Issues as flavour
Does using fiction as a way of communicating ideas need those ideas to be front and centre?
WRITING:
My unsettling sci-fi eco-horror Eschatonus is free to download this weekend (28-30 June). Just getting that out there, front-and-centre. If you read eBooks, and you like sci-fi, then here’s one for free, gratis.
As a way into my Ray Adams titles, it’s the perfect jumping in point, and while it hasn’t had the reaction from readers that From Within, A Darkness had, I remain fond and proud of this one. It was the first time I really felt I was getting on top of my character work, and atmospherically it feels a step up from the first three Adams books.
Now, I describe it as an eco-horror, but I’m slightly wary about using that as a description, to be honest. The adventure starts with two ecology students at an observation post in an alien forest, on a mission to monitor illegal logging. They spot a vehicle land somewhere unexpected, go to investigate, see something they shouldn’t then have to go on the run from the black ops team they’ve disturbed. The secret operation they stumble upon revolves around a biological threat artificially introduced into the environment, but as far as the environmental theme goes, that’s about it. From there on in, it’s a race-against-time thriller. The environmental angle is, essentially, merely a catalyst for the action.
I’m voting Green in the upcoming General Election1. I’ve discussed my reasons for doing so elsewhere, so won’t bore you with the lecture, suffice to say that I’m one of those “biggest existential threat mankind’s ever faced” cranks. Time’s running out and folk seem alarmingly uninterested in sorting it out. I don’t have kids, so ironically I don’t have skin in the game2, given my advancing years. However, I still care and I’m pretty much a single issue voter these days, because if we don’t sort that one out, all the rest of the crap isn’t going to matter for long.
I do my bit, recycling etc, but I also know that effort on a personal level means nothing if Governments don’t commit, because they are the only people with enough power to effect enough change. What I figure I can do, though, is use my voice as an author to talk about the stuff I think is important.
However, lecturing is a poor substitute for good storytelling. Those books that tackle the subject head-on, the actual eco-thrillers and eco-horrors, sell to a particular crowd. Critically, they aren’t reaching the people who most need to hear it. Those books serve a purpose, no doubt, but I think we also need books that just normalise certain attitudes.
In Eschatonus, Aecola isn’t the heroine because she’s an ecologist, she just happens to be both. In the same way, Eschatonus’ non-binary character Xin isn’t in there to have a non-binary storyline - who am I to tell that? I’d much rather have a non-binary character who’s in the story just as a character in their own right, having the same adventures; an accepted part of the crew rather than an Issue Character. Because to me, that kind of normalisation has its own value.
My Ray Adams books aren’t YA, per se, but I like to think they’re at least teen-friendly. No dirty business, swears set to ‘mild’, that kind of thing. If not All-Ages, then Most-Ages3. And if I can create a universe that’s just about adventure and action, thrills and spills, where it just so happens that some of the good guys are pro-environment, pro-diversity - not as their principle characteristic, but just part of their flavour - then that’s doing something, right?
This isn’t to say I won’t tackle some of this stuff more directly. I have ideas for Ray Adams stories for years to come, and some of them do have a heavier environmental bent. But it would still only be as a part of a much wider brief. Ultimately, none of it matters if I’m not writing a decent story.
I have enjoyed:
Mad films - I could fill the list this week with the mad stuff I’ve been watching, but I’ve got other fish to fry. So let’s just say that M. Night Shyamalam’s Old, Alex Garland’s Men, Vincenzo Natali’s Cube and Ben Wheatley’s In the Earth all hit the spot this week. I love a weird film, a bit of indie horror or low budget sci-fi. Right up my street. Men, in particular, is astonishing - the last 15-20 minutes are… Well, I will never watch Rory Kinnear in Count Arthur Strong in quite the same light again.
“Fourth series of Count Arthur, anyone? If we can keep Linehan away from it?” Furiosa - I would cheerfully watch Anya Taylor-Joy in pretty much anything, so was stoked when she was cast in George Miller’s Fury Road prequel4. And she doesn’t disappoint. FR was a blast, and Furiosa offers the same heady cocktail of RCS5. The only thing it lacks in comparison to its predecessor is the element of surprise. Thirty years after the Thunderdome, a new Mad Max film was surprise enough - the level to which it rocked felt like it came out of nowhere. You can’t replicate that reaction in audiences. That aside, there’s no reason not to love Furiosa just as passionately. Truly, it doth rock.
“Did somebody mention Linehan?” John Betjeman - If, for some incomprehensible reason, dystopian Australian movies about mad people blowing things up while driving around in massive lorries or on motorbikes isn’t your thing, then allow me to recommend something a little gentler of pace. The BBC recently unearthed a bunch of old programmes hosted by the late poet laureate, in which he bumbles around like the delightful old duffer he is, talking about things and whatnot. In this magical offering, he travels from Evercreech Junction to Burnham-on-Sea by steam train. Like a sort of proto-Michael Portillo, if Michael Portillo was prone to skipping on beaches, climbing into abandoned buildings and stopping to spark up a cigarette. What your telly-box was built for.
“Mad Max? Never heard of the chap.” Lego Minifigs - The current space-themed set is just plain awesome. I’ve circled the ones I still need.
I’m not even kidding. Send me minifigs. These ones.
Greyskin (Deixis Press) and Playtime’s Over (Propolis) are both available direct from their respective publishers, as well as from all the usual places, online and off. You can also support my work by buying Ray Adams’ self-published books, or by simply buying me a coffee.
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By which I mean I already have. Postal vote, innit.
I do have nieces and a nephew, but none of them have ever subscribed to this newsletter, despite being aware of it, so sod ‘em…
That’s mine, I’m coining that.
I really rate Charlize Theron, but so glad they decided against using CGI to de-age her. Would have killed Furiosa deader than dead.
Really Cool Shit (sorry, mum)