Speculative fiction — fantasy, science fiction, magical realism and related genres — can be taken at face value as adventure and romance: time out from the molecular “real world.” But what if speculative fiction is the real world? Good speculative fiction is not time out. Rather, its genres use metaphor — our species’ apparently unique skill for symbol and analogy –to illuminate, invite and experience the molecular world from new perspectives. The journeys of writer and written are parallel. In metaphor, consciously and unconsciously, the writer’s life informs the story; the story leads and heals the writer. Join fantasist Betsy James for a conversation about the trail of a story: from imagination, to illustration, and at last to words.