Fiction vs. Non-fiction

It might set you free. Mark Twain said when in doubt you should tell it. And sometimes it just plain hurts.

But above all, the TRUTH is expensive.

Two weeks ago Annie and I drove to Kokomo to meet Science-Fiction author John Scalzi. Actually, I bribed Annie to come along with the promise of lunch, and afterwards, while I was in the book store chatting with John, Annie slept in the truck.

Meeting John and seeing his pile of books waiting to be signed and sold got me thinking. A large number of John’s books take place in his head. He doesn’t have to buy plane tickets and spend 3-months living in hotels and eating out. He doesn’t have to pay translators. He doesn’t have to get vaccines or buy malaria medication. He doesn’t have to be griped at by ill-tempered corporate Vice Presidents.

In one of my favorite Scalzi books, the Android’s Dream, he spends the first 4 to 5 pages on an international incident involving a farting device.

I like getting out to places meeting people and getting my hands dirty, but how nice would it be to fabricate entire worlds and their farting devices while sitting in my PJ’s in my office?

One of these days I’m going to have to jump genres to fiction. But first, I probably should write a non-fiction book, seeing how I’m pretty much genre-less at the moment.

That reminds me…I’ve got a book proposal to write. My sample chapter will be on Bangladesh. I’ll chime in with highlights as I go.

 
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