Something Wicked blogfest!

I've been thinking of Wicked & Tricksy's Something Wicked blogfest since it was first announced a few days ago, unsure of how to participate. But when I read this post about the awesome prize boxes, well, how can I pass this up!?

The blogfest asks you to answer one of three questions:
1. Name 3 of your favorite spec-fiction stories (books, movies, tv shows, anything goes)
2. Tell us why you love spec-fic -- what plot line, character type, story trope, setting, time, place is your absolute favorite.
3. Take a guess if you can: where do you see spec-fic stories going in the next two, five, ten years? What will be popular and how will the sub-genres have changed?

I was going to answer number one because I've been looking for a reason to talk about LOST, but then I read Sommer's entry and her description of LOST was damn near perfect, so why ruin a good thing? I'm also trying to get away from using the LOTR books and films as my default contribution to Wicked & Tricksy, so it's time to try something... new.

*le gasp*
I know. I don't do new. Bear with me.

Why I love spec fiction...
I have a great memory from when I was no more than 6 or 7 years old. My mom was standing in front of the sink, preparing dinner while watching the local news on the tiny black and white television sitting on the counter. To keep me out of her hair, she would give me blank sheets of computer paper (much to my father's dismay--he claimed it was too expensive to be coloring paper) and a box of crayons and tell me to draw her a picture.

I wish I still had those pages. I knew exactly what I wanted to draw. I created a beautiful green forest with a cobblestone path winding across the page. Not to be restricted by borders, I lined up the pages in a landscape fashion and taped them together, thus creating my very first world map. My forest had pine trees, maple trees, the token river and requisite fish, unicorns, and gigantic mushrooms.

I worked on my map for a few nights, until I was cut off from further computer paper until I agreed to draw something else, something other than the stone path weaving along five taped together pages with no end in sight. I don't remember what I did next, but I can see those pages on my kitchen table as clear as if they were in front of me today.

THAT is why I love spec fiction. Because it's voluntary escapism. It has the power to pluck a six year old girl from the middle of corn and cow country (aka, Wisconsin) and drop her in the middle of a fantastic, magical forest where unicorns roam and there is no sickness or sadness.

Source

Perhaps I'm looking a bit too deep into this question, but spec-fic took me away from the cancer that entered our household, the IV lines, the hair loss, the tears, and the fears. It took me to a place where magic lived. Where princesses were strong and life was exciting instead of scary and uncertain.

To this day, I prefer magic, quests, and drafty castles in my spec-fic. Not necessarily in that order, but the medieval setting is most comfortable to me. Add to it the sense of adventure that comes with climbing through an old wardrobe and I'm happy. (Though, I should add that the 4 main characters in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe were too many for me to keep together so I never made it past the first book, but the concept of going through the wardrobe to a new world fed my imagination for years...)

What about you? Why do you love spec-fic?