I came to the realization recently that I have been lax in my responsibilities and have neglected to provide a venue by which to wrap up the 2012 Science Fiction Experience. I have noticed some of you have done wrap up posts and I wanted to do my own if for no other reason than to express my gratitude and to have a place where the rest of you can link your Experience-ending posts so that we can all reminisce about the opening months of the last year of our collective existence.

So with no further adieu, It’s a Wrap!

Continue reading The 2012 Science Fiction Experience: Its a Wrap…sort of… →

(Image by Vincent di Fate, used with permission)

“For my part I know nothing with any certainty,
but the sight of the stars makes me dream.”

~Vincent Van Gogh

——————

“In space no one can hear you scream”

~tagline from Alien

True, but if you were startled from your slumber last night with the echoes of a scream ringing in your ears, that just might have been me: I decided it was time to post about the 2012 Science Fiction Experience!

The sight of the stars makes me dream as well, and has done so for as far back as I can remember. The phrase “littered with stars” was inadequate to describe what my young eyes experienced as I gazed upwards on dark Nebraska nights, the sky untainted by the pollution of city lights. America’s space program was in its glory days and my young imagination was fueled by the reality of space travel as well as the fantastical imagery of shows like Star Trek, Star Wars, and Battlestar Galactica. It is little wonder that science fiction became my first love and that my younger years were spent lost between the pages of books by Harry Harrison, Larry Niven, Brian Daley and Alan Dean Foster, dreaming of the days when I too would be “boldly going”.

Though that dream remains unrealized for so many kids who went before me and have come after, my love for science fiction has not diminished and the places it takes me continue to delight. A few years back I decided I would like to invite other readers to spend time together to:

a) Continue their love affair with science fiction
b) Return to science fiction after an absence, or
c) Experience for the first time just how exhilarating science fiction can be.

This event was not to be a challenge. It was not a dare nor was it a contest. It was meant to be an experience, a word I did not choose at random. The very best connections with books are more than just a detached reading, they are an experience–an immersive, engaging interaction between the reader and the characters and events between the covers. It is that tangible joy I feel when reading science fiction that I wanted to share with like readers, while at the same time creating an open, embracing forum for those to participate who have either not read science fiction in the past or have had less than successful experiences with the genre.

And so the Science Fiction Experience, or Sci-Fi Experience, was born.

I have never been able to ascertain a logical explanation for why the arrival of old man Winter causes me to go nearly mad with a desire to read science fiction, but as that is the case the logical time for me to host this non-challenge was the months of January and February.

And so I officially welcome you to The 2012 Science Fiction Experience, which runs from January 1st, 2012 through February 29th, 2012. That’s right, we get an extra day this year! Woo-hoo!

Continue reading The 2012 Science Fiction Experience →

(Image credit: Flight, by Melissa Nucera)

Summer 2011: record-breaking heat waves, drought, flooding, earthquakes, tornadoes–we have had it all. For most of us who have experienced it, the turning of the calendar to reveal a September 1st date is not going to feel all that different. Summer has not yet relinquished her hold. And she has a right to hold on. After all, Autumn does not begin for another three weeks, and even then Summer may greedily hunger for a little more time. Let us pray otherwise.

Regardless of what my thermometer tells me, my heart tells me that autumn is here and that it is once again time to revel in things ghostly and ghastly, in stories of things that go bump in the night. It is time to trail our favorite detectives as they relentlessly chase down their prey, to go down that dark path into the woods, to follow flights of fantasy and fairy tale that have a darker heart than their spring time brethren. To confront gothic, creepy, horror stories in all their chilling delight.

Every September 1st through October 31st for the last 5 years I have hosted the R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril Challenge, affectionately known as the R.I.P. Challenge. I began this reader event, I blinked, and now I am hosting this for the 6th time. Wow, that is so hard to believe.

The purpose of the R.I.P. Challenge is to enjoy books that could be classified as:

Mystery.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Dark Fantasy.
Gothic.
Horror.
Supernatural.

The emphasis is never on the word challenge, instead it is about coming together as a community and embracing the autumnal mood, whether the weather is cooperative where you live or not.

Continue reading R.eaders I.mbibing P.eril VI →