My Ideal Audience
I'm sorry to say this, but I write for myself. After a story sits for a while I reread it, and if it's finished and polished it grabs me, even though I know what happens next. I like what I write and would like it whoever wrote it.
What am I going for when I write?
1) Taking an old science fiction concept and giving it a new twist. It's close to impossible to come up with an entirely new science fiction concept, but I try for a major re-purposing. There aren't any totally new concepts in Exchange, but it combines concepts in new ways. Exchanges are essentially the Time Quakes of Sidewise In Time, which dates back over seventy years and spawned a horde of imitators. My twist was to make Exchanges happen only with one other reality, one empty of humans and a tempting target for settlement--essentially traveling to another star, but without the travel time. Then, of course, I gave that empty reality claws.
2) Subtle and unique characters. I don't know how well I succeed at this, but I try to let readers get acquainted gradually with characters. One of my writers' group friends says "Everyone is normal until you get to know them." That's not quite true, but it does say something important: You don't immediately know everything about a real person when you meet them. I try to take readers through somewhat the same getting acquainted process with people in my stories, though the process has to be truncated in a major way.
3) Dialog. I love dialog, maybe too much. I want my dialog to be quirky, original, and hopefully remind you quite a bit of Firefly. I'm not as good at dialog as Joss Whedon, but that's what I'm striving for.
4) Mystery. Every science fiction story I've ever written has at least one mystery in it, and there are usually quite a few--scientific mysteries, whodunnit mysteries and double-dealing.
5) Action. I don't like sit around and angst stories, so I don't write them. Things happen in my stories--chases, explosions and fights, hopefully none of them gratuitous.
6) Tight: If I don't watch it I'm too wordy as a writer. When I write for publication, I do watch it. I do a ruthless editing pass that reduces word count by at least 20% a few weeks after I finish a final draft. That makes the story read much faster.
7) Powerful women. No whiners waiting to be rescued.
So, my ideal audience = science fiction reader who likes mysteries too, who is a Buffy/Angel/Firefly fan, who likes seeing science fiction ideas recombined in new ways and doesn't feel that a character has to drip angst to be multidimensional.
What am I going for when I write?
1) Taking an old science fiction concept and giving it a new twist. It's close to impossible to come up with an entirely new science fiction concept, but I try for a major re-purposing. There aren't any totally new concepts in Exchange, but it combines concepts in new ways. Exchanges are essentially the Time Quakes of Sidewise In Time, which dates back over seventy years and spawned a horde of imitators. My twist was to make Exchanges happen only with one other reality, one empty of humans and a tempting target for settlement--essentially traveling to another star, but without the travel time. Then, of course, I gave that empty reality claws.
2) Subtle and unique characters. I don't know how well I succeed at this, but I try to let readers get acquainted gradually with characters. One of my writers' group friends says "Everyone is normal until you get to know them." That's not quite true, but it does say something important: You don't immediately know everything about a real person when you meet them. I try to take readers through somewhat the same getting acquainted process with people in my stories, though the process has to be truncated in a major way.
3) Dialog. I love dialog, maybe too much. I want my dialog to be quirky, original, and hopefully remind you quite a bit of Firefly. I'm not as good at dialog as Joss Whedon, but that's what I'm striving for.
4) Mystery. Every science fiction story I've ever written has at least one mystery in it, and there are usually quite a few--scientific mysteries, whodunnit mysteries and double-dealing.
5) Action. I don't like sit around and angst stories, so I don't write them. Things happen in my stories--chases, explosions and fights, hopefully none of them gratuitous.
6) Tight: If I don't watch it I'm too wordy as a writer. When I write for publication, I do watch it. I do a ruthless editing pass that reduces word count by at least 20% a few weeks after I finish a final draft. That makes the story read much faster.
7) Powerful women. No whiners waiting to be rescued.
So, my ideal audience = science fiction reader who likes mysteries too, who is a Buffy/Angel/Firefly fan, who likes seeing science fiction ideas recombined in new ways and doesn't feel that a character has to drip angst to be multidimensional.