Brian Biswas

Cover of the novel typewriter beach, by Meg Waite Clayton. A young woman is looking through an archway out at a rocky coastline.

If you like suspense and noir movies from the 40s and 50s, give this one a try. A young woman is auditioning with Hitchcock for his new movie. Lots of info about the seamy side of Hollywood during the days leading up to World War II (blacklisting).

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LeVar Burton Named ABA’s Indie Bookstore Ambassador As the American Booksellers Association's Indie Bookstore Ambassador for 2025-2026, Burton will champion independent booksellers, especially on Small Business Saturday on November 29 and Independent B...

In my book, LeVar Burton is a hero. I don’t know anyone who has done more to promote literacy and a love of reading. Way to go, LeVar!

www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/...

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Ditto on all counts. 👍

The cover of the book the Best of Gene Wolfe. A collection of short stories selected by Wolfe himself. Ursula K. Le Guin provides the quote, “Wolfe is our Melville.”

If you’re looking to get into Gene Wolfe, may I suggest starting with this. A brilliant collection of short stories (a couple are novella length) each picked out by Wolfe himself. Start with the first and read them all. His range is amazing. 5 stars.

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I often figure out writing problems when I don’t consciously try to figure them out. I go on a walk instead and, voila, a solution pops into my head. This has happened too often to be mere coincidence. Relaxing the mind seems to allow creativity to flow.

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“I’d rather be happy being myself, than sad trying to please everyone else.”
—Jermaine Cole

The applies to what I choose to write about as well.

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AntipodeanSF: Bohrmann Featured on Bohrmann: The Expansion of Space - by Brian Biswas - Part Two Our Audio License by is licensed under Featured Music “Waved Oceanic Infinite Voice” - by Ovidiu Bufnila and Massimo Som...

Part two of my short story “The Expansion of Space” was just broadcast on the AntipodeanSF Radio show.

antisf.libsyn.com/bohrmann

(In case you missed it, here is part 1:
antisf.libsyn.com/bohmia
)

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Thanks for this. Great article! I’m in the “Gene Wolfe is one of the greatest American writers period” camp. For proof, look no further than this (hard-to-find) novella: The Ziggurat. (Also, the standard works: The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Island of Dr. Death stories, Forlesen, etc …)

AntipodeanSF Issue 323 - Ionospherics

Now available on the intertubes with thirteen of the best in speculative flash fiction stories to read and enjoy.

antisf.com.au

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Cover of the novel The Singularity by Dino Buzzati. A pen and ink illustration of a monstrous man with two silhouetted figures looking on from a safe distance.

Originally published in Italy in 1960. A prescient parable of artificial intelligence. Can a human soul be re-created?

The Tartar Steppe is Buzzati’s‘s masterpiece, but this is quite good. Sixty years ahead of its time.

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A young woman is staring up a starry sky and at what looks like the Andromeda galaxy.

My short story The Expansion of Space (part one) was broadcast today on the Antipodian Speculative Fiction radio program. Part two will be next week.

This is excerpted from a novel in progress, Initial Conditions.

2nvr.org.au/playlist/boh...

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Always loved this song by them. Bouncy and joyous. 👍

I remember my first reading (it was for a collection of short stories). I was PETRIFIED when they introduced me. But when I got in front of the microphone, the terror melted away and it was pure bliss.

btw, I have your book 📕 on order.

That’s the greatest feeling in the world, isn’t it? Way to go, Adam!

This is my second time through this book. It’s a fascinating read. I think at its heart it’s about loneliness and isolation. Harrowing.

The cover of the novel The Wall by Marlen Haushofer. A black and white cow grazing on a plain, a white and blue background (I think the white portion represents the wall), a solitary cloud in the sky.

While vacationing in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains, a middle-aged woman awakens one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall.

An allegory for our times.

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My novel , The Astronomer, on the fiction shelf at Barnes & Noble. There is a gold signed-copy sticker on the top righthand corner of the cover.

If you find yourself in Durham, North Carolina … *signed* copies of my novel The Astronomer are available at the New Hope Commons Barnes and Noble.

Shortlisted for Publishers Weekly BookLife Priza (General Fiction, 2024).

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Abstract African artwork adorns the covers of Amos Tutvola’s novels The Palm-Wine Drinkard and My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.

First two novels by the Nigerian fantasy writer Amos Tutvola (published in 1952 and 1954). Both are considered tops in that genre. I must say, I’ve never read anything like them. It’s as if Tutuola invented his own syntax. And it grows on you.

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Great interview.

I can’t wait to read this book. (I’m obsessed with language and I love short stories).

Writing, producing, and distributing books is a labor of love. We do it because we’re driven to do it. It’s a cliche but it’s true.

So support independent presses in whatever way you can.

Ditch the computer, ditch the cell phone. Buy books and read. Your mind will love you for it.

That said, if you have a wealthy and benevolent family member looking to support independent arts, please let us know. Books cost money to write and produce and especially to SHIP. And I'm working as many jobs as I can.

It's time to quote this again. We need (your) (anticorporate) literature now. Listen to Dan.

I dropped Instagram for precisely those reasons, but I am following you over here. “Where there are no ads and the people are friendly.” 👍

And let me add a couple:

1.) When you think you’re done, read what you’ve written aloud. You’ll find you’re at the halfway point.

2.) A fictional work should be 20% writing and 80% editing. At least that’s the way it’s always been in my case.

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GENE WOLFE: WRITERLY ADVICE

5.) Do not start a story unless you have an ending in mind. You can change the story's ending if you wish, but you should always have a destination.

(If you don’t do this, you’ll find yourself wandering hither and thither.)

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GENE WOLFE'S TOP FIVE PIECES OF WRITERLY ADVICE

4.) You do not characterize by telling the reader about the character. You do it by showing the character thinking, speaking and acting in a characteristic way. You simply show it and shut up.

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Agreed. I’ve never seen a rule that can’t be broken.

GENE WOLFE: WRITERLY ADVICE

3.) Remember that it is characterizing that puts your story heads and shoulders over the others in the slush pile.

(Now, that’s not always true—Asimov, PKD, for whom plots usually predominate—but it almost always is.)

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GENE WOLFE'S WRITERLY ADVICE

2.) Read what you're trying to write, for Godsakes! (Don't read enormous fantasy series if you're trying to write short stories.)

I’d add:

Read extensively in your genre, yes, but read other genres as well. You learn from them all.

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Gene Wolfe is one of my two favorite science fiction writers (Stanislaw Lem being the other).

GENE WOLFE'S TOP FIVE PIECES OF WRITERLY ADVICE

1.) Get up early and write.

I’d amend to say:

“Get up and write.” (I’m not an early bird.)

More to follow …

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