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With science fiction now so embedded in mainstream culture that James Doohan's recent death made worldwide headlines and many universities offer courses in SF, it's hardly surprising that more and more writers are emerging into the gray area between genre and literature known as "slipstream."

Author Bruce Sterling coined that term in the late 80s to describe fiction with crucial fantastical or science fictional elements which is written in a literary, even edgy style. Writers crossed into slipstream from both directions -- literary figures, such as Margaret Atwood, embracing SF concepts, while genre writers experimented with new techniques of storytelling. Yet it's still an awkward hybrid, and new writers often face rejection both from literary publishers (who don't understand their "weird" ideas) and genre publishers (who want narrative-centred bestsellers).

In this climate, small presses have become a hotbed of emerging slipstream stars, such as Kootenay writer Holly Phillips, who I recently interviewed near her home in Trail, BC. Phillips first short story collection, In the Palace of Repose, has garnered glowing reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist, among others. CBC Radio has already lined up Phillips for The Arts Tonight. And her publisher is so delighted by the sales of Repose that they offered her a hardcover deal for her first novel, Burning Girl, which Phillips describes as "a dark contemporary fantasy featuring three worlds in collision."

In the Palace of Repose contains nine finely crafted, atmospheric stories with settings ranging from the Russian steppes in the 20s to contemporary Vancouver. Although very realistic, Phillips' settings are just slightly sideways of reality, and she gives us a dark, complex glimpse of what might happen if dreams really did come true.

What teenager hasn't longed for freedom from the expectations and emotional pressures of their family? In "The Other Grace" a girl comes to awareness between one footstep and the next. She is walking along a street with her arms full of books and she doesn't know who she is. She can't remember anything, even her own name, and certainly not the concerned strangers who claim to be her parents.

Phillips characters are often alienated, and the decisions they must make are odd, difficult and very intense. In "One of the Hungry Ones," a teenaged runaway living rough on the streets is courted by sleazy pimps on the one hand, and glamorous vampires on the other. And in "The New Ecology," a young woman moves to Vancouver's Commercial Drive in a vain attempt to hide from a tribe of strange new life forms that inexplicably want to worship her.

"Scrapyard, trash heap, back alley beings. There was, despite the aggravation, something touching in their shyness. They were like children left too soon alone, torn between vengeful pranks and the desire to please, wanting attention and fearing it. A cautious slither of wire and springs to the left, a hesitant leap-frog bound of old shock absorbers and bicycle tires to the right, the eerie two-legged stalk of stick figures made from rebar and broken cement: the detritus of the city, gathered on Millennium's lawn. After a pause, they began to dance."

Donna McMahon discovered science fiction in high school and fandom in 1977, and never recovered. Dance of Knives, her first novel, was published by Tor in May, 2001, and her book reviews won an Aurora Award the same month. She likes to review books first as a reader (Was this a Good Read? Did I get my money's worth?) and second as a writer (What makes this book succeed/fail as a genre novel?). You can visit her website at http://www.donna-mcmahon.com/.