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My psyche has been pummelled by decades of cross-genre input and frankly, I like what the wash and spin cycle of my brain does with it all. The trick is getting readers to understand what they are in for when they read my work. It’s a trick I haven’t learned particularly well, but I’m well-adjusted to going with the creative outpouring. It’s hardly surprising that after a lifetime of perceptions that one becomes attuned to filtering information in certain ways. I grew up watching a lot of TV. Pretty much anything science fiction, British comedy, American 70s and 80s sitcoms, Austrian comedy and drama, classic Hollywood Saturday afternoon movies and Sunday night indie films. Then there were video games, books of course, and an early exposure to theatre. Also, naturally, there was and still is the significant influence of the people around me, my environment and socio-economic situation. It’s no wonder my fiction writing is a potpourri of all these influences.

Writing is no different to any other form of interaction with the world. My mind filters information according to all the other information that has gone through it previously. Sometimes what comes out is the result of patterned responses and other times there are surprises. But fundamentally the soupy conglomeration of my experience directs my thoughts.

We all have our influences, we all have our life experiences that affect the way we see the world, the way we interact, the way we create, the way we make decisions. I take pleasure in observing the differences between the multitude of sources that alter my perception. Sometimes observation gives me the opportunity to step away from my own skewed view and other times the desire to revel in it becomes consuming.

When you hold your lens to the world, do you consider how it affects what you see?

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road To Nowhere

To Cli-Fi or not to Cli-Fi, that is the question. Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous science fiction or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them?

Yes, a somewhat bastardised version of Shakespeare’s famous soliloquy. Yet if you take a moment to deconstruct it, the answer to why many authors are picking up and running with the Cli-Fi mantra is apparent.

Cli-Fi was coined by journalist Dan Bloom and he champions the propagation of the term through cli-fi.net, an academic and literary Facebook group – Cli-Fi, Climate Change & Literary Criticism, and other social media channels.

It is well established that science fiction offers authors and readers the opportunity to enter worlds of possibility. Science fiction has never been restricted by the word ‘science’. On the contrary, science fiction explores morality, social constructs and the edges of human behaviour. It is no surprise then, as we face climate change, the greatest dilemma to have challenged our species, that creative minds would act to both express their dismay but also to offer hope and possibility beyond what is considered in the media or around the water cooler.

I started writing my novel ROAD TO NOWHERE in 1996 as a reaction to stories of global warming in the news. It struck me as alarming then, that as a species we were being very slow to act. It alarms me even more now. I remember learning about greenhouse gasses in primary school and being taught about the life cycle of the sun and what life would be like for people at its different stages. These early encounters with popular science stayed firm in my mind and somehow colluded with many other ideas to form this book.

ROAD TO NOWHERE doesn’t sit easily within the Sci-Fi genre. It’s part thriller, conspiracy, satire, philosophical exploration and there is even a touch of romance. There is sex in there too, because for many people sex and desire are overpowering forces often never understood or controlled.

Cli-Fi brings all the competing genres within my book together and sums up what it is about. For me, that is an exploration of the fundamental duality of our species. Our determined headlong drive into self-destruction polarised by an opposing instinct for self-preservation and survival.

By exploring climate change in fiction, authors can take fellow human beings through an experience they have not considered. Isn’t that the function of all fiction?

By coining the term Cli-Fi, Dan Bloom brings works together that exist across the world of literary fiction. The aim is simple. We want to save the planet and we want to save our species and we want to save those we love and we want to save ourselves. It can feel powerless when observing history unfold, watching the proverbial train wreck before your eyes with no means in your power to change it.

Cli-Fi gives us that means. With the feeling of powerlessness, the ability to share ideas becomes essential. Words change minds and minds change reality.

As a writer, there are many stories I want to explore, but for the moment I can’t look away from the big glob of murky uncertainty before me. I must deconstruct it, I must make sense of what we are collectively doing. Is it too much to hope that along the way, I and other authors, might bring a few readers along with us? The conceit of the writer is all I can offer. At the very least if you don’t change your mind I hope I entertain you to the end. I suddenly feel like one of the members of the quartet on the Titanic, offering a melodic knowing tune as the boat sinks into the deathly cold waters. Regardless I will continue to Cli-Fi because frankly, I don’t know what else I can do.

Evan Shapiro
Author – Road To Nowhere

While writing my new novel MY FATHER’S TIME, I’ve been contemplating the nature of time. It has occurred to me that out of everything we may perceive, time, is the one thing of most value.

You can collect objects, buy houses, music, have nice clothes, even surround yourself with people you love. However, your possessions will hold no value when you no longer have time to spend with them. It is your time and your projection of meaning that gives objects, people or activities a sense of worth.

If someone wastes your time, they are wasting your life. Sounds dramatic, but it is true. Your time on this planet is finite. Even if you believe in reincarnation, your time as the person you currently are is limited. We are defined by that limitation, yet many people live as though there is no limitation and don’t’ value their own time or the time of people around them.

So I ask you, from one human being to another, to consider your time and the time of those around you. Consider the opportunity time brings to your existence, while the window is open.

#1.

It’s a great read – really 9/10 people have a great time reading it. The 10th person while perhaps not enjoying it as much as the others is not hurt in any way, unless you count psychological scarring.

#2.
If you don’t normally read science fiction, relax. This is not like regular science fiction. It’s more like social fiction. Yes, there is a space station, yes there are scientists but you should think of these elements as plot or story devices rather than the main concern. The world in Road To Nowhere is very familiar. You won’t feel out of place, but you may feel out of time (that is a climate change joke – see next point).

#3.
Climate change is real and we are starting to live through the effects of it. But have you stopped to imagine what might happen a little further down the track? Well now you don’t have to worry because I’ve done that for you and you can sit back and just read about it, safe in the knowledge that what will happen to people after you are dead is much worse than what will happen to you.

#4.
Sex – we all like sex. Okay, some people don’t but sex is a part of human existence and while there are some steamy scenes in Road To Nowhere they are not gratuitous. Okay, maybe a little, but sex is in my book because sex has a fundamental impact on human decision-making and I find that fascinating.

#5.
Are you interested in reality? Reality according to human beings? I want you to think about that. Our reality is a human one. A dog’s reality is inline with a dog’s perception. If this notion interests you then read Road To Nowhere for more such notions. Be grateful you have the opportunity to read it because a dog can look at the words but won’t be able to construct a meaning from the symbols on the page in the same way you so cleverly can.

#6.
It’s called Road To Nowhere for many reasons. As a species we seem intent on a path of self-destruction, but we are also resolute survivors. I find that duality compelling, don’t you?

#7.
Don’t freak out about the previous point. Yes it may seem like doom and gloom but there is much fun to be had on the way to oblivion and I’m not at all certain that’s where we will end up. In fact I think we are ultimately much smarter than that. We just have to be wiser about who we let loose on the collective controls of society.

#8.
I really care about you, and that’s lovely isn’t it?

#9.
I’m asking you really nicely to read Road To Nowhere. Frankly that should be enough. I spent quite a bit of time working on it for you and if you don’t like it once you start then you can choose to stop reading it. It is my humble opinion however, that if you give it a go, you will be surprised, perhaps even enthralled and entertained, quite possibly even delighted with your decision. Who knows, you may even want to share a recommendation with friends. Hey, an author can dream.

Regards
Evan Shapiro
Author – Road To Nowhere
www.amazon.com/author/evanshapiro

Why is it that fiction sits so fundamentally at the core of our society? We invite fiction into our lives in many forms and as a species we always have – from cave painting, oral storytelling traditions, through music and song, visual art, books, radio, cinema, television to digital media. We accept storytelling as a means of both sharing ideas but also as pure entertainment and while clearly defining content into two categories of fiction and non-fiction a fundamental commonality remains. Fiction or non-fiction, our brain likes stories. We respond emotionally to what we call reality in the same way as we respond to what we call fiction. We laugh, we cry, we learn.

Is it such a stretch then to propose that fiction holds its place of importance because our lives are fictions too? That does not mean we can’t call our lives real, or take them seriously, but our lives are essentially the same as that of a character in a book, an extremely elaborate and detailed construction. When you realise your brain’s powerful ability to create and accept fiction, I think you can start to see how to control it, how to shape it into what you desire rather than going along with it as a passive passenger.