Author Cameos, Tolkien the Environmentalist, and Free Fiction!

To view this email as a web page, go [here.]( [Tor.com Newsletter]( [Forward to a Friend]( [A photo of a person typing on a typewriter]( ADVENTURES IN WRITING [Eight Authors Who’ve Written Themselves Into Stories]( Most authors will agree that there’s a bit of themselves in every one of their stories, but it’s quite something different to be a named character in your own text. What do you do with yourself in your own story? Just sneak in for a brief cameo? Reveal yourself as a godlike persona? Could you kill off your fictional self? Here are eight authors who have explored themselves in fiction…literally. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [a round hobbit door]( SHIRES AND FORESTS [“The Long Defeat”: Reading Tolkien in the Time of Climate Change]( The environmentalism that’s evident throughout Tolkien’s chronicles of Middle-earth, from the rebellion of Fangorn Forest to the Scouring of the Shire to the destruction of the Two Trees of Valinor, was all based in history and autobiography, only made mythic. Here, Alyssa Hull looks to Tolkien’s great works for comfort, catharsis, and hope in the era of climate change. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [a painting of vikings by Oscar Wergeland]( ACROSS THE SEAS [Five Novels Inspired by the Old Norse Kings’ Sagas and the Sagas of the Icelanders]( There are so many shows, books, and films inspired by Viking mythology and lore, but how do the actual sagas themselves fit into it all? How exactly do we define the term ‘saga’, and where do they come from? Here, Rowdy Geirsson discusses the history of the Norse and Scandinavian sagas and five books directly inspired by those epic tales. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [A photo of a star surrounded by planets]( ACROSS THE STARS [Star Power: Five Classic SF Works Featuring Tau Ceti]( It has long been a project of science fiction writers to dream of possibly habitable, Earth-comparable planets. While many of these are fictional, some SF stories feature a real-life possibility: Tau Ceti, which is slightly dimmer than the Sun and only twelve light years away. James Davis Nicoll highlights five of the many classic works in which Tau Ceti plays a starring role. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [a photo of Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot]( SOLVE THE MYSTERY [A Haunting in Venice Is a Mystery Wrapped Inside a Gothic Horror]( The third of Kenneth Branagh’s Poirot mystery adaptations, A Haunting in Venice, is finally in theaters, and is a bit different than its predecessors. Rest assured, there’s plenty of spooky atmosphere to go around. Leah Schnelbach reviews the film here. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [a collection of tv show intro screenshots]( UNSKIPPABLE [Six TV Shows That Brilliantly Change Up Their Opening Credits]( We all know that the siren call of the “Skip Intro” button is strong, but some TV shows have opening credits that are so good they’re simply unskippable. A notable subset of this category are shows that change up their intros in interesting ways, either from episode to episode or from season to season. Here, Lorna Wallace rounds up some of the best opening credit change-ups. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [A screenshot of Rocket Raccoon]( NOT A DAMN RACCOON [Eugenics and the Human/Animal Divide in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3]( There is a long tradition of misusing Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection to explain and justify concepts that are not scientific but are actually actively harmful. Like how the villain of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The High Evolutionary, should more accurately be called “The High Eugenicist.” Leigha McReynolds dives into evolutionary theory, eugenics, and why conflating the two can lead to disaster—in fiction and in reality. [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( [Summer 2023 Tor.com Short Fiction Bundle]( READING MATERIAL [Download the Tor.com Summer 2023 Short Fiction Bundle]( We’ve had a busy summer in short fiction with stories about chess-playing bears, post-human civilizations, mystical Italian towns, interstellar rally races, AI cars, PIs dabbling with the unknown, a dragon going off the rails, and a job that never ends. Download the Summer 2023 Tor.com Short Fiction Bundle here to check out all the amazing original stories we’ve published over the last few months! [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( ORIGINAL FICTION [“The Tale of Clancy the Scrivener” by Ramsey Shehadeh]( After a fraught, improbably long life, a post-apocalyptic archivist resigned to cataloging ephemera from the “old world” times finds his life upended by an orphaned girl... [Read more]( SHARE THIS: [Publish to Facebook]( [Publish to Twitter]( Follow Tor.com to get updates on all of our original fiction. FOLLOW US: [Follow Us on Facebook]( [Follow Us on Twitter]( [Follow Us on Tumblr]( [Follow Us on Pinterest]( This email was sent by: Macmillan 120 Broadway New York, NY, 10271, US We respect your right to privacy - [view our policy]( Macmillan believes piracy hurts writers, readers and everyone who loves books. Learn more and report suspicious activity [here.]( To subscribe to this or other email communications from Macmillan, please click [here](. Visit our [profile center]( to update your email address and/or other information. If you no longer wish to receive this email communication, click [here]( to unsubscribe.