Genre Talk—The Difference Between Science Fiction and Fantasy

We interrupt the usual Life Lessons Friday post. Reba is en route to Salt Lake City and will resume posting next Friday. (Don’t worry, I’m not letting her leave us!)

The Difference Between Science Fiction and Fantasy

During our last Genre Talk discussion, I gave you the basics on the general category of Speculative Fiction. Today I’m going to deliver on my promise to give you some insight into the difference between Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Often times readers and writers will lump science fiction and fantasy together without realizing the difference. And in an attempt to differentiate, they’ll often come up with arbitrary rules about what makes something fantasy or scifi. Truthfully, there are very few books that mix the two.

Genre Talk—So What is SPECULATIVE Fiction Anyway?

I was talking with a non-publishing friend a while back, and she asked me what kind of book I was writing.  I told her about my science fiction series and my Steampunk series. Then I said, “Actually the short answer is I write spec.”

At her blank look, I corrected myself. “Speculative fiction.”

If anything her look got more confused, and I realized she had no idea what I was talking about when I said speculative. So I took the opportunity to explain the term to her.

Genre Talk—Explaining the Cozy Mystery

Many of you know how much I love science fiction, but you may not know what my other favorite genre is. Actually, I’m a HUGE cozy mystery fan.

I had the opportunity to share this little known fact with some writer friends a few weeks ago and was shocked to learn that not everyone knows what a cozy mystery is. But this is understandable when I think about it. The publishing heyday of cozies was back in the 80s and 90s.

I grew up reading classic cozies from Agatha Christie. But I cut my teeth on some of the masters like Elizabeth Peters (Amelia Peabody, Jacqueline Kirby, and Vicky Bliss), Alisa Craig—writing as Charlotte MacLeod (Grub-and-Stakers, Peter Shandy, and Sarah Kelling & Max Bittersohn), Carolyn Hart (Death on Demand, and Henri O), and Ellis Peters (Brother Cadfael).