One of my favorite sci-fi authors (Sharon Lee) has declared June 23rd Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Day.As she puts it:
So! In my Official Capacity as a writer of science fiction and fantasy, I hereby proclaim June 23 Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Day! A day of celebration and wonder! A day for all of us readers of science fiction and fantasy to reach out and say thank you to our favorite writers. A day, perhaps, to blog about our favorite sf/f writers. A day to reflect upon how written science fiction and fantasy has changed your life.So … what might you do on the 23rd to celebrate? Do you even read fantasy/sci-fi? Why? Why not?
Hmm ... *does a mental rummage through the TBR box*. Not sure. I don’t know that I’ve got anything in there that would qualify, except for some short stories, but I’ve read a few short story collections lately and don’t feel like another. Perhaps I’ll dedicate my free time on the 23rd to more planning on the supernatural element in this year’s NaNoWriMo project.
As you might have gathered from this, I do read fantasy, though it’s not a sizeable part of my literary diet. I’ve always loved ghost stories - in fact I think it’s fun to read them during power outages. From that I’ve progressed to novels by Neil Gaiman, J. K. Rowling, Jostein Gaarder, Susan Cooper (which I must re-read ... eventually ...), J. R. R. Tolkein, Anne Rice, Bram Stoker, Kim Wilkins, Laurell K. Hamilton before the series went off the rails, and doubtless more who I’ll remember as soon as I’m offline. Much as I love Tolkein, my favourites are generally those which put the strange and eerie into the real world or something like it.
My inroads into sci-fi have been negligible; for some reason the genre has never really appealled to me. Perhaps because I’ve always been a science geek, and so had enough science already? But I love Douglas Adams and Connie Willis, and if the Thursday Next books count as sci-fi you can add Jasper Fforde to the list.
The odd thing is, although I don’t read an enormous amount of fantasy, I can’t seem to generate a story or novel idea without there being a ghost or mythological being or whatever popping up somewhere. I wonder how I can explain that?
4 comments:
I've always loved ghost stories, too, but I've never really been able to get interested in vampires or the "undead." There's certainly a lot of that genre around now, though. Yes, I probably enjoy sci-fi so much because I'm definitely not a "science geek." It all seems completely plausible to me!
I've just been having a sci fi reading fest. I feel like declaring June as sci fi month!
I love ghost stories too! Nice post. I really like your list of 101 things to do in 1001 days - inspiring!
Probably better that you don't read what you write about. Too often I'll begin a short story and, when I go back to edit, I'll find that I've incorporated what I read into what I wrote.
Post a Comment