Genre Specific Review Groups discussion

As an author of speculative fiction, there is a lack of folks who know what it is, let alone be willing to review it knowledgeably. Is there any interest in that here?

As I understand it, speculative fiction is basically any type of fiction based outside our normal understanding of reality, thus can include science fiction, fantasy, horror, magical realism, etc. etc. It's an extremely broad umbrella and may result in books being reviewed by those who are not the target audience (which may or may not be a good thing). Carolyn, what genre are you thinking of when you mention speculative fiction? You might have better luck narrowing this down. I do have a fantasy novel that would fit under this umbrella, as well as a paranormal YA novella that would fit, so am willing to participate if others are interested.

As I understand the genre, it is a work in which the author has asked 'what if?' while changing some aspect of what is possible.
(What if a Djinn could live in a computer? What if she were trapped there? What would her story be? And so on)
But to be 'proper' spec fic, there needs to be the underlying question--could this world/creature/set of circumstances exist in our world if we take out the thing we're asking 'what if' of.
As our technologies and society evolves and changes, so too does spec fic.
Here, Annie Neugbauer explains it better than I do...
http://annieneugebauer.com/2014/03/24...

Hi Carolyn. I'd have a speculative fiction story to throw into the mix. The premise of Dark Matter Tiding is, what if the earth lost its protection from waves of dark matter and civilization was impacted by the mass psychosis it causes?

Chance wrote: "Hi Carolyn. I'd have a speculative fiction story to throw into the mix. The premise of Dark Matter Tiding is, what if the earth lost its protection from waves of dark matter and civ..."

In all my wanderings through Goodreads and Amazon (and I've done a bunch of wandering in the name of research), I've not yet seen a story like that. Intriguing premise!

Carolyn wrote: "Chance wrote: "Hi Carolyn. I'd have a speculative fiction story to throw into the mix. The premise of Dark Matter Tiding is, what if the earth lost its protection from waves of dark..."

Thanks. Some people got what I was aiming at, some didn't. That's the problem with speculative fiction. It tends to be more cerebral and not predictable, which is why I like it. I hope this group gains enough interest to launch.

Chance wrote: "Carolyn wrote: "Chance wrote: "Hi Carolyn. I'd have a speculative fiction story to throw into the mix. The premise of Dark Matter Tiding is, what if the earth lost its protection fr..."

I like cerebral, there's already too much crap available for us to tune out the rest of life, don't you think? I was reading quite a few reviews of Dark Matter. It seems to have been very well received, congratulations! I love it when a self-published work makes readers and critics stand up and take notice.

Authors:

Your voices have been heard. A Speculative Fiction review group has been started at https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/.... Please review the guidelines. If you agree to them, sign up by posting your name and the name of your book in that topic.

R.