It's been a crazy couple of days around here. On Tuesday, I woke up to no internet. I called CenturyLink and they determined, as I had already determined, that it was a neighborhood outage. It was going to take 24-48 hours to come back online, they said. But I had a deadline in five.

Somedays, I feel like I'm cliffdiving for dollars.
Image from Pixabay.

Ordinarily, on Tuesdays, my wife puts together the Lending Times publication for me under my direction and supervision. This allows me to leverage my time and get some other projects done, which makes me more money.

The way it works is like this: I follow quite a few Google Alerts for keywords that I track. So I go through those alerts first thing in the morning and tell her which stories to pick for the publication. That takes about half an hour. Then, when she wakes up, she puts those stories in the template and orders them somewhat according to my guidance, and lets me know when she's done. Then I go behind her and make the changes I want to make, add some editorial comment where I think it's needed, do the final wrap up, and publish. That takes about an hour. In all, I save 30 minutes to an hour in work time on that project. In real time, it's more like three hours.

Since we couldn't follow that protocol, I ended up "jumping TOC", to borrow a military term, and working at one of the local free hot spot locations where I could order a coffee and a breakfast burrito. I didn't save my three hours, which meant I spent the afternoon doing what I would normally do in the morning. I was fortunate I could do that at home as by that time our internet service was back up. Needless to say, I didn't make a Steemit post that day.

While I had internet service at home yesterday, it was an equally hectic day, and I had a church business meeting last night. By the end of the day, I was tired enough I just didn't post anything. Today is another day. Thanks for being patient.

Alright, so now I've cleared my throat, let's get on with the reason we're here. I've got five things I want to tell you right now about speculative fiction. Here they are:

1. What Speculative Fiction is All About - The difficulty with the spec-fic genre is in how to define it. It's a nebulous term. As far as I know, science fiction author Robert Heinlein was the first to use it, but he used it nearly synonymous with the term "science fiction." But I don't think he did the term any justice; I think he sold it short.

_{Photo by Dd-b, taken at the 1976 World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City MO USA.

Wikipedia Commons}

I like Heinlein. I'd consider him an influence on my writing. However, speculative fiction goes well beyond the common tropes of science fiction.

In fact, it is often used as an umbrella term for writing within the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres--to include their respective subgenres. I would add the fourth category of alternative history. And you might as well throw weird literature in there too because weird lit is a cross-over genre that isn't, well, mainstream. That often incorporates elements of the three primary categories of spec-fic. Nothing wrong with that.

What I like most about speculative fiction is that it doesn't stick religiously to any genre categorization. The best spec-fic stories, in my opinion, may incorporate elements of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. It might include some alternative version of history, and it could get really weird. It's speculative, and to me that means, it imagines what could be rather than what is.

So the first thing I want you to know about speculative fiction is that it is a mixed-genre form of storytelling that doesn't necessarily need a hard-and-fast classification.

2. There is a Spec-Fic Writers of Steemit Discord Channel - I've been writing speculative fiction since before I knew what that meant. I suspect many of the writers here on Steemit who write fiction are in the same boat. They write incredible spec-fic stories and don't even know they're writing spec-fic. I want to change that, and that's why I started the Speculative Fiction Writers of Steemit Discord Community.

This community is for anyone who writes spec-fic, likes to read spec-fic, or just wants to learn more about it. So who can join?

Virtually, the group is open to anyone, but you'll get more out of it if you fit into any of the following categories:

Write or read science fiction in any form
Write or read fantasy fiction in any form
Write or read horror fiction in any form
Write or read poetry that fits into those genres
Like alternative histories
You are an artist that likes to create visual images for any of the above genres
You like mixing genres
You entered any of the #SteemMonsters fiction or art contests (yes, Steem Monsters, being a fantasy trading card game, fits firmly in the speculative fiction genre)
You're just curious what all of this is about

To give you a better integration into the Spec-Fic Writers of Steemit Discord community, it would help if you'll introduce yourself when you arrive. Go to the Introduce Yourself channel and tell us who you are, a little something about what you like to write and read. And be sure to read the rules in the Rules channel so you know how best to fit in. Then jump right in and start sharing your stories and discussing fun and speculative lit.

3. Two Proposed Speculative Fiction Steemit Tags - We've been discussing potential speculative fiction tags for Steemit posts. Currently, there are #poetry, #writing, and #fiction tags, but those are quite general in nature. As Steemit grows, more specialization can help writers find the stories and poems they like to read faster.

Another benefit to specialized tags, as well as a Discord community, is these tools can be used to recruit other people to Steemit. If they see an active community of people with similar interests to theirs, they are more likely to join Steemit. That, in turn, will increase the value of all stakeholders and lead to the growth of the platform as well as increase the value of the cryptocurrency. We'll all benefit.

So I invite you to enter the discussion. Do you like #speculativefiction as a tag or #spec-fic? Which do you like better? I've used them both, and maybe that's fine. What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below and join our Discord community to pick up the conversation there.

4. Farmpunk is a Speculative Fiction Genre - I hope you're working on your story for the third farmpunk fiction writing contest.

In case you're wondering, farmpunk definitely falls under the speculative fiction umbrella. Closely related to cyberpunk and steampunk, like all punk literature, it relies heavily on speculative ideas and the exploration of speculative story lines. Those story lines, of course, are related to farming, but the stories don't have to be set on a farm.

_{Image from
Pixabay}

Punk literature has long been known to put the edge on any genre which it touches. It can be dystopian, apocalyptic, post-apoc, countercultural, postmodern, post-postmodern, transgressive, or simply funked up in some way. The idea with farmpunk is to take the edginess of punk lit and match it with the pastoral nature of farm culture to produce a juxtaposition of values that often are not associated together. Throw in some high-tech mumbo jumbo and you've got a story.

Farmpunk isn't necessarily science fiction. It could be, like steampunk, alternative history. Yes, there are some sci-fi elements involved, but it's all speculative.

It can be horror-based. You might even take high fantasy to the farm, or throw in some magical realism. Mixing of the genres is encouraged. Make it fun. That's what this genre is all about. I'm hoping to get some great fun stories from some of the following peeps, and anyone else who wants to join in, in the current farmpunk contest running. Give me something I haven't thought of before.

Writers	Authors	Storytellers
@bashadow	@mujasteem	@samuraihedgehog
@steveblucher	@calluna	@blueteddy
@iamjadeline	@stever82	@cicisaja
@talkingwiseshit	@jaichai	@seesladen
@ediblecthulhu	@effofex	@dedicatedguy
@lapb	@paulelmo	@mudcat36

5. I Bought the Speculative Fiction Niche at Narrative - Finally, I'd like you to know I bought the Speculative Fiction niche at Narrative.

If you're not familiar with Narrative, don't worry. It's a brand new blockchain that promises to up the game for #Steemit. The idea is for curators to buy a niche, own that niche, control that niche, and encourage the production of unique, original content from others for that niche. Those who own the niche will profit by earning 10% of the payouts on content generation. Other content creators will get a share of their own content generation.

Narrative is currently in Alpha. They plan to enter Beta later this year. They are now looking for the next hundred or so early adopters to join the service and prepare to create content. I'm hoping you'll join me there.

Conclusion

So there you have it, the five things I'd like you to know about speculative fiction today. If you haven't already, I'd be honored if you'd check out my two farmpunk stories:

And consider entering my farmpunk fiction writing contest.

Then,

Get your weird lit on:

The Biblical Legends Anthology Series