I have this one small problem with my novels, and that is in labeling the genre. It ends up being a long string of explanatory notes, because I love mixing up genre. For instance, my Cyberdawn series (5 books) is at its base cyberpunk because this is the start of the cyber age, but the reason for that start has to do with a plot involving supernatural creatures, magic, fantasy elements, and a conspiracy that predates biblical times. In fact the story kicks off when a priest finishes translating some ancient texts to discover that the book of Revelations is actually a warning about some creatures who once tried to destroy and Earth and will someday return, then detailing how to stop them. Of course the details have all been lost due to time but mostly to these same supernatural conspirators messing things up. So we have cyberpunk + dark fantasy + biblical conspiracy and maybe a hint of some Cthuhlu elements.

Then there is my big “Maldene’ series of 13 books. On the surface just straight up magical fantasy, which in itself isn’tas simple to categorize anymore, what with the plethora of sub-genre. Is it High Fantasy, Heroic fantasy, Epic Fanmtasy, magical realism? Well, yes to all, but as the series progresses there are definite Sci-Fi elements to the story that upon a careful re-reading of the earlier books will show that they’ve been there all along. A mix of the two, actually, in that even the SF elements have magical overtones to them, but then behind it all is still a sort of consistent scientific logic. Then throw in the later traveling to other worlds and dimensions, the battles starting around book 10 where the spaceships have mixed combinations of science and magic and a few other things, and well…

I guess that would be my problem, as well as my strength. Growing up a lover of both Fantasy and SF, I love to mix them together and come up with something of a unique flavor. In fact one of my goals at one point was to confuse the heck out of the guy at the local book store in charge of shelving the new books: would he put one under the Fantasy section or the Sci-Fi section? Or perhaps some lonely middle-ground shelving space.

Then there’s this: when applying to a literary agent and the field in the form asking what genre the book is written in. Ah the problems of being more creative than the form field.