What if I call it a spaceship and alien science-fiction-action-adventure-thriller with a touch of erotica (not overdone, but what’s there is bloody good), right? Hmmm. Okay.
Science fiction on its own sounds so dry, doesn’t it? An awful lot of people tell me they really liked my book, The Khekarian Threat, even though it’s not their genre of choice. Friends, family members, even complete strangers have told me this. Hey, some got the follow up, The King’s Sacrifice, so I’m doing something write – oops, right – as an author.
I understand people who aren’t attracted to science fiction. I really do. I got into science fiction because I had such a bad time with it as a kid. I hated it. I’ve written elsewhere that whenever I read a book I didn’t enjoy, or saw a movie I thought could be better, I’d rework it in my mind to be the way I wanted it to be. I did that a lot, usually as I drifted off to sleep or when I sat in a boring class (occasionally both at the same time). Most of all I did that with science fiction. That’s how I became a writer.
I wanted science fiction but I didn’t like it because usually it did not give me what I thought science fiction should be. I wanted it to be about people. I wanted it to be about living in space or on new and alien worlds. I wanted it to be exciting and full of exotic challenges. I wanted to feel as though I was there!
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I did find books like that occasionally, and what bliss they were, but for the most part, when I was a kid, science fiction was about politics (usually oppressive) in the future on Earth – as though any kind of future made it “science fiction”. It didn’t. Ten years – or fifty – in the future does not a science fiction make, at least not if you’re still stuck on planet Earth. This is my view, of course, yours may differ. For me, it had to be hundreds of years to qualify. I wanted space travel to be normal. I wanted colonization to be in place, albeit to different degrees, each pioneering town with its own rules and laws (not necessarily nasty, not necessarily nice). What I got, though, was a bunch of grey and dreary people I didn’t even get to meet properly, let alone care about, and they had nothing to do with spaceships or aliens.
What I wanted, I now write. Colonization in place, rules and laws varying according to location and character of the founders, action and adventure, a bit of thrill, human needs and human striving. In other words, life.
Sex, too, you bet, and properly done – not some halfhearted grope then call it satisfaction. No. Nor am I talking about the small scenes along the way, I’m talking about the big scene, the one that runs for 30 pages (allowing for a bit of plot running through it, but hey, you won’t notice). After reading that, you’ll need a cold shower afterwards, or a partner – whatever – but I digress.
Ahem. What was I saying? Oh yes. More importantly, perhaps, I write about people full of character, people you can care about, all different, all realistic, people with a sense of fun and adventure. Aliens, too, but not too outlandish. I follow scientific outlines for the evolution of tool-using hunting animals that fill the same niche on their worlds that we do on ours. I do, however, make some important changes to make these people stand apart…
Hang on a sec – you’re not listening now, are you, you’re back a few lines, wondering if my writing is so damn hot. 30 pages, huh? Yes. Not a typo.
Okay, okay, well, you know where it’s at, you’ll have to check it out for yourself.
Cheers!
😀
Allyson
Bloodstone Sci Fi 
Good lord! 30 pages of erotica?? And July????? You know whats coming next….
Hi Rob! 🙂
30 pages, yeah – those pages just fly by when the action is happening.
Yes, Book Two is just going to have to have some too. In fact, I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that now I’ve set the pace, I’m going to have to keep it up – if you’ll pardon the expression. 🙂
Sorry Allyson, just reread your post, there was more than just the erotica in it wasnt there… Im just a boy…. Im very much the same in my attitude to Sci Fi, and like you Ive been reading since I was in mid primary where I discovered Asimov et al. I was enthralled by Star Wars and viewings since have left me wondering what the excitement was about, but I think it was those other worlds in visual for the first time.
Herbets Dune series was/is for me, the pinnacle
Star Wars was brilliant, I agree. I just wanted to see an adult version. 🙂 I did like that at least people were PEOPLE, complete with weaknesses. Of course by then I was well into writing my own so kept going.
I had a hard time with the scientists who wrote sci-fi. They got the science down pat, of course, but often couldn’t write about people. I’ll be putting up a post about that shortly, but of course it’s just my opinion.
I hope I don’t disappoint you too much when I say I could not get into Dune at all. Every time I thought I was about to finally meet a character, he’d be pulled away and never heard from again, at least that’s how it seemed. I did like the death scene in the desert over the worm, though, that stayed with me. I pushed my way through Dune, but admit that maybe I was too young to give it proper appreciation.
Hope you’re still talking with me after that! 🙂
“Sorry Allyson, just reread your post, there was more than just the erotica in it wasnt there… Im just a boy…. ”
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Sure there was more, but I like where you’re at. I was hoping the erotica bit would grab attention, hence the “Hey, but you’re not listening” part in the post that came straight after that reference. Your reaction tells me it worked. 🙂
I’m told I write sex very well, but it’s buried in the book, so I figure it’s not a bad thing to promote it. Especially as so many seem to be after sex in sci-fi (going by the search terms I see on my blog).
Since Franks death, James has been delivering very credible results along his dads lines but not quite there. So I guess Im searching for the new Frank Herbert, you up to the task? Looking like it so far… 🙂 P.s. I dont recall any erotica in Franks offerings…. can I ask…how do you conduct your research for your novels???????
LOL. Well, let’s see, I have a very supportive partner who offers to help me in my research. I’m told if I don’t have another 30 page stint of erotica, I should at least put in 6 five page stints. Optimism abounds in this house. 🙂
Writers need to reinvent their genres. That’s the best thing we can do, and I love that you do that. The gritty world of The Khekarian Threat reminds me of the Sean Connery movie Outland. I wanted to see the politically correct, starchy characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation sweating and swearing. I want to read fantasy stories where no one picks up a sword. Someone once said, “Write what you want to read.” Yes. Yes. Yes. This.
Hi Matt! So true! I always write what I want to read. And I could never figure out why sci-fi had to stay “pure” while all other stories were allowed to have LIFE. Someone once said to me that sci-fi didn’t usually have sex in it as that’s a different genre and writers shouldn’t mix genres – I commented to them that when the cowboy in a Western get the girl in the end, no one says that’s a mixed genre of Western and Love story. They got my point at once. 😀
I always wanted sci-fi to have personality – people who laughed and cried and weren’t soulless or perfect or superheros. And if you’re going to have a group of people in their prime, you’re going to get lust, love, relationships. If that’s what’s natural, why exclude it? That’s my thinking on the subject. It’s shouldn’t matter the genre.
Yes on all counts!
😀
Sounds like you’re enjoying my book. 😀
And yes! 😀
😀 😀 😀
It makes me smile that the same reasons that pushed you to become a sci fi writer are the same reasons that pushed the late Octavia E Butler to write sci fi as well. I do not know if you are familiar with her work (she is my most fav author of all time) but to me she was and still is incredible. Her story Wild Seed and then its follow up Mind of My Mind are gripping to say the least. Her story Kindred, which involves a unique touch on time travel,is one that is now required reading in some High school English programs here in the States. I recommend all three.
Thanks you, sounds good. No, I’m not familiar with her. 🙂
Look her up! I think you will enjoy her work. She does an incredible job creating villains that you want to kick yourself for empathizing with.