In praise of the light

In Britain at present things are in great turmoil. A couple of weeks ago we held a referendum to decide whether we should leave the European Union.  The country voted no.  Since then we've had a new Prime Minister appointed, and the opposition party is in meltdown.  The future here looks uncertain for a good time to come. So I need an escape from the doom and  gloom of real life in my fiction.  

Anyone who's  studied metaphysics will know of the Law of Attraction.  Simply put, it means that we get more of what we think about and put our focus on.  So why would somebody want to set up a publisher that only publishes dystopian and dark fiction?  But that's exactly what I discovered this week.

It's certainly not a press I'll ever have anything to submit to.  I've ranted before about 'dark' books.  I get the feeling that reviewers label a story as dark almost with a sense of reverence.  I've a feeling that, these days, fiction can't be considered as realistic unless it has some 'dark' element to it,

Personally, that's not how I see life.  I like my fiction to have  more light.  A lot more light.  I want to write about the beauty of a natural sunset or sunrise, and the people who live on that world and want to preserve that beauty.  I want to praise the light in my writing.

So what's the conflict in such a story? you might ask.  Usually it's a character wanting to destroy the light, because of greed, overbreeding, or an alien conquest, most likely for the same reasons.  These conflicts can turn out to be very'dark', but I choose not to focus on the murders and war crimes.

I'm interested in exploring the consequences of that darkness and seeing the light rise out of it.  So I'll always be writing from the point of view of the rebel, the Resistance, the whistleblower who's just discovered the real objectives of a project or corporation and wants to stop it succeeding.

I'm an optimist, and I believe that, as long as human beings exist, light will always rise out of the darkness, no matter how dire things get.  And it is this spirit-strength, this courage to stand up for what is right, that inspires me, and my writing. 

 I think I'll be writing many more stories through the eyes of the rebel, and bringing in the light, for a good many years to come.