Blog
Ahoy, Critterfolk!
New entry May 28
Critter Notices
Books from Critters!
Check out Books by Critters for books by your fellow Critterfolk, as well as my list of recommended books for writers.
New Book from a Critter Member
**NOW IN
PRINT EDITION
TOO!** Awesome new book,
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR SPECULATIVE FICTION OPENINGS,
from a Critter member who's unearthed a shard of The Secret
to becoming a pro writer. Really good piece of work.
"...if you're at all concerned about story openings, you'd be nuts not to read what Qualkinbush has to say." —Wil McCarthy, author of BLOOM and THE COLLAPSIUM
Stayin' Alive
If you want to make a career of SF writing, STAYING ALIVE - A WRITER'S GUIDE by three-time SFWA President Norman Spinrad, published by your Critter Captain's ReAnimus Press, is an indispensable guide to the inside workings of the SF publishing industry by an expert.
Interviewed!
I was interviewed live on public radio for Critters' birthday, for those who want to listen.
Free Web Sites
Free web sites for authors (and others) are available at www.nyx.net.
ReAnimus Acquires Advent!
ReAnimus Press is pleased to announce the acquisition of the legendary Advent Publishers! Advent is now a subsidiary of ReAnimus Press, and we will continue to publish Advent's titles under the Advent name. Advent was founded in 1956 by Earl Kemp and others, and has published the likes of James Blish, Hal Clement, Robert Heinlein, Damon Knight, E.E. "Doc" Smith, and many others. Advent's high quality titles have won and been finalists for several Hugo Awards, such as The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy and Heinlein's Children. Watch this space for ebook and print editions of all of Advent's current titles!
Book Recommendation
THE SIGIL TRILOGY:
The universe is dying from within...
"Great stuff... Really enjoyed it." — SFWA Grandmaster Michael Moorcock
Announcing ReAnimus Press
If you're looking for great stuff to read from bestselling and award-winning authors—look no further! ReAnimus Press was founded by your very own Critter Captain. (And with a 12% Affiliate program.) [More]
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FEATURED BOOK
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Critters Workshop is brought to you by...
So, whose wacky/dumb/brilliant idea was Critters Workshop?
That would be me, Dr. Andrew Burt:
| The below is probably out of date. :) I try to keep my home page the most updated, www.aburt.com. If you're looking to read some of my writing (of course you are!) :), that's at www.aburt.com/fiction. |
I'm CEO of TechSoft.com; we create custom software and complex (or simple) web sites. I've also been a computer science professor at the University of Denver, focusing on teaching and research in the areas of computer security, networking, operating systems, the social impacts of computing, and an unusual branch of AI. Before that I was CEO of an Internet company that provided the local news channels to major Internet portals hundreds of newspapers and TV stations. Before that, I was doing the CS prof. thing at DU again. Additionally, I was the founder of the world's first Internet service provider, (Nyx.net).
My writing and science fictional background includes...
- Critters, obviously
- Former Vice President of SFWA (Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, Inc.)
- Ed Bryant's Northern Colorado Writers' Workshop (www.ncww.org) of which I'm a past president; the NCWW has launched the careers of notables such as Connie Willis, Dan Simmons, Wil McCarthy, P.D. Cacek, and its past and present membership averages approximately one major award win or nomination per person (Connie obviously raising that bar!)
- Being Chairman of SFWA's e-piracy committee (info at www.sfwa.org/epiracy)
- The SFWA Bulletin, of which I was formerly webmaster, and which you should subscribe to!
- The Black Holes response time tracker and market information site I maintain at www.critique.org/blackholes (and associated sites for saying nice things about editors and tracking dead markets)
- The CritFinder, a site for writers to find or announce an in-person workshop, at www.critique.org/critfinder
- CritSpace, free, passworded web pages for workshops, at www.critique.org/critspace, for those already involved in a workshop and who would like a site to help augment workshop manuscript transfers and so forth (used by Geoff Landis's Cajun Sushi Hamsters, John Stith's CSWW, etc.)
- David Brin/Analog's Webs of Wonder contest, www.analogsf.com/wow, for which I was a judge and copyright liaison
- Preditors & Editors (www.sfwa.org/prededitors) writing info site, for whom I run the big annual best-of voting
My publication credits include dozens of short fiction tales, one cyberwarfare novel, the profits of which were donated to the Red Cross, and a wide assortment of non-fiction. I've made numerous media appearances (including being allegedly mentioned in dialog in the forthcoming movie Takedown from Miramax) and enjoy being a frequent con panelist. For a hobby, I construct solutions to all the world's problems. Fortunately -- nobody listens.
My homepage, with details of my other nutty projects and a "find Aburt" picture, is here.
My SF writing bio (aka my Critters bio page) is here.
The story behind why I founded Critters, as memorialized in my original call-for-members netnews article, is here.
Presumably like yourself (else why are you looking at a science fiction writing workshop?), I one day hope to be a household name like 'Asimov'... I believe I have all the right tools for that: The discipline to write, ideas, maybe some insight into the human psyche, stamps and envelopes to submit manuscripts with, and a legal change of name form with "Andrew Asimov" on it. :-)
Critters and/or I have been profiled in various places on the net. Some I know of are...
But you don't really want to know about me, you want to know about Critters. So look around and join us if you're up to the challenge!
