Editorial

Actually, Russell B. Farr is a porn star

I'm really going to blow my credibility on this one.

I like science fiction.

I publish science fiction, and I'm proud of it.

I publish fantasy, and I'm proud of it.

I publish horror, dark fiction, slipstream, speculative fiction, sci-fi, spec fic, gonzo sf, Australian sf, cyberpunk, steampunk, cowpunk, indie sf...

But most of all, I publish excellent fiction.

There, that wasn't so bad. I said it loud and proud, like I'm coming out of the science fiction closet. I mean hell, all my friends have known for years, and it's hardly been a secret, I keep hearing the whispers in my workplace, there's that sci-fi guy...

Why don't you say it? Say it now, if you're still self conscious say it to yourself first, just to test the words. Work up to something above a whisper, and say it slower. Repeat after me:

I like science fiction.

Say it just like that. Don't dress it up with some other name. Science Fiction. We'll work on the rest later.

Now say it to someone else. If you're alone, reading this in the dark with all the curtains drawn tight, the stereo turned up with Christina Aguilera to make the neighbours think you're not one of them, in that secret room where you keep your books to avoid those tricky questions, say it on your blog or livejournal or myspace page. Say it to someone else you're playing Worlds of Warcraft with. Send it in an email to someone, even if it's just an email to me.

Tell someone and you'll feel a lot better.

Tell someone and the genre will feel a lot better.

There are a lot more people out there reading and liking SF that you imagine. People sitting next to each other, working with each other, yet never suspecting, that the other is one of us. Unsuspecting, because there's no armband, badge, tattoo, branding or bandana hanging out of the pocket, most of the time (and those folk who wear Star Trek uniforms to work, well I'm just not going there with this editorial). Unsuspecting, because people who like science fiction (and fantasy, and horror, etc) look just like you and me.

Occasionally there are giveaways, the battered Bob Shaw paperback tucked into a jeans-pocket, the TARDIS key ring, the look of a person with excellent taste, intelligence and noble bearing (which we all possess, of course).

I'd like to declare today, Be Proud of Science Fiction Day. Whatever day you're reading this, declare it your own BPoSFD. Tell someone that you read SF, and you like it. Post it on your blog or livejournal. Tell someone what it is that you like, the escape, the opportunity to experience new worlds, visions of what never was or can never be, the expressions of ideas, the freedom the genre has to explore the unexplored, the blend of real extrapolation and raw emotion, how on a good day the best SF stacks up against the best writing anywhere.

Tell people about who you like. If it's Harry Harrison, or Harry Potter, Steven Utley or Stephen King, Lucy Sussex or Leanne Frahm, Tolkien or Tamora Pierce, Neal Barrett Jr or Neil Gaiman...

Promoting SF, in all its myriad of forms and subgenres, is up to all of us. It's time to stand up and be proud of what really is a pretty damn fine bunch of collection of work. Time to start talking up the genre, talking up all the excellent work being done. And among this, it's time to start telling the people producing the work what kind of job they're doing.

Porn seems to be growing in its respectability in the mass media. You could stand up and say that you're proud of SF, or if there's too much shame in that, you could tell people you're really a porn star.

Now go spread the word.

*

Issue 11 has an interview with Alisa Krasnostein, who has been doing exactly that through such projects as the ASiF reviews site, and Angela Challis, one of the forces behind a new publisher taking the genre by storm, Brimstone Press.

We've got four excellent stories, from Carol Ryles, Jarrah Moore and Ben Payne, and a classic reprint from 1994 by Simon Brown.

There's a lot of excellent stuff this issue, enjoy!

— The editors