Book Chick City: Guest Author & Contest with Skyler White [CONTEST CLOSED]

Guest Author & Contest with Skyler White [CONTEST CLOSED]

Tuesday, March 02, 2010 | Posted by Book Chick City |

Skyler White is author of dark fantasy novels ‘and Falling, Fly’ (Berkley, March 2010) and ‘In Dreams Begin’ (Berkley, March 2010). She lives in Austin, TX. I look forward to reading her novel, and Falling, Fly, so look out for the review in the coming weeks. Also, make sure you enter the contest for a chance to win and Falling, Fly at the end of the post.

So please welcome, Skyler...

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A Love Letter to the Speculative

I love the phrase “Speculative Fiction.” And I love that even in naming our weird little sub-splinter of the literary world, we tip our own hands. “Speculative” isn’t a short, clean word like “science,” nor does it answer any questions about our subject area the way Science Fiction does. It doesn’t make any claims about its pedigree, like Literary Fiction, or about its audience, like Women’s Fiction. It describes, but does not explain, and I like that. I like that the word itself is a little obscure. It could have been Questioning Fiction, or Pondering Fiction, but it’s not. It’s Speculative Fiction. We speculate. There’s even something vaguely sinister about the word now, courtsey of our Wall Street cousins.

And I love that even the people who write Speculative Fiction aren’t always quite sure what we mean by the term. But I have a theory – no, I have a speculation – about why that is. “Speculative Fiction” names a terrain bounded by its freedoms, and it’s easier to define a thing by tracing its boundaries than by listing the lack of them. To play amateur geographer then, to this strange world, we should outline its freedoms first, and then perhaps make some attempt on the native population.

I don’t have a definitive list, but near the top of my favorite freedoms of Speculative Fiction is a freedom from formulae. Speculative Fiction has Literary Fiction’s freedom from formulaic endings, but genre fiction’s freedom from formulaic training. In Romance, the writer must deliver the happy ending. There’s even writerly code for it – the HEA (Happily Ever After). Quest stories, popular in Fantasy literature, require that the hero (and it is overwhelmingly a hero, not a heroine) return from whence they came and “know the place for the first time.” In Mystery, the questions must be answered, the crime solved, and the bad guys apprehended.

The freedom to end a book unhappily, or simply not to tie it all up neatly with a bow, is usually reserved for Literary Fiction, but that world has a different set of conventions. Entry, for one thing, is restricted to a very few pathways. The gatekeepers are not only MFA or PhD programs, but also class and educational background. And Literary Fiction tends to require you to set your action on Earth and obey the laws of physics.

Speculative Fiction has SciFi’s freedom of invention and Romance’s sexual liberty. We have Horror’s interest in the transgressive, and travel writing’s patience with detailed description. We have philosophy’s thought experiments with politics’ big picture.

But to talk about the joys of writing Speculative Fiction without talking about the character of its readership would be to miss the point entirely, because the point is permission, and permission comes (or doesn’t come) from readers. Speculative Fiction readers tend to be among the most generous out there. Not only do they bring completely open minds to an author’s world; they often even appreciate stories that point out places where they may have harbored previously unnoticed pre-conceived notions. They don’t assume anything. But they expect a lot. More than any other self-associating community I’ve found, the typical Speculative Fiction reader knows implicitly what the research of people like Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi has shown empirically: engagement and effort are necessary for real enjoyment.

Speculative Fiction readers are people who work hard at what they play. To whom “enjoyment” is not automatically preceded by “mindless.” They expect writers to build complicated worlds, write complex prose, and create a challenging game. Which brings me to my final love I carry for Speculative Fiction and its audience. Beyond their open minds and their willingness to work hard at having fun, the Speculative Fiction reader will take their interaction with the writer out of the writer’s world and into their own. They tend to see a book not as a finished piece, but as an invitation to come play, to question and wonder. To speculate.

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Contest Time!

To enter all you have to do is fill out this form!

Contest is International and ends 9th March.

and Falling, Fly

Skyler White

Berkley

In a dark and seedy underground of burned-out rock stars and angels- turned-vampires, a revolutionary neuroscientist and a fallen angel must pit medicine against mythology in an attempt to erase their tortured pasts...but at what cost?

Olivia, vampire and fallen angel of desire, is hopeless...and damned. Since the fall from Eden, she has hungered for love, but fed only on desire. Dominic O'Shaughnessy is a neuroscientist plagued by impossible visions. When his research and her despair collide at L'OtelMathillide- a subterranean hell of beauty, demons, and dreams-rationalist and angel unite in a clash of desire and damnation that threatens to destroy them both.

Good Luck!!

Labels: Guest Author

18 comments:

Aleksandra said...: Great post :) I loved it!
Thanks for the opportunity to win and good luck everyone!; 2 March 2010 08:31
mariska said...: i've been wanting this book !; 2 March 2010 08:42
booklover0226 said...: I enjoyed the post and look forward in reading Skyler's works.

Thanks,
Tracey D; 2 March 2010 09:26
sRy_ said...: thanks for the opportunity.. and falling, Fly! :); 2 March 2010 10:44
Haku said...: Hi thanks to make it international please enter me, love sassy girl stories XD the girl of cover look so nice!, great post!; 2 March 2010 10:45
annie_jean said...: Great post, loved the detail and depth of involvement in the subject at hand. I am sure the book will be a must read, can't put down item. Can't wait to read it.; 2 March 2010 11:26
katsrus said...: Thank you for the contest. Great post.; 2 March 2010 13:20
Laurie (BittenbyParanormalRomance) said...: Loved the post. I have to get my hands on this book soon...; 2 March 2010 13:42
Glory said...: Thanks for the opportunity to win and for make it international!!; 2 March 2010 13:51
Book Addict Girl said...: How crazy...I just put this up as my WoW last Wednesday!

GLEE! Thanks for having this great contest!; 2 March 2010 15:49
Liz said...: So simple ^^ love this book ^^

thank you!; 2 March 2010 16:11
Heather (DarklyReading) said...: Great post - I love the description of speculative fiction - especially the freedom from the HEA or the finishing the quest or solving the mystery..I think I need to give more speculative fiction books a try!; 3 March 2010 00:37
Melissa said...: Can't wait to read this one. THanks for the post!; 3 March 2010 00:58
miss cindy :) said...: great post :); 3 March 2010 16:59
Christy said...: I don't usually read guest posts by authors I haven't read before, but this was a cool mini-essay on the genre.; 4 March 2010 04:36
Cleverly Inked said...: I got a bit lost at first...Then it all came together.

Great contest!; 4 March 2010 05:59
Elisaveta said...: I would love to read this book. I'm sure that it'll be interesting - vampires and fallen angels <33; 4 March 2010 16:01
Ana C. Nunes said...: I loved to read this article. Really inspiring and explainatory in its ambiguity.
Thanks for the insight.; 5 March 2010 20:02