“The Heir of Night” Guest Author Series: Kim Falconer
I am delighted to welcome Kim Falconer today, as my fourth guest in the F-SF Author Series. I have been aware of Kim’s work for some time, but as with many of the other guest authors, only had the pleasure of meeting her in person at the recent Worldcon in Melbourne. And although it may be argued that the most important way to know an author is through her or his work, it is always very nice to be able to put a face and a personality to fine writing! So please welcome Kim Falconer, posting on: “Why FSF rocks [her] world.”
F-SF Guest Series Post: Kim Falconer
Congratulations, Helen, on the release of The Heir of Night and thank you for inviting me to ” … on Anything, Really!” I’m delighted to be here.
Speculative fiction is my first, then and finally love and like all true lovers, it takes me places I’ve never been before. While fiction and nonfiction are busy trying to convince me of what was and what is and what should be, Spec Fic is quietly asking what if? Some say that’s a cheap way to travel, entertaining and fun, but it’s more than that. So much more!
There is a wonderful Zen teaching that says: The Great Way is gateless, approached by a thousand paths. Pass through this barrier, you walk freely in the universe. When it comes to storytelling, speculative fiction is the Great Way—it opens the mind. This function of Spec Fic isn’t new, or given only to the spiritual-weird-off beat subgenres. It’s found in every good Spec Fic story—no exceptions—and has since the beginning of time.
From the early development of our species, the shamans told stories about animals and the supernatural places they went when they died. It was our way to express and commune with the unknown and we still need that connection, now more than ever. As an explanation of the universe, science has failed. It’s too inconsistent and ever changing to be a reliable guide. After making all kinds of discoveries over the last two hundred years, we find out now that most of science fact isn’t ‘real’ after all. We aren’t living in Newton’s world anymore. According to new discoveries in quantum physics, what we call ‘real’ is so crazy even the physicists are shaking their heads.
Time flows forward and backward, DNA communicates in superposition, ninety percent of the universe is unknown and ‘reality’ may be an elaborate holographic projection. These notions are not science fiction. They’re current discoveries and theories. The foundation of our world view is changing so fast we are often as unsure about ‘reality’ as we were back in the cave people days. In such a state, we need stories that ask what if to guide us, to help us prepare for the future and to open our minds.
Spec Fic has a powerful effect on how we perceive the world because it turns out the brains can’t tell the difference between imagination and ‘reality.’ If we are emotionally engaged with a story—not aware of reading it but actually immersed to the degree we see the story unfold through the characters’ eyes, become frightened when they are in danger and uplifted when they are safe, tantalised when they fall in love—it is the same, to our brains, as if those events were really happening.
This is the true magic of speculative fiction. It takes us to a place where the what if becomes real. By going there in the mind, we experience it in the body. New neural pathways form, conduits of the Great Way. From that point onward, a different perspective becomes possible because we have, for a time, lived it.
If any story can change the way we think, it’s Spec Fic. Enough to rock anybody’s world, wouldn’t you say?
About Kim:
Kim Falconer is a HarperVoyager author writing epic science fantasy, stories about real people in extraordinary situations—nano-tecnology, witchcraft, quantum computers, fast horses, hot bards, stunning tattoos and environments on the brink of destruction. Her novels always begin with a grain of truth. Kim’s latest series is Quantum Encryption. Book #1 is out now, Path of the Stray. Currently she’s working on Books #2 & #3. There is a sneak preview of Road to the Soul, out February 2011 and her most recent short story, Wolf Being, appears in Spectra Magazine, Sept 2010. You can find her on kim.falconer.com, FaceBook, and Twitter.
Hi Kim
That concept of our brain not telling the difference between imagination and reality has really connected with me. That makes what we Spec Fic authors do even more important – showing people new ways, new ideas. The What If? is the essence of it all.
Thanks.
That’s it, Nicole! They’ve done some really interesting studies where they explore the way the brain stores a memory, a wish or hope for the future, a hallucination, or ‘real’ experiences. It’s all the same to the brain.
Says a lot about where we focus our thoughts–on a ‘bad’ childhood experience, or our dream come true relationship. We control were we dwell and it looks like ‘we are what we think we are’!
Spec Fic takes us to new ways and ideas. Absolutely. Read about a world where the genders are equal and you’ve experienced it. This is how we evolve as a species, and why storytelling is so important!
Thanks for dropping by, Nicole. What a great idea Helen’s had to get us all together like this!
“If we are emotionally engaged with a story— not aware of reading it but actually immersed to the degree we see the story unfold through the characters’ eyes, become frightened when they are in danger and uplifted when they are safe, tantalised when they fall in love—it is the same, to our brains, as if those events were really happening”
Completely agree Kim! when you put down a book and still feel all the emotions that the pages evoked, that is the true magic and is why I read speculative fiction. I still have in my mind that whatever I am reading has actually happened somewhere in another universe/time and the people experiencing those moments felt what I felt when reading. I suppose that is something we will never know! ( or will we?)
I love that idea too, Tricia, that somewhere somehow there is a universe next door where Kreshkali plots to survive ASSIST and Rosette bonds with a temple cat familiar and deep beneath the waters of Corsanon a spell . . . well, you know the rest!
There is an esoteric teaching that if we can imagine it, it’s happened. . . .
Thanks for dropping in!
Lovely post, Kim! A good book certainly lingers, the map to its world stamped in my neural pathways. I find this human capacity to tell stories, and evoke a surprising sense of reality through those stories, most fascinating. /Spock voice 😉
Some evolutionary biologist needs to enlighten me as to the physical necessities underlying all this. But I’m also happy just to experience it… very happy to be part of a species that tells a great many tall tales!
he he he, love you Spock voice, Mary. I think the Vulcans achieve such levels of experience through meditation and focus, as opposed to immersion in story. It would be much too emo for them otherwise!
The evolutionary connections are many. For example, according to new studies, we are hardwired to related to 150 other individuals! Most of us fall short of that (I can count mine on one hand) and to make up for it, we connect to characters in stories, fall in love with movie stars, follow celeb news. Gossip. We are all looking to feel connected, to experience and grow.
This is yet another reason why series fiction rocks. We stay with the people we’ve grown to love.
Thanks for dropping in! 🙂
I disagree with the statement “As an explanation of the universe, science has failed.” I would rather say that science has yet to explain an awful lot of the universe. It certainly has succeeded in many, many ways, enhancing our understanding and wellbeing. There are still a lot of things science can’t explain and that’s where SF imagines. I see science and SF aligning more and more as time goes by – after all, we carry devices in our pockets now that make Jim Kirk’s communicator seem positively dated. Maybe one day science will explain everything we can imagine. In the meantime, we’ll keep imagining and writing our books to fire the imaginations of others. Good post, Kim!
Hi Alan,
Thanks for your perspective.You are absolutely correct, Science has its success. Where it has failed me is in the ability to model a communion with the unknown. Given the closed system of the mechanistic world view, I must look elsewhere to expand the way I think about reality.
But as the teaching goes, . . . approached by a thousand paths.
And I DO think of Captain Kirk sometimes when using a smart phone, or even making notes on my kindle.
Here’s to firing the imagination!
“It takes us to a place where the what-ifs become real”.
Very true. I love the endless possibilities of what-if. So much unexplored territory!
That’s it, isn’t it, Janlb? The new and endless horizons. We get to traverse each one as if it were real! My favourite part too!
Ta for reading and commenting 🙂
“Spec Fic is quietly asking what if?” I like this aspect of SF and F.
“The Heir of Night” has been spotted in Borders, Lambton Quay, Wellington.
On “The Heir of Night” question, June, I’ll add—I also have reports so far of it being seen in the wild in Dunedin, various parts of Auckland, and also Melbourne! Not to mention “Our Staff Recommends” from Wichita, Kansas. 🙂
It’s the ‘quiet’ part too. I like it when there are no blaring trumpets, just vivid and rich world building, characters and dynamics that ask the question without us even realising it. Immerse in that and we really ARE swept away!
Good ‘Heir of Night’ spotting! I have a feeling he will be everywhere before long!