Category Archives: Writing

Meeting Friends at the Can*Con 2026

Posted on October 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

On the weekend of October 16-18, I pulled the husband to the Can*Con in Ottawa. All convention require a lot of preparation, but it was worthwhile for the friends we get to meet there.

CAN*CON is a science fiction and fantasy convention in Ottawa organized by The Rocket Words Society. It is predominantly a spec fic writers’ convention, with the media SF taking second seat (but not ignored altogether.) I have attended and confirmed the wonder of the convention.

I take more time to write about past events because:

  1. I’m slow.
  2. And not using AI to write, even for non-fiction.
  3. It takes a few days to decanter
  4. I take the time to research the authors’ info and also running, formatting the pictures.
  5. Because many have given me much, and I repay them forward.

Writers helping each others…

Susan and Michèle signing each other new books.

A common misconception is that there is a limited pool of resources and writers must vie against each other for a sale to visitors. The reality is more complex. Yes there are more popular writers among us, but most of the attendees are in my situation, a mid-range writer-publisher.

We are not in competition, au contraire! And, no one is reading only ONE book in a year, each visitor will gravitate to his/her favorite genre and get several books. The good thing in any con is everyone going in knows what is science fiction, horror and fantasy (the big categories of what can be called spec-fic). So no need to explain at length what is or is not SF to the public.

As my company and I were in the vending room, busy with almost a hundred people and publishers, among them Den Valdron from Winnipeg, I recommend Den’s blog for his extensive cover of the Can-Con.

I missed many good panels. But I made nice encounters with SF afficionados, took news about writer friends. And I lend space to a nice colleague, Susan Forest who had a new book out! (picture up) And I bough books from Claudie Arsenault, whose universe I discovered least year. I met again Claudie Arsenault, Rachel Rosen, Avi Silver…

I went to the end of a panel about “when the supporting characters steals the show”. As a child and teen, I had a tendency to prefer the sidekick to the formal hero. It happened in many works, and… with my last SF series: each tome following a funny character introduced in the previous book.

Michele exiting the Tardis

And there was a Tardis at the end of the vendor’s room. How strange!

… Surviving Self-Publishing…

A convention was a boon for the stimulation!

I moderated the Surviving Self-publishing panel, and had three wonderful writers who published themselves. Krista D, Ball couldn’t make it to Kanata (but check out her professional website!; I bought her collected hardcover Collaborator trilogy a beautiful solid book that is making me sooo jealous!)

Surviving self-publishing - a panel

So last-minute change, James Downe took the empty seat to the right of Vanessa Ricci Thode and Brittany Willows. I am holding an impromptu board with a fun drawing.

The room was packed tight, which added a bit of pressure for the moderator to do well!

Brittany Willows and James Downe
A part of Michèle and Vanessa Ricci-Thode. Both of us write in very different styles.

And remembering a departed legend.

I hosted a special one-hour tribute to our friend and mentor Jean-Louis Trudel. Jean-Louis was in Vilnius last November (2025) when he died (natural causes). Many of us were left in shock.

To alleviate the sadness, I think Jean-Louis was doing what he loved most of all: walking in a new city, on the traces of his grand-father who fought in WWII. He often said that a city is best discovered on one’s feet.

Hayden Trenholm sharing his memories of Jean-Louis. Michèle listening.
Annette Mocek sharing her memories of Jean-Louis Trudel
Annette Mocek sharing her memories of Jean-Louis Trudel who helped the Merril Collection

What was beautiful was: every person present shared a fond memory. Hayden Trenholm, Liz, Eric Choi (who hosted a similar event last February in Ottawa), Annette Mocek, Melanie Martilla and others had a little pebble to contribute.

Michèle very expressive, talking about Jean-Louis
Michèle very expressive, talking about Jean-Louis. You can see a non-fic book by him on the table. We really need people who plunge into the history and bring hidden gems to the surface!

we continue to write, and share, so that when we go, we leave beautiful traces in the world

At the conclusion, I found really important to tell every writer present (we were all writers!) that I do not take anyone for granted. And that we continue to write, and share, so that when we go, we leave beautiful traces in the world.

What sets the Can-Con apart

Is the warmth of its team, the not-too heavy programming track, and the glittery parties. The glitters are all around, thanks to the spirit of Marie Bilodeau and the team. They managed to feed us and keep us up in coffee and tea!

Also. notice the BIG lettering of the names on the cards, so we can read the name from afar? I keep the holder (from a WWC 2024) and the Can*con name card for my other events!

It was a big building and I lost my way last year, but most of the rooms are close enough, on three stories.

And meeting friends and colleagues outside the scheduled activities is also fun!

Robert J. Sawyer
Robert J. Sawyer with Husband Gilles and Michèle. We know each other from 23 years back!
Gilles demonstrating the Vulcan salute. Are we ST fans here? You bet!

Giving back

So here are the websites of some of the wonderful writers I mentioned, so you can get to know them !

Marie Bilodeau

Robert J Sawyer: easy to remember!

Melanie Martilla

Eric Choi

Annette Mocek – the Merril Library with a lot of SF works and items.

Krista D. Ball who has a nice trilogy in hardcover!

Vanessa Ricci Thode

Brittany Willows (who makes beautiful manga art cover!)

James Downe

Claudie Arsenault, one of the cleanest presentations on the web! I should do that!

Susan Forest (a well-organized page!)

Susan and Michèle
Susan and Michèle showing off their books.

Can*Con supports diverse, emerging and established speculative fiction authors in honing their craft, expanding their professional networks, and accessing tools and resources to further their artistic careers. (To learn more about the convention, go to the official website.)

Michèle Laframboise writes fun SF and sweet romances. She has two series in French, one is currently in reedition. Find more about her books in Echofictions.com

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Going Out in Style : On Spec Magazine Last Issue

Posted on December 22, 2025 | Leave a comment

Three years after OnSpec published my first story, I got my second one accepted. Alas, it will also be the last one. OnSpec, a staunch support and platform for Canadian SF authors, will launch its last issue, 134 this month.

Another sad news on the Canadian SF front, three weeks after learning of the demise of my first SF mentor Jean-Louis Trudel in Lithuania. I would not have become a writer if I hadn’t met him in Montréal, at a comic book launch at the defunct Nebula bookstore. I had always hesitated because I didn’t feel drawn to write “serious Litewrature“, me who had grown on Isaac Asimov and several fine SF writers (mostly Americans guys at the time, but the field have diversified since!) When Jean-Louis told me there was a very active French SF community in the Québec province, I jumped on that train faster than you could say “Ray gun” !!

Organizing a literary magazine is no piece of cake. The Ontarian literary mag, Virages, founded by Marguerite Andersen, ceased its activities after 75 issues. In OnSpec, I liked to read Barb’s and Diane’s editorials. As solitary writers, we need those voices and their reflexions. And Onspec stories were never too long or boring, presenting a full palette of subgenres from hard-SF to fantastic and horror, not forgetting Steampunk.

Thirty-five years of choosing stories, cover image, editing, writing the editorial, putting up the issue… this is an staggering sum of work.* A consistent body of evidence that went almost ignored my the general public… until CBC made a piece last November. Prodding that reaction: “I didn’t know you existed!”

Well, it happened for a ton of beautiful, valid works lost in the algorithmic maze of our profit-obsessed culture. Every week, I find out about that author, or this person that passed away.

A big, big thank you to Barb and Diane and the OnSpec team. I find myself very lucky to share space on Issue 134’s cover, along with several author friends.

In those difficult times, we need to rely on each other, to provide warmth, acceptance and friendship for those who feel rejected. Let us all lit up the night !

* I publish my own Échofictions books and thought I would be able to put up one new book per month, like my author friends Dean Wesley Smith. Hm nope. Life happened (and death, I lost my mother in 2023), and I am only coming back on the saddle. I put out three books in 2025, and the next year, 4-5 books will be my goal.

Michèle Laframboise

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Self-publishing after retirement – more than a simple hobby!

Posted on November 24, 2024 | Leave a comment
Michèle happily tapping away in a Montréal hostel in 2018

In January 2022, I gave a presentation in French about self-publishing, aimed at people either retired or close to retirement. All were interested in publishing their book and or memoirs. As I had started my own indie company Echofictions to make my published books and short-stories available, I could help them navigate the main hurdles on the way to get a book published, starting with the ISBN number.

Why writing a memoir is not a simple hobby

As history goes, most of what make up our daily lives vanishes quickly after our passing. The “big” history deals about big events (and wars, and colonisation) but this is not by far the whole fabric of our lives. And I am currently doing a research for an historical novel set in my own city, Mississauga, in 1979. Even if I remember that year, a lot of details get lost.

We are barely discovering through archival and legal papers, the everyday life of our ancestors. Some journals are unearthed. But even one or two generation spans can be difficult to recall. So this spurred me to call out, “write what you can about your parents, friends, and grandparents!”

Because you never know what will spark interest of the next generation, or the future historians!

You don’t need to wait !

I am currently writing a book of my mother’s memoirs. (After her passing last year, she won’t see the book, but she did enjoy getting her story published in the French lit magazine VIRAGES .)

After both my parents (and my grand parents’) passing, I measured how fast the funny anecdotes, the marking events dwindle in our memories. I had some anecdotes told to me by my paternal grandmother Laframboise, and at a point, I urged her to start a journal. She did, but did not complete it before passing. All I can tell is: she had a very beautiful writing hand.

So this is why, reader, whatever your age, please, write. One of the new authors attending my presentation was over 80. And one 77-year-old self-publisher told me, at a meeting in Oregon, that she did not aim for the glory, but to leave something for her grandchildren. It is a perfectly sound goal.

For myself, if my non-fiction reaches about 50-100 people in my extended family, I will be happy.

Nor do you need to sell a million books!

You don’t have to write like Stephen King or Barbara Kingsolver (my favorite author). Let the words pour from your heart, plunge deep in the well of memories of your parents, grand-parents, so the children coming after you can appreciate a little bit of life in our times.

None of us need to reach a billion readers, but your words will reach the people who matters to you.

And, for that activity, there is no mandatory retirement if it pleases you!

(Photo by Karolina Grabowska, Pexels.com)

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When Words Collide – Your Friendly Readercon

Posted on September 18, 2024 | Leave a comment

A longer version of this article is on my author website.

The When Words Collide convention in Calgary from August 16 to 18, provided a golden occasion to see old friends again and meet new writers and readers! It is an annual ReaderCon, meaning, focusing on books and reading more than movies and media SF.

Hanging out with friends

Yes, there are the presentations, lectures and workshops, but also, just meeting people from the four corners of the country and the US, people I haven’t seen since before the Covid, is a great moral booster. I met some of them in Montréal at the Scintillation 5 organized by Jo Walton and a dedicated team.

At home or visiting family, I rarely discuss my WIP, my projects (all the contrary in my teens).

I do mention the novels I’m working on, briefly, but expending about any challenge, lack of inspiration, difficulty would bring glazed eyes. But in a convention, interacting with peers who experience the same kind of problems give me courage.

Friends relaxing in the central lobby of the Delta: Robert Runte, Graeme Cameron (who does a lot of work publishing Polar Borealis) Allan Weiss and a fine author-friend I don't have a name for.
Friends recharging their batteries in the central lobby of the Delta: Robert Runte (who knows a lot about Canadian SF) , Graeme Cameron, waving (who does a lot of work publishing Polar Borealis), Allan Weiss (Making Rounds) and a fine author I don’t have a name for.
Michele with Susan Forrest (Undaunted)
Michele with Susan Forrest (at the launch of Undaunted) on August 15th
Michèle and Brenda Carre
With Brenda Carre, whom I met in 2016 at an Anthology workshop in Lincoln City. Brenda had a beautiful vest.
Lyn Worthen and Michèle
Lyn Worthen and Michèle. Lyn writes dark fantasy and thrillers.

Books, books, books!

A host of new books covering the coffee table!

A host of new books covering the coffee table!

Adding to my pile of books:

Super Earth Mother, Guy Immega. Guy does hard-SF and takes his time to craft a believable story.

Drunk Slutty Elf and Zombies Den Waldron

Making Rounds, Allan Weiss

A crane among Wolves (just for the cover)

Undaunted, Dave Sweet with Susan Forrest

Skeletons in my closet, Dave Sweet with

War of the Words, a collection of short stories

Those I met but in passing, Rob J Sawyer, who in a presentation explained how the J in his name help people find him among the thousands of Robert Sawyer. Robert Runte, knowledgeable in Canadian SF.

Enjoy the Slush fiction!

I was deeply impressed by Rhonda Parrish, Adria Laycraft, Shirlee Smith, Ella Beaumont, Greame Cameron: super editors, able to detect a story’s faults and clichés. The panels of slush fiction I attended were fountains of fun (to put a bad cliché) and really instructive. Some pet peeves here:

  • Starting a story with a character waking up in bed
  • Having a POV character looking, observing… doing nothing.
  • Form the start, we need to know WHO is telling the story, or WHo we follow, and the story problem.
The Slush fiction panel with Left to right: Greame Cameron, Susan Forest, Michael Martinek, Ella Beaumont, Kevin Weir. Thank you!
The Slush fiction panel with Left to right: Greame Cameron, Susan Forest, Michael Martinek, Ella Beaumont, Kevin Weir. Thank you!

Know your rights: contracts with Den Valdron

Den Waldron handing out a book to an audience member.

Den is a fantastic author of fun or gritty Sf books, but alse a lawyer, and here, he walks us through the pitfalls of copyright and contracts, those contracts that writers are soooo eager to sign to get published!

I never saw Den pleading in court, but as a presenter, he is lively as he walks around and tells it as it is. His booming voice still echoed in my ears as I write this.

Stop pushing us onto the sidelines!

One of the most useful panels about the presence of “disabled” persons in stories, and how they don’t want to be seen as a sidekick to the abled hero. A lot of good discussion. Left to right: Cait Gordon, Arlene F. Marks, Madona Sakoff, Rick Overwater and Fiona McTaggart.

Too often an author introduces a disabled secondary character into a story, mostly to check the disability box. BUT the treatment shows that often those writers have no idea what it’s like to live the experience. (I plead guilty here at least once, however, in Phoenix Clouds, Blanche is the heroine.)

My favorite panel, We are the heroes, not the sidekicks: Building worlds and stories in SFF that center disabled protagonists, with Cait Gordon, the author of this book, Iris and the Crew tear Through Space, and her colleagues: Arlene Marks, Madona Sakoff, Rick Overwater, Fiona McTaggart. Few people marginalized because of a disability recognize themselves in fiction.

“it’s just as infuriating when the person who looks like us is just a sidekick. Or, we “cure” the person’s disability and there, yahooo, everything is beautiful!” says Cait Gordon.

Or, the hero saves a pitiful disabled person but, oh the lottery winner! that person turns out to be the talented “whizkid” who will save the colony!

I learned a lot, and appreciated this inclusive vision. We need to stop ignoring persons who just have special needs for technical assistance and accommodation. In Cait Gordon’s universe, everything is accessible and no one considers themselves “disabled”.

One person noted: this is similar to the trap that many Paralympic athletes experience: pity or inspiration. Just for that panel and the friends I met there, the trip to Calgary (with the patient husband) was worth it.

Exploring around Calgary

After saying goodbyes to many new author friends, we went on a beautiful promenade at heritage Park.

A steam boat on a lake
Lake near the Bow River, Heritage Park

After the convention, my husband and I walked in the Heritage Park, passing close the the Owl’s Nest Bookshop that was present at the Convention. The next day, we follwed the trails along the Bow River, to the Calgary downtown.

cabanes d'oiseaux
Original bird houses and mangers, along the way

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Ursula K. LeGuin, on Writing

Posted on October 12, 2023 | Leave a comment
Drawing of Ursula K. LeGuin, ink on paper

Ursula K. LeGuin has restored my courage a lots of times, by her witty blog and her stories. I did this portrait of her in 2006 at a Wiscon 30, and she signed it! She had shared some of her insights with us.

Arwen Curry, who created the documentary Worlds of Ursula K. LeGuin, offers those short videos, The Journey That Matters. Little moments of inspiration, pulled from interviews with the great SF author.

In this one, Ursula talks about her writing process. Pard, her cat, even makes an apparition!

Here is the link, four minutes of calm and peace, both things we need the most!

WATCH: Ursula K. Le Guin on Her Writing Process

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Diving into the Writing : Concentration levels

Posted on February 1, 2022 | Leave a comment
Some details missing like the scuba and palms, but you get how I feel when writing… or reading a good book!

Those who enjoy scuba diving (or who, like me as a kid, had watched Commander Cousteau’s documentaries) know that before going back to the surface, you have to make mandatory decompression stops to allow the molecules of nitrogen/ helium who had taken refuge in your tissus under high pressure to leave your body, via your exhaled air.

Otherwise, the nitrogen can decide to turn back into gas while it is still lodged in your veins and your cells, and it would not be a pretty sight. Decompression sickness is as dangerous as its opposite, the deep nitrogen narcosis which develops sneakily if you spend a too long time at 100 feet deep.

Diving in deep water

For me, writing feels like diving into deep water.

Except that my decompression breaks are in the opposite direction! It takes me a long time to reach the level of concentration deep enought to penetrate a story. Levels of ‘compression’ or concentration…

My first level takes about 45 minutes to an hour. I go over what I wrote the day before to get the story and its atmosphere back inside my head; I check notions, places, etc. If I write 100 words in that period, that’s normal.

At the second level, which takes me about an hour to reach, I am entering the story at 300-400 words per hour.

At the third level, everything becomes magical: my fingers hug the keyboard and the ideas are transmuted into words without my having to stop. I feel like the story is writing itself, and I’m approaching 600-800 words an hour.

If I keep this on without interruption, I reach my fourth level of concentration: the story tumbles like an avalanche in my head, fingers and words roll like marbles on a flat table. It is paradise. I smash through the 1000 words per hour wall. Often, this happens in the evening, when I have a deadline approaching.

BUT… I do not descend to this 4th level often.

Ah, if only my concentration levels were simple steps! (Photo by Francesco Ungaro on Pexels.com)

Interruptions!

On the other hand, to go up to the surface, there is no need for decompression stops. Any distraction can yank me up in a jiffy. The phone, someone calling me, or the family member.

As soon as my enthusiastic husband comes to tell me about a techno gadget he saw on the Internet or heard about on the radio, poof! immediate surfacing.

If the conversation is less than a minute or two, and if I don’t have to think to answer any complex questions, I can dive back in and get through my ‘focus’ levels pretty quickly.

Alas, this is rarely the case.

Another condition favors my rapid return to the depths: the certainty that I will NOT be disturbed again in the next few minutes!

So, after 5 or 10 minutes that ate my concentration. And, when the interruption ends, I have to dive back in and redo my stops. And, often, barely submerged, of course, it’s already supper time…

Confession of an unfocused writer

I created this article from a recent writing mishap.

Here I was, happily tapping on a wonderful science fiction story set in Antarctica, pom-pom-pom… when all of a sudden, a flawed scientific detail jumps out at me. Have I correctly calculated the position of the sun below the horizon during the southern polar night? Have I checked the right calendar for the current polar night?

Rising to the surface, opening the Internet, checking the info, then letting yourself drift on the Wikipedia sites, drift farther on the Scott-Amundsen station site, watching the web cam (it’s cold here, but not as cold as in the South Pole)… And, I came to my senses with the crucial realization of having wasted my time. It internally annoys me.

On the heels of that realization came another torment: should I change an explanatory paragraph to place it closer to the opening of the short-story? My words are so tightly knit together that moving one paragraph or one word requires rewriting several others, before and after. And so, I paddled on the surface to juggle these paragraphs.

Finally, after trying to dive back, I decided to go for a walk outside to clear my mind, and come back at another time. I told myself that it’s still warmer here (in Canada, Ontario) than at the South Pole…

TL;DR: Writing is like diving, but with the “concentration” stops going down instead of up.

Michèle Laframboise is a Canadian SF writer, with more than 60 stories published. Her most recent story, October’s Feast, is available in the Asimov’s SF Magazine. She is a fair low-level athlete runner, a lousy gardener, and avid birder. More on her official website here.

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A Cup of Hot Chocolate for the Soul : 5 Stories that Fill you with Hope

Posted on December 5, 2021 | 2 comments

5 Chocolate-Rich Holiday Stories !

When days get shorter, we seek the comfort of a good book, with hot chocolate. These five stories are about trials and new beginnings, and how friendship or even love can bloom in any situation, as long as you don’t give up hope for the future.

Immerse yourself in five Holiday tales of compassion and courage, of wonders and sweetness by multi-award winner Michèle Laframboise, to enjoy with your favorite mug of warm chocolate !

Why those Holiday stories?

The first days of December are always difficult, for not only is the light dimming, but the news that bombards us discourages us with its darkness. Women’s rights, the rights of poor people to a life of dignity, access to the vote, respect for others, all the progress that I witnessed growing up are now under threat. The magic of the holidays seems very fragile like a crystal Christmas ball …

So these stories are about friendship and hope. On a human scale.

The 5 Chocolate Holiday Stories range from realism to fantasy and romance, and locations range from New York City to Toronto to the beautiful Appalachian countryside. However, the questions asked are as old as humanity. Is there any magic left at Christmas? Will I find a good man? A loyal friend? Can I protect my forest? We meet people struggling forward despite difficulties, mental illness, prejudices and the loss of their youthful ideal.

And the marvelous can spring from a wounded bird found in the cold, or from a stray delivery truck on a suburban street.

To learn more about 5 chocolate stories for the holidays

For a gentle respite

People who are caught in difficult health situations, forced to undergo expensive surgeries and suffering from illnesses, and their overwhelmed caregivers, also experience great stress. They yearn for a respite, a door ajar leading to a sweeter world.

So, a book, like hot chocolate, makes the reader forget their difficulties for a little moment of happiness.

We need an escape so badly!

Romances are often snobbed and called escape literature. But what’s wrong with wanting a respite, a break from this relentless pressure of negative information?

I have penned some heavy and dystopian science fiction (Ice Monarch, La ruche) that explored the excesses of capitalism running amok. But I also feel the need to write stories that caress, that appease.

And stories which can be put in all hands. English speakers often talk of “clean” romance (as if sexuality between consenting adults was immoral or dirty!) but I prefer the adjective sweet romance, which gives an idea of ​​sweetness, while promising the reader a certain restreint in graphic descriptions and/or swearing.

Hot chocolate for the soul !

I hope no one is left lonely or left out in the cold. And may the grieving souls find comfort in reading and music.

Do you remember the Chicken soup for the Soul collection? Well, a cup of chocolate for the soul is good too!

And, why not, read a good book while smelling the aroma of hot chocolate!

Practical info about those 5 chocolate-Rich holiday tales

The book contains three short and sweet romances, one magical Santa tale, and one friendship tale with birds.

Those chocolate-friendly Holiday tales are:

  • upbeat, hope-filled stories
  • all-ages friendly tales (what the English call “clean & wholesome” but I prefer to say sweet)
  • featuring colorful women who overcome difficulties and prejudices
  • Covering from the Winter solstice to Christmas Eve.
  • Any story can be read on a bus ride to work (3000 to 7400 words)

Useful links to offer those 5 holiday tales as a present

More info about 5 Chocolate-Rich Holiday Stories on the publisher’s site

Order the book from the main selling platforms

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A Cup of Chocolate Stories!

Posted on November 10, 2021 | Leave a comment

Whatever is the flavor of your life and your deep-rooted beliefs, the shorter days leading to the holidays often coincides with difficult situations, forcing hard decisions.

It is a time when the heart may feel the relentless pressure of the exterior world, and also experiments inner turmoils of its own. No wonder, then, that so many striving souls lack confidence! When everything darkens, I crave for the oldest of pick-me-up, a good book and a cup of hot chocolate.

I love chocolate (I know, not original since I share this taste with hundreds of million of people). Dark chocolate, artisan-made chocolate, ethical… and also, hot chocolate, at certain times. For me, hot chocolate reminds me of the scout camps, when we doled out the evening collations to the cubs after a long day of activities.

I rarely drink while reading a book, because I might get drops on the pages. But yes, on rare occasions I have enjoyed the treat of reading on a good chair, with the cup of chocolate nearby.

As the Holiday Season is upon us, I put out my first collection in paper and ebook, 5 Chocolate-Rich Holiday Stories published by Echofictions. Those new, upbeat stories include three sweet romances set in the Holiday period, and they’re best enjoyed with a cup of chocolate or your favorite treat!

Out on the stores!

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A Story at the End of the Universe

Posted on October 16, 2021 | Leave a comment

True to the laws of thermodynamics, the expanding universe keeps cooling down. Now, the last transformed humans linger near the black hole at the center of our Galaxy.

The UnAttached, who count their age in billions of years, feed on the powerful X-ray emissions and rail against Entropy, that selfish cousin who sucks leftover energy. The Attached, recently forced to leave their ruined worlds, live too fast.

As the stars around them wink off one by one like in a dying city, what can they hope for ?

A short and crunchy hard-SF story set far, far in the future, told by multi-award winning author Michèle Laframboise, translated from the French by N. R. M. Roshak.

Accolades

The short-story published in Future SF had received several accolades:

“Cousin Entropy”… has a wonderfully Stapledonian scope. –Locus Magazine

“The hardcore physics fans out there will certainly enjoy this.” –Kat Day, for Tangent Online

“…a far-flung space opera reminiscent of Liu Cixin’s book.” –Alex Shvartsman, Future SF

“...a wonderful piece of Science Fiction, full of physics and feeling.” –Eamonn Murphy, SF Crow’s Nest (link underneath)

Future Science Fiction Digest #7 June 2020 (e-magazine review).

My inspiration for this story

My father Jacques- E. Laframboise had a fine telescope, and I recall many summer nights where he would adjust the position with patience, to point at this or that star, or planet. I still have the 1970’s astronomy books he had bought and, with another telescope, I search the skies, when said skies are not obscured by clouds or the luminous pollution of cities.

I always pondered the fate of our (pear-shaped) universe. The heat death of the universe linked to the ever-growing Entropy, does rarely make for an upbeat story, but add the transformed, long-lived remnants of humanity, and a pinch of spicy black energy, a tiny bit of humor, and voila!

I wrote the story in a short form, so it makes for a thin paperback, be warned. However, I allow my readers to share the paperback and give it to someone close, so you commpose your own chain of friendly atoms.

The translation had been done and edited by N. R. M. Roshak, to whom I owe a lot of gratitude. French is my first language, but a growing part of my public understands and read in English.*

Get your own End-of-the-Universe Story!

Fresh from my indie house Echofictions, Cousin Entropy has come out on several platforms. You can even order a paperback on Amazon.ca.

About the the nice cover image: it is a NASA/ESA pic taken by the Hubble Telescope, showing two colliding galaxies nicknamed The Mice, located 300 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices.

* The French version, La cousine Entropie, is also available.

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A Promise Kept – my First Story in Asimov’s!

Posted on August 18, 2021 | 2 comments

After 16 years of besieging the English-language sci-fi magazines, a breach has been opened in Asimov’s wall. My sarcastic new “Shooting at Warner’s Bay” is out this month.

(Don’t look for my name on the cover, about 20 and 25 authors participate in each double issue!)

A promise kept

It is a special moment for me, because it was a promise I made to my father on his hospital bed, in November 2014. I had already started my cycles of submissions, but I had a lot less stories written at this time. Now with 120+ written texts, including 80 in the current submission cycle, I’m not short of ammo!

My dad Jacques E. Laframboise had a large library of science fiction and fantasy books (the Black Marabout collection). I read a lot of classic horror authors (Jean Ray, Claude Seignolle …), but science fiction was really more my thing. I had loved the Fin d’Ylla, a very, very old thing re-edited by Marabout. The Robots, by Isaac Asimov. A collection of translated short stories from Harlan Ellison.

Science fiction nourished my imagination, even if it had not made me popular with my French teachers, for whom there was one Literature with a capital L (generally written by long-dead, white Europeans guys) and the ‘paraliteratures’ like the detective, SF, fantastic novels that I read voraciously.

Of course, I would have preferred to get at this happy point earlier, so that my dad, and my grandma Edmée Laframboise (who loved to read detective stories) could rejoice with me. But, that’s life. And, at least, those stories will live on and find new readers.

Laying siege with perseverance

Table of submissions in October 2020 – almost 60 texts in the race at that time. Subs in French are now on a separate spreadsheet. Red: refjections. Yellow: active submissions. Green, acceptances. Blue: scheduled submissions.

Looking at that table, you can guess some mags answered faster than others.

The American pro SF mags pay very well, and they sit at the top of my mailing list for submitting a manuscript. Then, if the text is refused, I go to less prestigious magazines, then to semi-pro (which pay, but a little less) and finally to the “token” markets. To understand all these categories, I recommand the page of Ralan, who has devoted himself for 25 years to disentangling the “markets” (as named from the point of view of the author who is paid by the magazine).

SF pro magazines like Asimov’s receive several thousand texts per year. The acceptance ratio of pro mags being very low, that publication means more pressurized air inflating my pride balloon !

Climbing quality raises the acceptance bar

The overall quality of submitted texts always rises… and that’s good news for the readers!
Photo de Monstera sur Pexels.com

And as editor Scot Noel of DreamForge magazine pointed out, the average quality of the submitted stories is climbing, which makes it more difficult for the first readers to sort through the slush pile. The same phenomenon occurs for all other magazines as the level of writing increases. It is rather good news for the readers, but a challenge for a would-be writer. It is no longer enough for a story to be good, it has to shine, to stand out.

And, for me, I had to stop telling myself “I must write like X or Y” and to dive into my favorite flavor without feeling guilty for not writing in the genres in demand, especially with lots of deaths like horror or thrillers.

And I have to write with my heart, too, otherwise it would sound like a niah-niah-look-at-me exercise. That story in Asimov’s sprouted from my sympathy for ignored Hollywood actresses, and was fun to write. It flowed smoothly and didn’t require too many revisions or line edits.

By the way, why do I specify “my first story”? Because I am currently revising another short story, which will be released in 2022 in this same magazine. And I don’t miss any “ammunition” for other SF magazines!

Asimov’s, September-October 2021, double issue. For electronic subscription. Otherwise, run and buy it at the newsstand!

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