Creating A Genre

When people find out that I’m a fiction writer, they ask what type of stories I write. I’ve been replying, “I write Science Fiction and Fantasy.” The reaction I get is an almost universal and immediate disinterest. This almost makes me feel like I should apologize. But I’ve been rethinking this lately, as I’ve talked with some people who don’t normally read science fiction, yet they thoroughly enjoyed my first novel, Pariah.

When I released Pariah, I tagged it as “Science Fiction (High Tech)”...