Why speculative fiction?

I don't know. I can't tell you why my writing and reading preferences run to speculative fiction. Fantasy, especially sword and sorcery, is currently my favorite genre. But ten years ago it was probably horror. I've read plenty of science fiction, but honestly, it's one of my least favorite genres.

I've read plenty of mainstream fiction over the years, and I've read plenty of classics. Anything by Alexandre Dumas, I love. And Moby Dick is one of my favorite books of all time, despite the fact it bores most people to sleep.

I've enjoyed Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, and plenty of "serious" writers. But I always come back to speculative fiction, and I have little interest in writing "serious" fiction (though I have a mainstream story idea or two kicking around in my head from time to time).

Looking back on my youth, I remember loving the old Star Trek show on television when I was about five or six. Then, when I was seven, along came Star Wars, and that just opened the floodgate fore years to come. But still, science fiction wasn't my thing.

I first discoverd "The Hobbit" about 1977, when I was seven. Soon after, I read the Lord of the Rings. Almost all of it was over my head, but I loved it. Since then I've read those books at least three or four times each.

In junior high, about the age of 12, I discovered role-playing games, specifically Dungeons and Dragons. That urged me on.

But I've read comic books my whole life. I can remember being in second and third grade and creating my own comic books, using color markers and pens to draw adventures of comic book heroes in little white tablets. I still wish I had those today. I created a super team made up of the Hulk, Spider-Man, Nova, Rom (remember him?) and my own creation, The Destroyer. I called the super group The Destroyers. How original.

I watched the original Super Friends as a kid. Maybe that's where it started.