As some of you know, I write me some fiction, and today I stumbled upon a submission call right up my alley! Maybe it's something you're interested in, too? Ride 2, a collection of short stories in which "a bicycle (or bicycle subculture) must feature prominently in the story." Up to 12,000 words. Of course, I'll be writing some kind of SFnal crapsack world post-peak oil story, because that's the only type of fiction I am capable of writing. And if you want, you can check out Ride 1. I just might.
Reading that submission call made me think about the other stories I've written, and how even without trying to set forth any sort of "message" or even intending it to be that way, my stories are largely car-free. This could be because my writing is pretty much autobiography. (Autobiography that's usually set in the future. With aliens. Or global pandemics. But it's still autobiography.) I've never known what it's like to own a car, so consequently, I don't think of including cars in my fiction. If something's not a major part of your life, it's easy to see how it can slip through the cracks when you're writing a story. If I wrote "straight" fiction, the transportation mode might be notable, but I think to some extent it's hidden in genre work. Or at least, I've never had anyone ask "hey, why don't any of your characters drive?" and I didn't even notice it myself until earlier today. Then again, most of my fiction is set in cities, where "alternative" transport isn't such an unusual thing.
Despite my relatively car-less fictional world, I've never written a story in which bikes play a major or even minor role. So I'm excited about writing a story involving bikes. Maybe that story will be a little less crapsack than most of my others! (But it will still be pretty crappy because that's the way I roll, man.)
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