Notice from the SFWA Board of Directors:
Recently, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) was contacted in regards to contracts potentially being offered to writers submitting to a variety of magazines including Analog, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and F&SF, that contained some potentially problematic clauses. These magazines represent important and historic repositories of some of the best speculative fiction written in the past and the present.
After conversing with MustRead, Inc., the publisher of those magazines, SFWA is pleased to provide some additional clarification on the issues brought to our attention. To wit, contract clauses regarding performance or merchandising rights should not be included in agreements with the above magazines. If these clauses do appear, authors should negotiate to have them stricken or removed entirely from the agreement, as they are considered either an editorial error or a holdover from an outdated contract. While SFWA cannot and does not provide legal advice, we are suggesting that writers approach these specific agreements this way. SFWA appreciates the clarification from MustRead, Inc., on these clauses.
SFWA will continue to monitor agreements in the speculative fiction short story marketplace, and continue our work as advocates and defenders for our membership and the genre writing community at large. Our Contracts Committee provides model contracts for various types of written work and will also provide private review of contracts (with or without personally identifying information redacted).
Thank you for your attention to this matter. Remember to always read any contract you are being asked to sign with caution, and when possible, get proper legal advice before signing any agreement that you do not fully understand. And remember, contracts are always negotiable. Advocate for your work, and when you need our help, we are here.
On behalf of the SFWA Board of Directors,
Kate Ristau
President
The post Watch Those Contract Clauses! Clarification from MustRead, Inc. on Unusual Rights Inclusions appeared first on SFWA.
by Jessica Maison
A writer conjures images for their readers, whether writing prose, film, or comics. Comics writing has a set of best practices that share similarities and differences with screenwriting and prose writing. Most successful stories told in any medium must establish a dynamic world and protagonist while presenting an enticing inciting incident, climax, and resolution. They must create compelling characters with relatable strengths and weaknesses driven by interesting motivations. However, distinct differences exist between these mediums. Writing for comics is a visual medium, as is screenwriting, whereas prose is a language-based medium. Yet all three need to conjure images and dynamically travel through space and time. The way a writer in each medium achieves those feats is where the nuances in the writing techniques exist.
Similar to screenwriting, most of the words a comics writer puts into a script are meant for the writer’s collaborators. The comics writer is creating a world for their editor, penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. Indirectly, the reader will see a visual interpretation of the writer’s words by that team as illustrated in panels. Directly, the reader will experience the writer’s words in the captions and word balloons, mostly as dialogue. Because comics is a visual medium, the less dialogue the better is a good rule. In a visual medium, the story should be told primarily through images. The writer must decide what images are shown and what ones are not, and there is great complexity in those choices, especially in comics, where such limited space exists to develop the story. If done well, the team of artists will build a compelling world and characters using the writer’s well-crafted blueprint.
Screenwriters use scenes to break up their story, choosing when to cut in and out of scenes and manipulating time to create the flow for their story. In film, each frame is projected on the same space. In comics, each panel (frame) occupies its own space. The writer determines what is shown in those panels, creating an illusion of motion or suspense. Even the page turn plays a significant role in the comic’s pacing. A comics writer must consider what action will be on a spread and what will turn the page. Comics rely on readers to fill in the blanks to make their series of images feel fluid and exciting. The comics writer must guide how the reader fills in those blanks by what they show in the panels and when they show it. A writer and artist create a kind of magic when determining the number of panels to use, what images to put in those panels, and how to place them on the page.
Page from Ambitious Failures, Richard Fairgray’s graphic memoir.
Alternately, prose writers use only words, relying on their readers’ imagination to transform those words into images. The prose writer can do this with as many words or as few as they desire. They usually spend more time describing the setting, characters, and actions because they do not have a camera or an illustrator to create those images. The prose writer must use the reader’s imagination as the conduit to create visuals.
Pages from Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters: The Killing Stone, written by Jessica Maison and illustrated by Anna Wieszczyk.
A fight scene demonstrates the differences in the three mediums very well. In prose, expressing the character’s internal struggle is just as important as describing the external action in a fight. In film, the writer focuses on what actions the director, designers, and actors need to focus on to advance character and plot. The screenwriter must reveal the character’s internal struggle with key moments in the action or pieces of dialogue to develop the story further. Both in film and prose, much of the action can be shown or described. For a comic writer, there is limited space and no actual motion. The writer can’t show the whole fight scene. They must plan out frames and create movement through the actions they choose to reveal.
Page from the GLAAD Award-winning graphic novel Four Color Heroes by Richard Fairgray, published by Fanbase Press.
Additionally, a prose writer has more freedom to capture the abstract and invisible than a comics writer. They can take as much time as they want describing these things. In comics, a writer must show a character’s internal struggles using visual images and dialogue. Every emotion or motivation must be revealed in limited space and time. They can use thought balloons but sparingly. It is stronger to convey a character’s thoughts through action. That rule is valid in all mediums but is most crucial in comics.
The way the reader experiences time is different in comics than in novels and in films. A reader processes a comic in many parts all at once. They can see what is happening on the next page, catch glimpses of several dialogue balloons ahead, and continue to see the panels they just read. They aren’t just reading in the present like a novel reader, but also in the near present and recent past. The writer needs to keep that in mind when planning out each page and then each panel. A reader takes in more images at once than it does sentences, and that truth differentiates the approach for a comics writer from a prose writer and even a screenwriter. The way the comics reader experiences space and time is a constraint that, when utilized properly, advances a story in a way that can’t be accomplished in other mediums.
Page from The Ex-Wives of Frankenstein, written and drawn by Richard Fairgray.
Constraints of each medium are also tools. Comics writers must make their medium’s constraints work for them, just like a screenwriter or novelist. Unlike prose, budget and page count constraints play a significant role in comics and screenwriting. If the budget is small, a comics writer will have to develop more story with less art, and a screenwriter will have to replace higher budget scenes with more contained ones. The prose writer typically doesn’t have to make more with less.
Conjuring images and manipulating space and time is at the core of writing, and the techniques a writer utilizes for a medium are determined by that medium’s relationship to images, space, and time. Keeping those relationships in mind when switching from writing one medium to another will set a writer up for a successful transition.
Jessica Maison is a sci-fi, fantasy, and horror author, screenwriter, and comic creator. Plastic Girl is her coming-of-age ecopunk YA novel series set in a climate apocalypse. She is the writer of the award-winning graphic novel series Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters, and her short comics have been featured in anthologies such as Cthulhu is Hard to Spell and Nightmare Theater. She is an IBPA Benjamin Franklin Gold Award winner and Foreword INDIES Award nominee. Her sci-fi speculative short stories have been published by Terraform, and she is the founder of Wicked Tree Press.
The post Conjuring Images when Writing for Comics, Prose, and the Screen appeared first on SFWA.
Any author can tell you that events in their own life can have an impact on their fiction. As we learn in Heather Tracy’s Big Idea for Only a Chapter, sometimes those events have a bigger impact than we might have expected.
HEATHER TRACY:
When I began writing what would become Only a Chapter back in 2015, the working title I had then was “Faceless Man.” I knew I wasn’t going to call the book that, but I couldn’t come up with anything better. I still have several drafts of the original version saved with that name on my computer.
The big idea for the original version of the book came from dreams I had in high school through college of a faceless man who would do huge romantic things like fly me on a private jet to New York City to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway with the original cast, then he proposed. The dreams were always very vivid, and I could always tell the man was wearing a tuxedo, but I could never see his face. Sometime after dating my now-husband for a while, I realized that when he and I originally met at my senior prom, he was wearing a tux. In different ways, a lot of the things in my dreams did happen, but much less sensationally. For instance, before he proposed, he took me to see a local production of A Chorus Line.
In “Faceless Man,” Clare had these dreams, they pointed her to this dream guy, and that was about it. The story was fun, but pretty flat. There wasn’t enough heart. There wasn’t enough tension. I put the book to the side for almost nine years.
Then, after completing breast cancer treatment in early 2023, big idea number two hit me (seriously, I can never have just one big idea for these things): What would happen if Clare had breast cancer, but also, what would happen if she didn’t? What if the story had two timelines with the ways her life could go if that dreaded phone call went two different ways? I had obviously been contemplating this scenario in my own life and thought it would be therapeutic to work it out through my fiction.
The final version of the book still has the faceless-person dreams, but this time, they’re different depending on the timeline. Clare’s bisexual, and in one timeline the dreams start pointing her toward a male, and in the other a female. In the timeline where she has breast cancer, the cancer diagnosis and story are my own, though fictionalized slightly to work within the confines of the narrative.
Oh, and the title? When I announced on social media that I had breast cancer back in 2022, I said on social media that “Cancer is only going to be a chapter in my life, and not the whole story.” Thus, Only a Chapter was born.
Only a Chapter: Amazon|Space Wizard
Ever have that dream where your teeth fall out? Well, it’s not a dream in my case; last night, while chewing, one of my crowns tried to escape. Fortunately I realized what was happening before I bit down, and therefore saved the thing for the appointment my accommodating dentist arranged for me this morning.
The good news is the crown is now safely back in my head; the less great news is now this formerly-permanent crown is a temporary, and I have to go back in a couple of weeks to get a new permanent crown. Dentistry is confusing, y’all.
Anyway, that’s been my last 15 hours. How are you?
— JS
lonely
See, isn’t that nice? Lowers your blood pressure all the way down, it does. We could all use that right about now.
— JS
curiousI am a sadly lil llama after yesterday's tennis finals. Ben Shelton was in the Munich final and Carlos Alcaraz was in the Barcelona final - and they both lost 😭 Even worse they both lost to players I Do Not Like 😂
It was also the last year that David Ferrer is the Tournament Director at the Barcelona Open. I was thoroughly enjoying the Ferru spotting all week, not gonna lie.
The one very excellent tennis thing from the last week, however, is that we're getting closer to the end of Jannik Sinner's suspension. He's now allowed to practice tennis again, play on an ATP affiliated court, play with ATP players and work with his coaches. He's spent the last few weeks in the gym with Marco, his fitness trainer and... yeah, Marco's been working that boy hard. He is looking fine. Jannik's been training with Jack Draper last week - OMG so many people ship them and I do not get it but I'm glad they're happy. Me? I'm happy about the fact that him being able to work with his coaches = pictures and videos including Darren and Simone. (Mind, there was also Darren and Simone spotting in Monte Carlo the other week as well which made me all 😻)
This week is the Madrid Masters (and I hadn't realised Feli Lopez was the TD - between him and Ferru, especially with Juanki as Carlitos' coach) it's like a resurgence of the 00s Spanish Armada and I am here for it!)
Is it just me or is this a very ADHD coded post thus far with all the parenthesis?
Lets see... what else?
I spent most of yesterday refreshing my social media profiles (except, apparently, this one. huh. I should look at that). But I'm super pleased at how things now look at
![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png){kind=icon}
bibliollama, (and https://www.threads.net/@bibliollama), and I cooked chicken ramen yesterday and it was so fucking good. I used an Itsu broth carton and Itsu noodles but have a recipe for making my own broth next time
Li made hot cross buns yesterday and they were a little doughy (yeast didn't yeast properly) but super sticky and delicious.
I think that's about it from me, so I shall leave you with my Music Monday offering which, as ever, is my most played track of last week. I had a couple of meltdowns last week and so I comfort played a whole bunch of pop/punk, because that's still such a happy place for me.
And then, of course, leads to many many happy memories of so many gigs and tours following Good Charlotte around the UK on multiple occasions 🧡
- Mood:
restless
Organization Overview
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization for published writers and industry professionals in the field of science fiction, fantasy, and related genres. Founded in 1965, SFWA runs the annual Nebula Conference, the Nebula Awards, and has a number of programs to assist authors worldwide.
Compensation: $77,000 – 80,000/year with benefits.
Status: This is a full time, salaried position. Candidates must be US-based and eligible for legal employment.
Location: Hybrid remote/on-site (annual conference location)
Position Overview
The Operations Director is one of the key management leaders for SFWA. The Operations Director is responsible for overseeing operations (including membership and systems management), accounting and office administration, and internal fundraising and development processes (auction, sponsorship processes, and fundraising systems). The Operations Director will report directly to the President of the Board of Directors and lead a fully remote team of employees, contractors, and volunteers.
Key Job Responsibilities
Financial Management: Ensure the financial health of the organization while maintaining fiscally responsible spending.
- Oversee the creation of the annual budget.
- Monitor financial performance to ensure organizational stability.
- Ensure accurate and timely financial statements and filings.
- Lead and support the development and implementation of fundraising systems.
- Develop and maintain financial policies to ensure financial transparency and responsibility.
- Develop annual goals and action plans in alignment with SFWA’s strategic plan.
Operational Leadership: Actively manage day-to-day operations and ensure compliance.
- Ensure that the internal operations of the organization run smoothly.
- Cultivate and manage strategic operational partnerships.
- Directly manage and build volunteer teams supporting operations efforts.
- Support Advisory Committees in conjunction with board liaisons.
- Lead timely implementation of board initiatives in operations.
Human Resources: Supervise Human Resources.
- Establish and maintain human resources policies and procedures.
- Manage contractors, vendors, and associated contracts and agreements.
- Oversee payroll and manage employee benefits systems.
- Actively engage with board, staff, and stakeholders to ensure open lines of communication.
Technology and Systems: Manage operational systems and technology integrations.
- Lead database management and improvements in membership, financial, and development systems and processes.
- Support communication systems management in partnership with the Communications and Marketing Manager.
Staff and volunteer relations: Along with the executive director, serve as a key liaison between the staff, volunteers, and the board of directors.
- Schedule and support weekly all-staff and President meetings.
- Ensure effective and supportive communication across all levels of the organization, in partnership with the Communications and Marketing Manager.
Skills and Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree required. Advanced degree preferred in nonprofit management, education, or a field related to publishing.
- Minimum 5 years in senior management of a nonprofit organization or in a related field.
- Significant experience managing volunteers and/or staff required.
- Experience in fundraising and donor cultivation. Expectation of familiarity with Customer Relation Management systems and databases.
- Strong financial management and budgeting background, including in-depth understanding of financial reporting.
- Strong management skills focused on creating and supporting a collaborative and cooperative team environment.
- Dedicated commitment to advocacy for the arts in general and science fiction and fantasy in particular.
- Proficiency leveraging technology for remote work and project management.
- Ability to work remotely and collaboratively with a worldwide team.
- The ability to travel to the annual Nebula Award Conference.
Deadline for Applications
May 2, 2025.
How to Apply
SFWA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization and an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender identity, religion, color, sexual orientation, sex, marital/family status, national origin, age, physical ability, or income. We strongly encourage applicants within traditionally underrepresented and marginalized communities.
Email a cover letter and resume in a single file (MS Word or PDF files only) to jobs <at> sfwa <dot> org. Please include “Operations Director’ in the subject line.
Please note all job applications will be reviewed by members of staff and the board at SFWA. No AI will be used in assessment of applicants. Additionally, the selected candidate will be required not to engage generative AI in the performance of their duties.
Thank you for your interest in working for SFWA!
The post Now Hiring! Operations Director of SFWA appeared first on SFWA.
Rec Category: crossovers
Characters: Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne, Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan, Radek Zelenka
Categories: gen
Words: 5713
Warnings: none apply
Author on DW:
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rogaAuthor's Website: Roga on AO3
Link: And Then the Heroes Came Along on AO3, and the podfic by reena_jenkins is here.
Why This Must Be Read: The great thing about SGA is that people can write any sort of crack, and often do! In this story the team run into a bemused Clark and Bruce offworld, due to a space-time continuum glitch. John and Rodney's reactions are hilarious (as are most of the science department's) especially after they learn that in Clark and Bruce's DC universe, Stargate: Atlantis is a TV show! The ending is excellent, and illustrated! A fun read.
( snippet of fic )
stressed
I got a new camera (a Nikon Coolpix P1100, review coming at some point), and one of the things it does really well is zoom in real close to far away objects. I tried it on the sunset today, and, yup, it got in real close. Enjoy.
— JS
At the local nature preserve. No need to pick them! I brought them to you anyway!
And happy Easter, if it is a holiday you celebrate. And if you do celebrate it, I hope you endeavor to live your life in a manner worthy of the redemption that Christ offered you.
— JS
calm
There are not many physical things I actively covet in this world, but for a while now I’ve wanted a classic Eames chair. I couldn’t bring myself to purchase one because they are, in two words, stupidly expensive. There are less costly knock-off versions, of course, but in this particular case the knock-offs don’t do the psychic trick for me. If I was going to ever make the splurge, I wanted the “real thing.” After all, it was going to be my ass in the chair. But I — reasonably! — balked at spending more for a chair than I spent for my first car (even adjusting for inflation, I just checked).
Then three things happened: One, I came into some unexpected money that did not immediately have to go to bills. Two, a friend pointed out that Design Within Reach was having a 25% off sale, which meant the chair new did cost less than that first car. Three, the world is on fire, so, you know what? Fuck it. I checked with the family’s chief financial officer (i.e., Krissy) to make sure there were no objections, and then put in the order. The chair was originally supposed to arrive around my birthday, but they got it out a little early, and now here it is in my office.
And how is it to sit in? Very nice! I’m typing this while plopped down in it, and everything is groovy and it smells great. I suspect I will be sitting in it quite a bit. There was some discussion about whether to have it here or at the church, and I decided I would rather have it here than travel a couple of miles to visit it. The one drawback to having it here, however, is that I have pets, with claws and fur, to scratch and schmutz up the thing. So enjoy this picture of it without the blankets I will be using to cover it when I’m not in fact sitting in it.
(And what about the chair that was previously in the corner the Eames now occupies? It’s likely to go to the church, where there is more than enough space for it and where it will get to play with lots of other chairs. Until it gets moved, it’s residing in the dining room, which itself is undergoing some renovation, and where, as you can see, Smudge has already found it and is happy resuming his practice of napping on it. It’s a nice chair (as you can see by the fact it also has a blanket to keep it from being schmutzed up) and I’m sure it will live a long and happy life in its new environs.)
The only real downside to the Eames chair, for me, the World’s Laziest Person, is that it comes with an actual owner’s manual; apparently I will need to oil the wood on the chair once a year or so, which, ugh, fine, I guess. I do plan to keep the thing, you know, for the rest of my actual life, so I suppose I should take care of it.
Also, this marks the end of my “expensive furniture” habit. I’m too cheap, and we have too many pets and chaos for any more of this stuff. Everything else is bought with the idea it will be colonized by fur-bearing miscreants who will use it for parkour. This is fine. They can enjoy the rest of the furniture. This one thing is for me.
— JS
determined
nostalgic“Two covers in one day? Scalzi must really be at loose ends without his spouse!” Well, yes. Yes, I am. Mopey and lonely and vulnerable to maudlin songs about depressed cowboys, apparently. Anyway. Here’s the Eagles. Enjoy.
— Js
Page Summary
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
sfwa_feed : Watch Those Contract Clauses! Clarification from MustRead, Inc. on Unusual Rights Inclusions [+0] - sfwa_feed : Conjuring Images when Writing for Comics, Prose, and the Screen [+0]
- scalziwhatever_feed : The Big Idea: Heather Tracy [+0]
- scalziwhatever_feed : Today’s Adventures in Dentistry [+0]
- princessofgeeks : for those of you following along at home.... [+32]
- runicmagitek : Media Roundup: Final Fantasy IV [+1]
- scalziwhatever_feed : The World’s Hectic. Have a Dog Picture. [+0]
- troyswann : writing is weird [+4]
- badfalcon : That girl was fine but she didn't appreciate him [+2]
- sfwa_feed : Now Hiring! Operations Director of SFWA [+0]
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
stargateficrec :: mific : And Then the Heroes Came Along By Roga (T) [+1] - princessofgeeks : current events [+6]
- troyswann : The Last if Us 2.2 [+3]
- scalziwhatever_feed : Sunset 4/20/25 [+0]
- scalziwhatever_feed : Easter Flowers [+0]
- princessofgeeks : The Pitt S1 [+14]
- scalziwhatever_feed : The New Chair Arrives [+0]
- princessofgeeks : and another thing [+22]
- princessofgeeks : More Middle-earth [+13]
- scalziwhatever_feed : Because Apparently I’m In a Musical Mood Today: A Cover of “Desperado” [+0]
chasethestars