The Margins of SF/F

Definitions of “margin”

The edge or border of something
The blank border on each side of the print on a page

Science fiction and fantasy (SF/F) have always been inclusive genres. By that, I mean inclusive of creative works, particularly ones considered odd for their times. While I enjoy all SF/F, I especially like reading works on its margins (1st definition). There’s where you can find really different world-building, even if the book was published under under another genre umbrella. This blog contains some of my “margin” (2nd definition) scribbles.

Recent Posts

Crossword: Witches & Wizards in Discworld - Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels contained tons of interesting characters. Many of readers' favorites were also witches and wizards. So here's a crossword to tickle your memory about both witches and wizards. Note that when you… (more)
How Discworld Novels Helped Us Through Rough Times - In 2021, I found Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld Reading Order Guide 3.0* and realized I'd read only 17 of the 40+ Discworld books. My science advisor (husband) was looking for something to read, so I… (more)
Wordsearch: The Ankh-Morpork City Watch - See if you can find all the Watch members, as well as a few characters who feature significantly in the Watch novels. I recommend you read the Watch novels all together, but in the order… (more)
Crossword: Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Novels - So you think you know Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels? If you haven't read any, then you should try them. My husband and I challenged ourselves to read all of them this year. Here's a crossword… (more)
Match Written SF to Movie (Quick Game) - Here's a quick puzzle: match movie posters to the inspiring science fiction short story or novel. It's quick because I couldn't find small movie graphics in some cases and I ruled out movies that had… (more)
Interactive Fiction: A Three-Way Discussion (Plus Survey!) - Is Interactive Fiction (IF) a game or a new literary form? In my opinion, it can be either or both. I decided to re-evaluate whether I should write IF. Again, I ended up in a… (more)
Word Search: LoTR Geography - If the previous crossword was puzzling, here's the answers--but they're in a word search puzzle. The longer names really stressed the algorithm and I had to keep increasing the size of the puzzle, so it's… (more)
Crossword: LoTR Geography - How well do you know Middle Earth? Test your knowledge of Third Age geography with this crossword puzzle. All the names have been used within the three books of the Lord of the Rings (LoTR).… (more)
Word Search: LoTR Fellowship Members - This is my first test of a very small embedded word search puzzle of the Fellowship members in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Most of you should be able to do this w/ one… (more)
Seven Crucial Elements of Military Science Fiction - My Library at LibraryThing Seven elements military Science Fiction should contain, from the perspective of a former servicewoman and lifelong SF reader. I read Best Military SF of the 20th Century because I was… (more)
Announcing the Outside-North-America Version of Peacekeeper - I have finally managed to get a Kindle version of Peacekeeper onto Amazon, for sale only outside the US, Canada, and their territories. Can I do that while my publisher is selling an e-book version?… (more)
Please don’t turn my computer into a phone! On the other hand… - Better speech recognition is nice... We'll later look at the challenges of dictating SF and Fantasy. But if I'd wanted to create my digital art or 450-plus-page novels on a phone, then I wouldn't have… (more)
Get Discounted AND Signed Books This Friday! - This Friday night, Sept 7th at 7:30 p.m., the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (RMFW) are having a book sale and signing that will be open to the public. A multitude of RMFW authors (usually defined… (more)
The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins (Rumination Warning) - I'm behind on my reviews. It's obvious when I look at my pile of already-read books on the corner of my desk. I pick up the oldest---when I suddenly realize that I read The Hunger… (more)
The Fuller Memorandum, by Charles Stross - Sometimes life swats you around and you don't have time to update your blog. 'Nuff said about my problems, which are nothing compared to Bob Howard's issues in Stross's The Fuller Memorandum. Bob Howard is… (more)

There are many more posts, but I suggest you use tag or category links in the left column for general browsing or search posts for specific subjects.