Writing Fantasy

So Moonrat over at Editorial Ass is having a month of guest blogs where people write about their favorite books and why they impacted them so much. I was allegedly on the slate for June 19th, but seeing as my post still isn't up yet, I may drop her an e-mail this week and see what happened. ;-p

Regardless, today's guest blog really struck a chord with me, and I'd suggest you all go check it out. It's from a woman who writes "speculative fiction"--a fancy word for sci-fi and fantasy, and in it she discusses briefly what she thinks makes the genre so great.

Suffice to say, I feel the same way. In the face of intense criticism, some overt and some more insidious, of my chosen genre from most of my professors and classmates, I have maintained that fantasy is important because it can change people's lives.

My evidence for this, had, until today, been based entirely on my own life, and the way I created my identity by cobbling together bits of pieces of the heroes I most admired and identified with as a kid. The writer on Moonrat's blog today hinted that she did something similar.

So hooray! I'm right, and everyone else is wrong, and maybe, just maybe, my writing will help a struggling kid someday. That's something worth working for.