In our April meeting, we'll explore including current events in your speculative fiction stories. We'll look at selected classic and modern stories that used current events to help answer the "what if?" questions we didn't think about when the events unfolded on the evening news.
Socialism and totaliarian rule or the fear of atomic annihilation were often the focus of SF's "Golden Age" stories. Today, advancements in technology, such as artificial intelligence, biological experimentation, and genetic manipulation of the human genome, are front and center in many writers' minds. When the elements of politics, economics, warfare, terrorism, and social struggles – just to name a few – are mixed in, you have the mirrors that writers hold up for us to gaze into and contemplate the consequences of our actions.
How do you explore a current event topic without becoming preachy or writing an essay of your opinions? How do you come up with a new perspective that wasn't discussed on the evening news and prevent a regurgitation of the facts that you can find by doing an Internet search? We'll answer these questions and more through group exercises and discussion.
Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels
Location: Barnes & Noble, Pittsford
Meeting Time: April 5, 2016 from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
