I've got a guest post on horror, "Should Horror Be Its Own Genre?" over at World Weaver Press today. In that post I wax philosophical about horror denial, why people think they don't like horror when in fact they probably do, and ways in which we can more accurately define and classify horror.
WWP, in case you don't know, is a small press specializing in science fiction, fantasy, and science-fictiony and fantastic horror. They have a particular interest in steampunk. They're looking for novels, novellas, and, for anthology projects, short stories and novelettes. Their submission window for novels and novellas is open now. Editor-in-Chief Eileen Wiedbrauk, also known as Speak Coffee to Me, has great taste in fiction and is an impeccable editor. I've had the pleasure of receiving critique from her; she is good at it, and she has the writer's best interest at heart. If you're looking for a press that will take care of your project and make it amazing, you should try submitting to them.
The other thing I wanted to tell you about is this online course I'm taking, via Coursera, Fantasy and Science Fiction: The Human Mind, Our Modern World. Fun, right? It starts with Grimm's Fairy Tales and ends with Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. As far as I can tell, you do the readings, view a video lecture, write a bit about what you've read, read what others have written, and offer a bit of commentary on that. It's like power blogging! I'll be posting my writings about the readings here on my blog.
The course is free and most of the readings, with the exception of LeGuin's Left Hand of Darkness and Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, are available free online in e-reader friendly formats. (My course texts are already loaded onto my Kindle.) You can find the links on this page, if you're looking for some good free editions of classic fantasy and sci fi stories. (The Grimm's and Alice in Wonderland have the gorgeous original illustrations embedded in the text, so bonus.) The course officially starts July 23rd, if you want to sign up.
12 comments:
I will check out WWP, as I write steampunk.
That sounds the online course is not only unique but fun. I love classic tales.
Thanks for the compliments :) And now I want to take this course! I've had my eye on Eric Rabkin and what he's been doing at UofM for a while now (he leads monthly SF book clubs for academic types in Ann Arbor) but this'll be the first that I get to see it happening.
You should slide something over to WWP, Jay. And join the course, or at least check out the readings. I've been going through the Grimm Bros. stuff this week. It is wild stuff.
Yay! You should take the course. It looks like it will be fun. Myself, I'm eagerly anticipating doing a course for kicks. Looks like there's enough involvement that it could be rewarding, but not so much that it will be a huge time suck or anything.
Ooh, I've got a friend who has a short story that might fit at WWP. Heading over now.
And your class sounds like fun. I've not done an online course before, but I can see how that might equate to power blogging. :)
I'm hopelessly confused about genre. I know it when I see it, but I can't define it. Especially when the tropes start mutating into something different.
Interesting! I was just talking about horror on my blog, too! And that course sounds really cool -- I am definitely going to check it out!
What fun! I am also doing the coursera class! Very exciting.
It's a good reason to read some stuff I haven't read recently, or haven't read thoroughly. Not sure how the course part of the course will go, but I'm enjoying the incentive to read.
Yeah. I guess the WWP post was my attempt to expand the definition of horror beyond the limitations of genre. That is how I see it, but I'm not super certain that it will be meaningful to anyone else.
Good horror post, Sarah. I hope you do end up taking the course. I am having a blast reading the Grimm Brothers stuff.
Terrific, caitstuff. I am looking forward to it.
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