Romall Smith

SCG Baltimore brought the heat for the Wonders community this weekend! With jam-packed tables, thrilling matches, and nonstop excitement from start to finish, the atmosphere was electric and unforgettable. When the dust settled, Abel J. stood tall as the Constructed Tournament Champion, and Ken A. battled his way to victory in the Sealed Tournament, both earning their spots in Wonders history after an incredible run of high-level play. A huge shoutout to every player, fan, and friend who made it such a special event. Won’t be long until SCG Con Las Vegas!

I’ve been asked by new writers: “Should I read books of the same genre that I’m writing?” With science fiction in particular, it’s absolutely essential that you have a general familiarity with the tropes of the genre. When I started writing sci-fi stories and novels, I was NOT a fan, per se. I was a playwright, writing historical and contemporary plays. However, I had voluntarily read H.G. Wells and Jules Verne, then the Heinlein and Norton juveniles (the old word for Young Adult fiction), and then I read Asimov and Bradbury and Clarke, LeGuin and Niven and Ellison.  As I started writing sci-fi stories, I did begin my deliberate science fiction education, reading the SF Hall of Fame and the Hugo Winners novels, reconstructing the whole history of science fiction from sample novels. Some I hated (I couldn’t finish Slan; unreadable. EE Doc Smith was sadly archaic). But I read A Case of Conscience by Blish, I read Pamela Sargent and James Tiptree Jr., but even then I was sadly ignorant of much of the field. Still, even though I had not (and still have not) read Starship Troopers when I wrote “Ender’s Game” (novelet), I did not try to reinvent the wheel. I absorbed Heinlein’s expository method, which is the bare minimum for writing sci-fi. I knew I was uneducated in the field, and so I educated myself by reading copiously.