A couple of weeks back, I assigned Harlan Ellison’s “‘Repent, Harlequin,’ Said the Ticktockman” in my Science Fiction class. As I was getting ready for class, I pulled up a couple of clips from Erik Nelson’s brilliant Ellison documentary, Dreams with Sharp Teeth, just to give my students a better sense of the writer. The…
Read more
Is This Science Fiction? Or This? Both? I started teaching my Science Fiction class at Fullerton College last week, a course we offer every two years. It’s been nice having conversations with students about my favorite genre; some of the students bring a lot of background, and others are “sci fi curious” so it’s a good…
Read more
Over the years, a lot of authors and scholars far more knowledgeable (and opinionated) than me have tried to nail down science fiction, defining it in a variety of ways, sometimes in contrast to other genres like fantasy. Here are a few: John W. Campbell: “Fiction is simply dreams written out. Science fiction consists of…
Read more
Back when I had a literary agent sending my work out to major publishers, we ran into a little problem–editors at the major publishing houses didn’t know how to categorize my books, especially Take Back Tomorrow. It’s science fiction, a time travel novel set in 1940 Los Angeles. But it’s also a mystery, as the protagonist…
Read more
