She is 
alixsin and I'm delighted to see her on LJ. Alison wrote some terrific (and Clarke-nominated) SF novels in the late nineties. She has various hardcore science and medical degrees and now writes fantasy with the heavy-duty worldbuilding. I had no idea she had a blog here, but it turns out she posted this fascinating piece 'Who is Qualified to Write SF' in connection with a panel involving papersky over a year ago.
This particular piece is resonating a lot with me right now, both because I'm studying science myself (albeit at entry level) and because I've got a copy of the new(ish) Greg Egan novel to review. The Egan is making me think about the scientist-writer relationship in all its swerves and particularities.
I would love to see Alison Sinclair produce more hard SF. Would love.
alixsin and I'm delighted to see her on LJ. Alison wrote some terrific (and Clarke-nominated) SF novels in the late nineties. She has various hardcore science and medical degrees and now writes fantasy with the heavy-duty worldbuilding. I had no idea she had a blog here, but it turns out she posted this fascinating piece 'Who is Qualified to Write SF' in connection with a panel involving papersky over a year ago.This particular piece is resonating a lot with me right now, both because I'm studying science myself (albeit at entry level) and because I've got a copy of the new(ish) Greg Egan novel to review. The Egan is making me think about the scientist-writer relationship in all its swerves and particularities.
I would love to see Alison Sinclair produce more hard SF. Would love.
Thank you for the heads up.
Am working on it!
Really looking forward to reading your thoughts on Egan, and the scientist-writer relationship.
Re: Am working on it!
The Egan is fascinating (and a little frustrating). There are so few people who can do the science AND write the stories that you guys are to be doubly treasured. Best of luck with getting the writing off the ground, and hope to see you posting!
Hope you are well! Looking forward to catching up at Eastercon in a few weeks :)
studying science
Belatedly I've stumbled in to this blog arena... (I'm not even on Facebook, and have let most of the interweave webby connecting pass me by, I'm afraid...so far... although I did spend a couple of years furiously typing on the Festival Weather electronic dance music forum earlier this century, so I'm not a complete webphobe!)... I've just arrived here via Justina Robson's blog, which I went to from recommending her on the James Randi forum... that's a lively place, I recommend it, by the way!
Anyway, I've loved your stuff for many years, and until being made redundant from Waterstone's in Swansea three years ago I always pushed your books and kept them in stock and wrote little blurbs to put on the shelves. Your literary riffs and beat-poetry in Someone To Watch Over Me was the hook that made me love you, and the story sealed the deal! Then Dreaming In Smoke was the dessert that followed up to make me purr like a fat cat on a cushion... and more recently Sound Mind was another poem of both poetry and story... you are the writer I would have been if I wasn't such a buffoon!
I see you say you are studying science, and I just wondered how you are going about that? I did an Open University degree over a ten year period from 1987, and I loved it! They are so good at helping you learn, the materials are set up to cause you to discover rather than simply memorise facts... they teach you the process of doing science... such a great experience! I would encourage everyone to do at least their first Science course, the general Science Foundation course! And the summer school was so much fun, one week of lab experience and such, and in the evening a couple of hours each night of a program of really entertaining lectures... I'd love to do it again, take the current version of the course just to see how they are doing it these days!
So what are you doing?
Re: studying science
I'm with the OU, so probably what I'm doing is familiar. I did Maths for Science, then MS121 and S104 (which is the big intro-level science course) and I'm now on MS221 and starting the books for S207 (physics). They have shaken up their science program and removed the specific degrees in Physics, Biology, etc. replacing them with Natural Sciences (which is, to my eyes, a weaker degree). So I'm planning on doing an Open Degree that will mimic the old physics degree as closely as possible. It's early days, though--I'm struggling with the calculus and such that's needed for the nitty-gritty physics. We'll see what becomes of me in the end :)
Thanks again for your interest and support. Glad you've been round Justina's, too--she's a mate and a damn fine writer.
Re: studying science
Yes that calculus is a bugger… but do they still do the summer school? I nearly dropped that course until I got to the summer school, and then mingling with the tutors, and seeing how they didn't worry about why it worked but just got on with using the tool of it helped me to accept it and it all opened up ( with seeing it done on the board etc, and then practicing) and I relaxed and all was well! My degree was just the old keep adding credits until you've got enough, and so I just did all the physics courses, and after the calculus a couple of other maths courses and a third level Oceanography course to finish off, so it all added up to a BSc. Took me ten years! I loved it, but it showed me I'd never be able to actually do it as a paid job! I'm just a poet and a hippy (atheist… can't stand all that astrology etc new age businessman bollocks!) dropout trippy flippy buffoon, hehe… I'm doing a MA Contemporary Dialogues (Fine Art & Photography) at Swansea Metropolitan University now… should graduate this June… so getting made redundant was actually really good for me! (And if I hadn't done that OU degree, I wouldn't have been able to just walk into this MA!… and being unemployed, tuition was free!)
Yes Justina has been another of my favourites since her second novel Mappa Mundi… what a cracker that novel was! But with Quantum Gravity she's really made a unique contribution to the field, and it's such fun to watch her totally enjoying herself with it!
Anyway, let me just encourage you to take a look at my art! I'd love to hear what you think! www.asydhouse.co.uk.
And if you'd like to read a couple of my poems I have two on my Deviant Art webpage: this one is a sf poem in the way your Someone To Watch Over Me mutated into sf from its literary impetus: http://asydhouse.deviantart.com/gal
Let me know what you think… I've never published it, except recently on that website...
Re: studying science
Re: studying science