Category: Science Fiction

Sex, Gor, and The Good Stuff

Posted on April 28, 2008 By Mark Tiedemann

The subject of John Norman’s GorÂ came up recently in a letter from a long-lost cousin.Â He wrote me about SF and different tastes and he mentioned this peculiar series and I thought, Damn, I haven’t thought about that since 1997.

I can name the year and even the week fairly precisely because I was in San Antonio Texas for the worldcon that year and ended up sharing an autographing session with John Norman.Â I’d arrived at the table first, saw the name tags, and thought It couldn’t be…

But it was.

For those who may not know of Gor, this was a series of novels published through the Seventies which I can only describe as a combination of Conan and The Arabian Nights as if written by Edgar Rice Burroughs in collaboration with the Marquis de Sade.Â …

James Morrow’s Dasein

Posted on April 9, 2008 By Mark Tiedemann

I like James Morrow’s work. (I like Jim, too, quite apart from his work.) His new novel, The Philosopher’s Apprentice, is exemplary. I think everyone should go out right now—right now—and buy a copy. If I may be so bold, this is what science fiction is all about.

Well, maybe not all science fiction, and even that which is about this does other things…

No, let me not equivocate. This is the pure stuff.

In my view, the thing that makes science fiction potent, beyond merely a neat ride to some cool places with some kick-ass characters, is that it is philosophy in action.…

Done

Posted on March 31, 2008 By Mark Tiedemann

I finished The Spanish Bride yesterday.Â Two marathon sessions, Saturday and Sunday, got me through the last four chapters.Â The last two ended up needing major reconstruction.Â About a week or two ago I realized I needed one more plot thread, which required me to bounce back and forth throughout the body of the novel to insert the necessary connective tissue.

But it’s done.Â Donna will go through it once more for nits to pick, but that should only take a week or two, then the last pass to straighten out typoes and such, and off it goes to my agent.…

Home Improvements

Posted on January 28, 2008 By Mark Tiedemann

You may notice that there are a couple of changes to the website.Â On the main page, you’ll find a link to my Books.Â There are few more covers to post, but they’re all linked to Amazon for your convenience.

Also, there is now a Contact tab.Â info@marktiedemann.com

Anyone wishing to drop me a line or two or contact me about services, that’s the address.Â I do appearances, I lecture, I do workshops.Â Let me know what you need and I’ll be glad to discuss it with you.

Some things, I must say, I don’t want to hear about.Â If you have a hot new book idea that’s a guaranteed blockbuster, but you don’t have time to write it, don’t tell me.Â …

The Better Parts of ’07

Posted on January 3, 2008January 4, 2008 By Mark Tiedemann

I’ve seen a number of “Best of 2007” posts here and there, so I thought, after my last, rather depressing, post, I’d put something up about what I really jazzed on in 2007.

Top of the list has to be a few books. What else could you expect?

I didn’t read as much science fiction in 2007 as in the past. A great deal of my time is taken up, more and more, with research for whatever project occupies me, so I’ve spent a lot of hours reading early American history. Among a few favorites, that I would have been glad to have read at any time, are Michael Stephenson’s Patriot Battles; William Hogeland’s The Whiskey Rebellion; and Alan Taylor’s The Divided Ground.…

On Relevance and Robert Heinlein

Posted on December 23, 2007September 9, 2023 By Mark Tiedemann

One of my favorite stories from the creative arts came from an interview of Richard Burton discussing his early career. He’d been in a stage play in London and the Sunday Times came out with a review that apparently trashed his performance, as well as the play in general. Miffed, seething, confidence shaken, Burton took the review to Laurence Olivier’s house to get some sympathy.

Olivier dutifully read the review while Burton fidgeted. Finally, Olivier put it down, nodded, and said “That’s a very good review.”

“Good!” Burton exploded. “What do you mean, ‘good’? Look what he said about me! He says I’m terrible, I’m amateur, I’m this, I’m that!”…

Gender Reading

Posted on December 21, 2007November 30, 2012 By Mark Tiedemann

Over on John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever, Sarah Monette has posted a piece on gender in science fiction and fantasy. It’s a sensible look at the problems of this discussion, but there are a couple of things about it that bother me a bit.

She goes over the problems of defining sex and gender. She breaks it down as: sex is biology and gender is culture. Immediately, she asserts that this is problematic, because biology itself is not a neat packaging device, and there are many people who simply don’t fit in one side or the other (male-female). Gender as cultural artifact has problems because such definitions begin with our apprehension of the biological aspect and proceed from there.…

Temporizing, Doodling, Pacing, Wasting Time

Posted on October 31, 2007 By Mark Tiedemann

It’s Hallowe’en.Â It was supposed to be cloudy today, but the morning light is beautiful.

I have an office in the basement of my house, with three windows at ground level, situated in such a way that a great deal of daylight floods in.Â Three walls are covered by books.Â My work area contains three computers—this one on which I’m writing a Distal Muse entry, my main writing computer (which is attached to the internet in no way), and my old 386, which had been my writing computer for years.Â The only reason I replaced it was because my old HP printer died and all the new ones use USB ports instead of the massive pin-register cables.Â …

Strange Tongues and New Sales

Posted on October 23, 2007October 23, 2007 By Mark Tiedemann

The other day I received an email from Delos Books, an Italian publisher, informing me that they have accepted a short story of mine. This is a resale and is, in fact, the first such I’ve made to a foreign market on my own. The story in question is Flesh Trades which appeared originally in Tales of the Unanticipated, the fall/winter 95/96 issue. Ten years later I’ve managed to resell it.

I should have been pursuing foreign sales all along, but it’s one of those details that, until you get comfortable with it, you just tend to neglect. Besides, it can be confusing.…

What’s Been Happening

Posted on September 27, 2007September 27, 2007 By Mark Tiedemann

Tomorrow morning at a little after seven in the morning I will be getting on a plane and a couple hours later getting off it at Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C. As president of the Missouri Center for the Book I’ll be attending the National Book Festival this weekend. The following weekend, I’ll be back in town at The Big Read in downtown Clayton Missouri, also with the MCB.

I thought I’d take a few moments here to let you (my hidden and presumed Reader) know what’s been going on. At least two people who have signed the new Guestbook asked about future book projects, so…

Right at the moment, Nothing Is Happening.…

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