Tonya R. Moore's Blog: Tonya R. Moore, page 35

Defining Speculative Fiction

Whenever I tell people that I write speculative fiction, one of the first questions that they normally ask is what is speculative fiction?

My stock answer: speculative fiction is an umbrella term for all the subgenres within science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Simple right? Except, it’s perhaps not quite as simple as that.

The word “speculative” means conjecture about what might happen. Speculative fiction aims to make us contemplate possibilities or rather, the implications of the improbable, I’d like to think.

Several writers have tackled the business of defining speculative fiction. The following are a couple of posts and articles on the subject that I found particularly insightful.

In her very insightful post “What is Speculative Fiction?” Annie Neugebauer describes the oversimplification of speculative fiction as merely fantasy, science fiction, and horror as problematic. She further breaks these genres down into twelve subgenres and explains that while these genres may have speculative elements, not all fantasy, science fiction and horror can be classified as speculative fiction.

In “SpecFic 101: What is Speculative Fiction?” Shaheen of Speculating on SpecFic credits Robert Heinlein as the father of speculative fiction and highlights several popular SF books that engender the allure of speculative fiction.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction provides a history of the usage of the term “speculative fiction.” I have included an excerpt below but I suggest reading the original entry for a more comprehensive overview of the history of speculative fiction.

The first known use is by the reviewer M F Egan in “Book-Talk” (October 1899 Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine), which describes Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward, 2000-1887 (1888) as “speculative fiction”. In the symposium published as Of Other Worlds (coll 1947) edited by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, Robert A Heinlein proposed the term to describe a subset of sf involving extrapolation from known science and technology “to produce a new situation, a new framework for human action”.

Of course, a many a great debate has raged over what is considered speculative fiction versus what is not. In a 2010 i09 article, Margaret Atwood and Ursula K. Le Guin debate science fiction vs. “realism” and Margaret Atwood further shares her thoughts on the matter in a 2013 Wired.com article.

She defines speculative fiction thus:

Stories set on Earth and employing elements that already exist in some form, like genetic engineering, as opposed to more wildly hypothetical science fiction ideas like time travel, faster-than-light drives, and transporters.

While we may argue about which specific works may or may not constitute speculative fiction, at the end of the day, there is one big takeaway.

Speculative fiction asks “What if?”

Speculative fiction seeks to inspire flights of fantasy and make us ask all sorts of questions about ourselves, our world, and our universe.

 

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Playwriting and Writing Fiction

Playwriting, it seems, requires a certain degree of versatility that would be of great benefit to fiction writers. I recently had to write a ten-minute play for my Advanced Creative Writing class. I had never so much as attempted to write a play before and was way out of my depth, so I had to start with some basic research. I very quickly learned all sorts of things that are essential, not just to playwriting but to writing fiction in general.

My very brief foray into the world of playwriting yielded the following little gems of wisdom:

Respect the Power of Dialogue

It seemed to me that compared to writing fiction, a great deal more attention needs to be paid to what kind of dialogue one writes when playwriting. This is good training for fiction writing.

When playwriting, we need to use dialogue to communicate our characters’ wants and desires, to bring our characters into sharp focus. Taking the same approach when writing fiction can help to improve a story.

Dialogue advances a story’s plot. Dialogue that doesn’t serve a purpose is just unnecessary chatter. Sometimes, you might have to write a lot of dialogue, and then whittle it down only what needs to be said.

Sometimes, Actions Speak Louder Than Words

A great way to help describe characters and propel them through a story is through is via their body movements and facial expressions. As with drama, in a well-executed story, every movement, every sound, and every action is economical, purposeful, and intended to elicit an emotional response from the reader. Bearing an awareness of the impact of action in mind, can improve a story.

Of course, that depends on the type of story one is trying to write. Taking action into consideration suits my purposes for writing science fiction and horror, which might include a great deal of action. If I were, say, writing a literary piece, my approach would be somewhat different.

Cut the Boring Bits

I remember reading somewhere that if what you’re writing bores you, It will bore the reader. I think that’s a very good thought to bear in mind when writing fiction. If it’s boring, cut it. Need I even say more?

That being said, as with all matters, there needs to be balance.

The tools that you will utilize when writing greatly depends upon subject matter and the ideas that you are trying to convey.

It might behoove us to respect the Power of Dialogue, remember that sometimes, Actions Speak Louder Than Words, and Cut the Boring Bits. It might not.

I recently came across an old article by Gloria Kempton: How to Balance Action, Narrative and Dialogue in Your Novel. It’s well worth checking out.

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Win a Copy of The Nettle Tree!

I have free print copies of The Nettle Tree Anthology, which includes my short story, Ephemera, for 13 lucky winners!

Strangely Different Stories: The Nettle Tree, edited by Kenneth Weene and Clayton Bye, is a collection of genre-stretching and busting stories. The editors’ challenge to us was to write strangely different western stories in a format of 3,000 words or less and to take you to places traditional westerns have never taken you…

The Writers

The Nettle Tree anthology includes short stories by some fantastic authors such as Jeremy Shipp, Phil Richardson, Casey Wolf, John B. Rosenman, Christopher Wolf, Clayton C. Bye, Leigh M. Lane, Richard Godwin, Sal Buttaci, Kennethe Weene, Kenny Wilson, and James L, Secor.

Enter to Win
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Summer 2016 SF Anime Watch List

The Summer anime season is upon us. Now that I’ve gotten over my bitter disappointment regarding the hot mess that is Berserk, I can share my watch-list of Summer 2016’s spec-fic animes. Mob Psycho 100 tops my list, followed by The Morose Mononokean, and a few others.

Here’s the run-down:

Mob Psycho 100

Premise:

Kageyama Shigeo, a.k.a. “Mob,” is a boy who has trouble expressing himself, but who happens to be a powerful esper. Mob is determined to live a normal life and keeps his ESP suppressed, but when his emotions surge to a level of 100%, something terrible happens to him!

As he’s surrounded by false espers, evil spirits, and mysterious organizations, what will Mob think? What choices will he make? The anime is based on the original story by ONE, the idol of the webcomic world and creator of One-Punch Man. ~ Source: Crunchyroll

Reaction:

Mob Psycho 100 is sort of a gag/action anime. I love that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. The story isn’t complicated. In the vein of One Punch Man’s Saitama, the hero is really sort of dull by ordinary standards but remarkable in terms of his special abilities.

The action scenes are electrifying. The visual effects are stunning. The funny thing about ONE’s loose, barely restrained art style is that I can’t ever decide whether I love or hate it. My right brain thinks it’s crap but my left brain thinks it’s splendid. Yeah, I know there’s really no such thing as right-brain-left-brain but you catch my drift, right?

Speaking of which, just like in One Punch Man, some random dude with the huge double chin randomly shows up in Mob Psycho 100 at some point. What is with that? Anyway, Mob Psycho 100 tops my list of summer animes after just one episode. Watch it for the action. Watch it for the random appearances of double-chinned man..? Definitely, watch it for the laughs.

The Morose Mononokean

Premise:

“Exorcism” is the art of sending yokai who have somehow wandered into the living world back into the underworld, where they belong. One day Hanae Ashiya, a high school student who’s been haunted by a yokai, happens to find the contact information of an exorcist called the “Mononokean” and pays him a visit.

The exorcist he meets is a morose-looking young man, Haruitsuki Abeno, and for various reasons, Ashiya ends up working for the Mononokean. ~ Source: Crunchyroll

Reaction:

I love any story that features mononoke or yokai of any sort. My preference is generally something is the vein of Nurarihyon no Mago or Noragami but in a pinch, something laid back and sort of funny like The Morose Monokean will do. The mononoke are mostly cute and although the story tries to pass them off as dangerous, you can’t help but like them. The mood of this story reminds me a bit of Rin-Ne, only it’s a lot less childish, for the most part.

Nejimaki Seirei Senki: Tenkyou No Alderamin

Premise:

The huge Katvana Empire is at war with the neighboring Kioka republic. In a corner of the empire, a young man is about be caught up in the flames of war. His name is Iwata Soroku. He’s lazy, a philanderer, and he hates war. He’s about as far from a soldier as you can get. Due to certain circumstances, he grudgingly takes the High Grade Military Officer Exam. ~ Source: Crunchyroll

Reaction:

So, to tell you the truth, this story is more historical action than spec-fic but the characters have these little nature spirits that they carry around in little pouches around their waists. Cuteness overload.

I really like the character designs for this series. The story itself is interesting. I can hazard a guess a what will come next but I won’t go as far as to say that the plot is totally predictable. It’s worth watching, I think. While a lot happened in episode one, there really wasn’t any fighting action but it seems like there will be some in episode two. I’m looking forward to that.

Taboo Tattoo

Premise:

“Tattoos” – ancient weapons that drastically enhance the physical abilities of their users, known as the “Sealed,” allowing them to bring forth supernatural phenomena when activated through the charging of the user’s own unique “trigger.” When Justice Akatsuka (a.k.a. “Seigi”) saves a man from some street punks, the man gives him a strange stone as a token of gratitude. The moment Seigi accepts it, a mysterious tattoo appears on his palm. And so the battle begins, framed by a web of conspiracies and centering around Justice Akatsuka, the boy who obtained a “tattoo” by complete chance. ~ Source: Crunchyroll

 

Reaction:

I love any story with a kickass female main character, and Bluesy “Izzy” Fluesy fits the bill. Yes, they actually had the nerve to give a female character a name that sounds like “floozy”. Sadly, she isn’t protagonist but she stands out a lot more than the story’s protagonist, Seigi. He’s your run-of-the-mill high school loser who suddenly acquires some awesome power and sets about to save the world. At least, that’s what I’ve gleaned from just two episodes. I haven’t read the manga, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

I feel a bit “meh” about this anime, to be honest. The story seems to be very formulaic and if it weren’t for the hahas here and there, I might have given up on this series. Even so, it’s definitely worth a look, what with the action scenes, the blood, and the guts.

Hitorinoshita – The Outcast

Premise

The protagonist, Cho Soran, leads a very common college student’s life until he finds himself caught up in a terrible incident that happened in a small village. As he was walking through a graveyard, Cho Soran is assaulted by zombies.

Thinking that it was over for him, a mysterious girl carrying a sword suddenly saves him and disappears. This strange encounter is going to change drastically the fate of our hero. ~ Source: Crunchyroll

Reaction:

Eh… there are a few laughs here and there but it lacks a certain something. The premise doesn’t even really match the first episode. I can’t decide if whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Even so, I plan to keep watching this one. Who knows? Maybe it’ll get better.

That’s All Folks!

So, have I missed any good ones? Also, should I give Berserk another chance? I couldn’t even finish watching episode one but maybe I wouldn’t hate it so much the second time around. What do you think?

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Podcast Launch Delayed

The SpecFic Trifecta Podcast which was scheduled to launch back in April 2016, was delayed and I’ve been meaning to post about that for some time now. For various reasons, mostly personal ones, the Podcast will not launch for a few more months.

My new timetable has the launch of the Podcast set for January 2017.

Spec-Fic Trifecta will be a monthly 15-minute podcast dedicated to three things spec-fic. Each month I will choose one book, one comic, and one TV show or movie to feature on the episode. There will also be a Q&A section where I answer selected questions from listeners or readers of this blog.

I will post another announcement when I decide on a specific date in January for the launch.

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Cat Skin

“Say, Doc,” Chloe asked lowly. “You know why I’m in here?”

The doctor was a young one, fresh out of university. She wore round glasses and her hair in a serious bun. It was nearly the end of their session, six going on seven in the evening. She eyed Chloe sagely.

“You know why you’re here, Chloe.” Dr. Finley said softly. “This is a safe place, where we can talk about the things on your mind.”

Despite her cajoling words, the doctor was well aware that the girl sitting on the loveseat across from her wasn’t talking about this room, all Zen-like and bursting at the seams with soft colors and warmth. Beyond the soft love-seats and fluffy cushions was a sterile hallway, leading to rows and rows of titanium-reinforced, padded cells.

“Beckley Place is a facility for the criminally insane,” Chloe said, nodding.

“Yes,” Dr. Finley nodded. “Yes, it is.”

Chloe’s hazel eyes darted from side to side as if to make sure no one else was listening. She leaned forward and whispered. “But I ain’t neither criminal nor insane.”

“You’ve killed sixteen people.”

Chloe continued as if Dr. Finley hadn’t spoken. “I’m cursed,” She said, leaning back in the loveseat. “Doc, it ain’t my fault that I’m cursed.”

Chloe was twenty-seven, rail thin and petite. With her over large eyes and knotty mass of hair, she looked more like a frail, urban waif than a vicious killer. Killed she had, though, torn bodies to shreds in violent ways that Dr. Finley had never even imagined possible.

“Why do you think you’re cursed, Chloe?” Dr. Finley probed.

“Oh, come on!” Chloe answered harshly.

Dr. Finley flinched.

“You think I don’t know what’s up?” Chloe demanded, eyes over-bright and limpid. “I know what’s up.”

Dr. Finley’s pen hovered over her notepad. “What do you mean?”

“Things happen to me at night.” Chloe’s voice trembled. “Awful, awful things, Doc.”

Dr. Finkley set her notepad and pen aside. She leaned forward, emphatic. “Chloe, if there’s something happening to you in this place, you need to tell me about—”

There was a sudden rapping on the door.

“Dr. Finley,” said a male voice. “It’s time.”

Dr. Finley’s eyes swung back to her patient. “Chloe, tell me.”

The chains on Chloe’s shackles rattled as she gripped the doctor’s hands in her own. “It comes at night!” She hissed, trembling violently. “Please! Please don’t let them take me back to that room.”

The door opened. A pair of burly male guards barged in.

“It’s time, Doctor,” the one who’d spoken before said. “We have to take her. Now.”

Chloe backed away, cowered in the corner of the room.

“Please, Doc!” She cried.

The guards crossed the room, dragged Chloe to her feet.

“Wait!” Dr. Finley protested. “I’m treating this patient right now. You have no right to interfere here.”

The guard who hadn’t spoken yet turned his head to look at Dr. Finley. He was the taller of the two, dark and attractive but the frosty look in his eyes made Dr. Finley shiver. “You’re new so you don’t understand how things work around here. I’ll give you that. Don’t push it, Doc. This is for your sake too.”

Concerned, Dr. Finley hurried after them.

They dragged Chloe out of the room. She was crying, clawing, and making sounds Dr. Finely didn’t even recognize as human.

“Shit! Is that a fang?” Dr. Finley heard one of the guards say. “She’s changing now. Use the tranquilizer!”

The dark one reached into his pouch and produced an injection cartridge with a big needle and jammed it into Chloe’s arm. The effect was immediate. She stopped fighting the other guard. The two guards backed away as she fell to her knees. They pulled their guns from their holsters and aimed at Chloe. The shorter guard got on his radio, asking for a facility lock-down.

“Dr. Finley, go back to your office and lock the door,” said the taller guard. His words barely registered. Dr. Finely couldn’t take her eyes off Chloe.

Chloe crouched low, growling like an animal. She was down on all fours, back flexing and undulating. She shuddered. Her muscles rippled. Dr. Finley looked on in speechless horror as the skin on Chloe’s fingers and toes broke apart and sharp claws appeared. There was blood, so much blood. Hairs popped up on Chloe’s skin. She grew in size until her clothes ripped and fell to the ground in tattered bits. Her shackles broke apart. Right before Dr. Finley’s eyes, she transformed into a massive jaguar, a hirsute killing machine. The two guards backed up a few more paces, guns still trained on the feline beast that Chloe had become.

The beast pawed at the ground, shook its head from side to side. Its glazed eyes fixed on the spot where Dr. Finley stood. It took a step forward. Dr. Finley heard a gun trigger cock. Dr. Finley’s breath caught in her throat. Fear, bitter and raw, filled her mouth. She wanted to run but she couldn’t. Her feet were rooted to the spot. The beast lumbered forward, swaying from side to side. It stumbled and crumpled to the ground, the tranquilizer finally taking effect. One of the guards stepped in closer. He kicked at the jaguar with a booted foot. It didn’t budge.

“Right,” he said. “Let’s get her back in her cell.”

Dr. Finley sank to the ground.

“Cursed,” she mouthed shakily, watching in stunned silence as the two guards dragged the bloody jaguar down the corridor.

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Space Age Mermaid

Sulily sleeps suspended inside a transparent, cylindrical womb filled with luminous blue fluid. Her suit sticks to her body like a second skin and has knobby nodes that run up the length of her spine and end at the soft helmet’s base at the back of her neck. From the center of the helmet, wires fan outward and upward, gathering at the control center at the top of the container. Sulily’s mouth and nose are covered by a breathing apparatus with a serpentine root that coils and stretches down to the base of the cylinder.

From time to time, her eyelids flicker and her fingers and toes twitch. Otherwise, she simply floats in suspended animation, unaware of even the small, robotic jellyfish that swim around her, monitoring her vitals and the state of the life-preserving fluid. Her unconscious body has already been floating inside the cylinder for three years. She will sleep like this for two more years, awaken for three then sleep again for two more years. When she awakens for the second time, this space age mermaid and her companions will be orbiting a whole new world. At least, that’s the plan.

Sulily dreams in hypersleep.

She doesn’t dream of the friends and family she left behind on Ceres or of the vast distances between stars. The dauntless pioneer doesn’t dream of the new life she will begin on a new planet or of the many adventures and hardships to come. She doesn’t dream of the starship’s photon sails, fluttering on cosmic currents like the wings of a butterfly as it breaches the solar system’s heliopause. She doesn’t dream of Barnard’s Star or of their target planet’s seven mysterious sisters. She doesn’t dream of the unknown continents waiting to be discovered or the icy moon Gog, circling the planet Magog–an ominous pair of names to which Sulily had stridently objected but was outvoted. She doesn’t dream of the past, the future, or even the present.

Sulily dreams of water, Big Water, abundant enough to swallow their massive spaceship whole. It is with longing that she dreams of Earth’s mighty ocean, that vast liquid body thrashing and throwing its weight around with abandon. She dreams of the gentle shushing of froth against the shorelines, of rip-roaring, thunderous waves cresting on the high seas and crashing against jagged cliffs. She dreams of awkward sea cows, humpty-dumpty sunfish, snaky oarfish, and the sightless monstrosities living below the photic zone–she’d once seen them all at an exhibit at the virtual zoo on Ceres. She dreams of shoals of mackerel twisting and folding into dense bait balls and ruthless sharks culling the frenetic herds.

She dreams of dark, green forests of sargassum, the baby seahorses and leafy seadragons taking shelter within their hairy embrace. She dreams of the many-tentacled octopuses, caught up in their furtive mating rituals and jittery war dances deeper down. In her dream, Sulily hears the shrieks of hungry seabirds, the boisterous chatter of dolphins, and the sad, beautiful singing of whales. In her dream, the jellyfish swimming around her are puffy giants with long, curly tendrils trailing along the ocean floor. Surrounded by the bioluminescent denizens of the great Deep, she is Captain Nemo ensconced within her rusty submarine, delving deep down into the starlit trenches of an Earth to which Sulily has never been.

Sulily doesn’t dream of jolly Roger Hartman, slumped at the pilot controls, all skeletonized and bone white. She doesn’t dream of Lady Diana Bergman–Sulily has secretly nicknamed her Princess of Mars–inside her fractured shell, all desiccated and deathly dark. She doesn’t dream of Torey Brown, the taciturn medical technician who died, plunging face first into a plate of scrambled egg whites; beside him on the counter, a worn paperback copy of The Integral Trees, earmarked at page three hundred and eighty-six. Sulily doesn’t dream of Miko Takano, the mechanical engineer with a penchant for reciting poetry aloud, curled up in her bunk, in the throes of a nightmare from which she will never awaken. She doesn’t dream of Mike Tully in the hydroponics bay, done in alongside his crop, dirt still clinging to the tips of his fingernails.

Sulily doesn’t know.

She doesn’t know that one year ago, along had come a wayward piece of cosmic debris, punching a hole into the spaceship’s hull and ripping through the quarters where she and her crewmates sleep. She doesn’t know that three of the seven watery wombs have cracked open like eggs, fluid spewing out, leaving inside only the devastated bodies of their unfortunate occupants. Sulily doesn’t know that the pilot and the rest of the on-duty shift are dead. She sleeps, unaware of the flickering lights and shrill alarms going off all over the ship. She doesn’t hear the intermittent crackle of the radio or the repetitive pleas for a response to mission control. She doesn’t know that the program designed to awaken her at the appointed time or in the event of an emergency has become corrupt and ceased to function.

Lost in her endless dreaming, Sulily will keep sleeping for another seven years.

The phantasmal Nautilus will continue plumbing the depths of the watery abyss for wonders and riches untold. Sulily will continue to float, suspended inside her high tech tomb. Solar winds will continue to bluster against the bow of the great ship. Barnard’s star will continue to lie in wait, expelling fairy dust and fire. Gog will continue to circle Magog—fourteen hundred and thirty-two more times. The ship’s engines will keep humming. The alarms will keep blaring. The desperate voices on the radio will keep calling. The bodies that haven’t rotted down to bone will become eternally mummified. Sole survivor oblivious, the corpse-laden spaceship will sail unerringly to her destined cosmic shore.

At the end of Sulily’s ten-year journey, the hole in the hull will have widened into a gaping maw. The doomed ship will wobble, spin, and burn up as it is sucked into Magog’s magnetic embrace. As if to dream the inevitable away, Sulily will still be dreaming inside her watery grave. Sulily will never have an inkling of her gruesome fate.

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Ephemera Published in The Nettle Tree

The Nettle Tree, an anthology which includes my short story, Ephemera, is now available.

Several months ago, I was invited to submit to The Nettle Tree. The editors, Kenneth Weene and Clayton Bye were looking for strangely different stories with a western flavor.

Truth be told, at first, I didn’t think I could do it. Me? Writing a western story of any kind, of all things? There was no way. Still, a tiny sliver of an idea sparked and prickled at the back of my mind for weeks. I finally came up with this “westerny” sort of science fiction story titled Ephemera.

Ephemera is a story about grave diggers leading the charge to re-colonize an alien frontier.

Sound familiar? I hope not!

I’ll let you in on a funny little secret. Ephemera was somewhat inspired by one of my much older pieces of flash fiction, this little flashfic titled Becoming.

I had always wanted to maybe expand on the concept of Becoming. Ephemera was my chance to do that. I wound up with a completely different story than what I originally had in mind but I love how Ephemera turned out and I hope you will too.

In the coming weeks, I will be giving away a limited number of copies of The Nettle Tree to Patrons (via Patreon). I will make an announcement on this blog and on Patreon when the giveaway starts.

Get a Copy

Buy at Amazon.com | Buy from Publisher | Follow Me on Patreon

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The Darker Side in Tachyon Node Magazine

My short story The Darker Side was published in issue #3 of Tachyon Node Magazine.

You may recall, I posted about Tachyon Node Magazine some time ago.

The Darker Side is a supernatural speculative fiction story about a grieving man who ventures into Cockpit Country, Jamaica and encounters something that he can’t explain.

Excerpt

Claude dreamed that he was back in the old rainforest. He dreamed that he was surrounded by the blanketing moss that crept out of the dark, crawled over wood and swept across the earth under his feet. He dreamed of his dead twin. He dreamed that her lifeless body was still sprawled half-in, half-out of the shallow end of the river, the soaked hem of her red summer dress bobbing in the inky wet. There was a noise, an awful noise that came rushing into his head. That strange sound followed him down and back up the old road, in and out of dreaming.

GET ISSUE #3 OF TACHYON NODE MAGAZINE

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Read the Advent of Hegira Online

The Advent of Hegira is the next installment in the HEGIRA series of short stories. Instead of another short story, this will be a novella. I decided to serialize this story for the year’s Summer Writing Project from 1888 and Jukepop Serials.

The Advent of Hegira is now serialized at Jukepop Serials.

In case you missed it:

Synopsis

Hegira is a behemoth, home to thousands of sapient alien races. The ship of legend left behind by a nearly extinct race of beings called Starchasers is a powerhouse barreling across galaxies.

Many seek to take control of the leviathan, but to rule this ship, one must control her pilot. Sesili, Hegira’s pilot is dying. There are two candidates to take her place, Laila and Sumida.

Worlds apart, the pair must overcome Sesili’s trials and prove themselves worthy of inheriting Hegira. Laila has overcome her trial. Now it’s Sumida’s turn.

Sumida is accompanied by the mercenary, Bex Atria and an alien named Klang. Her survival will depend on three things: dumb luck, Bex’s talent for weaseling out of a sticky situation and Klang’s penchant for secretly murdering anything that threatens the well-being of his beloved Bex.

Read Chapters One and Two of The Advent of Hegira at Jukepop Serials.

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