Speculative Fiction Writing
Title: SpecFic Writing Group
Location: MadLab
Description: A group for writers interested in science fiction, weird fiction, slipstream, horror or fantasy.
Start Time: 19:00
Date: 2010-12-08
End Time: 21:00
Welcome to the MadLab Speculative Fiction Writing Group!
Please note we now have a Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=155429464471277
We are a group for writers interested in science fiction, weird fiction, slipstream, horror and fantasy. We meet on the second Wednesday of every month to critique a sample of each other’s work.
Our members write everything from flash fiction to short stories to novellas to novels; single genre to cross-genre to subgenre (steampunk, urban fantasy, cyberpunk, hard-SF to name but a few).
Established in May this year we are still a relatively new group but we already have a dozen members of whom six or seven make it to each meeting. We are still open to new members, young or old, published or unpublished. If you’re interested, just drop me an email at madlab@craigpay.com.
It works like this: a week in advance everyone shares the work they want critiquing in a DropBox. There’s a 3000 word limit per meeting (longer stories or novel chapters can be broken up and read over subsequent meetings).
We use the Turkey City Lexicon system for critiquing which, although it says it’s a ‘Primer for SF workshops’, works well for any genre. You can read it online at http://www.sfwa.org/2009/06/turkey-city-lexicon-a-primer-for-sf-workshops but it goes something like this:
“No one can attend or comment who does not bring a story. The contributors read and annotate all the stories. When that’s done, everyone forms a circle, a story is picked at random, and the person to the writer’s right begins the critique. (Large groups may require deliberate scheduling.)
“Following the circle in order, with a minimum of cross-talk or interruptions, each person emits his/her considered opinions of the story’s merits and/or demerits. The author is strictly required, by rigid law and custom, to make no outcries, no matter how he or she may squirm. When the circle is done and the last reader has vented his or her opinion, the silently suffering author is allowed an extended reply, which, it is hoped, will not exceed half an hour or so, and will avoid gratuitously personal ripostes. This harrowing process continues, with possible breaks for food, until all the stories are done, whereupon everyone tries to repair ruptured relationships in an orgy of drink and gossip.”
Feel free to add a comment below or email me. See you around!
Tags: MancSpecFic
Hi MadLab Spec Fic Group
Thought you might be interested in the following event in Manchester?
Bren
SWAMP PLANET CHRISTMAS
SEASONAL STORIES FROM OUTER SPACE
Thursday 16th December, 6.30pm – 8.00pm
International Anthony Burgess Foundation
Manchester
£3 advance or on the door (subject to availability)
http://www.brenocallaghan.co.uk/projects/swamp-planet-christmas/
Calling all armchair space cadets! Join us as we jettison our consumer cares and journey to distant galaxies for a reading of festive sci-fi and fantasy short stories. This glowing gift basket contains dystopian visions, parallel worlds and alternative customs that may seem strangely alien to our spongy human brains. Juiced from vintage pulp paperbacks of the 1950s onwards, we’ll traverse strange, unsettling terrains as we celebrate the spirit of the season from among the stars.
Swamp Planet Christmas: Seasonal Stories from Outer Space, Thursday16th December, 6.30pm at The International Anthony Burgess Foundation is intended as a fun, tongue-in-cheek alternative to the growing tide of Yuletide schmaltz. So instead of more traditional Dickensian tales of shivering wretches or apparitions urging repentance (yawn), we’ll hear about the abducted twin of Elvis – while passing round a tin of Quality Street during the journey.
Featured tales include the short story Cyber-Claus by the author of Neuromancer, William Gibson… in a mecha-armed society, one man and his cybernetic lover find their sleep disturbed by a ruckus on the roof. Time to lock and load, baby! A Jesuit priest travels to a distant supernova in The Star by the godfather of British science-fiction Arthur C. Clarke, only to stumble across a terrible truth that links our own planet with a distant world.
It’s Christmas Eve, and in The War Beneath the Tree by fantasy author Gene Wolf, last year’s toys gather under the leadership of Bear to wage battle against the new arrivals. Elsewhere, in a far-flung corner of the universe, the young son of human settlers attempts to explain to a sentient, Cidorian jellyfish the concept of giving in The Christmas Present by triple Hugo award winner Gordon R. Dickson.
Jodrell Bank has translated unusual signals emanating from the surface of Mars to be the launch of an unknown object of approximate sleigh-shaped dimensions. The trajectory has been mapped and the final destination confirmed as the roof of the International Anthony Burgess Centre. Can you guess what it is yet? That’s right, Martian Santa will be paying a visit in his nuclear-fusion sleigh and bringing gifts for all the naughty grown-up boys and girls!
Entry is £3, adults only, which includes a free glass of mulled wine. Tickets are available in advance from the link below (plus booking fee) or reserve a seat via and pay on the door. Advance booking recommend, numbers limited to 100.
Advance tickets or reservations
http://swampplanetchristmas.eventbrite.com/
FURTHER INFORMATION
VENUE
The International Anthony Burgess Foundation is a new conversion of a former mill building with a fab cafe-bar and event space seating up to 100. It’s situated opposite Macintosh Mill, at the bottom of the street behind the late-night Spar on Oxford Road.
http://www.anthonyburgess.org/