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werejackal says why do you write sci-fi?
In a nutshell, the answer is "Because I like it!" A slightly more intellectual answer would be, "Because I prefer the fantastic and the futuristic to the grinding banalities of real life."
Let's compare and contrast:
My real life: I've been unemployed for eight months. Eight freakin' months, despite constant looking, and I have a BS in biology and an MA in journalism and seven years of web design and publications experience. I can't even get a job at the library shelving books. My apartment complex is a dump; we're stuck in a lease and probably can't afford to move, anyway. The people closest to me are in various stages of crisis and misery. One close friend recently had a nervous breakdown that landed him in The Bin for a week. Three friends are in the midst of nasty divorces. Another friend had to have an abortion. Meanwhile, my mother has chronic cancer and is going blind.
Speculative fiction: I can create any kind of world I want, and write about interesting people who, through their own actions, achieve their hearts' desires. The good and industrious are rewarded, the rotten and annoying get a royal smackdown. There are golden utopias, fascinating dystopias, space ships, quests, magic, and missions of epic importance. Characters can save the universe, save their home towns, or even just save their own moms. Forget about depression and existential angst -- these characters overcome fiends and zombie hordes and murderous robots. They can turn into mist and seep under doors. They can turn into wolves and run through the moonlit forest. They can fly.
Now, ask me again why I like science fiction.
Speaking of SF, a couple of people have asked me about the stories I've posted here over the past few weeks. Some have indeed been published professionally; the others are problematic due to their sexual content. There's a presumption amongst many SF markets that because SF is widely seen as fiction youngsters read, it has to be PG-13 or thereabouts. Explicit sex is a no-no. And ironically, most erotica markets won't touch SF with a ten foot dildo. There is one market, Circlet Press, that only publishes erotica with speculative fiction elements, but I've had a story there in their slushpile for well over a year.
I'm just not that patient.
Life is too goddamn short to write a story and let it sit on my hard drive, unread, for years.
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