So far, none of settings, features, or purpose can be used to conclusively identify stories that belong to a single genre, although they are all useful to some extent. Do themes fit in anywhere? Continue reading
I was the weird, awkward kid, the one who always had a book or magazine on hand, and not necessarily content written for my age group — by the time I was thirteen, I had read everything Stephen King had written to date. I doubt this was the kind of stuff my parents were thrilled to see me reading at that age, but they reserved their complaints for my tastes in music. Continue reading
A few years ago, I discovered an interesting segue in an article by philosopher George N. Schlesinger. While relating moral integrity to the selection of articles for academic journals, he recites journal editor J. Scott Armstrong’s “author’s formula” for publishing scientific studies. Continue reading
The Dresden Files is not a new series, but I hadn’t heard that much about it until a fellow editor loaned me the first book, Storm Front. I was a bit skeptical at first, but I was completely hooked by the end of the first chapter. Continue reading
Believe it or not, I understand some of the unpleasant or ambivalent feelings people have toward editors. I always cringe a little when my writing get reviewed and edited by professors, friends, other editors, or whomever. But it seems that some people are either embarrassed about having their work edited or they simply think it’s an unnecessary misery. I suspect both responses stem from some unfortunate misconceptions about editing. Continue reading
Genres are categories and often very broad ones at that, so you’ll have a tough time justifying the existence of a genre that includes only one text. However, we still haven’t really figured out how to define a genre, let alone whether science fiction and fantasy should be considered distinct genres. To do this, we need to identify patterns among the objects that might belong to a single genre and consider why we have lumped them together. Continue reading
I don’t often read memoirs for fun; in fact, I can’t think of any that I have read for which I didn’t earn some kind of academic credit. But I recently read Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (aka, The Bloggess), and suddenly my own childhood started to look very, very normal. Continue reading
Recently, I was inspired to wade into the debate about whether science fiction and fantasy should be classified as one genre or two. After a quick survey of opinions posted on various websites, blogs, and discussion forums, I noticed something interesting: not a single source I found so much as touched upon the topic of genre, and perhaps for the very simple reason that the concept seems so simple and intuitive — obvious even — that it is assumed to be understood. However, it turns out that the definition of “genre” in general (and of any one genre in particular) is as slippery and amorphous as many a horror film beastie. Continue reading
Science fiction and fantasy often get lumped together under a single textual taxonomy, continually spurring the debate about whether we ought to finally separate them into completely different literary categories. So, are they really two distinct genres or merely one rather bloated genre? Continue reading
A few years ago, a good friend of mine told me about her experience learning basic Italian for a trip to “the old country”. The instructor was explaining the rules for spelling and pronunciation, and at the end of the lesson, my friend put up her hand and asked for the exceptions to these rules. Apparently, there were none. Continue reading
Quills and Queries Editing 