Melanie Lamaga, Writer, Editor, Photographer
Fiction on the Border Between the Real and Unreal
Mutants on the Outside, Looking In Hardcore. That’s the word that comes to mind. But not just because Freaks’ Amour refers to a XXX rated show where Normals go to watch mutant men rape their wives and girlfriends (and for a finale the Normals pelt them with rotten fruit). The sex scenes are not particularly […] Read more »
This novel, which received a Nebula nomination for Best Novel, takes place in a post-war landscape. The particulars are left vague: we know that there were bombs and radiation, followed by smaller wars for control, and the creation of city-states. Outside of these, borders have become fluid, and life brutal. To stay out of trouble, […] Read more »
Last week I wrote about the town of San Antonio de Las Minas (in the wine country of Baja California, Mexico), but I have one more highlight to share with you: an old ranch called La Casa Vieja. The historic adobe home dates back to at least the 1800s, and the rhythm of this place […] Read more »
One of my favorite places in the Baja California wine country (along Rt. 3 between El Sauzal and Tecate) is San Antonio de Las Minas, named for the mines where prospectors once hoped to find gold. Alas, they mostly found chalk. The true gold of the region lies in its rich soil, abundant water and […] Read more »
An Alien Anthropologist Visits Planet Earth I’ve read quite a few of Vonnegut’s novels now, and I’ve decided he is, in fact, an alien observer of a strange and dangerous race: humans. Vonnegut’s stories show us our every shortcoming without rancor. Like a good anthropologist, he’s neither angry nor particularly compassionate. He doesn’t make excuses […] Read more »
Ahh, Labor Day, the day where we do as little as possible. Grilling food, drinking beer, playing frisbee, hanging out… Is that all we strive for the other 250-260 working days per year? As the decades pass, do we comfort ourselves with the vision of retirement, when presumably every day will be like Labor Day? […] Read more »
An Elegant Explosion of Repressed Creativity and Desire This is beautifully written, Romantic (in the 18th century sense, not the Danielle Steele sense) novella about soul mates, forbidden love, and being a magical child in a family that’s lost its mojo. It’s also about talent, both the kind that emerges full-blown and the kind that […] Read more »
Wishing Terrorism Was Only Fiction Many people have compared the novel Osama by Lavie Tidhar to books by Phillip K. Dick. It is similar in that the main characters come to realize that reality is not at all what it seems, and that there are those who would stop them from learning the truth. However, […] Read more »
How to Get the First Draft Done. Hemingway famously said “The first draft of anything is shit.” So what do think when you hear about people writing novels in a couple of months or even weeks? Hmm. Well, to be fair, maybe they’ve been thinking about it a really long time… or maybe they are […] Read more »
This is a useful book for intermediate-level writers, or for more experienced writers new to writing science fiction and fantasy. Although in some respects it might be considered dated, the foundations are solid. Do be aware that it focuses much more heavily on science fiction than fantasy, though most of the principles covered can be […] Read more »