I couldn’t agree more. The people who cast off spec-fic as trivial really don’t get it. Some of the best exploration of social, political, psychological and cultral issues have been in spec-fic. That’s the reason I write it, edit and publish it… because of the possibilities which open when you ask ‘what if?’

We read books such as Animal Farm, The Chyrsallid, Z is vor Zachariah at high school- all spec-fic narratives… and others (I was too old sadly) such as John Marsden’s series.

After reading this, I thought about how genre is really just branding and like branding in any market, there is an idea of what is a ‘high class ‘ and what’s not. And for whatever reason genre fiction got classied as ‘low class’. Makes you wonder if its just sour grapes from the literary fiction sector because genre fiction is popular and makes money – therefore can be no good!

It was so brilliant to see Kim at Byron Bay last year, in there batting for spec-fic authors, readers, editors and publishers. And I’m very glad to be blessed with professional colleauges such as yourselves, providing the support, encouragement and humour to keep moving forward, onto bigger and better things for the genre.

I think a lot of the people who write off fantasy tend to assume that it’s all books about dragons, or it’s all like Harry Potter – books really intended for children. They don’t realise how broad the genre really is and they’re not particularly interested in finding out more. Which is a shame because speculative fiction allows you to explore such philosophical and surreal concepts that other genres can’t.

What a terrible story about your friend and her agent. That is something I just can’t understand. Asking a successful author to write something different because of your own issues! Makes no sense to me, though it’s not the first time I have heard such a story. It’s like all the people who ask successful children’s book authors when they’re going to start writing “real” books. You’re right – it’s definitely best to work with people who understand and appreciate your genre. I think that goes for any genre, really. Probably any job!

I once went to a workshop where the speaker (a renowned expert!) was talking all about YA fiction. He didn’t have much positive to say about fantasy or speculative fiction as a genre and was even less impressed by the trend of adults reading YA fiction.
Then he showed us the latest YA bestseller lists from the USA. They were nearly all speculative fiction. And he was unable to really talk to us about them because it wasn’t a genre he was interested in or respected.

I felt as though there was a pretty powerful disconnect there because if I look back on the books I was reading at high school a lot of them were speculative fiction. And I am not talking about the ones I was reading for fun; I mean the ones that were specifically chosen for literary merit, because they were considered to have deep and important themes, educational importance. Some were classics, others were contemporary but they were undoubtedly speculative.

There are still some old school ‘literary’ types out there, though — like you describe –that think spec fic is ‘less than’. Last year at a major writer’s festival, I had to begin each talk with a definition of speculative fiction, what it was, what it did, and what the possibilities were for readers and writers, and editors! Some people were very open and intrigued; others had already made their minds up.

I even have a friend, a spec fic author, whose agent was embarrassed of her genre. Her books are successful, but the agent actually tried to talk her into writing something ‘different’. They aren’t together anymore. . .

The point is, writers and editors of FSF need to feel supported and respected and that includes having support (like publishers, agents, copy editors and of course readers) who don’t just like the genre but love it! It’s hard to do ones best work without it!

Great topic. Thanks for posting.

Kim