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?

Summer Reading

I have been buying more mysteries over the past few weeks. Even though I haven't read all of the ones I bought last year. Now I have been reading more recently. And some of the ones I bought were overdue. Like Beth's book, some by Maggie Sefton and the first Diane Mott Davidson--all Colorado mystery authors.

But it bothered me that I was spending more money on books, even though many were from Hooked on Books, the used book store near work. Then it hit me.

Summer reading. That's what I did every summer as a kid. I wasn't particularly athletic. Living in the country meant that often there weren't many kids around to play with. So I read. A lot. Now that it's June, my brain kicks into reading overdrive. So it's okay, even understandable, that I would make sure I have a lot of reading on hand.

Is there a particular time of year when you tend to read more or less? Why do you think that is? And when you do get in reading "overdrive", what do you like to read?

Perspective

Deb visited a store called Beads Galore when she was in Phoenix. She came back bearing gifts. There are some unusual beads, colors I wouldn't normally pick but beautiful, and some great charms and pendants. I will post pictures when I get a chance.

The funniest thing to me is that she wants me to teach her to make jewelry. It's funny because I'm still very much a beginner. I feel I need to learn so much. Yet her argument is that I've made more jewelry than she has. True as far as it goes. Maybe we can take some classes together.

How does one go from thinking of oneself as student to teacher? I would be more comfortable teaching quilting than knitting. Even though I learned to knit a dozen years before I looked at my first quilt pattern. Teach writing? Probably not. Not yet anyway. I still have a lot to learn. I think with most things, especially the creative ones, we are always learning. Or at least we should be.

How Stupid Are Your Customers?

There has been an alarming trend in advertisements over the past few years. I first noticed it with "cable" ads. Not infomercials. They were for things like hair removal products or cleaning supplies. The person who needs the product apparently can't function in the real world without it. A new example is the digital recorder for people too stupid to write out a shopping list. "Milk, butter, eggs," the housewife says. Then she listens intently at the store.

Lately, this trend is moving to more mainstream products. Carl's Jr. and Popeye's are both running commercials with stupid customers. Beer ads have done this for years, but I think the wink and nod was that the guys are drinking. But now it's fast food and laundry detergent and cars. Why should I buy a product if it's meant for stupid people?

This also seems to be a trend with a lot of the books I'm picking up. I know cozies are supposed to be fairly easy to figure out. But I see it with different genres. The author waving his hand at the reader to say, "This is the clue." Worse, the long explanations of things. "Here's what I think is a hard word so I'm going to explain it ad nauseum, because I'm sure you don't know it and can't figure out how to look it up on your own."

Am I being overly sensitive/critical or are you seeing this too? Do you feel as if you're being talked down to? How do you avoid it in your own writing?

Reading Deprivation Over

I missed reading more than I thought I would. Even allowing myself to read work-related emails and the like. I couldn't keep up with my friends' blogs or any of the others I like to read. No reading magazines or books. I couldn't even start a new knitting project, because I couldn't read the instructions.

The interesting thing is how impossible it is to not read at all. Words are everywhere. Just glancing around my office, I see words on the following:

Calendar
Stapler
Computer speakers
Water bottle
Telephone
Shredder
Computer screen
Computer
Book spines in bookshelf
Magazines on credenza
File folder box
Printer paper package
Voice recorder for dictation
The Monet print on the wall

That's just in my office. At home, they are on food packages, on the television screen, books, CDs, DVDs, appliances, toiletries, etc. etc. etc. There is absolutely no way a literate person can give up reading completely for a week unless you go into seclusion somewhere with all your food in unmarked plastic containers.

John pointed out that to write, you are by default also reading. I struggled with this dilemma as well. I wrote Morning Pages, since they were allowed, but did not work on anything new. Nor could I do revisions since that involves a lot of reading.

What did I do instead? I walked once more than I would have anyway. I watched television. I watched a few movies. I worked on an afghan using a pattern I know by heart. Pretty much what I would do anyway, except read. There were no revelations--except the one about not really being able to avoid reading. Maybe if the weather had been warmer, I would have gotten out a little more. I thought about my revisions on HM and what I want to do with D&D, but I couldn't write them down.

Maybe I will find the reasons later in the program. Maybe the benefits will show up later, too. I'm just very glad it is over.

Chugging Along

I am making progress on HM. 25 pages so far. While I'm not going any directions I hadn't planned on, I find myself inserting moments between Sloan and the people around him that give more depth to what their relationships are. One I like in particular is between Sloan and his daughter, Shannon. He's remembering a moment with his wife when Shannon was 2 (she's 12 now). Shannon comes in and sees him with tears in his eyes. It's a nice scene--if I do say so myself.

My one concern is that I am moving the plot along very quickly and may end without reaching the page count I was shooting for. Before I get a lot of comments, I realize that the book will be as long as it needs to be. I tend to write sparsely and have to go back and flesh out. Plus it will need to be checked for continuity problems because of the changes I implemented halfway through, which may end up increasing the word count. But I will have to decide if I want to start the second HM book or maybe start D&D or JB (jewelry book--I hate coming up with titles).

Any suggestions? Any that sounded more or less interesting to you? I would guess that the "industry experts" would say to start the second HM because starting one series is hard enough without throwing a second or third. But is it silly to write the second book in a series when you haven't sold the first? I guess I'll just decide when, and if, I get to that point.

Finally

A good book. The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz broke the streak of really bad mysteries. The question is: Is it a cozy? I guess an argument could be made because it's about a family and, mainly, what goes on in their family life. But the family business is private investigation so they are all professionals. And what goes on is a lot of cloak and dagger. The last two things would say it isn't a cozy. It really doesn't matter. It's a fun read.

Which leads to a question. Does it matter what label you put on a book as far as genre goes? I have seen some pretty nasty exchanges on one of the Yahoo! lists I'm part of over genre. Those who write "genre fiction" stating things along the lines of "those literary snobs." Arguments over what is literary as opposed to Literature. Gnashing of teeth over the death of horror as a separate genre. Does any of it really matter to anyone outside the writing community?

I don't really think so. People pick up books they think they'll like. They may start in the Mystery section or Romance or Fiction. But then they scan the sale tables or the staff recommendations. They remember a book someone told them about, or that they heard about on Fresh Air. I have never heard any non-writer friends say anything along the lines of, "It was supposed to be a mystery, but there's an awful lot of romance and a poltergeist so it probably should be called paranormal romance with undertones of mystery. It always bothers me when they mislabel something like that." They either say it's good or it's not.

So why do we tie ourselves up in knots over these labels? Or do you? Do you just write what you want?