A New Home for the Blog

So hey, it's been 9 years of blogging here, and I've at long last moved the blog's permanent home to my official website, www.garrettcalcaterra.com. You can go directly to the blog home page for The Machine Stops here: www.garrettcalcaterra.com/blog.

I'll be maintaining this Blogger-hosted URL as an archive of all my old posts. I recommend using the navigation to the right to sort between author interviews, reading recs, and SF/F history, or you can search by other keywords and topics, of course.

Also, please make sure to check out my first blog post on the new site, which commemorate my 9 years here with a comprehensive list of the best posts so far. Moving forward, expect to see more great interviews, art showcases, and writing updates at the new blog home. Hope to stay in touch with you there. Cheers!

-Garrett Calcaterra

Infinite Thoughts on Infinity War

WARNING: Infinity War spoilers lie ahead... Only continue on if you will not be permanently destroyed with the unworldly plot of the newest Marvel movie.

The time has come... All of the stars have aligned and now the much anticipated The Avengers: Infinity War has been released by Marvel. From Thanos to Thor, just about every character you know and love was in this action packed film. I'm going to warn everybody one more time, spoilers do lie ahead and it's hard enough trying to avoid them on social media or through friends. I digress...

FOGcon 8 Schedule

Once again, I’ll be attending FOGcon this year. I’m looking forward to seeing a lot of familiar friendly faces, and hopefully meeting new authors and readers. Here’s my schedule:

• Saturday, 3:00 PM, Sacramento Room: "How Much Do We Trust the Machine?"
• Saturday, 4:30 PM, Santa Rosa Room: Reading 

I’m particularly excited to be moderating the “How Much Do We Trust the Machine?” panel since the panelists include honored guest Ada Palmer. I’m just about finished with her novel Too Like the Lightning, and am really enjoying it.

As for my reading slot, I’m still undecided as to what exactly I’ll be reading. I haven’t been making as much forward progress on The Beasts of Qaza as I’d like, and I’m not sure any of the new chapters are ready for public consumption. It’ll probably end up being a game time decision. I’ll be sure to post an update after the convention. To keep track of real-time news and notes during the convention, make sure to connect with me on Twitter.

All the best,

Garrett Calcaterra

OCSA and the Key to Opening Literary Doors to Younger Generations

A Special Report from Jayna Bosse

Orange County School of the Arts (Image Source)

Over the past few years, I’ve noticed a decreased interest in writing from young audiences. With excessive word requirements in school assignments and the lack of time in many students’ schedules, kids now don’t write for leisure, but to hit a word count to appeal to their teachers.

As academia has evolved over the years, writing requirements have only increased in intensity and length, which, in turn, causes the immediate repulsed reaction from most students.

Write. Write. Write, Left, Write.

Say what? It's 2018 already?

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but the last couple of months have been a blur. Here's a quick rundown of my story...

Back in early November, I was a panelist on the "Not of This World" panel at the 2017 California Library Association's annual conference. It was great to meet so many librarians (and not get shushed, not even once) as well as the other panelists, including SF author Daniel Suarez and librarian JJ Jacobsen, who manages the Eaton Collection of Science Fiction at UC Riverside.

I also participated in NaNoWriMo in November, and while I didn't make a big splash with my word count, I made some crucial revisions to the first several chapters of The Beasts of Qaza that needed to happen before moving forward.