And it’s a bouncing, baby … sub-genre
I suppose this is a roundabout way to promote the latest Radio Free Bliss podcast, but I thought the subject was rather interesting, so decided to mention it specifically.
A new sub-genre. Ecofiction, or ecological fiction. According to Lee Barwood (who I interview) it’s suspense or romantic suspense with an environmental twist. It can be from either side of the camp, the environment or corporate interests, but should really go beyond the standard cardboard villains. That is, you should understand the motivations of both sides of the argument while reading the book.
You can find further resources on ecofiction here and here.
Lee Barwood is the writing name of Marlene Satter, who is also a terribly interesting person in her own right. Both Marlene and Lee are very passionate about everything they’re involved with, from animals to finance to music. I ran out of time before I ran out of questions. So, if you’re interested in hearing what a freelance editor looks at when she reads your manuscript, how music could indeed have been the first human language, and more details on ecofiction, please head over to Radio Free Bliss for a listen. I think you’ll really be entertained.
Oh, but I love, Love, LOVE this! A sub-genre of its own!
I tend to pull environmental threads into my writing because this is something I’m passionate about. There’s a scene in my first novel where the heroine is having a chat with the curator of a zoo who just happens to mouth off about conservation. He sounds a lot like me! (Talking head, I think they call this phenomenon…)
Just checked out the links and realized that some of these are writers I already love, like Edward Abbey and Carl Hiassen. Exciting!
I’ll add Gone Wild by James W. Hall to the list of resources. Great read, although the criminal twins were somewhat off the chain!
As I mentioned to Marlene/Lee in the interview, I love being there at the start of a sub-genre (even though people have been weaving environmental threads into their writing for years now, like you noticed Liane, with Carl Hiassen), but a part of me wonders if labelling things like this narrows the meanderings of interested readers.
This statement of mine shall become more obvious when I blog tomorrow.