SF2 Concatenation, a British on-line magazine, asked me to write an article about “Getting published: From draft manuscript to print.” I wrote about my most recent novel, Immunity Index. I tell about mistakes I made, misadventures I didn’t expect, and something I decided to never ever do again. Read the article here: http://www.concatenation.org/articles/burke-sue-getting-published.html

“IN MEMORIAL: This plaque commemorates an oak tree that graced this site for forty years. It was felled by the bureaucracy in December 1990 to make space for one more car.” This is a real plaque at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, located at the carpark  between the Wai-te-ata Apartments and the Boyd Wilson … Continue reading Rogue memorial to a tree

Sue the T. Rex at the Field Museum, painting by John Gurche. Dinosaurs lived on the far side of the galaxy. That is, the Sun orbits around the galaxy’s center, and it’s a long trip, about 250 million years. Dinosaurs — in particular, the big Jurassic critters like tyrannosaurs — lived about 166 to 66 … Continue reading Long ago and far away: dinosaurs

Photo from "A Christmas Fippokat" Kill your darlings, they say. That means you should cut the parts from your book that don’t move the plot forward, even if you love them. So, on the wise advice from my editor, I killed the final section of the novel Interference about some fippokats (well, they were going … Continue reading Fippokats in space!

Meet Me In Another Life by Catriona Silvey My rating: 5 of 5 stars Science fiction can reach out to the stars and at the same time hold tight to the human heart. The many layers of mystery in this beautiful love story lead to a breathtaking ending.First, I should say that the British publisher … Continue reading Goodreads review: “Meet Me in Another Life” by Catriona Silvey

My Madagascar dragon tree. Photo by Sue Burke. The genus of plants called Dracaena gets its name from the Ancient Greek word δράκαινα (drakaina): “female dragon.” It got that name because the red sap of Dracaena draco looked like dragon blood to the ancients. Dragon blood, it turns out, is useful. Many houseplants fall within … Continue reading What if it really were a dragon?

“Going to the woods is going home.” — John Muir Photo: Eau Claire Dells County Park, near Wausau, Wisconsin. Photo by Sue Burke.

What was it like to write about a fictional pandemic during a real pandemic? I answer that question in an essay published Tuesday at TorForgeBlog.com.

I recently received this plant as a gift from some neighbors. It had outgrown their apartment, and I had a little space in mine, so I welcomed it into my home. It’s a Ravenea rivularis, or “majesty palm.” It grows in the understory — that is, in the shade of other trees and plants, so … Continue reading Meet the Swamp Thing