The magic of fantasy - or sometimes not

I'm a writer and reader of science fiction.  But I also read a lot of fantasy.  There are some great books out their by people like Raymond Feist, David Gemmel and George RR Martin.  However, it seems to me that the quality is very variable.  I think magic is both a strength and weakness of fantasy - see my blog
for why:
  
http://wp.me/p3ycbY-148

Eating, drinking and bars in science fiction

This weeks blog returns to 'life in the future' and this time the far distant future.  Surely we'll take our our delight for gathering in restaurants and bars with us? http://wp.me/p3ycbY-13X
  

The power of the short story - 5 reasons we should write them (and read them)

This week I return to a writing theme.  Too often I think we dismiss short stories as being somehow inferior.  I want to extole the virtues of writing and reading short stories.  As an author I believe they are a great way to improve our story telling.  http://wp.me/p3ycbY-13S

How far can we go in ‘greening’ our cities of the future?

In my last blog I started to speculate on what our future cities might look like.  In this blog I wonder how far we can go in greening those cities.  Perhaps that's a more palatable picture than the soulless concrete affairs often portrayed by science fiction.  http://wp.me/p3ycbY-13H

Do you want to live in the high rise cities of the future?

In my last blog I opened the topic of future cities for discussion.  I have read that by the middle of this century 75% of us will be living in those cities.  As a writer of science fiction I find this fascinating.  But, how will they and us cope?