Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway? Part 3

Book Marketing, Contemporary Fantasy, contemporary fantasy books, Modern Fantasy, modern fantasy books, Promoting your writing, The Authorial Process, The Lords of Oblivion, The Lords of Powder, Urban Fantasy, urban fantasy books 2 Minutes

Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway?

Part 3 – The Paranormal Problem

woman-2378832_1280.jpg

This is the third of a five part series about authors navigating fantasy’s many overlapping subgenres (please also see  Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway? Part 1   Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway? Part 2 ).

Given the prevalence of paranormal fantasy novels, authors writing any other type of fantasy set in the present day may be prone to misclassification as paranormal – even if their work doesn’t contain motifs from this subgenre and wasn’t intended for this audience. At the risk of being provocative, paranormal has almost become the default category for modern fantasy unless a given work clearly signals that it doesn’t belong to this subgenre.

Though certainly not all paranormal fantasy is set in the present-day, a lot is. Setting is a hallmark distinguishing fantasy subgenres from one another, so if your fantasy story occurs in modern times, potential readers cruising for a fantasy may assume that your work is a paranormal novel.

Conspicuous romance is another key characteristic of paranormal fantasy, so if your novel combines enchantment and even a trace of romantic frisson (e.g. my fantasy  https://amzn.to/2GwLDje  ), it may resemble paranormal to the cursory inspection. And not only humans are confused; recommendation algorithms on platforms selling books (e.g. Amazon) may also display your work alongside paranormal stuff.

To be clear, paranormal is a perfectly respectable space within the broader fantasy genre. In fact, depending on whose numbers you believe, paranormal is either the most popular or a close second to high/epic fantasy, another widely read fantasy subcategory. And it’s easy to understand paranormal’s popularity given its blend of romance and fantasy tropes. The protagonists have magical powers or are otherwise special in an otherworldly sort of way. Romance with various erotic shadings is central to plot and characterization. This legitimately appeals to readers who may feel a paucity of sensuality, magic or, in fact, anything special in their quotidian existence. Really, what’s not to like about escaping to a story populated by sexy vampires lusting after hunky werewolves amidst darkened landscapes with the occasional citizen of Faerie thrown in for good measure?

However, paranormal’s appeal represents a challenge for fantasy authors using a modern, perhaps urban, setting for their novels, but who don’t otherwise adhere slavishly to paranormal’s strictures. In this case, getting lumped in with paranormal isn’t necessarily desirable because: 1) readers who don’t want paranormal will skip your book; 2) readers who do want paranormal will feel deceived if they buy your book and don’t get their preferred story type. So it behooves fantasy writers to be as clear as possible about what they are…and what they are not.

Or should they?

(see Part 4 of this series)

(The wonderful image is by Wolfgang Kckert from Pixabay)

Published by Peter Blaisdell

I write modern fantasy novels that are hopefully both exciting and literate. These novels include an on-going series about a near-immortal magician who grew up in Camelot and grew famous in San Francisco's 'Summer of Love'. He's still having adventures to this day described in The Lords of the Summer Season, The Lords of Powder, and The Lords of Oblivion. The books can be read in any order. As author S Alessandro Martinez has stated about the series: "Lords of Oblivion A 1500-year-old wizard. A pair of savage druids raised from the dead. Modern day San Francisco. A wolf that takes no gruff. Blaisdell creates a fascinating world in this magical realism novel with smart writing, complex characters, and clever use of history and mythology. I was sucked in from the very beginning. I look forward to more of Bradan and Tintagel's mystical adventures. Lords of Powder Merlin's former apprentice, Bradan, is back! The 1500-year-old wizard, who is sometimes too smart for his own good, returns for another exciting adventure, this time in 70s Miami as he takes on the criminal world of drug trafficking. Blaisdell's smart, fast-paced writing and use of fascinating history and mythology keeps you on the edge of your seat as Bradan uses his wits, charm, and illusions to navigate the modern era and get himself into plenty of trouble. Lords of the Summer Season Being Merlin's former apprentice and living for 1500 years is bound to make you a few enemies. Travel back to the 60s with Bradan the wizard and his otherworldly wolf Tintagel. As Bradan juggles careers as a professor and musician, he must defend himself from his greatest threat yet: a literal god. Blaisdell continues with his clever, skillful, and imaginative writing that will keep readers eagerly turning the next page. My favorite of the Bradan books, Blaisdell dives deeper into the Arthur mythology, and brings the reader even more elements of magic and folklore, all the while weaving an entertaining tale of gods, wizards, ghosts, and 60s acid rock. Thoroughly enjoyable!" Besides the literary side of my life, my background includes membership on a scientific advisory board for a non-profit professional organization promoting the biomedical and digital health business community in the greater Los Angeles area. I’ve authored both basic research publications and business management articles focusing on the bio/pharma industry. My Ph.D. is in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota where I also conducted post-doctoral research in microbiology. And my BS is from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) with a double major in chemistry and cell biology.

Published

One thought on “Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway? Part 3”

  1. Pingback: Whose Fantasy Is This Anyway? Part 4 – Blaisdell Literary Enterprises

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s