Speculation, Fact and Fiction

One of the things I find myself telling aspiring authors time and again is you'll get nowhere writing books that merely tick all the boxes of your chosen genre template.

I know this coz I tried it. After I'd been through the earlier proto-writing phases of cobbling together retreads of my favourite library books (from about age 8 to age 12) and the Mary-Sue period of writing myself (only older, prettier, smarter etc) into thinly disguised versions of narrative threads from my favourite books and TV shows (age 12 to 15).

The tick-box phase lasted into my twenties, until I got what I now know to be a hugely helpful rejection letter saying, 'there's nothing to distinguish this from the six other competent fantasy novels that have crossed my desk this week.'So I started looking for ways to make a distinctive story. One method is taking the template and turning it on its head.

I've just read two books that do this supremely well. Emily Gee's The Thief with No Shadow is fantasy of the highest calibre without kings, princes or the fates of nations riding on the battle between good and evil. You can read my full review of it at SFRevu.

Then there's No Humans Involved, the latest Women of the Otherworld book by Kelley Armstrong. Thus far, this consistently impressive series has explored (among other things) the implications of power for werewolves, ghosts and spellcasters. Now she's focusing on Jaime Vegas, stage medium - who can actually see dead people, and hear them, come to that. But she doesn't have magic or superstrength or any ability to pass between dimensions. Kelley Armstrong's turning her own template on its head here. As far as Jaime's concerned, all the other kids got the cool superpowers.

So how does she cope when a supernatural-reality-tv show all goes awry? Read the book and find out!