The SFRA has been publishing analysis and reviews of science fiction since 1971 and I am privileged to have had one of my reviews accepted. I chose to write on the latest season of Doctor Who starring Ncuti Gatwa as the 15th+ Time Lord. Here’s the introduction to give you […]
Chapter 3 in Progress
When I did my BA in creative writing in RMIT we discussed famous writers’ writing speeds. I believe it was to help allay any fears for those that felt they were writing too slowly. In any case, this information was a surprise to me because one writer said she only […]
Vintage SciFi Podcast
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend a publishing course that informed students on where to start with getting academic work published in book form. As a self publisher through Amazon and other online platforms since 2011 I was curious to know how different traditional publishing was. The course was […]
Why is researching old literary science fiction important?
I was asked this question from someone who doesn’t read fiction and they felt that if anyone is doing a PhD then the only thing they should be researching is something that changes lives, like cures for cancer, rather than something that simply answers questions on life, the universe, and […]
Australia’s First Science Fiction Story Was Published in 1832
Briefly mentioned by Van Iken in his 1984 book “Australian Science Fiction”, the fiction story Australia Advanced; or Dialogues for the Year 2032 by Mephistopheles the Younger, first published in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser in May 1832 across 5 issues, has caught the imagination of many […]
Can I transition my SF interest into a job in the science fiction industry?
Let’s unpack those three statements a little. If there are millions of fans of science fiction around the world it stands to reason that a percentage of those want to buy science fiction products. It doesn’t matter which science fiction stream it is – hard science fiction, soft science fiction, […]
Learning Digital Humanities tools such as Python to analyse 19th-20th century newspaper fiction
To Be Continued is a database of newspaper fiction from Australian newspapers from the 19th century until the 1950s that I am using as an integral part to my PhD thesis. The database, as of February 2024, was made up of over 580,000 pieces of text in the form of […]
Science Fiction Research Association Australian Representative – Neil Hogan
I’m honoured to tell you that I’ve been made the SFRA representative for Australia. The Science Fiction Research Association is “the oldest professional association dedicated to the scholarly inquiry of science fiction and the fantastic across all media.” You can find out more about them here: SFRA.org If you are […]
A discussion with Adobe Acrobat’s AI assistant beta about A. Bertram Chandler’s Forbidden Planet (1959)
Just playing around with the new adobe AI. I opened a pdf of A. Bertram Chandler’s Forbidden Planet (1959) and asked it some questions. Hilarity ensued. Me: What science features in this story? AI: “Atmospheric conditions: The atmosphere of Eblis is described as being a mixture of carbon dioxide, sulfur […]
What was Science Fiction called in the early part of the 20th Century?
Science-Fiction In the early part of the 20th century, science fiction had yet to be defined as such. (Arguably, it is still yet to be defined!) While there were stories that could be defined as science fiction today, there weren’t yet enough of them for even the general public to […]
Adventurous Romance or Romantic Adventure?
One of the challenges for a 21st century researcher having grown up with popular romantic fiction such as that published by Harlequin, and Mills & Boon, classified as ‘romance’, is turning their attention to the early 20th century where the innocuous word has an entirely different meaning. Certainly, to consider […]
Podcast Introduction to the To Be Continued database
Podcast episode 0 with Dr Rod Lambert and Professor Katherine Bode discussing the creation and value of the To Be Continued Database and Trove.
To Be Continued… Podcast
Yes, it’s true. You can now learn about all the latest developments with the To Be Continued database, not only with the experts, but also with some amazing voice over artists and special sound effects through To Be Continued’ : A Lost Literature Podcast. Here’s the trailer:
The Earlier life of Victor Desmond Antony Courtney.
This post has moved to its own page here: The Earlier Life of Victor Desmond Antony Courtney.
An Aerial Adventure, or The Secret of a Scientist (1909-1910) by Victor D. A. Courtney – final part of the review.
By November 1909, readers were informed that the three characters had been on the unknown planet in our Solar System, Lic-a-loo-ka, for over 2 years. Yet, still, how they got their food and water remains a mystery. Incidentally, by the end of the story, 15 years had past since Barrington […]
A 1909 Space Opera! An Aerial Adventure, Or The Secrets Of A Scientist By Victor D. A. Courtney – A Review (Continued)
The shock with the September 1909 release is two fold. First, the planet they land on is confirmed to be still under the star Sol. ie, they have visited another planet in the Solar System, while the language used earlier suggested that it was to another star. Secondly, even though […]
An Aerial Adventure, or The Secrets of a Scientist by Victor D. A. Courtney – A Review (Continued)
It is a shame that nothing much happens in the story for months. Well, a lot happens, but it is from the point of view of the inventor describing his life. And, to draw out this trip even further, not only do we get various adventures, we even get a […]
An Aerial Adventure, or The Secrets of a Scientist by Victor D. A. Courtney
As previously posted, An Aerial Adventure, or The Secret of a Scientist, was a previously unknown, well to historians at any rate, story by the famed journalist and editor Victor Courtney. Written at some point between the ages of 13 and 15, likely with help from teachers, parents and editors, […]
The Secret of a Journalist
I’m so excited I can hardly contain the words. I’ve discovered a story in Trove that is of immense interest to me for two reasons. The first is, of course, that it is another space opera from 1909. The second is that it is a previously unknown story from a […]
A Trip to the Moon by F. N. 1908-1909
This story started with such promise. Representations of science, meeting aliens on the moon that were taller due to the gravity. I should have expected disappointment when after much scientific discussion about the dark side of the moon, the author, who only went by the initials F. N. wrote “How […]
Space Raiders by Barrington Beverley 1936
My PhD thesis will be written around the database To Be Continued. I’m very grateful to not only be using the information in the database, but also performing data entry enabling further stories to be added to the database. This is incredibly exciting as I get to see the fiction […]
The Dark Planet OCR lessons
Most of the chapters of this serial by Charles H. Hunt exist, however the OCR of those newspaper pages are not the best. Here is an excerpt from chapter IV, where the protagonist encounters the feathered humanoid aliens for the first time: c• HAPu i IV. It was not :long before […]
A Trip to the Moon
Attributed to ‘f. n’ and published in 1909 it features a man that suddenly finds himself on the moon and needs to make friends quickly to survive. Initially, I was drawn to the story due to the writer considering that the lower gravity of the moon would mean taller aliens […]
Found: Venus Calling by Frank H. Bodle
I should mention a space opera I found before The World’s Last Wonder (1901). Venus Calling by Frank H. Bodle (1934). This was retrieved using the keyphrase ‘space ship’. Unfortunately, it was the only one in the to be continued database that appeared for that phrase. Up until ‘space ship’, […]
About the To Be Continued Database
Professor Katherine Bode of the Australian National University created the To Be Continued database. She recently gave a presentation about it. You can watch it online here:
The World’s Last Wonder Chapter IV
As discussed in a previous blog post, I identified a great space opera story in Australian Newspaper Fiction from 1901. Unfortunately it was missing chapter IV. I am very grateful for the help of both the National Library of Australia and Melbourne University Library in finding the missing chapter. At […]
Research has begun
There are several parts to my PhD thesis. This blog will focus on one aspect which is the discovery and retrieval of speculative fiction from the To Be Continued Database in conjunction with the Trove database. I’m currently focused on retrieving space opera works from early 20th century newspapers. To […]
Coming Soon
Come back in 2023 for new posts
