The long view
This story about nuclear physics has stuck with me for decades
Writing
Chilling effect
J.R.R. Tolkien's estate refreshed its website with some stringent guidelines for how to use the author's works
It takes a village
The wild success of Brandon Sanderson's Kickstarter holds lessons for building a resilient fan community
Some Transfer Orbit updates
Doubling down with this newsletter
Ignition failure
Storytelling platform Curious Fictions is shutting down. It filled a unique need for writers: hosting their short fiction backlist.
Fiction is powerful
This week’s revelation that anti-vaccine activists have been citing a plot point from 2007’s I Am Legend serves as a good reminder of fiction’s ability to shape our understanding of reality.
The rekindling of Fireside Magazine
After publishing a racist audio version of one of its essays in November 2020, Fireside Magazine is working to regain its status as one of science fiction's leading anti-racist voices
Disney, royalties and copyright law
A deep dive into #DisneyMustPay
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been working on a story about a major
campaign that SFWA put out: #DisneyMustPay. Back in November, SFWA held a press
conference that revealed that Alan Dean Foster found that some of his royalties
had dried up
Where the monsters come out
There’s a road near where I grew up where a monster is said to live. Drive a
half mile up the Devil’s Washbowl Road, and it narrows into a single track that
isn’t maintained come winter. As you drive into the forest, the trees tower over
you,
What's In My Bag: 2020 Edition
Mobile office for when I need to get out of the house\
Last June, I took it upon myself to write up a post
[https://andrewliptak.substack.com/p/reading-list-what-s-in-your-bag-reviews]
about what I carry with me when I go out and about. I did another one for the
newsletter GetRevue