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Do you rememeber West End Game’s Paranoia? Or the later Mongoose Games revamp of it? Seems they are redoing Paranoia again and there is a Paranoia Kickstarter to fund the effort. It is already funded but it isn’t too late to get in and get a copy when it comes out!

Jim Druley, one of the contributors from Issue #1 has an idea for an article based on an old short story he read years ago. Unfortunately he can’t rememeber the title or who wrote it. Does anybody have any idea? His description is as follows …

An old short story about some sentient spider-creatures/aliens that were both hyper-rational and extremely fearful? The idea was that their rationality somehow led them to be maximally afraid of everything.

It is “decades old” at least.

So, given how much of a pain the forum software is turning out to be and the amount of time I have to look at, does anybody else think something like a members facebook group would be a better choice for discussion?

Expect it to be available for pre-order in the next few days, links and promotion elsewhere to follow.
Just ironing out the last few bits.

So it seems forums, even new slightly trafficed ones, attract spammers like, well, anywhere on the internet. I’ve added some spam protection options to hopefully make it harder.
Also, Issue #2 is nearly ready to go, expect it out in the next couple of days. The bulk of the layout work is done.

So I fixed the forums. Or at least I chucked the ones that didn’t work and replaced them with simple machine forums.
I will add posts for the different stories. Partially done at this point. You will need to register a username.

I’m currently reading Atopia Chronicles by Matt Mather and i’d recommend it to anybody that likes Sci Phi. It is a collection of different stories that are all tied together that take place in a world of unlimited virtual realms and a cyber paradise called Atopia. The kids that grow up there enmeshed into this strange new universe and the adults who built it and lose themselves among the multiverse. Many of the tales are cautionary in nature and good food for thought.

The Atopia Chronicles (Atopia Series Book 1)

Thanks everybody for the support. Issue #1 is still selling, if you can review it or know someone that could do a review please contact editor@sciphijournal.com. Still shy of the break even amount but moving in the right direction.
Issue #2 is coming along, payments are starting to go out, and the issue will be out in the next few weeks. I will try to get it up for pre-order a few days early. It helps on Amazon sales ranking to pre-order it, so if you Kindle it and are planning to pick up a copy that would be helpful when it is available. You wont have to wait months for it.
Thanks to everybody who has added a review on Amazon and thanks for the great ratings!
Finally, forums are here, but kinda empty. You can find them at http://sciphijournal.com/forum/” and the categories are set up and I will attempt ot create some posts tomorrow. It should work with the same login as for the blog as it is all integrated. Thanks to Mario from the ever helpful Site Opus if you ever have web design needs!

Did you enjoy issue #1? If you did could you rate it over at Amazon or even write a review?
I would be most appreciative.

So the forum plugin BBPress is installed (it came recommended) and I plan to set up threads for the different stories and articles.
Anybody got ideas what they would like to see. Expect them tomorrow.

It seems soon to be Sci Phi contributor Ben Zwycky has some god advice on how to write long Sci Phi oriented stories.
Look forward to Ben putting his talent into action in the upcoming Sci Phi journal Serial, Beyond the Mist.

I have a guest post today from, Emmanuel A. Mateo-Morales (a.k.a Vunder Guy), one of the authors who has a story in issue #2 of Sci Phi. He asked me an interesting question and he is an aspiring writer so, what do people think?
I was wondering if anyone out there could shed some insight onto the following question: How do you make a serialized series that intends to go on for at least two decades, have large epic plots that still manage to make cogent philosophical points?
I ask because it seems that most tales that do make cogent philosophical points most seem to be one-shots. Even the Twilight Zone, as chock to the brim with far more insight than both recent live-action Star Treks combined as that show was, was an anthology, or a collection of one-shots with little to no serialization.
Though I love to make philosophical one-shots and read such one-shots, I must admit that my heart lies in making tales with long plot-threads, as it was such shows like, everything in the DC Animated Universe, Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, and Avatar: The Last Airbender that got me into wanting to be a writer in the first place.
I think that it’s not impossible, as those three things I mentioned above somehow managed to do it, but I’m just curious as to how one accomplishes such a thing and how difficult it really is, because I seem to be finding it’s mighty hard.

The author L. Jagi Lamplighter Wright, wife of Sci Phi Contributor (hey I think that is a pretty important thing!) John C. Wright has an interesting new essay out called Holy Godzilla of the Apocalypse: or How to Identify a Superversive Story. Go read the whole thing, but the three most improtant aspects of a Superversive story are

1. Most importantly a Superversive story has to have good storytelling.
2. The characters must be heroic.
3. Superversive literature must have an element of wonder

I think she is right and i’d like to see a return to this sort of story telling. I’m hoping you find at least some of the stories in Sci Phi to be Superversive in nature because they are normally good tales.