MAPPING SHORT SF/F: Part 2: Fun Short SFF

Fun. For some people, fun evokes childhood and a certain kind of carefree energy. For others, it means something more like excitement and adventure and novelty. Mapping fun short SFF is something of a challenge, not because I cannot point to works that I’d consider fun, but because fun is a weirdly nebulous term that, like most things, I probably define oddly in terms of genre. But, as that what I’m seeking to do in this series, I’ll do my best.

To me, fun as a genre operates a lot like horror does. It’s not so much about elements of world building or how the piece conveys message. It’s not about theme or about any one style. When I say it operates a lot like horror, what I mean is that they both are built around a feeling. Horror as a genre is defined (or at least I define it) by its ability to evoke fear and unease in the reader. Whether the story seeks to do that through gore or violence, or through atmosphere and suspense, doesn’t matter so much, because it’s all horror. Similarly, for a story to be fun, it has to be about evoking an emotion. Instead of fear, though, I’d say that fun is about joy. To me, fun SFF stories are those that seek to make the reader feel joyous. Which, given the times, is both an incredibly difficult and important mission.

Now, I’ll start with the bad news. Fun seems like a rather difficult genre to pin down, and also a difficult one to market. I know that there is an assumption that some people have when they see the word fun it means easy or simple or...not important or impacting. There aren’t to my knowledge too many venues that specialize in fun SFF, though there have been a few that have tried. First and foremost, Mothership Zeta did an excellent job of exploring what fun SFF could look like. Released as a non-podcast branch of the Escape Artists, Mothership Zeta released a number of issues bursting with stories of all sorts of short SFF, all with the editorial intent to explore the intersection of speculative fiction and fun. And it did so with stories that were romantic, stories that were gripping, stories that were suspenseful and epic. There was a huge range of stories that the publication looked at, and a huge range of subgenres represented. I loved the publication, and while sadly it is on indefinite hiatus, it remains the sole “pro-level” publication I can think of that so intensely pursued fun as its goal.

Similarly, The Sockdolager had a focus on stories “that are fun to read.” So from an editorial level, The Sockdolager was looking to push stories that were fun, what flowed quickly and left the reader feeling invigorated and joyful. Which, again, doesn’t mean that they were only happy stories, or that they were without violence or meaning. My favorite horror story of 2016, “Butter-Daughters” by Nin Harris, came out at The Sockdolager, and it’s loads of fun as well as intensely creepy. It perhaps didn’t range quite so widely as Mothership Zeta in terms of pacing, preferring (in my opinion) rather fast-moving and punchy stories instead of more romantic or slower narratives, but I can safely say that the publication was always rather fun to read. It’s another publication, though, that has sadly closed its doors, and together with Mothership Zeta it makes the number of publications specifically interested in fun SFF...well, kinda slim.

That’s not to say that there’s no fun to be had. The other Escape Artists podcasts, especially Cast of Wonders, has a rather fun feel to them. Now, here’s where I have to slow down a little and say that it’s often the case that YA SFF or SFF geared toward younger audiences does often lean a bit more in the fun direction than does more “mainstream” SFF. There are reasons for this and not reasons I feel like going into here in great depth but, well...

MINI-RANT: There’s a whole long discussion that we could have about aesthetics and fun and art. Within SFF this is a very tangled and complex web, because genre work is often dismissed as fluff or without literary merit or escapist drivel or...all that. And in counter to that, there is a lot of SFF that brings in traditions that are more associated with literary fiction (and defining that would be another exercise is pain), by which I mean short fiction that is often considered for the highest awards for literature. There are also camps, though, that resist this effort to make SFF “more literary” or “more artistic,” not because they believe that SFF (and all genres, really) are already artistic and worthy of discussion and examination of art without shaming people’s tastes or preferences, but because they condemn “literary” fiction and “artful” fiction as pretentious and dull. So suffice it to say that we’re into some heady waters here. I do not believe that being fun makes a work suddenly not adult or not artistic (and again, not that I’d ever argue YA isn’t artistic, either). But I do recognize that YA and fun intersect or perhaps are allowed and expected to intersect more frequently than “mainstream” SFF and fun, so for those hungry for fun SFF, checking out the YA publications (Cast of Wonders and Cicada specifically), might yield some fruitful searches.

Similarly, checking out where SFF intersects with other genres often leads to finding a bit more freedom with regards to fun. While it ran, Urban Fantasy Magazine had a number of fun stories, and those looking for where SFF and romance intersect can find a whole slew of fun SFF stories that deal with relationships and spaceships, magic, and monsters. Indeed, for those looking for fun queer stories, checking out small queer presses (like Lethe, Circlet, Less Than Three, Dreamspinner, JMS, & more) can lead to finding fun SFF that gets pushed to the margins because it contains fun queer relationships, and these can come in all levels of heat (from lots of sex! to no sex at all to everything in between). Admittedly, finding short fiction of this sort normally requires searching for anthologies (of which there are many), or else shopping the individual ebooks of shorter works (which can be difficult when comparing it to the “mostly free” stuff that dominates “mainstream” SFF). It also means that you might end up putting down money for something you don’t much care for, and especially for those for whom money is tight, this can be a real barrier to getting at fun stories.

But FUN! Let's get back to what's out there. Though the number of fun-specific venues has decreased, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t publications that regularly put out really fun stories. I want to highlight three more that spring to mind as being good places to start. The first is Fireside Fiction. Especially at the flash fiction length, it often has joyfully fun stories, like "A Silhouette Against Armageddon" by John Wiswell and “Feeding Mr. Whiskers” by Dawn Bonnano. The publication definitely trades in darker and denser works as well, but fans of fun will be well served keeping an eye out for their weekly releases.

Secondly, The Book Smugglers put out some amazingly fun stories, both shorter stories to read for free as part of their yearly themes (this year was Gods & Monsters) and for their longer work such as the Novella Initiative. Again, some of their work does drive very dark, but there's a charming quality to so much of it and lots of it is just amazingly fun. Go read Hurricane Heels by Isabel Yap, which is at times intense and at times rather violent but which is all about friendship and hope and joy. There's "Superior" by Jessica Lack and "Avi Cantor Has Six Months To Live" by Sacha Lamb and just so many stellar stories that center heart and fun. The publication doesn't tend to put a huge amount, but they're growing, and they're definitely one of my go-to sources for fun.

Thirdly, Daily Science Fiction is also well worth checking out. Given how much they put out, perhaps it’s not surprising that they hit the “fun zone” often enough, but I think overall the driving aesthetic of the publication leans more towards the fast and fun. These are pieces that are meant to be read almost every day, and as such they often act as little rays of sunshine to lift the spirits and inspire a push toward freedom and joy. There's a lot to sift through, but you'll find a lot of treasure if you give it a go.

I could go on with publications that often have some fun stories but I would challenge readers that if they want fun it’s often to go straight to the source, and perhaps track down your favorite writer of fun SFF and see if they have a Patreon. As this skirts around most gate-keeping in SFF, it’s often a place where authors can explore joyous stories without the crushing question of “can I sell this” or, if they’ve tried and failed to sell it, “what the fuck do I do with this now.” I can personally recommend the Patreons of Rose Lemberg, Merc Rustad, and Bogi Takács, where I’ve read recent fun SFF such as Lemberg's “The Splendid Goat Adventure” and Rustad's “Just Like Mombeast Used to Make.” The Patreon of Lethe Press also offers levels of support that include short stories, many of which are fun (and very queer). Obviously not all the content is going to be fun, but in my experience so far Patreon is a place that creators go to put up the stories they want to tell that they might not think will please “mainstream” venues. These works are often a bit freer, a bit looser, and a bit more fun than you might find elsewhere, so my advice is that if you find a piece that you love and is fun and want more, track the author down and see if they offer more like it through a Patreon.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of my advice is going to run along similar lines. Namely, that because fun SFF is something that is often viewed as...less marketable, I guess, it’s not often something publications take as many chances on (at least at the short fiction level). Which means that the costs of finding it are often passed down to the fans. It’s out there. There’s the Unidentified Funny Objects series of anthologies which are loads of fun and funny to boot, but these are not things that you’ll get access to for free. Patreons, small presses, anthologies...at least at the short fiction level most of the more reliable sources of fun require a monetary investment. The good news is that there is a lot out there to support, and that your support can make a huge difference for people trying to do more with fun SFF. The bad news is that it can feel like fun SFF (and especially fun SFF that crosses other boundaries, like allowing marginalized character to just be happy and have adventures) isn’t incredibly welcome. It’s a complex conversation that SFF is having with itself and with the larger writing landscape, and one that continues to be tricky to navigate. In the wake of that conversation, the map of fun short SFF has some noticeable holes, gaps, and ruts. It doesn’t mean you can’t find what you’re looking for, just that it’s not the easiest of tasks, made more difficult by some recent closings of publications. But hey, some might rise to take their places, or they might even rise from the dead. There’s always hope, and where there’s hope, there’s often fun.

So thank you all for joining me on this first cartographic adventure! If you want to help determine what continent of short SFF I’ll be trying to map next, find me on Twitter and vote in my poll (closes date). Cheers!

[For those looking for the previous Mapping Short SFF installment, check it out here: A Key to the Kingdom]

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POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.

MAPPING SHORT SF/F: Part 1, A Key to the Kingdom

Hi everyone. Have we met? My name is Charles and I read a lot of short SFF. I feel like every time I write that it should be read as if opening an AA meeting. Because, well...I’m a bit of a short-sff-aholic. It’s...well, something of a problem. But my problem can be your gain! Because I find that what I hear most when talking about short SFF as a field is that there’s Just. So. Much. And there is! Far more than any one person can read. Which is only really a problem if one just wanders in without a map. That’s where I come in. In this series I want to start to map the short SFF field with an eye toward giving readers the tools to find the stories they’re most interested in reading, or to find new publications/subgenres/authors that they might not have otherwise tried.

Maps are interesting things. On the one hand, they can firm up borders. They can create walls. They can codify injustices. On the other hand, they can be vital tools not only for not getting lost or getting to where you want to go, but for knowing what’s out there. Maps can be about setting expectations before pushing into the relative unknown. Maps can also be about describing a lack, as oftentimes the vast unmarked areas on maps are just as telling as the clear lines of city, state, and country. And, of course, every map bears the marks of its creator, is a text that tells a story. I cannot and will not attempt to tell you that the maps I make will not reflect me and my interpretation of what’s out there. I can only be as up front about it as I can. I am a reader and writer of short SFF. I read widely, and have published widely, and that will color how I think about and how I reveal short SFF to you.

First off, some definitions of terms. Because any map that’s useful is going to have a key. Let’s get some essentials out of the way.

Short SFF - Any speculative fiction shorter than novel-length (flash, short story, novelette, novella) as well as speculative poetry and nonfiction.

But wait, fuck, I did that thing where I defined something with a term that probably also needs to be defined. So…

Speculative fiction - Fiction that requires the writer to break one of the “rules” of accepted reality. Be it magic, technology, alternate history—speculative fiction is about asking “what if something was different than we accept it to be?”

This is, I grant you, a rather nebulous definition of speculative fiction that is based not on a piece predicting technology or even being “untrue.” To me, the sole thing a piece of speculative fiction must do is break a rule that is considered to be true currently. Rules change. Technology changes. History changes. But if the author is consciously breaking with how we conceive of and organize the “real world,” then I consider what they are writing to be speculative. Yes, this means my definition is based in some way on the author, not the reader. Fight me.

But with that out of the way, let me run down a few definitions that I find helpful for more specific genres.

Fantasy - Fiction where the “rules” broken concern magic or the supernatural (also, loosely, variants to accepted history).

Science Fiction - Fiction where the “rules” broken concern technology or extraterrestrial beings (also, loosely, depictions of the future).

Horror - Not necessarily speculative but based on the feeling of fear evoked in the reader. It becomes a qualifier of speculative fiction, though, as in speculative horror, or SFF horror, which would be fiction that breaks the “rules” of accepted reality and focuses on the feeling of fear evoked in the reader, often in the distance between accepted reality and the reality the work introduces.

Obviously those are the Big categories, sort of like the continents of short SFF. I will typically be looking at things a bit more specific than that, what most would consider subgenres. I’d actually list speculative horror as a subgenre, and a particularly robust one, and also the only subgenre of horror that I’ll probably be looking at because it’s the overlap between Horror the genre and Speculative Fiction the super-genre. And are you tired yet?

Anyway! I just want to give you an idea of how I’m approaching the process of map-making. I’m not incredibly interested in drawing lines between “hard” science fiction and “soft” science fiction. Really, the reasons I want to do this can be broken down thusly:

1. To provide a tool for readers to break down short SFF into meaningful, manageable chunks that will help them locate stories they will hopefully love.

2. To counter the narrative that short SFF is either too massive, too disparate, or too opaque to be successfully navigated.

3. To talk about short SFF, which is one of my great loves.

4. To highlight publications, authors, and trends within short SFF.

That is perhaps an ambitious list of goals for this series, but that’s the aim. In my head each installment will explore a certain area of short SFF, mapping it as thoroughly as possible (for me) in the current landscape (with perhaps some notes as to the recent past). I will provide links to examples of stories and publications and resources I find helpful to mapping short SFF, and I will try to be as open to feedback as possible. If you have suggestions on what you’d most like to see, or particular kinds of short SFF you want help finding more of, please sound off in the comments.

One last thing before I close this down. People often come to me to ask how to find stories. How to refine their search. While I hope to help through this series, there are some tools that are available to you right now, and I find that not everyone thinks of this when they’re considering where to look as readers for particular genres/styles/etc. Your best resource as a reader is…submissions guidelines. Yes, they are written for writers, but if you want to know what a publication is interested in, submissions guidelines are where to look. Skip the About Us section of publications. Read what they want. See if they have a diversity statement. Check to see what other tactics they might have to encourage marginalized writers to submit. This is a really easy “cheat” for readers to get a feel for a publication without checking out reviews or reading sample stories. And using a tool like The Submissions Grinder at Diabolical Plots allows you to search by genre, by length, by basically whatever you want. It’s not what it was designed for, but it is amazing for searching out venues and stories to read.

Plus, well, all the short fiction reviewers out there. There are many. I will do a post specifically about reviews and reviewers at some point but yeah, reviewers are a resource.

So I hope you’ll find this series helpful. Cheers!

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POSTED BY: Charles, avid reader, reviewer, and sometimes writer of speculative fiction. Contributor to Nerds of a Feather since 2014.