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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Any thoughts on slipstream fiction?

9/1/2014

5 Comments

 
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Any writer submitting her work for publication is supposed to know which genre tick-box it fits. Lucky for me, the rules aren’t so rigid for short stories, as I’ve got a fair few wacky ones I’m not sure how to categorise.

My novels are literary-commercial but my short stories vary with the weather and/or my mood. Many are darkly serious, but there’s a smattering of lighter stuff, and sometimes I even raise a laugh. I also have a growing collection of stories which step outside real-world logic, and I don’t know what to call them. Launching my virtual annethologies page at the end of last year was my cue to try and sort them out.

The absence of a proper nomenclature didn’t matter so much when there was only Tamsin, the woman who woke up on the morning of her wedding to find her neck had grown as long as her arm. Then Selena started being stalked by unnaturally large footprints and plastic took over Jim’s allotment, not to mention Adam waiting in the wings for his publication call. But now Sam, an ordinary soldier in a time warp where all the wars of the past century are happening simultaneously, has made his debut, I’m duty bound to give more thought to where they all belong.

The what-if nature renders these stories speculative, although without an entire alternative scientific or mystical world they don’t qualify as sci-fi or fantasy. For want of an alternative, I’ve been labelling them slipstream, a position midway between speculative and literary, with elements of strangeness and otherworldliness. The word feels right for that gentle slip-sliding into another stream of possibility, another dimensional laid across the familiar world.

All fiction asks readers to suspend disbelief to a certain extent; slipstream, as I’m choosing to interpret it, asks them to go a step further, not only to care about made-up characters as if they were real people, but to accept a situation where a single law of physics or history or biology has been turned on its head. By my reckoning, The Time Traveler’s Wife meets slipstream criteria, as does Never Let Me Go, both novels where critics have disagreed over genre. After all, we can’t slip physically back and forth in time to revisit different versions of ourselves (although we all do that in our minds). And, the demonisation of the poor and disadvantaged notwithstanding, people aren’t cloned simply to furnish body parts for the elite.

Well, what do you think? Is slipstream a genre with which you are familiar and, if so, what does it mean to you? Does genre matter anyway? And do share your thoughts on Sam’s desire to be a hero if you can.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
5 Comments
Steff link
9/1/2014 02:15:44 pm

I have toyed with this idea myself, Anne with aspects of my writing. 'Slipstream' might work, but I think I'd rather stick with speculative. Yes, fiction itself is 'speculative', however, for me, 'slipstream' conjures up an image of someone walking along the edge of a rocky stream and slipping - perhaps hurting themselves, perhaps ending up flowing down stream themselves. Now there's another idea for a short story...

Reply
Annecdotist
10/1/2014 12:29:06 am

Lovely to hear from you, Steff. I'm thinking of your novel which I agree is a lot more speculative than slipstream, but then I'm getting muddled again wondering why I don't think the same for The Time Traveller's Wife and Never Let Me Go! Mmm.
And our different associations to words are so interesting. For me, it's kind of magical as (I hope) in the photo which is a stream where I sometimes wash my boots after a muddy walk (plus special effects). Look forward to your story but I certainly wouldn't want you slipping and twisting your ankle!

Reply
Norah link
14/1/2014 03:57:23 am

I love the sound of your stories. I will have to give more time to a greater read. I like the thought of the slipstream, partly because my favourite musician Van Morrison often sings of the slipstream. I like the quirkiness your stories seem to have. O Henry is one of my favourite short story writers with his surprise endings; also Roald Dahl. Maybe I'll be adding yours to my list!

Reply
Annecdotist
15/1/2014 02:19:53 am

Thanks so much for your comment, Norah, and hope you do find time to read around my stories. Love your reference to Van Morrison's music and intend to follow this up with you on Twitter!

Reply
Annecdotist
16/1/2014 04:58:51 am

for anyone else who is interested, here's Norah's Van Morrison link http://www.metrolyrics.com/queen-of-the-slipstream-lyrics-van-morrison.html




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