Links for 2011-05-16

"The author-beta relationship is a strange one. The author exposes a vulnerable, still-in-the-works thing to the beta, a fleshy little newborn fiction coated in soft bits. The author is pleased. The author thinks this is an Excellent Thing which they are giving to the beta. The beta takes this dream and proceeds to point out every flaw, fracture, and missing piece. The beta takes this whole beautiful entity and returns a broken thing which the author must go fix.

Then they, like, go see a movie, or something. Get some froyo. Whatevs."

"In their 2003 article How Shit Became Shinola: Definition and Redefinition of Space Opera, David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer defined modern space opera as "colorful, dramatic, large scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character, and plot action ... and usually set in the relatively distant future and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone."

It would be hard to improve on that definition using words (although I could write an  entire blog post concerning the exceptions that prove the rule--and maybe I will one of these days), but I can show you what I go to space opera for with a single image."