Other Worlds

Author: Donna Royston

  • All in a Day’s Work

    Here’s an entertaining article about Margaret Hamilton (who played the Wicked Witch of the West), post-Wizard of Oz: Margaret Hamilton When I was a kid, the yearly airing of The Wizard of Oz was a big deal for me. At Halloween I always dressed as the Wicked Witch of the West. And with a minimum…

  • Apocalyptic Musing by Adam-Troy Castro

    What would people do if they had advance notice of the world ending? “The End of the World Measured in Values of N,” an SF story by Adam-Troy Castro in the July issue of Lightspeed, answers that question. It’s perhaps more of an artfully told essay than fiction. But no matter how you see it,…

  • West Wing Doghouse

    THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONFIRMATION HEARING. THE RECORD MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM. JOHNSON: Senator Enzi. ENZI. Thank you. Luke, congratulations on your nomination. Thank you for coming by to meet with us. I’d like to take this opportunity to ask about your qualifications. You have no previous governmental or…

  • Journal of the Travels of Christian Forrer III (1822), part 2

    This section contains one of my favorite stories from Christian’s journal, in which he meets the famous governor of New York, DeWitt Clinton. The governor must have been a wonderfully good-natured man, to be so polite to a bumptious young traveler who was wasting his time. But first, while the steamboat is being repaired, the…

  • Journal of the Travels of Christian Forrer III (1822), part 1

    When I was a kid, I always stayed a week or two at my grandparents’ farm in the summer. My grandmother, as faithfully as she went to church every Sunday, faithfully went to a sale or two every Saturday. By “sale,” which is what she called it, I mean an estate auction. At one, she picked…

  • Feel the Force, Luke

    I haven’t officially welcomed the newcomer to the household–Luke! He was adopted from a rescue group late last year. Let’s see what he has to say. Donna: Any thoughts on the state of the arts? One of your predecessors, Toby, was something of a Rolling Stones fan. He particularly liked the song “Bitch” (although he…

  • Progress Report!

    I am doing the Clarion West Write-a-thon again this year, so far with greater success than last year. I’ll talk more about “success” in another post. For now, I’ll just say I’m going for less emphasis on writing thousands of words and more on writing every day at consistent times. If I get at least…

  • Fantastic Defenders

    I have recently served as co-editor of a short story anthology, Fantastic Defenders, with my fellow writer, David Keener. The official release was during Balticon. I had fun writing the introduction, and here it is, to give you an idea of what the book’s aim is: One place to begin, in talking about fantastic defenders,…

  • Balticon: The Social Side of Writing

    Just got back from Balticon on Monday, and I was thinking about the wonderfully various array of activities and people, and what a great experience it is for a writer to get out and mingle. And that led me to think that there’s a missing part to the standard exhortation “To be a writer, you…

  • Let the Coast Guard Handle This

    I don’t do reviews of short fiction anymore, for a number of reasons. For one, see Neil Clarke’s column from last year, i.e., lack of impact. However, just for fun, why not give a little nod toward recent stories, such as last week’s “A Spell to Retrieve Your Lover from the Bottom of the Sea”…