I am not a science fiction writer. My exposure to science is limited to an overabundance of calculus before I knew better and a couple of quarters of dabbling in chemistry before I ran off into the comforting embrace of literature. I did qualify for a Bachelor’s of Science, but I still cannot say, “Yes, I have a B.S. in the Arts and Letters” with a straight face.
It was entirely true though. I made up a lot of stories during my formative years, which makes me a speculatist, at best.
Do you know the difference between fabulists and speculatists? When asked about world-building, fabulists shrug and perform a sleight-of-hand trick that distracts you. Speculatists will drag out an enormous tome, filled with hundreds of pages of hand-written notes that no one can read. “Here,” they say, “What do you want to know?”
Earth Thirst has vampires in it. That makes it urban fantasy. There’s a thread running through it about catastrophic environmental collapse–it’s coming, kids–which is why I like to call it an eco-thriller. There’s a strong whiff of looking at something like the International Energy Agency’s latest World Energy Outlook and positing a couple what if? scenarios. That sounds a lot like science fiction.
The last was brought to my attention by Vlad Verano at Third Place Press. I laughed at first, citing my bibliography as sign enough that I didn’t write science fiction, but isn’t that the basis of imagining what our world will be like in a generation or two?
I didn’t set out to write a cautionary tale of our future, but when the IEA puts out their yearly summary and it contains cautionary discussion of the likelihood of a 3° global temperature increase in our lifetimes, suddenly the Arcadian Conflict becomes something less than pure fiction and more of a metaphor.
Walter Greatshell on November 30, 2012
Yeah, I think that’s the big challenge for people in our profession these days–truth is as outlandish (and frightening) as any fiction. In my book XOMBIES I have a bookish character find she can no longer enjoy reading novels after the apocalypse because they seem trivial. Then again, maybe storytellers will become more valuable as civilization’s lights go out–even if we’re paid in mutant iguana gizzards.
Michael McClung on December 1, 2012
Perhaps you’re a new thing: a specabulist. A bit unwieldy, but sacrifices must be made in the name of accuracy. Lovely cover, by the way!
Mark Teppo on December 3, 2012
Walter: Yes, I certainly hope storytellers are useful after the lights go out. We may become 21st century shamans.
Michael: Thanks, and I like specabulist, especially if you make it ‘specabulistic.’ That sounds like something afore-mentioned shamans would practice.