Uncanny Magazine would like to thank the following people for supporting us on Patreon. This magazine would not be possible without their support. Space Unicorn Ranger Corps COMMANDERS Adam Leff, Alan J. Zimmerman, Avery Flinders, Bliss Ehrlich, Christian Valencia-Neihart, Claire Rousseau, Dain Unicorn, Daniel Sales, David Mackie, Devin & Stephanie Ganger, Didi Chanoch, Edmund Schweppe, […]
When I decided to make the leap from writing contemporary fantasy to writing a space opera series with my book The Wrong Stars, I spent a lot of time thinking about the elements of the genre I love most and wanted to explore. I adore the snark and smarts of Iain M. Banks’s Culture series, […]
This is a story about the myths built into our spines. You and I are chatting about work one evening in early September, the conversation of friends who, two decades after meeting in high school, still can’t quite grasp how to shoulder the weight of our world. Perhaps we both would rather talk about the […]
I usually find outrage columns super easy to write, and as an older woman who didn’t start writing in speculative fiction until 50, I have a deep well of indignities to draw upon. Did I recently read a review that “unrecommended” a book because the older characters in it dared *shudder* to have sex? Check. Have […]
There can be only one. We all know this catchphrase/tagline from the Highlander franchise—or even if we don’t know where it’s from, most of us have somehow absorbed it as a classic geekana saying, a thing that needs to be spouted in low, somber tones and indicates a fight to the death with Only One […]
My so-called qualifications: I’ve been a community organizer for fifteen years. I’ve helped organize hundreds of direct actions, ranging from tame sidewalk rallies to occupations of government office building lobbies to tent cities on vacant bank-owned properties. I’ve gotten arrested in Central Park at a midnight protest; I’ve been illegally barred from public legislative hearings; […]
Uncanny Magazine would like to thank the following people for supporting us on Patreon. This magazine would not be possible without their support. Space Unicorn Ranger Corps COMMANDERS Adam Leff, Alan J. Zimmerman, Avery Flinders, Bliss Ehrlich, Christian Valencia-Neihart, Claire Rousseau, Dain Unicorn, Daniel Sales, David Mackie, Devin & Stephanie Ganger, Didi Chanoch, Edmund Schweppe, Hisham El-Far, Jayme Lundeen, […]
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who loved to read stories to her brother. She liked to put on funny voices for all the different characters and found that she was rather good at mimicking accents and odd vocal characteristics. Sometimes her brother would beg her to stop reading as he had […]
I have a beef with “show, don’t tell,” and it’s not just that I have a beef with pat advice about something as complex as writing fiction. “Show, don’t tell” is supposedly “good” writing’s admonition to avoid exposition. Yes, the dreaded “infodump” is seen as a hallmark of bad writing, but it’s faulty logic to […]
When I was a teenager, I was a magician. Not the Owl-Delivery-slash-Mildly-Disturbing-Boarding-School kind of Magician but the sort that did… well… magic. I was taught how to thread balloons onto string, make glasses of milk disappear, and make dice pass through solid metal plates. I learned two important lessons. First, never EVER use the word […]