r/Fantasy • u/lrich1024 Stabby Winner, Queen of the Unholy Squares, Worldbuilders • May 05 '20
/r/Fantasy f/Fantasy Virtual Con: Future of SFF Panel
Welcome to the r/Fantasy Virtual Con panel on the future of SFF! Feel free to ask the panelists any questions relevant to the topic. Unlike AMAs, discussion should be kept on-topic to the panel.
The panelists will be stopping throughout the day to answer your questions, keep in mind they are in a few different time zones so participation may be staggered.
About the Panel
Join Catherynne M. Valente, Janny Wurts, Krista D. Ball, Rin Chupeco, and Sam J. Miller to talk about the future of sff and what places they see the genre taking us to.
About the Panelists
Catherynne M. Valente (u/Catvalente) is the NYT & USA Today bestselling author of forty books of science fiction and fantasy including Space Opera, the Fairyland Series, Deathless, and Palimpsest. She’s won a bunch of awards and lives in Maine with her family.
Janny Wurts (u/jannywurts) fantasy author and illustrator, best known published titles include Wars of Light and Shadows, To Ride Hell's Chasm, and thirty six short works, as well as the Empire trilogy in collaboration with Ray Feist.
Krista D. Ball (u/KristaDBall) is a Canadian science fiction and fantasy author. She was born and raised in Newfoundland, Canada where she learned how to use a chainsaw, chop wood, and make raspberry jam. After obtaining a B.A. in British History from Mount Allison University, Krista moved to Edmonton, Alberta where she currently lives. These days, Krista can be found causing trouble on Reddit when she’s not writing in her very messy, cat-filled office.
Rin Chupeco (u/rinchupeco) currently lives in the Philippines and is the author of The Girl from the Well and The Bone Witch series from Sourcebooks, and The Never Tilting World from HarperTeen. They are represented by Rebecca Podos of the Helen Rees Agency and can be found online as u/rinchupeco on both Twitter and Instagram.
Sam J. Miller is the Nebula-Award-winning author of The Art of Starving and Blackfish City. A recipient of the Shirley Jackson Award and a graduate of the Clarion Writers’ Workshop, Sam’s work has been nominated for the World Fantasy, Theodore Sturgeon, John W. Campbell and Locus Awards, and reprinted in dozens of anthologies. A community organizer by day, he lives in New York City.
FAQ
- What do panelists do? Ask questions of your fellow panelists, respond to Q&A from the audience and fellow panelists, and generally just have a great time!
- What do others do? Like an AMA, ask questions! Just keep in mind these questions should be somewhat relevant to the panel topic.
- What if someone is unkind? We always enforce Rule 1, but we'll especially be monitoring these panels. Please report any unkind comments you see.
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
What would you like to see being published more in SFF? Particular topics you might like to see explored, settings, experimental writing?
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u/rinchupeco May 05 '20
It’s so difficult to say, specifically, what I would love to see more of in SFF, particularly because I don’t know what I want to read more of until people write the books that make me realize they are what I want to read more of! I didn’t know how much I was going to love fantasy that was an unapologetic, deliberate satire of our world until I read Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. I didn’t know I would love the idea of two enemies-turned-lovers fighting each other through time and multiple universes till I read This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal el-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. I’ve never watched Eurovision but you bet I’m interested now after reading Catherynne Valente’s Space Opera.
I guess all I can really say is the wilder your pitch sounds, the more I’m gonna want it. If you can somehow come up with a coherent plot using a D&D guide, a Madlibs set, and predictive text, then you know I’m going to read it. Lesbian Necromancers? In a haunted house? On a dead space station? With a sunglasses and skulls aesthetic? Hey look, it’s Tasmyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth.
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u/JannyWurts May 05 '20
I really really love it when a writer dives off the edge of the envelope and goes visionary.
We are a field very famous for exposing, exploring, turning society's flaws inside out and striking into the heart of inequity, imbalance, or trends that have dangerous momentum if they are extrapolated into the future.
I love it, ecstatically, when a work leapfrogs this - steps ahead of the current issues, or the frustrations that snarl the short term, and tackle the deeper drivers - the human shortfalls that prevent evolution IN ANOTHER DIRECTION and get into the gristly of that....what would be the snag IF the current shortsightedness was not in the way - where ELSE could we go if we could escape the myopathy of the colored glasses.
Extrapolation on philosophical dreams - few books do this - few that try ever get recognized, because the ground just often isn't ready for the concept. Looking down, vs, looking UP. We have to look down to see where we are stepping. Looking up isn't an immediate survival trait....wish more books dared to look past limitation and explore a different landscape, that could, maybe, test evolution on the road not taken (yet.)
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
As writers, do you think it's important to look back at the history of the genre to move forward?
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u/catvalente May 05 '20
Absolutely. you can't innovate unless you know where we've been. (This is where a lot of literary writers who try to slum it in SFF trip up--they have no idea what the conventions of the genre are, so they think AI having feelings is revolutionary etc) The conversation has been going on for decades. We join a program already in progress, and we must know the history of the revels.
There are also a lot of really good older books out there, man. A lot of books that didn't age well or communicate some alarming stuff, but also just great beauties. We all hope our books will last--why would we refuse to read other people's books that *have* lasted?
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
What excites you about the future of SFF and the direction you see it headed in?
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u/rinchupeco May 05 '20
Just all the possibilities, really. It’s odd, because when people write fantasy it‘s usually a reference to the past, and when people write science fiction they are often trying to predict the future, and both stems from their familiarity with the present. And as we move forward in time, we add new experiences to the past, which gives rise to fresher ideas we could bring to fantasy. And those same experiences can inspire future parallel universes to play with for scifi. There are no limits where the imagination is involved.
(It is 1 am here, and I might be slightly incoherent.)
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
It is 1 am here
Thank you so much for staying up so late to be with us today. <3
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u/Megan_Dawn May 05 '20
Hi Rin! I just very recently acquired your entire back catalogue for reasons not relevant to this thread (but let's just say my copies are all unsigned) and I can not wait to dive in!
I feel like you're an especially relevant member of this panel, on account of how not so many years ago it would have been a lot harder for you to to be published at all on account of your location. Do you think where an author lives will become less and less of an obstacle in future? Do you see this having a positive impact on the kind of stories we'll see?
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u/rinchupeco May 05 '20 edited May 05 '20
Haha, thank you! I appreciate it a lot!
When I first started looking for an agent, email submissions weren’t even a thing yet. That meant I had to ship out manuscripts all the way from the Philippines (back then, it cost $40 per MS, and SASEs from abroad weren’t honored by my local post offices) just to get them into the hands of literary agencies in the US. As you can tell, it was a very expensive hobby to maintain. The subsequent relaxing of the rules to allow email submissions by around 2010 or so was a game changer for me. And I feel that this is just one of the things most people don’t think about - these hidden extra costs of getting published especially when you live thousands of miles away and twelve hours in the future.
Emails solved that problem in a big way. Once I could afford to start sending manuscripts to as many agents as I could instead of saving up to send out to only one or two a month, I had very little issues with the process. Agents didn’t care that I lived in Manila, as long as they liked my query. Publishers didn’t care, either. Dealing with timezones for Skype calls were the biggest problem I had leading up to my book deal.
Of course, certain disadvantages still remain. Publishing houses will comp travel expenses for book tours in the US, but they can’t usually pay for my flight from Manila to New York, so I need to be able to afford that first before anything else can happen. I don’t get as many ARCs and author copies because the cost of shipping is still expensive. And as much as it pains me, I’ve had to turn down speaking opportunities and panels at book festivals and cons because I can’t be constantly flying in and out of the US several times a year. The lockdown right now, where you see conferences and fests being cancelled? This was usually the default for me. All things considered, I still feel lucky I even got my foot in the door.
The nice thing IS that it’s easier to publish stories that aren’t necessarily focused on a mainstream American narrative, and that there’s space now for more books from authors with diverse identities, but I also know that there’s a lot more to improve upon. Publishing houses still impose limits on how many POC books they buy when they have no such restrictions elsewhere (“we are not interested in your Asian-inspired fantasy novel because we already have an Asian-inspired fantasy book on our list” is one I’ve heard before. Bonus points when I find out that the Asian-inspired fantasy book was written by a white author and promoted as a diverse read!) and it furthers the false narrative that Black people or Asians or Latinx or disabled people or LGBTQ+, etc., only have one universal experience, and that anything in their books that deviates from that perceived monolith somehow makes their writing unrealistic.
But every book we can put out there is a ripple, and the more we persist in writing them, the bigger waves we can make. That’s what I believe, anyway.
It’s a long road still, and it can be pretty tough. But I’m not planning on quitting just yet!
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
I just wanted to say how much I loved this thoughtful reply, especially because it highlights things that may get overlooked (I didn't even think about the logistics for example). Also I just finished reading THE HEART FORGER, and loved it, I'm looking forward to diving into the final book of THE BONE WITCH series. <3
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u/CoffeeArchives May 05 '20
Welcome everyone! I have a few questions:
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What genre trends do you think we'll see over the next couple decades?
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Are there any trends you believe have already started and are just in the early stages?
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In terms of format/medium, what changes in the presentation of SFF stories do you think will occur in the future?
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u/rinchupeco May 05 '20 edited May 05 '20
I’m pretty sure supernatural / paranormal / urban fantasy is going to make a comeback soon, and that there will be vampires.
I’d like to see more SFF novels adapted as video games, too. I know LOTR is the standard, but I would like gameplay with unique twists on magic systems! If it’s a game where you ride and fight using dragons for example, the gameplay of one based on the Pern novels would be very different from one based on the Temeraire series!
edit: forgot to mention GOT, too!
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
and that there will be vampires
I don't know about anyone else but I'm really excited for that--may my love of vampires be never ending lol.
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u/Kopratic May 05 '20
Hello and happy birthday to one of our panelists!
Question: If one of your books could directly be the prototype for the direction SFF will go in the future, which one would you want it to be and why?
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u/KristaDBall May 05 '20
A Magical Inheritance.
There is a place for books that basically have nothing important happen.
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
There is a place for books that basically have nothing important happen.
Yassssss
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u/JohnBierce May 05 '20
What do you all think of the future of novellas? I've noticed them increasing significantly in number and popularity lately (Murderbot, Into the Vanisher's Palace, the four novella compilation formats we've been seeing from Joe Hill, Cory Doctorow, and other authors, etc, etc), in great part thanks to Tor.com. I'm really excited by that, because I think they're a perfect length for certain stories- I definitely enjoy writing them- but I'm curious how you all think that they'll fit in the future of the SFF market.
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u/catvalente May 05 '20
I've done very well with novellas, and I love working at that length. Until 6 or 7 years ago, publishing a standalone book of that length was unheard of, now so much innovative work has been done there, and continues to be. Space Opera was originally sold as a novella before it...grew! I'm thrilled to be working at a time when there is room for that, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.
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u/tctippens May 05 '20
Hello panelists! What would you most like to see change about the SFF industry?
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u/KristaDBall May 05 '20
The removal of oppressive contract terms and agents who refuse to fight against those terms because they're more interested in keeping on good terms with the publishers than the authors who pay them 15% of their earnings.
Also, the notion that agents can "ghost" authors. The big publishers who ghost authors whenever it's time to get their rights back. The fact that some agents are taking a cut from authors for projects they don't even get for the authors.
Oh, you said specific to SFF?
I'd like SFF authors and readers to stop shitting all over romance while thinking they're cute. It's not. Stop drunk reading erotica for charity. Stop saying things like "written for a bored housewife." Stop saying Twilight like it's some kind of gotcha when it's a fifteen year old book.
Honestly, just stop.
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u/thequeensownfool May 05 '20
Hello panelists! Thank you for being here.
Do you think softer, optimistic stories are here to stay long term? Or is this just a quick fad that will be over once things quiet down? As a mod here, I know we've seen a huge uptick in people looking for optimistic books, especially over the past few months with quarantine.
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u/lrich1024 May 05 '20
Hello panelists and thanks for joining us today! Please further introduce yourselves and tell us a little more about your work.