Thursday, July 24, 2008

Genres & Subgenres & Sub-subgenres

A lot of writers have trouble categorizing their work. Is it dark fantasy? Urban fantasy? Cyber-punk? I thought I had it easy with mysteries. Either you have a professional detective or not. But then I started reading more. I knew about the craft subgenre. That's where Bennie will fit eventually. But within the craft group there are the knitting mysteries, needlework (other than knitting) mysteries, scrapbooking, etc. By the time I finish Bennie, there may be dozens of jewelry series, but I hope not.

The cat mysteries are everywhere. I have asked the Pirates to shoot me if a talking cat ever shows up in one of my books.

Last week, I happened to pick up the first book in Charlaine Harris' vampire mysteries, Dead Until Dark. Geoff recommended them years ago, but I just got around to it during my reading break. It's a very good read. Sexy, smart, funny and scary with an interesting mystery at the center. Nice. I have since picked up the next two books. I mentioned to Fleur that I read a vampire cozy mystery. She named an author (I can't remember the name right now) who was not Charlaine Harris. I started searching online.

We have a paranormal mystery subgenre. Nancy Atherton's Aunt Dimity, a ghost who solves crimes, would fit there. But within that subgenre, there are werewolf mysteries and vampire mysteries and who knows what else.

What accounts for these clumps of books with similar storylines? Is it just something that's in the air? Does a writer see that one-legged female hairdressers seem to be hot and jump on the bandwagon?

Here's the big question: If you read a werewolf mystery and like it, will you look for other author's who write about werewolves?

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