Friday, April 10, 2015

Guest post - "What Flavour of Apocalypse" by Tsana Dolichva

Apocalypse fiction rarely includes characters with disability, chronic illness and other impairments. When these characters do appear, they usually die early on, or are secondary characters undeveloped into anything more than a burden to the protagonist. Defying Doomsday will be an anthology showing that disabled characters have far more interesting stories to tell in post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction.

Defying Doomsday will be edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, and published by Twelfth Planet Press in mid 2016. Defying Doomsday is currently crowdfunding via Pozible. To support the project visit: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday

What Flavour of Apocalypse?
by Tsana Dolichva

Apocalypses come in all forms. And yet, if someone says “post-apocalyptic wasteland” I automatically picture a pretty similar scene, not matter the context. The image in my mind is of a barren landscape, probably a bit desert-like, maybe with some ruined buildings dotting the horizon. Why is that the default? I’m not sure. It’s not that I haven’t read stories where the world floods, or superstorms wreak havoc on the Earth, or climate change sends Earth into a deep freeze. And that’s not even touching on the creative ways aliens can kill us all, or the more permanently cataclysmic astronomical events that could destroy all life on Earth.

So why is the barren landscape what pops into my mind in the absence of other settings? I’m starting to wonder if it’s not a legacy of the Cold War. Did the fear of a nuclear holocaust imprint itself so strongly on our collective consciousness that it’s still our go-to apocalypse scenario? Maybe it’s just me, and maybe it’s a product of the specific places and times where I’ve spent my life, but I write this as someone who has lived something like 85% of her life post-Cold War.

That’s not to say that nuclear apocalypses aren’t a perfectly valid choice of setting, although I do prefer it when the background behind them is well thought through.

The truth of the matter is there are many different possible scenarios that destroy the world as we know it and the possible permutations are endless. From the mundane (see above) to the cataclysmic (Earth being torn apart) to the weird (the laws of physics suddenly stop working and neutrinos start reacting — I will never forgive you for that, 2012). We want to give authors the opportunity the explore all sorts of scenarios with all sorts of characters.

For Defying Doomsday we’re also looking for stories with disabled or chronically ill characters, but that doesn’t mean the apocalypse needs to take a back seat.

Author Bio:

Tsana Dolichva is a Ditmar Award ­nominated book blogger. She is editing the anthology Defying Doomsday with Holly Kench, the managing editor of Visibility Fiction. As editors and readers of science fiction, who also live with disability and chronic illness, Tsana and Holly have often noticed the particular lack of disabled or chronically ill characters in apocalypse fiction. They are excited to share Defying Doomsday, an anthology showing that people with disability and chronic illness also have stories to tell, even when the world is ending.

 To support the anthology or to preorder a copy of Defying Doomsday, visit: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday . Your support is greatly appreciated! You can find out more about Defying Doomsday at the website or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Defying Doomsday:

Defying Doomsday is an anthology of apocalypse-survival fiction with a focus on disabled characters, which will be edited by Tsana Dolichva and Holly Kench, and published by Twelfth Planet Press in mid 2016.

Apocalypse fiction rarely includes characters with disability, chronic illness and other impairments. When these characters do appear, they usually die early on, or are secondary characters undeveloped into anything more than a burden to the protagonist. Defying Doomsday will be an anthology showing that disabled characters have far more interesting stories to tell in post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction.

The anthology will be varied, with characters experiencing all kinds of disability from physical impairments, chronic illnesses, mental illnesses and/or neurodiverse characters. There will also be a variety of stories, including those that are fun, sad, adventurous and horrific.

The stories in Defying Doomsday will look at periods of upheaval from new and interesting perspectives. The anthology will share narratives about characters with disability, characters with chronic illnesses and other impairments, surviving the apocalypse and contending with the collapse of life as they know it.

Defying Doomsday is currently crowdfunding via Pozible. To support the project visit: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday

About the Campaign:

Defying Doomsday will be funded via a Pozible campaign, with the assistance of a Crowbar grant from Arts Tasmania. The campaign will run from April 1 2015 to May 1 2015, with a funding goal of $13,000 to cover production costs, reward items, and the funds to pay authors a professional market rate. You can support the campaign here: http://pozi.be/defyingdoomsday

Twelfth Planet Press:

Twelfth Planet Press is an award winning Australian publisher, championing underrepresented voices in speculative fiction. In 2011, Alisa Krasnostein won the World Fantasy Award for her work with the press, and Twelfth Planet books and stories have won the Shirley Jackson, WSFA Small Press, Aurealis, Ditmar, Chronos and Tin Duck awards.

Links:

No comments: