My publisher, Tor, has posted the opening of the novel Interference, the sequel to Semiosis. As with Semiosis, each chapter is a different character. This is the opening to Chapter 1. Don't worry, Stevland eventually gets his own chapter -- and he owns it. No spoilers.... Here's the excerpt: https://www.torforgeblog.com/2019/08/09/excerpt-interference-by-sue-burke/

This year’s World Science Fiction Convention, or Worldcon, will be in Dublin, Ireland, from August 15 to 19. About 5,000 people are expected to attend. If you’ve never been, events include panels, gaming, writing workshops, costumes, speeches, awards, movies, music, dancing, parties, art, science, theater, children’s activities, and a lot more. Worldcons are run by … Continue reading Where to find me at Worldcon

If you’re in Britain, you can hear me at 21:00 tomorrow, July 31, on BBC Radio 4, as part of the Stranger than Sci-Fi show’s episode “Talking Plants.” I’ll provide some strange science fiction ideas for your hosts, physicist Dr. Jen Gupta and comedian Alice Fraser. Discover real-life science that sounds too strange to be … Continue reading Stranger than Sci-Fi: Talking Plants – on BBC Radio 4

This is one of my houseplants, a yellow wood sorrel or Oxalis fontana, also called Oxalis stricta. It’s a fun plant because its seed pods explode. Pods on some other kinds of Oxalis explode, too. They’re commonly sold as “shamrock plants” around St. Patrick’s Day and make lovely houseplants. I also have an Oxalis triangularis … Continue reading Plants that explode!

Rosewater by Tade Thompson won the Arthur C. Clarke Award today. Congratulations! My novel Semiosis was on the shortlist, and I’m deeply honored by that. Just in case, my editor at HarperVoyager in Great Britain, Jack Renninson, came with a speech to read on my behalf. In it, I thank Arthur C. Clark Award judges, … Continue reading If I had won…

What’s it like to write a novel? Much has been said about it, perhaps too much, but let me add one more metaphor anyway: It’s like digging a big hole. By hand. You likely start out choosing where to dig and knowing the approximate size of the final hole — that is, you’ve chosen the … Continue reading Digging up a novel

“Where do you get your ideas?” If you’re a writer, you may have been asked that. Here’s how I got the idea behind Semiosis and turned it into a novel. How it happened is neither typical nor unusual – there are a lot of paths to a novel, and they’re all good – but it … Continue reading Where the idea for “Semiosis” came from