Zooming through the many authors starting with the letter S I spotted Pamela Sargent, not quite sure why I remember her name but I’m sure it has something to do with reading some of her works except I can’t quite pin anything down.

She’s written enough short stories for Martin H Greenberg to be able to edit together a whole book of them which is probably where I remember her from, I love anthologies. Sargent examines fascinating ideas within her works such as looking at five genetically identical children as they start to live apart and I wonder to myself how much her MA in Classical Philosophy would assist her with her writing.

You can find some of her writing encased in some Star Trek novels and has spent time collaborating with George Zebrowski, bearing in mind she lives with him I can’t say I’m surprised.

I found her featured on a blog and the advice she uses for her writing from Frederick Pohl is fascinating and daunting.

Fred’s advice was to print out the text, destroy any electronic files, and begin rewriting with only your printed text as a guide. Otherwise, he told me, you get lazy and just do touch-ups instead of a complete overhaul.

I can see how that would work having taken stuff I’ve written by hand and typed it up totally changing it as I go but to do that with a whole book would be a very daunting challenge.

Anyway, she’s still very much for sale in new bookshops and here are a couple of links for you Dream of Venus and Other Science Fiction Stories / Decimated and The Shore of Women: The Classic Work of Feminist Science Fiction. If you believe what you read on the web then you’ll find her book Earthseed has been optioned and may therefore appear in a movie theatre near you, but the information I find on this goes back to 2012 so who knows what’s going to happen.