the diagram as an exercise for the interested reader. Have fun with that!
Non-Executive Summary
This essay has been my attempt to plot the fantasy and science fiction genres in some coherent fashion, and provide a framework so that the difference between them can be understood. It is intended to provide an overview and roadmap for sorting science fiction from fantasy. There are numerous examples I could have included but didn’t. This isn’t meant to be comprehensive, just illustrative. If you want to add more stories, or move the ones I included about, disagreeing with their placement, go right ahead. Please use, abuse, modify, and recast at will. Discussion and dissent are welcome and encouraged. I employed PowerPoint to construct the diagram simply because proficiency with Microsoft Office is a survival skill for inmates and escapees of the corporate gulags. Other software is perfectly acceptable. Use crayons on paper bags, if you want.
The tone of this essay is irreverent, and I may have ineptly trod upon toes while trying to be funny. That was not my intention. Being mean is simply bad manners, and I humbly apologize if I callously made fun of your favorite franchise.
I have no doubt that Olympic-sized swimming pools of ink have been printed on square-miles of dead trees regarding this subject already. Or, countless electrons forcibly marshalled into legible patterns, if you prefer. I may have accidently (and unwittingly) restated the opinions of others in the process. If so, I ask for forgiveness. As my wife sometimes observes, I don’t know everything. And she is correct.

Here’s a snippet from the first chapter of my stand alone novel, Fool's Paradise. It’s the tale of an interstellar freelance operative, who is hired to retrieve something of value from a planet which has descended into chaos. Before long, he figures out the job is going to be a lot more complicated than anticipated.

Chapter One – Insertion

There are times and places for reckless fools like me. There always have been, there always will be. Granted, they are often not pleasant times and places. That’s why people come looking for me, or someone like me, and pay so well. I was in one of those places again.

I almost believed a giant hand grasped my CTI capsule and tried to shake me out through a rock wall. The atmosphere of Hemica held little regard for objects that dared to barge their way in at trans-orbital velocity. I would have much preferred a more civilized method of arrival but it was of no apparent concern to the upper reaches of the planet. I knew the reception wouldn’t improve as the air thickened.

CTI stands for covert trans-orbital insertion, its existence a closely held secret that proved useful in getting me to Hemica. I would love to be left alone with the sadistic genius who designed it, a modest selection of sharp surgical tools close to hand.

The display on my pressure suit faceplate declared my altitude to be just below 80,000 meters. The air outside began to sing a high-pitched aria in counterpoint to the kettle drum pounding of the capsule as it crashed through random updrafts of denser air. It wouldn’t be long now.

An agent who wants to arrive with little notice might use a false identity and buy a ticket on a starliner. It’s the least expensive and most often used method. Costlier but faster is a cloaked ship to a remote location.

There are situations which render these techniques problematic. Some planets are suspicious of, or even closed to, visitors. Others possess the sophistication to detect even the best-cloaked ships and enough paranoia to scan for them non-stop. The answer is to hide in plain sight. If I can’t sneak in, I arrive in a spectacular manner disguised as something else.

Step one: procure a suitable asteroid, three to four meters long and one to two meters through the middle. Step two: cut it in half, hollow out a cavity for the CTI. Step three: insert the CTI, one suicidal fool enclosed within, seal the asteroid, and send it on its way.

It’s more complicated than that. I had to select an asteroid that was going my way, in case the planetary government bothers to track the asteroids in its system. It had to be one small enough to not be deemed a threat, or some minor bureaucrat is likely to order it destroyed before it gets too close.

At 40,000 meters altitude, the braking rocket fired in random staccato bursts, designed to slow the capsule while disguised as pockets of gasses igniting as layers of the meteorite ablated away. To conform to that image, the course of the rock jumped around, which added to my already considerable discomfort.

I’d reflected on the haste with which I’d accepted the job, between the moment a plasma welder had sealed the asteroid around me and when I felt the first caress of Hemica’s stratosphere. There’s not much else to do in a CTI capsule. Of course, I would’ve reflected even if I’d been delivered to Hemica in a luxury yacht.

As a break from deep thoughts, I composed bad haiku. One of them went:

Dark wandering stone

Hollow but full of secrets

Seek your destiny…

If you’d like to read more, Fool’s Paradise is available here: https://novusmundibooks.com/product/f...
My other work can be found here: Ray Tabler

I have a serious problem, with revolting characters.

Upon starting to write fiction, I discovered that there are several different ways to plan out a story. The most logical is just that. Write down an outline of how the tale will unfold, then fill in the details. At the other end of the spectrum is what’s called the “discovery” method. Which just means the author starts typing without much of an idea of what will come next.

Outliners are colloquially known as “planners”. Discovery writers wear the titles of “pantsers.” Which refers to flying by the seat of your pants, not the recently dank (and unlamented) middle school prank of unexpectedly pulling someone’s pants down in public. If you employ some combination of the two, you’re a “plantser.” I didn’t make these terms up, and I wish no one else had. But we’re apparently stuck with them.

Hi, my name is Ray. And I’m a pantser. I’ve tried to outline, and, so far, it hasn’t worked for me. Outlining is drudgery, in my humble, ignorant opinion. Discovery writing seems like surfing an endless wave. Maybe it’s not always a perfect wave, but she is fun. However, there is one fly in the ointment, one cloud in my perfect sky. I have found that typing by the seat of my pants runs the risk of revolying characters. That is, when my characters stage a revolt.

Theoretically, I am in charge of what ends up on the page. Practically, sometimes a fictional character digs in his or her heels, and shouts, NO!

I am not a pure pantser. I do have some idea of where the story is headed. Usually, I have a beginning, and a vague impression of the ending. Which often results in writing the start, and the finish, then working my way to the middle from both ends, much like the Central Pacific and Union Pacific Railroads met at Promontory, Utah. On the way to driving that golden spike, though, any of a number of the nominally imaginary people flowing onto the page can gum up the works quite easily.

There must be some mild form of temporary schizophrenia which afflicts the writer, and allows him to speak with multiple voices and act with disparate wills in the production of a story. Occasionally, things get a little bit out of hand, and the fictional character says, “No, I wouldn’t do that. This is what I’m going to do instead.” I’ve experienced it a number of times in writing six novels. Two notable examples stand out.

My main character and a minor were arguing. Things grew heated. Suddenly, the minor character simply walked out. By the end of the paragraph, I realized with a shock that he wasn’t coming back. I sort of had a tragically ignored voice-of-reason role for him through the rest of the book. The way I’d written him up to that point, he wasn’t the type to stick around for that. His departure caused hardships for the main character, which ironically made for a better story. The minor character did return much later, after his illusions had been shattered by following his principles into trouble. He redeemed himself with sacrifice.

In another work, the main character started of a chapter headed for a break up. She was supposed to decide he wasn’t really boyfriend material, let alone husband material. This was to be precipitated by the harrowing events of the previous chapter. Instead, the two ended up engaged. Halfway through the argument, they realized they belonged together, despite their differences. I had to deal with this twist, but, again, it resulted in a better story.

Do the characters of planners rebel, as well? I couldn’t tell you. All I know is hat sometimes the people in my head stage a revolt. Perhaps I am weak. Maybe I should reach for the imaginary whip and cattle prod to force my characters into the cages I’ve built for them. But usually, I just don’t have the heart. And, so far, that has proven to be the right move. It reminds me of that Shakespeare line. “Treason never prospers. Because if it does, none dare call it treason.”

Waking Writer has been kind enough to interview me about my work. I hope you enjoy;
https://wakingwriter.com/2024/02/26/r...

I will be attending the Labyrinth of ConFusion science fiction convention this coming weekend (1/19-21/24), near Detroit, and have been asked to sit on several panels. One of those panels is titled: The Current State of Short Fiction. Now there are two ways to view this subject, literary and financial. The discussion could go either way. And is likely to go both at once.

A literary discussion is necessarily subjective, and always flirts with devolving into a shouting match. Not that there’s anything wrong with a rousing shouting match. Gets the blood pumping. Still, it’s helpful to have a set of figures to argue over, point to if they support your views, or scoff at if they don’t. I think that’s how debate works.

Along those lines, I decided to do some slipshod online research regarding the state of the short science fiction and fantasy market at present. I am indebted to Richie Billing, who gathered the data on this market on his website. There are other, possibly more extensive, databases available on this subject, but I was only looking for an overview not an exhaustive study. Being a numbers guy, I simply copied and pasted Richie’s information into Excel and made a couple of graphs.

The first graph shows the spectrum of how much an author might expect to get paid for a short story, if anything. There are 10 publications which quantify how much they’ll pay per word for a story (between $0.01-0.08). About 60 others coyly hint that they’ll pay you something (“Paid”), without specifying exactly what that amount might be. Then there’s 16 “Pro”, 8 “Semi-Pro”, and 21 “Token” publications. I strongly suspect there’s a large amount of overlap on a Venn diagram of those 3 terms. Another 7 come right out and admit they can’t afford to pay you one thin dime. The last on the list are 6 places that just won’t say one way or the other.

It looks like there are 136 separate publications listed in this dataset. Frankly, I was surprised to see this many paying, and “paying”, publications still operational. It would be nice if there were more, but I expected just a few forlorn outposts of speculative fiction, hanging on by their fingernails with grim determination. Instead, the market seems to be healthy (by one definition), perhaps even vibrant. As long as you’re not counting on writing to cover the mortgage payment. And, I understand that publications have been going under for the entire history of science fiction and fantasy magazines; print, fanzines, and online. It’s something of a grand tradition. There’s an entire Wikipedia page about them (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...), if you’re curious. Others arise to take their place, because the demand has always been there, and people willing to roll the dice on a new magazine. And God love ’em for that dedication. Even if we are often too cheap to pay much for it.

The truth is that publication in general, and speculative fiction in particular, is a shaky investment. The business seems to be continually in crisis, and most likely is. It’s like show business, but without the glamor. That said, scribblers can’t help but scribble. Not many of us will ever get rich from it. Like that matters.

So, that’s the data. It provides ample justification for declaring the glass half full, or half empty. ¾ full or ¼ empty, for that matter. Let the shouting begin.

Because I love making graphs, below is a chart showing upper word limit versus the number of publications. There seems to be a couple of sweet spots between 1,000 and 10,000 words. That makes sense for print magazines, but probably shouldn’t matter for an online publication. Electrons being much cheaper to print on than dead trees. Especially if you’re paying by the piece and not by the word. But I guess traditions die hard.

Caveats and Weasel Words: Thanks again to Richie Billing for gathering this information and posting it on his website (https://richiebilling.com/writing-too...). I do not know how old this information is, but expect it to be relatively current. The figures given are approximate. I might have miscounted the number of publications in this bin or that, but not by much. Also, I ignored the flash fiction publications listed at the bottom, mainly out of laziness. graphs are viewable here: https://raytabler.com/2024/01/short-s...

I’ll be at the Labyrinth of ConFusion science fiction convention next weekend (1/19-21), Sheraton Detroit Novi Hotel. Speaking on several panels. Reading from one of my books. Look me up and say Hi!
Link to the Con: https://lnkd.in/gfg8mCaw
Link to my schedule: https://lnkd.in/gtYUbYNM

My Speaker’s Sessions

Friday, January 19

5:00pm EST: The current state of short fiction:

Saturday, January 20

10:00am EST: Genre as a Conversation

Sunday, January 21

11:00am EST: Author Reading (Storm Humbert and Ray Tabler)

1:00pm EST : I love the book but dislike the author

Enjoyed attending WindyCon, this past weekend. Met a load of fans, and was on several panels. The 1st one, "Please Note, Post-Apocalyptic Books Have Been Moved to Current Affairs," was a hoot. One thing I noticed was the repeated discussion of the big, scary AI Menace in almost all settings. Not a Luddite (or a Neo-Luddite), but I'm beginning to see what got them upset. 😉
The final panel, Hey Hollywood -Try Reading a Book, was well attended, with a number of knowledgeable fans. Each came with a list of books they'd like to see on the screen (and few they wish hadn't been made into movies). If curious, here's my list, below. They seem to divide into 2 categories, "Visual that would look great on screen) and "Great stories."
Visual:
- Cities In Flight, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
- Orbitsville, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
- Ringworld, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...
Great Stroies
- A Gift From Earth, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
- We Are Legion, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
- Terms of Enlistment, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
- The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
- Glory Road, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
Interesting that there was controversy around Glory Road. Some people hate this book, and some love it.
If curious about Luddites: https://lnkd.in/gyZkjE3Z
visit me at: https://raytabler.com/