Publishers, reviewers, and readers all want to know what Genre and which sub-Genre a book is. And I suppose that is understandable. Some people prefer Cozy Mysteries to Hard Boiled Detective stories. And others will read Romantic Fantasies but not Science Fiction Adventure.
So, the question naturally arose when Woodbridge agreed to publish Bloodstone Redemption. What Genre is it? I understood, I had asked myself the same question while I was pounding away with four fingers and a thimb on my keyboard. “Well,” I told myself, “It must be Fantasy because it involves magic. But it includes Horror elements. Heart rippings count as Horror, don’t they?” Then the further I got in, the more unsure I was. “What the Heck AM I writing?”
When I got really confused. I did a web search and found out that there are anywhere between 7 and 70 sub-Genres of Fantasy.
The nice people at Woodbridge tried to clear it up for me. “It is a Genre defying Dark Fantasy.” they said. Which didn’t really clear the waters for me at all.
Then came reviews and articles that included terms like “#PortalFantasy,” “#DominationFantasy,” “#MatureFantasy,” and even “#AntagonistStory.” All with the requisite hashtags before them. (Not that long ago it was know as “the pound sign” and Hash was something that went well with eggs-over-easy for breakfast.)
Anyway, I can understand where they are coming from. We all seem to be enamored of Labels these days. (That’s one Societal Shortcoming that I did not take on in the book.)
But in their hurry to label my work, everyone overlooked the real driving force behind what I wrote… the desire to turn one of the most ubiquitous fiction tropes on it’s head. It is a plot angle that is basic to more stories in books, movies, and TV that anyone could ever count. I think Arthur C. Clark said it best, “Any suficently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” We’ve all seen it, natives who are awed by matches or cigarete lighters. And the best of all is a gun. (Ash Williams holding his shotgun over his head and yelling, “Listen up you primitive screwheads. This is my BOOMSTICK!” is the perfect example.)
So, there I am one day, driving the John Deere around and mowing the lawn when I have an inspiration. “What if a Mage came to our world. Would we believe what he did was magic? Or would we suspect it was all some sort of advanced technology?”
And thus Bloodstone Redemption was born. The Portal Fantasy was just the means to get him to a new world. The Domination Fantasy was just how I decided to exibit his superior-to-tech magic power, ditto the Antagonist stuff. (I’ll admit to the Mature and the Dark because… well, heart ripping and daemons and murder and societal manipulation are all pretty dark “Adult Stuff.” Or, they should be.)
Anyway, what that all comes down to is… “Is Bloodstone Redenption a Fantasy Book or is it a Science Fiction story in disguise?” What do you think?