Do you love spec-fic? Read it? Write it? Paper your walls with it? Are you now wondering what exactly IS spec-fic? It’s short for speculative fiction, and here’s a thorough explanation by Annie Neuberger if you’re not familiar with the use of the term, but trust me—you love it.
If any of the above applies, then I have just the thing for you. Actually, I have just the two things for you: two lovely new monthly features that will become your newest obsessions. And the best part is they are each completely free. I require only a smidgen of your soul, and that’s pretty much the same thing as free, right? Right!
So here are the deets:
First Thing: I invite—nay, I highly recommend—spec-fic writers to visit Luna Station Quarterly online. Not only does this site offer a ton of mentally nutritious goods curated by and for female-identifying writers and readers, but they are graciously hosting my new monthly column, The S Word.
Each month, The S Word challenges world-builders and universe creators to write beyond the ingrained influence of our patriarchal society by reimagining our world without the influence of . . . wait for it . . . sex. Think of it as a monthly thought experiment that imagines how various aspects of our modern-day society—from politics to entertainment—may have developed in a reality free of sex, sexuality, and all the gendered complications that have extended from it.
My hope is for this column to become more of a conversation hub, as there are no solid or singular truths for how a sex-free society might look. Just as in the fictional worlds we build, there are only possibilities. My next post—due out 25 October—focuses on fashion and clothing in a world without sex. Fashion without the passion, if you will.
Second Thing: For those who love a contemporary supernatural story, may I present The Recipients of the Years of Amelia Layne (ROYAL for short):
A woman who’s given up on life is offered the chance to give her unwanted time to others due to die in the coming year. She now has only months to find people worthy of her remaining sixty-five years, or she’ll spend what’s left of that time in a coma.
This serialized story was conceived as a potential pitch for my LSQ column mentioned above before I realized the blog featured non-fiction content. But, I loved the idea and didn’t want it to go to waste, so it now lives here on my website.
New episodes will premiere on the first of each month. The next three have already been penned, so you’re guaranteed a new episode on the first day of 2019. Instead of resolutions, you’ll have read-olutions. How cool is that?
Once the entire ROYAL series is complete and published online (approximately fourteen episodes total), I plan to bundle it all into a lovely cohesive novella, and then who knows . . . maybe a screenplay adaptation for Netflix. Alright, so now we’re talking the fantasy end of the spec-fic spectrum, but a girl can dream, right? Might as well dream big.
D.M. Domosea 