Today I'm pleased to offer a blog from Linda Swift, whose lovely Civil War novel, This Time Forever, I can highly recommend. (Full disclosure: I edited it for Champagne Book Group.) This post was originally posted at Between The Pages: http://betweenthelinesandmore.blogspot.com and is reposted here with the kind permission of Lynda Coker. Take it away, Linda!
Speculative
Fiction—What is it?
I am an author of published contemporary and historical
romance, women’s fiction, short stories and poetry. As if that isn’t enough to
keep my readers in a state of confusion, I have recently added speculative
fiction to my publishing credits. Only I didn’t know this was what my short
stories were until they were given that label by my publisher. In fact, I
wasn’t aware this genre existed and I’m betting some who are reading this
aren’t either.
Since I now have five speculative fiction stories available
online, and a just-released anthology of these five stories in print, I thought
I really ought to find out a little more about what this means. My first step
was to check my faithful Webster’s New World Dictionary. (Yes, I still love to
look up words in my hard copy reference which tells you more than I probably
want you to know about my age.) None of the definitions of the word
“speculative” seemed to fit the situation at all. I finally settled on
“uncertain or risky” as a possible meaning. At least, I know it is always
uncertain and risky to publish anything one writes.
Next, I Googled “Speculative Fiction” online. And wow! Was I
impressed. The term was defined by Wikipedia as “ancient works to cutting-edge,
paradigm-changing, and nontraditional intentions of the 21st
century.” And the names associated with this genre? They read like a who’s who
in literature. There were Greek dramatists to William Shakespeare to
J.R.R.Tolkien and many more.
I won’t bore you with the long explanation that I doggedly
plowed my way through in order to become more enlightened on the subject. But I
will offer one further quote which I think shows the big picture.
“In its broadest sense it (speculative fiction) captures
both a conscious and unconscious aspect of human psychology in making sense of
the world, reacting to it, and creating imaginary, inventive and artistic
expression.”
Armed with this new information I turned my attention to my
stories in an effort to see if they would fit the definition. I looked first at
Winner Take All, my first-written
story of this genre. It is a tale of man against nature and a life-and-death
struggle between the two. Billy Ray Warren is a good ole southern boy who went
up North to make money and comes home to fight the kudzu that is taking over the
place. Yes, he is trying to make sense of his world and reacting to it in a
positive way.
Nathan, the Buttercups
are Blooming is a story about growing
old and sick; about the helplessness of losing control of our lives. But Nathan
is a fighter, especially when it comes to his beloved wife and his insensitive
children. And boy, does he react to the situation he is in. He does not “go
gentle into that goodnight” to quote a famous poet.
The disease of epilepsy is at the center of Give It All You’ve Got. This is a tender
love story set in a rural mountain school with three main characters who are as
mismatched as people can be but their lives become entwined by circumstances
beyond their control. They each react to
their narrow world in the only way that makes sense to them. And in so doing, a
villain becomes a hero.
Three to Make Ready is
a story that deals with the busing issue as it was in the early days of the
mandate for US public schools. It takes a look at the situation from both black
and white perspectives and further examines it from two social classes of white
families. This story looks at the big picture from the author’s point of view
based on personal experience and believe me, the story contains reaction in
spades.
Last, I examined The
Good News. Defining it is difficult even for me as author. I think it addresses the possibility of a random
occurrence that no one can foresee and the way the people involved react to it.
The story deals with a mother’s worst nightmare and her valiant efforts to
prevent it.
Have you noticed that my brief blurbs of each of these
stories contain the work “react” in them? I think we can assume that my
speculative fiction involves reaction of some sort in all the plots. But rather than dissect them in this manner,
I like to think of them as stories that reflect ordinary people living their
lives in the best way they can, given their circumstances. Even though you most
likely have not experienced what the characters have, I think you can relate to
their hopes and fears, their joys and sorrows. And it is this connection that
makes a story real to you. All of them
contain a measure of suspense and uncertainty and some unexpected
outcomes. In the past, I have heard this
type story referred to as “slice of life” fiction.
Frankly, I don’t care what they are called. I only care that they are read and that my
characters touch the hearts of those who read them. They are available at
Amazon and Smashwords for 99cents each.
And if you’d like a complete collection in print, Take Five: Stories of Speculative Fiction was released the last week in
September through Publishing by Rebecca J. Vickery and is now available in
ebook and print at the above links. The price is $9.95 for print and $2.99 for
ebook at this link:
