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 […]
Year: 2024
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 […]
