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What the heck is Literary Fiction?
Excellent question. I write stuff loaded with off-beat history, facts, characters, scenes and so on, in a way that I have tried for years to explain when asked what my genre or style is.
But this morning (Mar 22, 2023) I read a wonderful essay that says what I desperately tried (and miserably failed) to tell them. It's by Michael Woodson, Content Editor at Writer's Digest magazine. Here is the link:
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/what-is-literary-fiction?
SIGNIFICANT UPDATES
Dec 06, 2021 -- Judge, 29th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Books Contest:
[Diary of a Robot] has perhaps the most unique (and entertaining) voice of the whole lot of books I read.
Push its button and a machine works. Usually.
We never ask what it thinks.
But now we may have to.
His dad is away a lot in the Army, so Maynard Little III, a schoolboy inventor with a patent, dreams of making a robot Thinking Machine to protect him from neighborhood bullies. His efforts to deal with the kids, his parents, his Cherokee history, and the problems of turning his dream into reality, lead him to discover that reality is a lot harder than he thinks, and that Mom and Dad have already given him most of the important things he needs.
Standard web marketing says an author should have a brand. I had thought about that for years, and none popped up that I could even pretend to have. Marketing is not in my skill-set. I graduated as a High School teacher (history, government, and mathematics), but worked as a computer programmer for 40 years. Near the half-way point of that, I started writing a Sci-Fi novel. Recently I posted a .pdf on my Writing Stuff web page about writer's block and the similarities between programming computers and writing a novel. (I like odd combinations presented from a different point of view. A years-old example on my website is titled A Clever Plan, where I tie the Biblical Job and the prophet Jeremiah to Sir Isaac Newton.)
And then on my Written Stuff web page, I posted an essay titled Families and Democracy. It's about oil and water, and how families are not democracies, and.... Well, you should read it to see what's odd about that.
Things are odd if they're not even. Some things—even even things—are odd if they're out of place. And places are odd if things are missing. It's a rich field for writers.
But enough of that for the moment.
Standard author practice also urges us to keep our spirits up by celebrating small milestones, like getting good feedback or wining an award or finishing an essay. This brand blurb is finished, so I'm going with my wife to get her dog food order from the wholesaler. The trip will include a cafe mocha and a blueberry muffin at some point.