Sunday, May 07, 2006
I've been thinking a lot about what defines a genre. Where is the line between Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy. Or even Mystery, Romance and Fantasy. I've noticed a lot of melding of genres. I read a lot of mysteries and more and more they are incorporating elements of fantasy to include Vampire Detectives, Psychic Detectives, Ghost Detectives. I've read mysteries set in the future. I've seen these same books with strong doses of romance elements. So what is what? I've found I've had trouble describing my mystery works because they have some elements of a "cozy" mystery but there are harder edges here and there along with some language and a little sex. And I guess maybe even a little hint of the supernatural since I've got a couple of characters with an odd little sixth sense. I think of fabulous books like "Tea With The Black Dragon" and "Bellwether" which are classified as fantasies, though truly nothing particularly supernatural happens. And with the explosion of Vampire/Romance/Mystery type books, just where do you put those books at in the store. Do you spread them around the sections? I had the opportunity to speak with an agent on the phone and when he asked me what my particular genre of mystery was I didn't really know what to say.
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I guess it's important to remember that while genres do have meaning to us as authors, their main usefulness is to the marketers of writing, who sometimes just don't get it. If something makes money, they keep trying to duplicate it, saying "give me more like that."
Probably the best way to approach a question like the agent's is to think of something your stories have in common, describe them a little. Agents/publishers who are too trapped in "give me more like that" mentality miss out on the author who will define the next thing people will be trying to copy.
I have more to say about the line between sci-fi and horror, but I'll save it for next time.
I'm not even sure what the dividing line in my mind is. I know I've been disappointed to pick up things that looked like mysteries only to find out they were, in my opinion, romances. Which is odd, because I like romance in my mystery. Maybe even a little more than most people. As for the genre thing, I did describe the authors I felt were close to what I do, but I never felt it was quite right.
I think some genres have the capacity to include others. A mystery can be set anywhere, but if it's set on another planet, in an alternate history, or the future, it's science fiction.
Mystery and romance are "mutually inclusive," I think. You can have a romance with mystery in it, or a mystery with romance in it. The line is subjective, so however you present it, someone will probably be disappointed. The trick is probably to be clever with the jacket copy, so people who take the time to read it will have some sense of what to expect.
In the preface to one of my favorite mystery novels "Busman's Honeymoon" by Dorothy L. Sayers, she says that to some people a love story is an instrustion on a mystery novel, while to the characters the mystery might be an instrustion on their love story. But good characters will play well as cowboys, intergalactic bounty hunters, swing dancing vampires or E.R. Doctors. Swing Dancing Vampires... Hmmm.... Zoot-suited vampires...Wait a sec, I may have to write something down.
Yeah, zoot-suited vampires! I like!
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