Hugh Howey

Bestselling author of Wool and other books. Currently sailing around the world.

Blog

The SPSFC continues!

Welcome back to the Self-Published Science Fiction Competition! Now in its second year! In case you missed it last year, you may be wondering what in the world is the SPSFC? Well, it’s an opportunity to shine a great big laser beam on wonderful works of self-pubbed science fiction. For a few years now, Mark Lawrence has been organizing a contest known as the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off. Science fiction authors and bloggers have been clamoring for something similar. So we made it ourselves. Just bigger, faster, stronger. Scouring the world…

SPSFC 2022

The second annual Self-Published Science Fiction Competition is about to begin! Author applications are now open! You’ll need to answer a questionnaire so we know a little bit about you and your work, and you’ll have to make sure your book qualifies (word count, content guidelines, correct genre). Over the course of the next eleven / twelve months, the first 300 novels entered will be whittled down to seven finalists and one winner. To read more about the competition, click here. Note: Applications close July 31st On a side note, we’re looking for Judges / reviewers…

The Age of Excess

A friend messaged me today about the sad state of affairs when we are reliant on billionaires for communication channels. It was of course in response to Elon Musk purchasing Twitter. The widespread emotional response to this purchase got me thinking about several things: Firstly, that we have long been at the whims of the ultra wealthy for our access to communication. Zuckerberg and Jack are the modern versions, but before this it was Ma Bell, and before that it was the Church. History is littered with examples of power…

The Power of Story

Writing is such a strange profession. When I’m not sitting with my laptop making up worlds that do not exist and having conversations between figments of my imagination, I’m lost in silly daydreams and having bizarre flights of fancy. Too much of this could get you committed to an institution, but slap some cover art on it and offer it up for sale, and you’re an author! There are times that I feel guilty for what I do for a living. It’s party because I love it so much that…

Matrix 4: A Singular Work of Genius

The Matrix: Resurrections was one of the worst films I saw in 2021. I wanted to walk out several times, and probably would have had my partner asked to go. It was difficult to sit through. The best thing I could say about it after was that it made me hate parts 2 and 3 a lot less by comparison. A day later, I’m now convinced that The Matrix: Resurrections is one of the finest works of art that I’ve ever experienced in my life. How I got from there…