Junot's piece reminded me of the last time I read a latino voice in sci-fi which was one of William Gibson's last books (can't remember if it was Zero Country or the one before) where there's a Cuban family and I had to suspend all of my disbelief because he just got so much cultural shit wrong. It wasn't quite offensive but, just not well done.

I've always liked Junot's voice because well it's right, but I think he overstates it in his writing sometimes. Like it isn't subtle and maybe tat's just a preference of mine. I like it when the tone speaks to me in a you have to know what I mean kinda way rather than see I know what I mean!! Does that make sense.

that said it was refreshing to hear this because of that tone of his.

>as for me, I'm working on realist/literary linked short story
>collection revolving around two cousins in the periphery of
>Los Angeles County. I'm about 2/3rds (well, really half way)
>done with it. I like were I am in terms of my voice and tone.
>I'm still working on refining my perspective and "designing
>the setting(s)".

Designing the settings... say more in a sec.

>also, after reading a lot of sci-fi recently, I wrote my first
>short sci-fi narrative. it ended up being about 23 pages long.
>My mentor believes that I need to keep going because it's more
>than a short story.

Awesome. As is clearly evident I want more approaches to the genre.

>basically its 2165 global warming has claimed vast areas on
>the ocean borders of the northern continent, but civilization
>is still thriving. Black and Brown have claimed (through war)
>big chunks of what was once America and are now regions. What
>is now middle America for the most part is still predominantly
>white and their militants are trying to recolonize / conquer
>the west. also near half the population, in the non-white
>regions, are mixed

What about in the white regions though?

>the protagonist, Robeson, is a film maker

first question is what does it mean to be a film maker in 2165?

>who is in love with
>a woman, Sasha, who left him to create one of the emerging
>autonomous areas, away from the megalopolis regions, which
>just ended up mirroring much of "our world". Robeson ends up
>wrapped up in the conflict to defend "these areas/regions"
>after visiting her.

interesting.

>anyway, i'm still trying to refine the tech and look of the
>world,

You know I think this is one of the hardest aspects of sci-fi. Particularly from our perspective where so often the sci-fi is the setting. In hard sf you start with the tech and the issues it raises and then build the characters around that. from the opposite end of the spectrum you start with characters and plots and try to put them in the technological world appropriate. the little details like that can make or break a story just as much as in hard sf though.

>and see where I could, If continue to expand. I want to
>ask Tananarive Due if she can take a look at what I have
>currently. She was my mentor last semester.

Oh wow. That's dope.

I've been writing most of the weekend on the piece that I started in the middle of this thread. right now I think it's a short self contained story but I've built a world which can definitely be expanded on. Basic premise is that society pushes forward technologically via an AI that isn't really an AI because it was designed to have human checks and balances. Main character is a policy analyst who when given a special assignment finds an inconsistency in the programming that can have world shattering implications.

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Big PEMFin H & z's
"I ain't no entertainer, and ain't trying to be one. I am 1 thing, a musician." � Miles

"When the music stops he falls back in the abyss."