Archetype Writing Blog

This week the blog chain's topic is...genres! It's my responsibility to get the ball rolling, but make sure you check out the blogger who comes next to see her take on things, and then the blogger after her, and so on...

It's not hard for me to identify the overarching genres my writing falls into: science fiction and fantasy. What I have trouble with are the subgenres. I worry a lot about how urban fantasy is different from contemporary fantasy is different from science fantasy...?

There are several things I can blame for my love of sf/f. Gatchaman may be the first. When I was little, my friends and I religiously watched an Americanized sci-fi henshin anime. The Americanized version, Battle of the Planets, took the scifi even farther than the original, adding space travel, anthropomorphized robots, and aliens.

It also didn't hurt that there was always science fiction around the house when I was growing up. I was raised around iconic blockbusters like Dr. Who, Star Wars, and Star Trek. That stuff sinks in. (The original Star Wars films are still some of my favorite movies ever. And...Han shot first!)

Though the novels I read early on were mostly Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (who were way cooler than Nancy), I soon discovered Madeleine L'Engle and CS Lewis. As I got older, I fell in love with Piers Anthony, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, and later still, with Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

I love that both sf and f deal with the fantastic, with what could be if only modern physics would agree. Time travel, multiverses, cybernetics, and light-speed travel all fascinate me as much as sorcery and swordplay.

I hope this post is semi-coherent. I just got back from the ultimate sf/f geekfest, the San Diego Comicon. I'm still a little tired!