Crossposted from wyrdsmiths.blogspot.com with edits.
Free Science Fiction.
As has been mentioned elsewhere in the blogosphere, there is some gentle* debate among the professional community of fantasy and science fiction writers about the utility and advisibility of allowing some of one’s work to appear online for free.
This has parallels to the blogger/mainstream media kerfuffle that made me think it might be of interest to folks here in the political part of the blogosphere. The threat that electronic media poses to the old style content models and to writers and publishers who can’t learn to adapt in the fiction world is almost a perfect mirror for what’s going on here on the political side.
The most recent round of the debate started when the outgoing vice-president of SFWA** posted this screed in which he called those who give away content on the web both “webscabs” and “Pixel-stained Technopeasant Wretch.” For some strange reason this did not sit well with the more technologically liberal-minded among us.
In particular, it set off Jo Walton to declare “Monday 23rd April is International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day” and to propose that a bunch of us who write professionally should post some item of our work for free viewing.
I am gleefully adding my name to the list of writers giving it a whirl by posting electronic reprints of the two stories listed below on my personal website:
The Uncola is a near future snarky science fiction piece about the ungoing cola wars between the big brands. Originally appeared in Cosmic SF Vol #4
When Jabberwocks Attack is a humorous contemporary fantasy piece that gives a college his chance to break into the newly booming field of magical reality TV. Originally appeared in TOTU #22
I hope that you enjoy them.
The links are also posted at the wyrdsmiths blog (my writers group) along with links to other works by some of our members, including Namoi Kritzer and Sean Murphy.
Oh, and if you feel like buying some of my work as well, my novel WebMage is out from Ace with three sequels forthcoming, one each in ’07, ’08, and ’09 and can be picked up from Amazon or most bookstores. The stories linked here are similar in general flavor to the novel length work.
For a complete list of all the stories and other bits added to the list, please look at Jo Walton’s master post here. Or go to the livejournal community set up for the effort here. I will also endeavor to post a copy of the inevitable master list over at the Wyrdsmiths blog in a day or two.
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*i.e. Pistols or swords.
**Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America.
