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Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show
grammar fascist writes "Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, a science fiction / fantasy webzine, went online just yesterday. Card, the editor-in-chief, has stayed true to his ideals: quality stories, author's rights, and trust in people's honesty. New stories are released quarterly, with new column installments added monthly to the current issue. New art is created for each story. There isn't even an attempt at draconian content control. Writers and artists give exclusive rights for one year - after that, limited rights. Card wants your stories and art, not your copyrights. I've finished the first issue now, and the stories are great. "Eviction Notice" made me cry, and I laughed out loud at "Loose in the Wires." I paid my $2.50 initially to support the business model, but the stories themselves are worth it."
Another way to support independant sci-fi is to listen to Escape Pod, the weekly science-fiction podcast magazine.
I'm not involved in this project, but I have been a frequent donor. I think EP is a very important project. To some extent, the sci-fi and fantasy genres are dominated by the feature film, the novel and the long-running series. The traditional vehicle for short stories, magazines, have a dwindling readership, and do not have the distribution that they once had at their peak.
EP seeks to create an audience, and perhaps one day a market for short, original science-fiction stories. I think this is a very noble and important cause.
Please tune in. I hope you enjoy it. You can find it listed on all good podcast directories.
Ok, so Orson Scott Card is a great author... but how is this groundbreaking? There are numerous webzines that publish quality stories, out there...
Try Duotrope's digest to find them.
Daniel
Carpe Diem
Card, the editor-in-chief, has stayed true to his ideals: quality stories, author's rights, and trust in people's honesty...
...and flagrant homophobia.
Orson Scott Card is a great writer, but he's also an insane rightwing religious fanatic. Since I found out, it's hard to enjoy his taking me on a tour of another person's mind.
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make install -not war
If you ever dealt with merchant accounts with real banks, you'd realize its the same shit, really it is. Of course half the bitching people do is that they arn't a real bank. Only different I've seen if the Federal Insurance, and lesser fees.
Want to read more free/cheap sci-fi and fantasy?
Strange Horizons - a weekly e-magazine, donation-supported.
Futurismic - a monthly e-magazine (focused on futuristic stories and articles about future technology), also donation-supported.
I've been reading both of these for a few months now, and the stories are great! I'm planning to donate in their fund drives, because I think the quality is superb.
Have you read the Moderation Guidelines Addendum?
From the /. article summary: "Card wants your stories and art, not your copyright."
Ummm, not to question the great slashdot editors, but this is *standard practice* for lit magazines, both in print and online. The author USUALLY retains the copyright for published work. Nothing unique here.
Also, most print lit magazines only purchase first serial rights and/or some type of one-time anthology rights. Card's magazine purchases EVERYTHING, all rights, for an entire year. This agreement is actually worse for writers than what most publications offer.
As for having all rights (except online rights, which they keep forever!!) returned to the author after a year, this seems great... except when you consider:
a) for many print/web literary publications, rights return to the author immediately after publication.
b) that the author won't be able to sell the story very easily if it's appeared in another magazine before. Editors want FIRST serial rights, so they can provide readers with unique, never-read-before content. When rights are returned to the author after a year, the author's not going to be able to do much with them, except for maybe putting the story in a print anthology.
Sorry slashdot editors, but this looks like a not-so-hot deal for authors.
Writerati
The cold manipulation of Ender in "Ender's Game" is hardly high praise for militarism. And the following three books in the series are actually even more anti-war and "liberal". (It is revealed that annihilating the "bugs" was wrong, for example, and Ender goes from being famous to being infamous.)
Not that I'd describe Card as authoritarian anyways.
[PowerPoint] is a tool for capitalist presentation
Here you go: http://www.nauvoo.com/library/card-hypocrites.html
" Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those whoflagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society.
The goal of the polity is not to put homosexuals in jail. The goal is to discourage people from engaging in homosexual practices in the first place, and, when they nevertheless proceed in their homosexual behavior, to encourage them to do so discreetly, so as not to shake the confidence of the community in the polity's ability to provide rules for safe, stable, dependable marriage and family relationships. "
That's probably because they'll just convert you post-mortem.
In the interest of accuracy, Mormons don't believe that baptizing the dead by proxy "converts" them. Rather, it merely provides the baptismal ordinance for those who decide of their own free will to convert. For those who don't want the baptism, it has no effect. Even some of those who do decide they want the baptism may not be able to make use of it, because acceptance of Christ in the afterlife is only an option for those who did not have a chance to accept Him and be properly baptized during their lives. Those that had a chance, and blew it, probably don't get another even if someone does the baptism for them.
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