Australian writer Rowena Cory Daniells has just posted an interview she did with me recently, in which we talk about my new book, the music I listen to while writing, and much more–including a discussion on why Fantasy is often wrongly perceived as a boy’s club.

Here’s part of my answer to her question:

“I don’t believe that there is a difference in the way that men and women approach the craft of writing genre fiction. If there is a difference between the sexes, it’s in the reception their writing receives. The latest figures I’ve seen seem to indicate that men and women are fairly evenly represented when it comes to the number of authors currently writing genre fiction; however, the male writers seem to get more reviews and more exposure than the females, which is obviously grossly unfair—especially in a genre that prides itself on its open-mindedness.”

Read the full interview here.

I rather like this quote from JG Ballard’s autobiography, Miracles of Life:

“Above all, science fiction had a huge vitality that had bled away from the modernist novel. It was a visionary engine that created a new future with every revolution, a hot rod accelerating away from the reader, propelled by an exotic literary fuel as rich and dangerous as anything that drove the surrealists.”

It reminds me of something I wrote and posted here a while back:

“Good science fiction should blow a reader’s socks off. It should take that whole cupboard of toys and use it to tell stories that just can’t be told within the confines of mainstream literature. And in an increasingly bizarre world, maybe SF is the only literature capable of addressing the things we see on the news every night: cyber terrorism; stem cell therapy; cloning; urban decay; 24 hour surveillance; global pandemics; etc. Which could be why more and more “mainstream” writers are finding themselves having to borrow from SF’s toy cupboard in order to tell their stories. But more than all that, it should show readers something they’ve never seen before. It should entertain and stretch their minds, and open them to new possibilities. It should combat prejudice and ignorance. It should  educate and provoke and ask the questions no one else is asking, and it should have something to say about what it means to be human in an increasingly baffling world.”

I think I use more SF tropes than fantasy ones. Plus, my work is intended to be science fiction. Whether it succeeds in that aim is something for someone else to decide. To me, the difference between SF and fantasy lays not so much in technique or subject matter as in application. Broadly speaking, I see SF as a tool for exploring what it will mean to be human in an increasingly strange and baffling future; whereas I see fantasy exploring what it means to be human (or superhuman) in worlds which plainly do not, nor ever will, exist – a hotline into our archetypal dreams and superstitions, where mighty heroes vanquish armies of grotesque sub humans and beautiful vampires fall in love with their food.

Continue reading “The Difference Between SF and Fantasy”

I was pleased to be invited to take part in this week’s Mind Meld discussion over at SF Signal. The question was: which books are at the top of your “to be read” pile? To find out the panel’s answers, follow this link: Mind Meld

I have a lot of books I need to catch up with, so one of my New Year’s resolutions will be to work my way through the following list:

• JG Ballard – The Complete Short Stories
• Bruce Sterling – Ascendancies
• Cordwainer Smith – The Rediscovery Of Man
• Harlan Ellison – The Essential Ellison
• Arthur C Clarke – The Collected Stories
• Philip K Dick – Human Is?
• Vernor Vinge – The Collected Stories

Which books are you planning to read next year?

This December, TTA Press will be hosting an advent calendar. Each day, from the 1st through to the 25th, the TTA website will feature a new link to a story on another website. Some of these stories will be new, others old. Some will be written by previous contributors to TTA Press magazines (Interzone, Black Static, etc.) and some will be by new faces.

I believe one of my stories will be linked to on 2nd December. For more details, keep your eye on the TTA Press discussion forum.

This morning, I submitted a new short story to market. The idea for it came to me while getting dressed the other day, and I wrote the whole first draft in an hour. Becky read it for me last night and suggested some minor changes, which I made on the spot. I’m planning to write another short story this afternoon, then it’s back to work on the novel.

Following my recent experiment in online short story selling, I am now in a position to offer you a PDF copy of my first short story collection, The Last Reef And Other Stories.

The Last Reef was originally published in hardback and paperback by Elastic Press in August 2008. It contains 15 short stories, and received glowing reviews from Interzone, Prism, Sci-fi Online, and The Fix.

In order to get a PDF copy of the book emailed directly to you from me, simply click on the big yellow button on the right (you may need to scroll up or down a bit).

This will take you to PayPal. All you have to do then is enter your payment details and decide how much you’d like to pay.

Yes, I’m putting the ball in your court. You decide what you think is a fair price for a 60,000 word book, pay me, and I’ll email you a copy.

It’s that simple.

I put a lot of work into this collection and I’m glad to now have the opportunity to make it available to a wider audience.

And as a special bonus, when you order a copy of The Last Reef, I’ll throw in a PDF copy of my short story “What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done?”, which isn’t normally included in the book.

So when placing your order, please remember to include your email address and state whether you’d like me to send you the PDF versions of the book, the short story, or both.

Many thanks!

Good science fiction should blow a reader’s socks off. It should take that whole cupboard of toys and use it to tell stories that just can’t be told within the confines of mainstream literature. And in an increasingly bizarre world, maybe SF is the only literature capable of addressing the things we see on the news every night: cyber terrorism; stem cell therapy; cloning; urban decay; 24 hour surveillance; global pandemics; etc. Which could be why more and more “mainstream” writers are finding themselves having to borrow from SFs toy cupboard in order to tell their stories. But more than all that,It should show readers something they’ve never seen before. It should entertain and stretch their minds, and open them to new possibilities. It should combat prejudice and ignorance. It should  educate and provoke and ask the questions no one else is asking, and it should have something to say about what it means to be human in an increasingly baffling world.

I will be giving the following speech at this event in Bristol tomorrow morning:

The Role Of Science Fiction In Our Understanding Of The Future.
By Gareth L Powell

Good morning.

My name is Gareth Powell. I’m a science fiction writer and I’ve been asked here today to talk to you about the role science fiction plays in our understanding of what the future might hold.

Continue reading “The Role Of Science Fiction”