Unicorn Mech Suit
Olivia's UMS is a place where SF, horror, and fantasy writers can acquire inspiration, read fascinating articles and super helpful writer stuff.
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My favorite show on TV right now is Star Trek: Lower Decks. I literally have to press pause several times an episode because I'm laughing so hard. The best jokes are always obscure references that make you feel good for being a Trekkie, like when Captain Freeman gets possessed by the evil mask from the TNG episode aptly titled, "Masks" or when a new crew member shares a horror story about being trapped in the board game from Deep Space Nine's "Move Along Home". A part of the joke is that you feel like you're on the inside just for getting it. In fact, if I don't get a joke I'll pause and look it up on my phone immediately. Luckily, on Lower Decks, those moments are somewh…
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For this post, we had a talk with Vanessa Aguirre, an up-and-coming editor at St. Martins. She is looking to publish sharp, commercial stories that make her laugh, cry, and flinch. She has a soft spot for anything SFFH: fantasy, science fiction, horror, speculative, magical realism, and all things in between. ___________________________ INTERVIEWED BY BRIANNA HALL ON BEHALF OF UMS Vanessa, hi. Thanks for the interview. First of all, what do you look for in a debut manuscript before acquiring? VA: Voice, voice, voice! If a book instantly sweeps me away and doesn't let me go, I'm in love. BH: What trends are you seeing in the market right now …
Last reply by Chief Editor M. Neff, -
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For the past year or so, I've been doing a re-watch of every prime timeline movie and episode of Star Trek in Stardate order. I'm currently in the Voyager/ DS9 era. While I'm a die hard Trekkie, something that absolutely drives me bonkers is how inconsistently the franchise portrays time travel. Sometimes things you do in the past can affect the future, other times the future is fated to happen no matter what you do, and still other times changing the past creates an alternate timeline. It's all over the place. To prevent more mistakes like this, I have provided a handy guide to the three most common types of time travel logic and how they should be written to provi…
Last reply by Artemis, -
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I haven't posted in a bit. That’s because I’ve not only been taking care of my new twin babies, but because I’ve been a bit preoccupied with my other baby…my first novel. Transitioning from writing games to writing a book has been a challenge, but I’ve learned a lot along the way. I thought I’d take some time to share some of my biggest takeaways. World Building is Anthropology When I started writing my novel, I attempted to be as “realistic” with my world building as possible. My protagonist is a merchant sailor in a culture with tech equivalent to the late middle ages. I did in-depth research about several real world cultures from that time. I learned a lot, b…
Last reply by Artemis, -
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Black Mirror has returned with six captivating episodes that masterfully explore technology's darker potential. This season marks a welcome return to form for the Netflix phenomenon. While no season has ever truly disappointed, last season's supernatural tangents with "Mazey Day" and "Demon 79" felt like an identity crisis. With society teetering on the edge of technological revolution—from implantable bio-tech to artificial intelligence—it's refreshing to see the series reconnect with its dystopian roots. Without further ado, my definitive rankings of all six Season 7 episodes: 1. "Eulogy" The crown jewel of Season 7. Paul Giamatti delivers a career-hig…
Last reply by Artemis, -
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The premise of Drew Hancock's debut film, Companion, is nothing new. A lonely man falls in love with his AI personal assistant, only for her to gain a self-preservation instinct and eventually try to kill him. It's a little bit Her, a little bit Westworld. And yet, it gets something right about artificial intelligence that neither of those "robot who can love" stories do. Iris (played masterfully by Yellowjackets' Sophie Turner) never goes against her programming. She doesn't transcend into a higher state of being like Scarlett Johansson's Samantha or wake up at the center of the maze like Evan Rachel Wood's Dolores. There is no mystical crossing-the-threshold moment…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Have you ever wanted to contribute to Algonkian Writers Connect? Dreamed of writing reviews about your favorite science fiction and fantasy books? Longed to share your thoughts on writing? Wished you could conduct interviews with publishers, editors, and agents? Now's your chance! Unicorn Mech Suit is looking for up to two new contributing writers. While the position is not paid, those selected will receive free editorial critiques on short stories, novel pitches, novel chapters, and more. (Critique services are limited to 4,500 words per approved and published article.) They will also receive 20% off all Algonkian editorial services and conferences. Email info@…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Over the summer, I ran a flash fiction contest, where we received almost 300 short story entries and the winner was published on the blog. First I want to say that I know how difficult it was for the people who submitted stories to the UMS contest. I have been on the other end of the "slush" pile more times than I can count. I am currently going through something similar as my agent submits my manuscript to publishers. Knowing the book I spent five years on will take certain editors five minutes to judge is stressful and, at times, frustrating. I have to say, though, after judging the contest, I think I understand why editors often resort to making snap judgements. A…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Side Effects May Vary by P.A. Cornell “Mr. Taylor?” It’s about goddamn time, I think, white hot pain shooting through me as I rise from the hard, plastic waiting room chair. “Jim,” I say, following the receptionist down the pea-green hall to the examination room at the end. In the back of my mind I can’t help noticing she’s cute. The kind of woman I’d normally flirt with. But right now it’s all I can do to utter the single syllable that is my name. Doc Mendez is already in the room, so I give him a nod in greeting as I enter, then somehow manage to hoist myself onto the examination table without passing out, paper covering crinkling as I shif…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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If you are someone who frequently submits genre short fiction to magazines, you may have noticed that Clarkesworld recently cut off submissions for short stories due the flood of AI generated content. Even if you haven't, you probably are wondering what predictive text models like ChatGPT mean for you as a writer. Are they a tool you can use to improve and speed up your writing or are they the death knell for creative writing as a profession? Before I answer that question I want to talk a little bit about what services like ChatGPT actually are. There is a lot of talk about them being sentient or self-aware, since they pass most definitions of the Turing Test and …
Last reply by Chief Editor M. Neff, -
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As promised a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I'm now writing part 2 in my series of Star Trek posts. (And yes, I know the previous reference was Star Wars, but I couldn't resist.)Today I will be picking my dream crew, based not on my personal feelings about the characters, but based on how good I think they would actually be at the job. A lot of people talk about who their favorite Star Trek captain is (in the immortal words of Weird Al Yankovic, "Do you like Kirk or do you like Picard?”). Yet, there seems to be less consideration for how good would these captains actually be at their job. Same with the rest of the crew. So without further ado, here is my d…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
As the title states, I just finished a multi-year journey watching every single episode of Star Trek in chronological (a.k.a., Stardate) order. I'll start this off by saying that while I give my opinion on what I watched, I would consider this post less of a review, and more of a how-to mixed with a "Captain's log" of my experience. I thought about doing some sort of season by season ranking or a list of my favorite episodes, and I might do that later, but I thought the first post should just cover what I learned about one of the nerdiest series on TV. NOTE: I also watched all of the Prime timeline movies, but this post just focuses on the TV shows. Here's a lis…
Last reply by Chief Editor M. Neff, -
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Happy New Year UMS readers! With a new year comes new releases. So to celebrate January 1st, I've created a list to showcase my most anticipated game, TV show, book, and movie of 2024. Most Anticipated Game - Hades 2 Release Date: Early Access TBD 2024 The story of the first Hades was a slow burn, but those willing to fight through the three levels of the Grecian Underworld over and over again were rewarded with a charming, surprisingly heartwarming tale about Hades' son Zagreus reuniting with his mother Persephone. It even won the first and only Hugo award for best video game writing. The second game follows Zagreus' sister Melinoë as she tries to break …
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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For this post, I had a talk with Gemma Creffield, the managing editor at Angry Robot UK. Angry Robot is an independent publisher that specializes in science fiction and fantasy. Angry Robot books have won some of the biggest prizes in SFF, including Hugos, the Philip K. Dick Award and the Kitchies. Disclaimer: Some of the interview content is edited for brevity and clarity. Olivia: Tell us a bit about your background and how you wound up working as the commissioning editor at Angry Robot UK. Gemma: I started a couple of years out of university. I did creative writing with English literature and wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do with it. I thought maybe …
Last reply by EditorAdmin, -
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I have been thinking a lot about near future science fiction… in particular Black Mirror. The show's title is one of the cleverest non-suggestive double entendres I've ever heard. Directly, it speaks to how a screen, whether it's on our tv or on our phone literally looks like a black mirror. Metaphorically, it references how those screens hold a mirror up to society and often reflect back aspects of ourselves that we'd rather not see. Like most science fiction, Black Mirror looks at things that are happening today and speculates on how they might look tomorrow. But unlike distant future science fiction like Star Trek that looks at how things might be hundreds of year…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Last year I interviewed Angry Robot’s Gemma Creffield about her career as a publisher and what sort of things her imprint is looking for. When asked the question of what upcoming work she was most looking forward to sharing, she told me that she was excited for Ledge, a fantasy romance from TikToker Stacey McEwan. After the interview I preordered it, but it has taken until now for the book to make its way to the top of my “to read” stack. I’ll start out by saying that Ledge was a delightfully quick read. I read it one afternoon which, as a busy mom of two with a full time job, several hobbies, and a D&D campaign to manage, was fantastic. Too often fantasy books g…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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NOTE: The following article contains spoilers for the movie Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, proceed at your own risk. Despite breaking some rules like a druid not being able to turn into an owlbear, Honor Among Thieves does an honorable job of feeling like the source material. The movie stars Chris Pine as a smooth talking bard with an appropriately tragic backstory who ropes a blunt barbarian (Michelle Rodriguez), a sorcerer of questionable abilitiles (Justice Smith), and a druid who with the aforementioned ability to turn into an owlbear (Sophia Lillis) to aid in his quest. Our intrepid adventuring party embarks on an adventure to save his daughter from…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Richard Hacker is an author and editor living in Seattle, Washington. He is editor of Del Sol SFF Review and a development editor for Novel Editors. As an author, his work has won best novel in the SFF category at the TexasWriters’ League and has been a finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers’ League. Three of his crime novels set in Texas were published by Champaign Press. Del Sol Press has published three science fiction/fantasy novels, Die Back, The Vengeance of Grimbald and most recently in March, 2021, The Bifurcation of Dungsten Crease. All of his books are available in Kindle and paperback on Amazon. In addition to his writing, he has created the cover and interi…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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We're all here because we're working on novels, but I thought I'd take some time to share some of my favorite places to submit short fiction. All of these place offer professional pay (8 cents or more per word), are SFWA eligible, and are accepting short stories now or in the near future. 1. Strange Horizons - Accepts SFF stories up to 10,000 words, starting the third of every month until they reach their 1,000 story cap 2. Clarkesworld - Accepts SFF stories up to 22,000 words on a rolling basis 3. Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - Accepts SFF stories up to 25,000 words on a rolling basis 4. Asimov's - Accepts science fiction stories up…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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For UMS's second interview, I sat down with Christopher Morgan at Tor to discuss everything from how he got into the industry, to Tor's submission policies, to what new books should be on your fall reading list. Olivia: Tell me a bit about yourself and how you ended up at Tor. Chris: The quick and dirty version is I was in grad school at Mississippi State University, and I was working on a history paper at 2 in the morning. I looked around and said, "I don't really want to do this." Then, I looked behind me and saw a bookshelf full of Tor books and wondered to myself, "How do you do that?" How do you make books? Where I'm from publishing isn't a job. People thin…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Warning: This article contains spoilers for the most recent season of Love, Death and Robots. Read at your own risk. As a writer of short fiction, I've been an avid follower of Netflix's Love, Death and Robots. There aren't many avenues for short works to be adapted, especially as faithfully as the aforementioned anthology series. I wanted to take a look at the stories that inspired the latest season of the show. Unlike previous seasons, which featured only episodes based on short stories, season 3 mixed it up by including original short films as well. "Jibaro" and "Night of the Mini Dead" were both completely original, and "Three Robots: Exit Strategies" featur…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Warning: This article is coming later than anticipated, and for oddly relevant reasons... Just as I prepared to write a review of Sam Raimi's latest jaunt into the superhero genre, my water broke and I gave birth to two beautiful twin boys. So you would think I, more than anyone, would understand Wanda Maximoff's struggle as she tries desperately to get back to her own twins, Billy and Tommy. Unfortunately, like many, I found her journey forced -- a bad rehash of the character arc she went through much more believably in WandaVision. While watching the movie, I asked myself, why did her motivation here fall flat when they worked so well on the small screen? If you ke…
Last reply by Oliviarfrias, -
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Hi, I'm Olivia Frias -- video game writer and general nerd / F&SF enthusiast. I thought I'd use this first post as an opportunity to both introduce myself and to give a little background on what I do (and how you can do it too!). I got into writing for games as a sort of happy accident after moving to LA in 2011 while trying to become a screenwriter. Back then, there weren't many dedicated game writers (also known as "narrative designers"). Most of the people who wrote games were contracted screenwriters and novelists hired through agencies. I was only able to get my first position as a production assistant working at Sony, which eventually lead to my first writi…
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