I wish the world was different. I wish we all lived in a time and place where every single human being is treated fairly and equally, I mean that just makes sense doesn’t it? People are people, why should anyone be treated any differently for something like their skin colour? Yet I look at the news each day and I wonder if we’ve even made any progress at all. I know I’m speaking from a position of privilege, I’m a twenty-something cisgender white dude, I sit squarely in the middle of the privilege venn diagram, I have no idea what it’s truly like to be discriminated against. I also have no idea how I can truly help or change the system. Sitting by and doing nothing certainly isn’t going to accomplish anything though and I can do so much better than that, so, the decision I’ve come to is to fight hate with love. As such, completely off the top of my head, here are 5 sci-fi/fantasy books by black authors. There are many, many more out there in bookshops and across the Internet, so if you’ve got a favourite drop it in the comments, let’s celebrate a little!
Tag: sheffield
Tips for Writing a Fight Scene by Chris Joynson
Fight scenes are hard. I think that's a statement most writers will agree with, fights are an incredibly visual and visceral thing and translating that into the written word can be difficult. It doesn't help that there's so many films and TV shows packed with HUGE blockbuster action sequences (I'm writing this the day after watching the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and my heart hasn't stopped pounding from the siege of Mandalore arc). Action set pieces are not a strength of the written word, but that doesn't mean they can't be good, you just have to know what you're doing.
It’s All Part of the Routine! By Chris Joynson
If there's anything I've learnt over the past month, it's that having a routine is important. I consider myself a typical writer and as such I'm used to long periods of isolation, day after day as I work on one project or another. I entered this never-ending Lockdown of ours with an air of cockiness, it has to be said, it'll be easy I told myself, no problem. I couldn't have been more wrong.
Sheffield Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Group Annual Report 2019
In 2019: We held 24 Monday Night Sessions, 12 Saturday Lunchtime sessions and 3 Author Evenings. We published one anthology, held submissions for three further anthologies and worked on an RPG game.
New Release: Goldthirst Company Volume 1: The Dragon’s Veil by Chris Burgess
Get the quest, kill the monsters, grab the loot, don't die. How hard can adventuring be? When the party is a fashionista wizard more concerned with appearances than loot, a thief that picks locks by ripping them apart, a ranger more interested in talking to plants than people, and a paladin that just wants to get paid, then even a simple quest can prove a challenge! Finding themselves contractually obligated to retrieve the legendary Dragon’s Veil, the members of the Goldthirst Company must travel through dangerous wilderness, overcoming savage monsters, violent geography, irritated goats and their mutual antipathy to reclaim an ancient treasure.
Sheffield Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Group 