Sheila's Guests and Reviews

Today I'm delighted to welcome Dan Jolley, author of Gray Widow's Walk, to my blog. He's known for comic books, video-games and more, and Gray Widow sounds like the perfect blend of superhero and haunting protagonist... or cross-genre, horror, scifi, cool, intriguing... Yeah, so what genre is it really, Dan? THE CROSS-GENRE QUESTION Dan Jolley I knew, when Stephen Zimmer at Seventh Star Press agreed to publish my new novel, Gray Widow’s Walk , that categorizing it might present a problem. People, humans in general, love to categorize things—animals, plants, food, cars, each other, themselves. One of the things I learned when I took a class on horror movies in college was that, when something crosses from one category into another, it makes people uncomfortable. That’s just a built-in psychological feature of most sentient minds. Zombies: are they alive or dead? That freaks me out! Werewolves: are they human or animals? I’m scared! (I’m afraid that that...

People ask me what sort of book I like and I say "all sorts." They ask my favorite genre and I say I have too many to mentioned. And they ask what genre I write in... which leaves me wondering how on earth to answer them. I write children's Bible stories, spiritual speculative fantasies, contemporary dramas... but presumably not all at once. And today's guest, author Tricia Stewart Shiu, writes... well, perhaps I'll let her tell you. I saw her latest book, Iron Shinto, advertized with the phrase, "If you liked a wrinkle in time..." and I was hooked.   “If You Liked A Wrinkle In Time…”   Choosing a Genre for Your Book Guest Blog Post by Tricia Stewart Shiu Author ‘Iron Shinto’ You’ve heard the saying: “It isn’t the heat, it’s the humidity.” Well, in publishing, the saying goes:   “it isn’t the genre, it’s the options.” After self-publishing your book one of the first decision with which you are faced, is choosing your audie...

I got in trouble with a reviewer once for describing a new adult book as young adult . (Don't miss Alexandra Lanc's visit to my blog next month where she explains the difference.) Another time I reviewed a children's adventure that was really young adult. Then there are mysteries that are actually horror, romances that read more like drama, Christian fiction with more of a vaguely spiritual fantasy feel. (Don't forget edgy Christian fiction too). A friend wanted to write a query letter and asked me what genre I'd put her novel in. Luckily she also asked lots of other people and did some great research on the internet. After all my reviewing, I'm really not sure I could have helped her. If a novel includes people falling in love, does that make it a romance? (Troy and Lydia fall in love in Divide by Zero , but there's lots more going on.) If somebody dies and the cops are involved, does that make it police procedural? (They're only minimally involv...