Calling it that as I’m simply not as imaginative as it might seem to some and so the characters are all based on someone real, sometimes an amalgam, the nuts and bolts filler part is domestic, therefore I can adapt actual conversations I remember with people, things we did … and as for the plot … well, these volatile times hand me readymade action on a platter.
So there’s action, characterisation, human drama … but not invented … not very good at inventing … it all happened to someone I know or know of. Towards the end of some tales, where it gets a bit apocalyptic … well yes, that requires a bit of futuristic thinking.
I only tried SF once in a short story linked to below … not my thang … plus there are a couple of real tales … one in Russia, one in Sicily, turned semi-fictional to add a bit of interest. There’s an invented tale set in Alabama, some of the people real but semi-fictionalised again. There are no Mary-Sues, no male equivalents, no klutzes … just ordinary people whom adversity and experience slowly turn a bit more skilful than your average bear.
Masquerade, a 1500 page saga if you can handle it. Two decades in the writing and redacting … it’s quite readable if I do say so myself … my friend Toodles proofread and suggested, I redacted. This is the WP copy of it.
Island, a long novella which thinks it’s a novel … two of my fave characters are in here, both fictionalised thirds of Toodles … the real third redacted the story again … there’s a bit of a bleak, open-ended finale … but is not life like that? I’m thinking this was maybe my best story overall, many twists and turns.
Dark Logic, a very short novella, or even novelette, Toodles said it felt curtailed, could have been longer … true. This is my last semi-fiction for the foreseeable … far less raunchy than, say, Masquerade … mainly because I’m decades older and needs do change. At this point, I’m out of novelist steam … who knows what might happen?