I want to Write Shi..Stuff this Weird

Have you ever watched Space 1999? I mean really watched it? Or the kissing cousin, UFO? If you have not, I cannot urge you enough to run out and watch at least a couple episodes of both. For no other reason than their amazing theme songs, which will link here (S1999) and here (UFO). But the shows, both by Gerry Anderson of Thunderbirds Are Go! fame, are way weirder and darker than folks realize or remember.

Tonight's blog began with me remembering that I need to blog more often. And also I was listening to the theme from Man in A Suitcase and The Prisoner. (Check them out.) And that got me to the Space 1999 (season 1 is better than season 2 in both show quality and theme) and UFO themes. Which now has us here, right now in space and time, where I explain my SF is not weird enough yet.

To be sure I have written some weird shit (I can cuss now, its not the title) and Epilogue is the opening of a small series that plays with time inside of its smooth noir coating. But it's not quite unapologetic for its weirdness. It layers the weirdness in as opposed to letting it stand tall and proud.

Part of my problem is one of audience; do the readers of Indie or Hybrid authors want their SF too weird or too transgressive or too subversive? I wonder if a potential agent or publisher might look at it and say "This is not one of the big four(three?!)!, that's too weird! No one will buy it!" I guess that could happen anyway and should prepare myself for that kind of response. Short stories and novella submissions to anthologies would stand a better chance of being open to the weird. There has to be an audience for it.

Of course, how do we define weird? Another good question. I like taking tropes and expectations and bending them back on themselves and dropping in characters that are anachronistic or otherwise out of place. In the end, I think being a bit (or a lot) weird in my SF will make my work standout. Making people uncomfortable can win you an audience, but you also need to be aware that its not everyone's cup of tea.

As always, thanks for listening. Epilogue is moving along and should be here beginning of 2023.

~SMH