Cli-fi with a dash of up-lit

‘What is the krill issue, Rory?’

‘The krill issue is…’ Rory ponders, ‘very serious. Very, very serious.’

(‘Melt’)

It’s just over a week now until my novel ‘Melt’ is released and I’m hoping that it might create a whole new category of fiction – cli-fi with a dash of up-lit.

There’s a new literary trend, which I wholeheartedly endorse, for novels to be heart-warming and uplifting. Such novels, for example ‘Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine’ by Gail Honeyman (which I adored!) are called up-lit.

Novels about climate change, also known as cli-fi, however, are not noted for being uplifting or humorous. Dark apocalyptic stories are the norm. While this is understandable, there are only so many scorched wastelands and mutant animals a reader can take. Humorous love stories can be cli-fi too.

I’ve always loved fish-out-of-water comedies. Watching a character battle their way out of circumstances which they don’t have the skills to handle is so much fun. I imagined a woman who is forced to impersonate a TV science superstar in Antarctica. She knows nothing about glaciology, penguins or krill and her boss forbids her to talk about climate change.

‘There will be no mention of climate change on Channel Five. It’s boring and it’s bad for business. It makes people feel bad. Our job is to make people feel good. Is that understood?’

‘Yes, Maxine.’

An early review of ‘Melt’ by author Kim Kelly says that it is, … so much more than romcom… It’s a bittersweet, cleverly nuanced exploration of climate change – how we’ve failed to market it and how urgently we need to turn our minds to the task.

 Which is pretty much what I had in mind, so thanks Kim!

‘Melt’ is up, over at Goodreads if you’d like to check out a few other early reviews or add it to your ‘To read’ list.

The paperback is currently discounted for pre-order from the publisher until its May 2nd release.[image error]

An igloo plays an important role in ‘Melt’…

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