#InkRipples~ Genres ~ FANTASY

Sorry for the delay in getting this week's blog up, but if I'd been thinking about it, this would have been perfect last week when I talked about mysteries. Just look at the suspense I've been building while you wait for me to post this week's thoughts!!

This week I'm talking fantasy.

Magic. Fantastical creatures. Sword and sorcery. All of these elements are things you'd find in a fantasy. Can there be romance? Of course! Mystery? Certainly. But, like in romances and mysteries, these are not the main plot of the story. They are sub plots.

For me, if the story's focus is the magic, or the quest for fantastic beasts or amulets, or trying to stop an evil wizard from ruling the world, the book is a fantasy. And while many fantasies have romantic elements, not all romance readers like the world building that is found in a fantasy.

So, what does this tell us about genres? 

• Often books have elements of more than one genre.
• There are great disagreements about how to classify the genre of a book. 

So what's an author/reader to do?

If you're an author, know your target audience and craft your book blurb to entice them to read your book. Don't get so hung up on the genre, but don't mislead readers by labeling your book something it might not really be. (ie: a romance when there's barely any romantic plot line, but there's a guy and girl, and they kiss...you get the idea.)

And if you're a reader, look at the covers. Does it match others in the genre you're looking for? (If you want a mystery and the cover shows a couple embracing, that could be a sign that this might not be the book you are looking for.) Also, does the book blurb set up the type of story you're looking for? 

In the end, sometimes it's worth it to take a gamble with something new. After all, you might find a new favorite author or a new audience.
Hope you've enjoyed my thoughts on genre and that you'll come back next week when I share a few of my favorite tropes.

In the meantime, I'd love to hear some of your preferred genres to read, so leave me a comment!

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #InkRipples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

This year's topics are:

March: Tropes
April: Revision
May: Fairy Tales
June: Blurbs
July: Heroes/Villains
August: Author Options in Publishing
September: World Building
October: Career vs Hobby
November: Finishing that Book!
December: Goals

#InkRipples Genres- MYSTERY

This month #InkRipples is focusing on genre, and today I will be taking a look at mystery.

To me, mystery is one of the easier genres to identify. Does your main story line center around answering "Who done it?" Then you've got yourself a mystery.

Like romance, mystery has several sub genres including:

• Cozy
• Police Procedural
• Suspense
• Noir
• Legal Thriller
• Medical Thriller

There can be romance in a mystery, but it isn't the driving plot of the story. Take cozy mysteries for example. The ones I've read have been a series where the heroine has a normal day job (baker, teacher, librarian, etc.) and stumbles across a murder that she helps the hero, usually a detective, solve. The heroine usually belongs to some kind of club (knitting, book, etc.) that is involved in helping to solve the mystery. During the course of the books, the heroine and hero develop a relationship. So, while there is romance, the main point of the story is to solve the murder, making this a mystery and not a romance.

All that being said, it doesn't mean a reader of romance wouldn't enjoy a cozy mystery (or any other mystery for that matter), but you don't want to mislead your reader into thinking they are getting a romance when, to them, it might not be.

What are your favorite types of mysteries? Who are some of your favorite mystery authors? Share in the comments below!

Next week we'll wrap things up with a look at Fantasy.

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #InkRipples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

This year's topics are:

• February: Genres
• March: Tropes
• April: Revision
• May: Fairy Tales
• June: Blurbs
• July: Heroes/Villains
• August: Author Options in Publishing
• September: World Building
• October: Career vs Hobby
• November: Finishing that Book!
• December: Goals

#InkRipples~Genres~ ROMANCE

Welcome back to another week of #InkRipples. This month, we’re talking genres, and with Valentine’s Day tomorrow, what better genre to start with than Romance?

When you pick up a romance novel, you know that when you get to the end of the book, no matter what challenges the couple faces throughout the story, that they will end up together (at least for now.) Romances are all about the relationship. Even the sub genres, and there are many, have the relationship as the main plot line.

Romantic mystery, romantic suspense, romantic intrigue, contemporary romance, historical romance are all sub genres of the romance category. The key is that first word—

Sure, there could be a mystery to solve, a plot to foil, a king to save, or a store to open, but those all take a back seat to the relationship building between the two main characters. If the relationship is not the main story line, then it isn’t actually a romance…even if there is a relationship component to the story.

Nora Roberts is a romance author, but her books written as JD Robb, while they contain relationship components you would find in a romance, are not romances. They are actually suspense, or if you want to put in a sub genre, suspense romance (notice that romance is now the second word, meaning the suspense part takes the main storyline.)

This is how I knew that The Boyfriend Project was a romance, and that Faery Marked belonged in fantasy. Both contain romantic story lines, but the main story line in Faery Marked wasn’t the relationship, it was magic and the Faery realm. 

What are your thoughts? Is this too simple a way to look at genre? Share in the comments below. 

Be sure to stop back next week for a look at what makes a book a mystery.

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #InkRipples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

This year's topics are:

February: Genres
March: Tropes
April: Revision
May: Fairy Tales
June: Blurbs
July: Heroes/Villains
August: Author Options in Publishing
September: World Building
October: Career vs Hobby
November: Finishing that Book!
December: Goals

GHOST TOUCH Exclusive!!

Today is a special day on the blog. I have been asked to host an exclusive, sneak peek at the new cover for LA Dragoni's Ghost Touch. 

If you love romance, especially with a ghostly paranormal bent, then this is the book for you. Scroll on past the curtain for the gorgeous cover and an excerpt to whet your appetite for more!!

For fifteen minutes each night a portal opens in Tamara’s barn and a horde of ghosts spills into her yard. She and Dex work together to find a way to help Cal and the thousands of spirits stuck in the void to cross over. When she learns she has the ghost touch—the ability to touch the ghosts as if they were corporeal—and she accidentally helps a little boy cross, she believes it might be possible. But not all the spirits play nice and when they learn they can sip energy from her ghost touch, they become greedy putting her life at risk.

Each time Cal has to pull her from the mass of ghosts, her touch restores him more and more until he is at danger of being stuck on earth—forever, which is very enticing to Tamara the better she knows him. Will she and Dex figure out how to help the spirits cross and if they do, will she be able to let Cal go?

This new adult paranormal romance is available in ebook, and audiobook from Amazon, and now available in print!

Also available on Barnes and Noble, Kobo, iTunes, and other e-tailers.

Excerpt:

      The newest face in Tamara’s latest nightmare was about to be revealed when a loud SLAM woke her. Still anxious from the events of the night before, Tamara had slept lightly all night. She pulled the shotgun from where she’d tucked it under her bed, slipped into a pair of sneakers and headed out to the barn. The hairs on the back of her neck rose when she found Ruff cowering and whimpering in front of the doors where he’d sat menacingly the night before. She hesitated as she drew up next to him. A faint blue light seeped through the crack between the large doors. There were no windows on the front of the building, so there was no way she could know who was in there or where they were. Even though it would be embarrassing, she decided to call the police again.
     As she turned toward the house, the large barn doors swung open. Her heart kicked into high gear. She leveled the shotgun, pointing it straight at the doors as they glided open on their own accord, hoping the sight of the gun would be enough to scare the intruder away.
     An unnatural blue-white light spilled outward, making her squint. Blinding bright in the center, it faded to murky shadows in the corners. Tamara’s heart all but stopped when shapes developed within the bright center. A crowd of people surged forward, scattering in all directions across her yard.
     There were so many. Panic filled Tamara while she tried to figure out what to do, how to defend herself against so many. Who were all these people? Why had they been in her barn? Why is that man digging?
     “Hey, stop!” she yelled.
     A woman in a torn red dress stumbled up the hill reminding Tamara of herself in last night’s dream. The woman’s long blond hair streamed behind her in the windless night. She continually glanced over her shoulder, a terrified expression gnarling her beautiful face, though no one pursued her.
    Then a single man sauntered forward, his attention intent on Tamara. The bright light behind him made it impossible for her to make out any detail, but his manner seemed equal parts commanding and relaxed. Her heart fluttered madly, and she felt the muzzle of the rifle dip toward the ground as she considered fleeing. A flat, wide-brimmed cowboy hat sat straight on his head. Well-worn leather chaps covered his bowed legs. Strange clicking noises accompanied him across the lawn. As he drew closer his image sharpened. When Tamara saw his face, she lowered the gun barrel. “Sheesh, I am dreaming.”
     She looked into the skinless face of her latest nightmare.
     “Ma’am, I can assure you, this is no dream.”

Reviews:

LA Dragoni weaves several interesting and unique premises about the afterlife into this story -- and the love triangle is only two parts living! The story has eerie, vivid descriptions of the ghosts, and the emotional turmoil of all three of the main characters is very well defined. Dragoni provides an awesome villain to hate and then masterfully manages to change the reader's opinion of the villain.

There are several twists and surprises in the plot, and the ending is satisfying but absolutely leaves questions that hopefully will be answered in a subsequent novel.

-Hall Ways blog

About the author: LA Dragoni isn’t too particular about who falls in love or where they fall in love. She simply considers it her job to capture the story about their love. Whether it’s paranormal, mythical, or time travel, LA will be there to divine their story for you. She lives in Central Oregon with her husband and children, but haunts ghost towns and cemeteries up and down the west, in search of the next adventure to sift through her storytelling brain. Follow LA on Facebook and Twitter. Subscribe to her mailing list and learn more about LA and her work at www.ladragoni.com

#InkRipples~Genres

This month #InkRipples is tackling the topic of genres. After an author has written their novel, they need to decide what genre it belongs in.

Sometimes choosing the correct genre can seem confusing, especially if the story contains elements from more than one genre. Let’s take a look at the genre possibilities.

According to Wikipedia, the main classical genres of writing are:

• Fiction
• Comedy
• Drama
• Horror
• Non-fiction
• Realistic fiction
• Romance 
• Satire
• Tragedy
• Tragicomedy
• Fantasy

That’s quite a list!

My writing and reading preferences tend to fall into three genres. They are:

• Romance
• Mystery
• Fantasy

So, how do I know where my story belongs? Throughout the month, we’ll take a look at these three genres to see why a story belongs there. Come join me next week for a look at romance!!

Don't forget to check out Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand and the other #InkRipples posters (follow the tag on Twitter and Facebook!) Want to join in? Keep reading for more information.

Ripples in the Inkwell is a themed meme hosted by Katie L. Carroll, Kai Strand, and me, Mary Waibel. We post on the first Monday of every month. If you would like to participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, include any of the images displayed on the #InkRipples tab above, and link back to our three blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #InkRipples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

This year's topics are:

February: Genres
March: Tropes
April: Revision
May: Fairy Tales
June: Blurbs
July: Heroes/Villains
August: Author Options in Publishing
September: World Building
October: Career vs Hobby
November: Finishing that Book!
December: Goals