About TSFF

When I was younger, I remember the thrill of watching starships zip across the galaxy at warp speed – or reading about fantastic worlds full of magic and elves.  These were themes that drew me in, that gave me a feeling of wonder and love for science fiction and fantasy.  Moreover, when I decided that I wanted to be a writer, these were the kinds of world I wanted to create.

Unfortunately, when I first dipped my fingers into the publication world, I couldn’t find any kind of market for short fiction.  They called these endearing qualities of sci-fi and fantasy overused clichés and tropes.  I read shorts from many magazines I thought I might try to submit to, and though many were interesting, the drive to create original content in the genre that either avoided these tropes altogether or tried to fashion them into something unique, failed to truly entertain me.

I tried to write story’s specifically like these, just to get my name in print – and realized quickly that I was selling out my integrity to write about themes and characters that I cared nothing about.  Moreover, I saw magazines and publishers that wanting nothing more than to take advantage of writers, exploiting their talent, restricting their creativity, and taking away their power as it pertained to their own work.

Then, many years ago, I thought how nice it would be to be able to start an online magazine that not only showcased the tropes that make fantasy and sci-fi so enjoyable, but gave the power back to the writers – the power to create as they wish, and the power to maintain control of their intellectual property through every step of the publication process, including the thereafter.

This blog, Tropes of Sci-Fi & Fantasy, is the beginning of that dream.  In time, I sincerely hope that I might be able to increase the scale and audience of this endeavor to an electronic magazine with its own domain name and monthly issues.  I also hope that I might be able to pay authors and creators semi-pro or professional rates for the privilege of “borrowing” their material – which is to say the right to display and feature it for a limited time.

For now, the budding fledgling of this blog will serve as a free venue for writers who feel the same as I, and wish for their work to be published and displayed to whatever-sized audience I can muster up.

Sincerely,
Andrew T. Jayroe
Manager –Tropes of Sci-Fi & Fantasy