TRENDS IN FICTION

One of the challenges for today’s writers is keeping up with current writing trends. I find this to be particularly true when trying to decide, “what is my genre?” Genre identification has expanded and is a whole new adventure in branding as every author diligently attempts to find his or her best niche.

New genres keep popping up and it is important to stay up-to-date with the current trends. Yes, some of these trends are passing fancies, and some are pure fad. Yet it is hard to know when they arrive whether they will become “the next big thing” or yesterdays “oh no you didn’t.”

To help you stay abreast with what’s trending and cool, here are some newer genres in Fiction of which you may not be aware. Perhaps you will want to investigate one or two and discover that your work might fit into something new and developing. Some of these you may have heard about but really didn’t understand (join the party — sometimes I don’t get them either).  I promise you that these are current and might prove valuable.

9 Fiction Genres You Need to Know

CLI-FI

     Climate Fiction describes stories about hazards of climate change and global warming where eco terrorists are the primary villains. Environmental disasters are the order of the day. Not considered truly speculative fiction, it takes place in the world we know today or in the very near future. This is still a developing category but many universities are including it in their teachings.

Books in this genre: Atonement by Ian McEwan, Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake

MYTHOPOEIA

     Mythopoeia is Greek for “mythos making.” It is a narrative where fictional or artificial mythology is created. More narrow than saying it is science fiction or pure fantasy, this is a more mystic creation by a single individual, the same way Tolkien created Middle Earth (as Tolkien is considered one of the creators of mythopoeia).

Books in this genre: Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, or A Song of Fire and Ice by GRRR Martin.

BIZARRO

     Okay, I admit I had to laugh when I saw this one. Bizarro fiction was created by small American press publishers to meet the demands of good weird fiction. Called the “literature’s equivalent of the cult section at the DVD store,” this is where you find the things that make your eyebrow go up in astonishment or confusion or even, like me, giggle.

Books in this genre: Shatnerquake by Jeff Burk, Felix and the Sacred Thor by James Steele

INTERACTIVE FICTION

     These are stories where you get to dictate how the story progresses and moves forward. (I actually wrote one of these back in 1998 called The Revenants of Hawthorne Mansion, which was posted online and readers chose whether they wanted the Reality ending or the Fantasy ending. And neither was what they expected. Yes, I was ahead of my time in this genre!).

This genre has been around since the mid-70’s but is just now getting new life. It blurs the lines between virtual and real worlds. There is no wrong way to read it and it is looking to be the next really big wave between reading and playing. (Real Player One, anyone?)

Books in this genre: Blood of the Zombies by Ian Livingston and Women and Bad Decisions by Shawn Harris.

MINIMALISM

     According to Chuck Palahniuk, this is the closest storytelling to movies there is. Authors use short sentences and mandate a stripped down writing style. This writing mimics real talk and keeps adjectives, adverbs, and meaningless details to a minimum. It is an off-shoot of flash fiction, but longer.

Books in this genre: Lullaby by Chuck Palahniuk, The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks, 31 Songs by Nick Hornby.

FABULISM (also called Magical Realism)

     In this genre, writers portray the world realistically but with a few magical and/or supernatural elements interwoven into it. For example, imagine a forest you know well but with clocks hanging from the trees. This identification began with some Latin American literature. Used mostly in the arts, it is gaining strength in regular literature. One key element is a heightened awareness of mystery in the hidden realism. Fabulism tells stories in the real world but is in opposition to modern and urban realism.

This genre is often confused with exoticism.

Books in this genre: The House of Spirits by Isobel Allende and Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

FACTION

     Some critics believe this category is more for the non-fiction genres but I stand with those who disagree. These are stories of historical figures woven together with fictional elements. Historical novels are fictional accounts of real people in real places. Faction blends the fact and the fiction but the story is rooted in truth. The outcome may be to create a new belief or conclusion. Many believe this to be a sub genre of historical novels and therefore, non-fiction. Developing genre!

Books in this genre: Roots by Alex Haley, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Allegiant by Veronica Roth.

FANFIC

     Most everyone knows about Fan Fiction and is aware that it is prose or poetry written by fans of books or films with favorite characters. I confess I was writing fan fiction with Anne Rice’s characters before she agreed to allow it (not for profit) in 2012. Most writers pick up the stories where the books or movies end and change the future or re-write certain events that bothered them. Few know that 50 Shades of Grey started out as a Twilight-inspired fanfic – and you can see where that went.  However, many fanfics never see the published mainstream light of day and can be considered a great risk.

This genre has a subgenre called Slash, where more erotic fanfic lives.

Books beginning as fanfic: After by Anna Todd (One Direction fanfic), His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik (author fan of the Master and Commander series of stories).

GRAN LIT

     Okay now, all you 20,30 and 40 somethings, don’t laugh. This is fiction written specifically for middle age folks and senior years. Stories with sunny adventures, zest, romance and hope. This genre was recognized after the 2011 book Thursdays in the Park, a romance between 60-somethings, where the author Hilary Boyd asks, “does love always come with a sell-by date?”

Honestly, I’m still reading NA, a little YA but I love my gothic paranormal and I guess that’s why I love vampires. We get to be old and cliché, dark and morose, romantic with an edge,  without being Gran Lit. But there was a giant missing library of books for the senior set and Gran Lit fills this.

Books in this genre: Loop Group by Larry McMurtry

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I encourage you to broaden your genre knowledge and maybe you will be able to add more categories to your book listings! 

Most of all, remember not to stagnate and to keep up with evolving trends. You never know, you might have an idea for something new and cool, like CoffeePunk (for us lovers of our daily java fix mashed with our need for a scifi fantasy clifi gran lit. 

Thanks for stopping by,
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,

Sherry

This last week has been extremely stressful and busy. With the launch of my new book, Time and Blood, I’ve been caught up in marketing, promotions and sales. Over the last month, I participated in three Facebook events, spent Halloween doing a series of Facebook live events, worked ad designs for four books into a Holiday sales catalog, appeared on Yvonne Mason’s blogtalk radio show Off The Chain and topped everything off with beginning National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). WHEW. To say I was tired over the weekend would be an understatement. 

I had good news. Saturday I discovered that my new book Time and Blood hit the Amazon Hot New Release list. Yes, the list is updated hourly and I didn’t stay there, but I did show at #3. 

Every author I know dreams of hitting the bestseller list. I didn’t hit #1 but just knowing you’ve breached the top 10 is incredible. Here’s how I found out that I managed to crack into the Bestseller lists in my categories:

The actual statistics are located on the book details about your categories:

I admit that I am humble bragging. I’ve never had any success like this and so it is both humbling and amazing enough that if I don’t tell someone, it might seem as though it didn’t happen. The ranking success is so fluid and changes so often (so much), that when a moment like this happens, you capture it and move on — but you have to say, “Look, for just a moment, I shone.”

Anyone who wants to be published needs to realize how much time and money goes into marketing and promoting your work. You cannot sit on your hands and expect the world to discover you, not if you are an Indie author. Unless you have a PR firm to do the work for you, you – the author – must seek out promoters and venues where you get maximum visibility. And in a world where self-publishing is beginning to proliferate the market, rising to the top is unbelieveably challenging. If you have a large following of friends and family who can help, that is a boon. I don’t have a large cadre of either so that hurts me. 

And unfortunately there are many authors who won’t buy your work and support you unless you are in their inner circle. I’ve noticed that once you achieve a Bestseller ranking (Amazon, NYT or USA Today), that you move into “inner circles” where those authors and their readers continue to promote and purchase you. You stay hot as long as you keep publishing. Until then it’s promote, sell, promote, push, advertise, promote. Endlessly.

But for the rest of us who are lucky to sell maybe 50-100 books, we’re doomed to sit on the outside and wonder how we get noticed. That’s where the marketing and publicity comes back — as you work to find reviewers and venues to be seen and heard.  You might say authors are a bunch of ouroboros. What I mean is that we must live, eat our own tails to be reborn and live again. We eat our sales in marketing and publicity, in order to make more sales and eat our tales again. It is the endless circle of renewal, the infinity sign. Unfortunately most Indie authors find publicity and marketing costs more than the resulting profits. So how do you measure success?

It’s a tough road and why anyone who thinks they will start off making a living as an author is crazy. But if you work hard, then you may have a moment like me, and know someone has noticed you. It is humbling and exciting.

I measure success not just in these statistics. My successes come in much smaller doses: the sale of a book to a new friend, an old friend anxiously waiting to purchase your new book, a dividend payment that is only $3 which means, “hey, you sold a print book!” Success is not in large dollars but in the moments that validate what you do. Oh yes, statistics and “bestseller” titles are coveted and precious, but the real success comes when you know realize that you have stories to tell and someone, somewhere, is reading them.

Then you begin again, because writing is like breathing, you simply must. And hope lives.

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Which brings me to my next subject, NaNoWriMo. Five days in and I’m on track, even a little ahead of schedule. If you’re like me, you are discovering that you must schedule work time and balance your seclusions with the requirements of life. If you live alone, bless you. You have the right-of-way of the rest of us who are juggling children, spouses, boy/girl friends, laundry, furry families, jobs, meals, shopping, bills, and sleep. 

I am happily married to a newly retired husband. The silent time I used to enjoy is now filled with another body. Fortunately he understands my need for quiet space to write. And I take that space. Not all are as fortunate, especially with demanding jobs or young children. Family cooperation can be a premium achievement. I get it.

What do you do? You have to stand up and demand the time for your. Your writing is important. Whether you take 30 minutes or three hours, what you need should be recognized even compromised for your health and happiness. Perhaps you can take the time at lunch, before bed, after supper. (I do some best work in the shower or in the tub. haha)

Whatever you do, do it because you want it and help your significant others (family and bosses) to  understand your needs. Then discard the guilt and work your muse. Let the words flow. It may take some extra effort but isn’t the joy worth it?

My NaNo count for the last five days is: 12,173. When the minimum is 1667 a day, that puts me 3,838 words ahead, and that’s more than a two day cushion. Cushions are good, like emergency funds in the bank. In the event of unforeseen circumstances (family emergency, sickness- me or others) I have some extra to help tide me over. And if nothing extraordinary happens, then I will finish early.

Confession. I’ve veered off outline. Yes, I’m a plotter. This is meant to be the bones of my sequel to Time and Blood, so I’m trying to get all my ideas down on paper. It will be an editing monster later but the important ideas will be on paper. Still, twice I’ve drifted away from my outline and had fun doing it. I’m just letting myself go where the characters want to go. Swallow your editor and give yourself permission to have fun. Word count is the goal. Content will be massaged later.

How do you measure success during NaNo? For me, success is butt-in-chair everyday with writing. Success is meeting your word goal but success is also not measured by numbers but in personal growth. Are you doing more than you used to do? Did you do more than yesterday? Are you more focused? Success may be in the self-discovery. Allow yourself to realize personal success not just a happy word goal.

Tell me how you are doing and how you are managing your time. I’d love to hear from you. I’d like to know, How Do YOU Measure Success (and when)?

Next week, let’s talk about getting tired and frustrated and how you can push through it.

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What’s next? I’m appearing at Authors Invade Columbia this Saturday Nov 11, in Columbia, SC, 10 am – 3pm. Come out to see us if you are close. It would be delightful to meet you.

Until we meet again,
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry

Happy Halloween Eve! Are you ready for the boo-tiful ghosts and goblins to visit? Have you prepared so not to anger the spirits? Ha! I’m stocked with chocolate and ready to watch scary movies, eat pumpkin pie and gorge on Hershey bars. My inner kid is looking forward to The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and then some delicious version of Dracula.

My childhood memories are so tender and precious about Halloween. I looked forward to the changing leaves (in Illinois) and the cooler nights. We dressed warmly under our costumes and dashed out in the twilight to threaten our neighbors into surrendering their candy. “Trick or Treat, smell my feet, gimme something good to eat!”  (The implied threat was if you don’t, we’ll be mean to you.) Then the neighbors would either recoil in mock fear and pass out candy OR first insist that we perform a trick, which meant do a dance, sing a song, tell a joke or some such thing, and then handed over the candy. How we lived for this one night of uninhibited wild joy. We could be anyone and anything we wished.

And when the night was over and we’d robbed  visited every house, we gathered at my house (or someone’s) where parents watched us dump our haul and trade as parental watchful eyes looked out for anything strange in our goodies. 

I miss those days when we could play in masks without drug dealers, pedophiles, drive by shootings or kidnappings, gang’s on corners or any fear whatsoever other than would we miss out on the best candy at Mrs-so and so’s house. 

But I still enjoy the holiday and I decorate and remember, share little goodies with friends and act just as crazy this time of year as convention will allow. I am, after all, a Halloween lover and I think it influenced my stories and books. And speaking of books…..

So now to your treats! On my monthly live Facebook chat Oct 28, I reminded watchers of some upcoming events. First, my vampire poetry, By Light Betrayed, is on the last days of its sale. You can get this in ebook for 99 CENTS! And the book has color photography. On Nov 1, the ebook returns to $3.99 and will NEVER EVER go on sale again. So now is the time. My treat to you.

Next, my new book, Time and Blood is available to pre-order. This is the first book in my new paranormal romance series, Evening Bower.  The prequel was The Gypsy Thorn and sets up the events in the new book. You can pre-order TIME AND BLOOD and be sure of the sale price of 99 cents.

And here’s my treat — the first five people who comment (with more than just a hi) can receive A FREE Time and Blood ebook!!!!!  But you have to comment today, Oct 30!

I also promised some drink recipes. So let the spirits soar!  Here you go:

**Vampire’s Kiss (a personal favorite)**

3 oz Cranberry juice (unsweetened)
2 oz. Chambord
2 oz Raspberry Vodka (Cherry works too)

Shake gently, add a couple ice cubes and pour into a martini glass.

 **Dracula’s Brew (men like this one especially)**

 2 oz Applejack
1 oz fresh lime juice
1/2 oz red grenadine syrup

Combine in a shaker, add ice, shake, pour!

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Books! During my chat I mentioned some good Halloween reference books for authors looking for references of extra, unique info. Here are four links.

The Deluxe Transitive Vampire.  Gypsy Magic.  Wicked Plants.  Tarot for Writers.

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There you have it. FREE ebooks! Great drinks. Cool books to add to your library.  And More ——

AUTHOR SIGNING:  I will be in Columbia, SC for Authors Invade Columbia book event/signing on Nov 11. COME OUT/COME DOWN. I’m looking forward to seeing you. Tickets are $12 but I may be able to get a free couple tickets if you comment and tell me you’re coming and you need one. Do it FAST.

AUTHOR RADIO Appearance! I’ll be on Yvonne Mason’s OFF THE CHAIN blogtalk radio on Nov 2 at 8pm. Tune in for the hour as I talk with Yvonne about the new book, the prequel, and anything else that makes us laugh or strikes our fancy. She is the best and you’ll love listening to her. Call in to ask questions too!

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Don’t forget, November is National Novel Writing Month – if you want to follow along with me, I will be reporting my DAILY progress on my Facebook Author page. And I will give you my weekly progress here on the blog, every Monday. Or buddy up with me on the website and I’m poetphoenix. I hope you’ll join me on this adventure in writing.

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Now, go out and enjoy the Halloween season. Listen to the leaves as they whisper the secrets of Autumn. Listen as the wind whispers to the trees. Let your inner child laugh and play. 

Happy Halloween, readers. I’m blowing candy kisses!
I remain, Yours Between the Lines,
Sherry