Don’t Use AI-Enhanced OCR Just Yet!

Well, it depends on your prompts, and how high the quality of your image is. I’ll give you my example. Several months ago I got hold of a missing chapter from a story I thought would be ideal to discuss in my thesis. Namely The Worlds Last Wonder, a science […]

Automated Popular English Fiction Genre Classification System

I’m pleased to announce I’ve had some success with ChatGPT classifying texts into fiction genres. I used the ChatGPT API and a bespoke Python script. It was a bit expensive but as this was crucial to my entire PhD, worth it. If you’ve come straight to this post without knowing […]

Doctor Who Season 14 SFRA Review

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 Ikin 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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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