IWSG: A New Genre?

Where did the first half of 2025 go? Time just seems to pass faster and faster as I get older, especially since I have so many projects to juggle. I'm pleased to report that I'm over halfway to my Goodreads reading goal for this year (100 books, which may sound like a lot, but I've read 200 in previous years). I may wait until December to discuss what I've read, though.

 Anyway, this post is for the Insecure Writer's Support Group, where we support other writers. Learn more about the IWSG on their website and Facebook page.

 Our hosts this month are Rebecca Douglass, Natalie Aguirre, Cathrina Constantine, and Louise Barbour. 

Here's our question for July: Is there a genre you haven't tried writing in yet that you really want to try? If so, do you plan on trying it?

I've switched genres quite a bit for a writer: my work includes fantasy, science fiction, solarpunk (which should probably be considered a subgenre of science fiction), and paranormal cozy mystery. All of these genres have a speculative element, which is what most strongly appeals to me. However, the top genre for readers is romance. This genre doesn't resonate with me so much because I'm demisexual. (I don't experience primary sexual attraction; I like to think of it as falling in love with someone from the inside out. For me, many romances focus mostly on the hero's physical qualities but don't give him the intelligence and humor that personally appeal to me.) Of course I have characters who fall in love with each other, and their relationships are often part of a secondary plot. But I've never tried to write a pure romance story before....

Until this year. 

One of my projects is a Good Omens alternate universe fanfic which imagines the characters as middle-aged women. One's a harper, the other's a singer, and they meet when they're asked to accompany each other at a wedding. It's coming along slowly because I'm switching among multiple projects, not all of which are writing. I have a book about how to write romance that outlines the story beats readers expect so I can figure out plot points. This story is only a few thousands words along so far, so I'm still getting to know the characters and figuring out what happens to them after the wedding. There's still a lot I have to consider for this story, and I may have someone else beta read it when I finally finish the draft. Please wish me luck, because I'm sure I'll need it!

 Have you experimented with new genres before? If so, please feel free to share how it went in the comments.

IWSG: Writing Plans for 2025

Happy 2025, everyone! This will be a significant year for our family, as my son turns eighteen and will start college in the fall. (We're already empty nesters with him spending his senior year of high school at a boarding school, but the dynamic will be different.) It will also be our twentieth wedding anniversary in September. Here's hoping that the new year brings something good for all of us.

Anyway, this is the first Wednesday of January, so it's time for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about them on their website and Facebook page.

Our hosts this month are Rebecca Douglass, Beth Camp, Liza at Middle Passages, and Natalie at Literary Rambles.

I'm going to skip the optional question this month and instead talk briefly about my writing plans for this year. A lot of them involve revisiting half-finished projects and trying to finish them. There are three short stories set in the current world I'm working in (one is actually in progress at the moment, while the other two are still on the back burner), along with two partially written novels (one fantasy, one a cozy mystery). As if that's not enough, I also want to write a novella or novel in a genre I haven't written before (romantic fantasy). I have a feeling I would learn a lot from that one. I still need to prioritize these projects, but even if I only finish two or three of them, it'll be a good feeling to get them off of my plate.

What are your writing plans for the year? Feel free to share them in the comments.
 

IWSG: Who Do You Write For?

How is it August already? It feels like July just started, but I've already started preparing for my son's return to school. (Of course, I normally start preparing for that as soon as school lets out.) Anyway, it's also time to prepare for another Insecure Writer's Support Group post. Learn more about the IWSG on their website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Our co-hosts this month are Tara Tyler, Lisa Buie Collard, Loni Townsend, and Lee Lowery!

 

Here's our question for August: When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want?

I have to be honest: part of the reason I write is because I can't always find the stories I want to read. The tropes that appeal to many readers don't always appeal to me. (For example, I personally don't care about physically attractive romantic interests who are controlling jerks. Once they make a poor first impression on me, they have a hard time winning me over. I prefer more equal relationships where the two people engage in banter.) However, I think whenever you write in a particular genre, you do need to meet certain criteria if you want to avoid reader rejection. For example, romances require a Happily Ever After or at least a Happy For Now ending. Genres like fantasy and science fiction certainly have their share of tropes, but originality has a place there. For example, the growing interest in genres like hopepunk and solarpunk show that many people are looking for stories that offer solutions to the problem of climate change, even if these solutions require changes in our way of thinking. Cozy mysteries do seem to have a more defined set of reader expectations: it's not just the mystery aspect, but there are also certain conventions about the setting, characters, and implied lifestyle that readers expect. I am trying to adhere a bit closer to genre conventions with my cozy mystery, but there are places within those parameters that offer me a chance to tell my version of these stories.

In general, I think most readers want to read the same types of stories many times. (I'm going through a similar phase in that I want to read cozy mysteries more than anything else.) They can offer comfort and predictability in an uncomfortable and unpredictable world. However, it takes something original to deal with an unpredictable world, and we all need to shake up our routines occasionally to change up our thinking. There's a need for writing original works and also for those that meet reader desires. Whenever someone offers you a dichotomy, seek a balanced, third way instead.

Where do you stand on the spectrum? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.
 

Semiannual Reading Update

I usually post a semiannual reading update at the end of June, but I'll post it a little early this year so I can talk about writing next week. I track all books I finish in all formats. My challenge this year is to read 150 books, which is about what I read last year. With 82 books under my belt, I'm well ahead of schedule. (I tend to lose ground during the summer, so it's good I'm ahead for now.) How do I read so much? I make time for it, and I replace other activities (like watching TV) with reading. Cozy mysteries, my favorite genre lately, can be short and fast-paced, so some of them only take two or three hours to read. 

Here's the genre breakdown:

Fantasy: 10

Science Fiction: 4

Cozy Mysteries: 48

Other Fiction: 5

Non-Fiction: 15

Many of the mysteries I read have a paranormal element, but I count them as mystery instead of fantasy.

Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Meet Me in Another Life

The Dawn of Everything

A Spindle Splintered

The Forgotten Beasts of Eld (a reread)

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics

 What are your favorite books so far this year?

2021 in Review: Reading

There are still a couple more days left in 2021, but it's time for my semiannual reading review. This is based on the tracking I do through Goodreads. I'm not always good about tracking the date I start a book (since I then have to delete it from my Goodreads if I decide I don't want to finish it), but the end dates are more accurate. 

My goal for this year was 150 books. Unlike previous years, I had no trouble reaching my goal. As of 12/26 (the day I'm writing this post), I've read 157. This doesn't include the multiple re-reads of Murder at Magic Lake that I do as part of revising and editing books before publication. There will probably be another couple of books added to this total before Friday. The average book was about 257 pages, with the shortest being 64 pages and the longest 776 pages. (It was an anthology of cozy mystery novels.) Here's the breakdown by genre:

Fantasy: 24

Science Fiction: 19

Mystery (includes regular and traditional): 86

Other Fiction: 6

Non-Fiction: 22

Mysteries have taken over from fantasy as my comfort reading, but since I'm also writing it now, I need to continue learning about the genre. The other genres haven't changed much, though I suppose I should read more non-fiction, especially books on writing and publishing. Other than reading at least one diversity read a month, I don't have many set goals for the type of books I read. (It's typically whatever I'm in the mood for at the moment.)

About thirty-eight books were paper books checked out from the library; however, I also borrowed a lot of Ebooks. I did read one paper book from my To-Be-Read stack, but that didn't make much of a dent. 

I will probably set my 2022 reading goal for another 150 books. Do you set reading goals for yourself? If so, feel free to share them in the comments.

Cozy Fantasies and Cozy Mysteries

If you've been following my blog for a while, you may have noticed that although my prime reading/writing genre for a long time was fantasy, lately I've been reading and writing more cozy mysteries than anything else. A lot of it has to do with the "cozy" part. In these unsettling times, the main emotion I want to experience in my reading is comfort; warm things like books, tea, food, and crafts; and a sense of community. However, I've been drawn to comfort/cozy books for a long time. One of my first favorite fantasy series was Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series. For a fantasy world, Haven felt like a very comfortable place, with creature comforts like heated baths being readily available. Some of M.C.A Hogarth's Pelted Alliance books also feature comfortable settings, but some of them go to surprisingly dark places. Then there's hopepunk like Susan Kaye Quinn's When You Had Power. I recently read Becky Chamber's A Psalm for the Wild-Built and found it as comforting as a cup of tea. Both of these books are science fiction. It seems like this trend may transcend genres, though there are many genres incompatible with coziness.

Do you like cozy settings, or do you prefer other genres? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

The Three Stories Within a Mystery

One of the online courses I took about writing cozy mysteries talked about the three stories within a mystery: the story of the crime (how it happened and the backstory), the story of discovery (how the detective figures out what happened), and the prevailing circumstances (the environment in which the story takes place, such as a special event or location). I lump any side-plots, such as the detective's personal problems, into the prevailing circumstances. What I've noticed is that I find some stories, such as the prevailing circumstances, easier to plot (or pants, since I tend to be more of a pantser than a plotter) than the crime story or discovery story. I can actually work out the story of the crime in advance, but plotting the discovery story feels less natural to me. For me, it seems that a lot of the clues my detective has to discover depend on context, which I often don't know until I'm writing it. It's probably due to a combination of me being a pantser and my inexperience with this genre.

Can you think of any other genre that depends on weaving different types of stories together? If so, feel free to discuss it in the comments.

The Catalyst Chronicles Series

 After discussing all the projects I had in various stages of writing, revising, or submitting, I couldn't help thinking of one project that's been on the back burner for a long time: the science fiction Catalyst Chronicles series. Currently published are the novella Lyon's Legacy, a short story called "The Mommy Clone," the novel Twinned Universes, and a pair of short stories published under the title "Seasonal Stories from the Sagan." 

I had planned to write another short story set after Twinned Universes. This short story is tentatively titled "The Unnumbered World" and would focus on a secondary character adapting to events. Coming after that story would be a novel I tentatively call Catalyst in the Crucible, which would be set a few years after "The Unnumbered World" and be a followup to Twinned Universes. 

Although I have partial drafts of both stories, I've been stuck on how to complete them (or how to get through the middle to reach the end). Also, although Lyon's Legacy and Twinned Universes involved time travel, Catalyst in the Crucible won't. A traditional publisher would have a fit if I switched subgenres in the middle of a series, and I'm not sure how marketing this series myself would work. I'd have to hope my readers like the characters as much as I do.

It would be a shame to abandon the Catalyst Chronicles characters completely, but it is difficult juggling multiple projects. Fortunately, I finished the rough draft of a short story last week, and I have to submit to a contest by April 12th. Once that's done, I want to focus on my Season Avatars short story collection and my new cozy mystery series for a while. However, if I get stuck on them, it might be time to revisit some older projects. Ultimately, I need to focus on spending more time on my current and past project before chasing new ones.

Do you have stories that you don't want to trunk but you don't know how to finish? Feel free to discuss them in the comments.

2020 in Review: Reading

Welcome to the last post of 2021, a year that most of us probably can't wait to end. Here's hoping we'll all be doing better by this time next year. 

At the end of every year, I like to look back at the books I've read. Here's my list on Goodreads. I track only books I finish, not those I start. (This is why I don't always record the date I start a book, but I am better at recording when I finish.) Goodreads counts everything from short stories to multi-volume sets as a single book, so I do my best to track my reading accordingly. My initial goal for 2020 was 150 books, but I adjusted my goal a couple of times for a final goal of 140 books. Goodreads says I read 144 books this year, but I can only account for 143. (I think one of them may have been counted twice.) With a little push, I might add one more book before midnight tomorrow. Considering two of my books were actually three-book collections but still counted as a single item, I came pretty close to reaching my original goal. Reading Swann's Way didn't help.

My breakdown by genre is listed below:

Fantasy: 40

Science Fiction: 10

Mystery (cozy or otherwise): 52

Other Fiction: 9

Non-Fiction: 32

This might be the first time that mystery, not fantasy, has been my top category. (Many of the cozy mysteries I like have paranormal elements, but I still count them under mystery instead of fantasy.) Since I'm working on a cozy mystery series, naturally I need to learn more about this genre, though I was reading it before I decided to write it. Some of my other reading goals this year were to read ten books on writing, five physical books from my To Be Read pile, and 40 non-fiction books. I came close with the non-fiction, but I only read four books on writing and nothing from the TBR pile. I have a feeling many of those books will never be read, alas. EBooks outnumber paper books 91 to 52. Although my library was closed for a couple of months due to COVID-19, I still managed to check out quite a few paper books along with eBooks.

 

Here are a few recommendations from the year:

The Bird Way

Spellbreaker

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

The Heroine's Journey

Midnight Bargain

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

The Precipice

Dread Nation

Oona Out of Order

Bannerless

Factfulness

The Skeptic's Guide to the Universe

The Ten Thousand Doors of January

 

I'm not sure yet what reading goals I want to set for 2021, but I'll try to make them more realistic.

What was your favorite book this year? Feel free to share it in the comments.

What the World Needs Now Is Hopepunk!

The year isn't halfway over, but I'm sure most of us are ready to see it go. Between the COVID-19 pandemic, massive job loss, police brutality, and rioters disrupting peaceful protests, it's obvious that our economic and political systems are failing a lot of people, especially marginalized ones. When the situation improves, we need to make systemic changes. Speculative fiction authors are leading the way in imaging what a better future would look like, particularly in genres such as solarpunk and hopepunk.

Hopepunk is a very new subgenre that was named in 2017. Like rebellions in the Star Wars universe, it is built on hope and surviving past the end times. The genre emphasizes community, kindness, and resistance. You can find examples of hopepunk stories at the link above and here. Much of Star Trek is hopepunk, as is parts of The Lord of the Rings. These stories obviously pre-date the naming of hopepunk as a separate subgenre, so the ideas have been around for a long time. However, I do think the psychological need for stories like this is greater than ever.

I have written a solarpunk story, "A Shawl for Janice," which is part of the Glass and Gardens: Solarpunk Winters anthology. The main characters in my still-in-progress urban fantasy trilogy are kinder than many others in their community, which allows them to gather allies.

Are there elements of hopepunk in your stories? Do you have any favorite examples of hopepunk? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

A Writer by Any Other Name?

Although fantasy and science fiction are my favorite genres, I also like to read mysteries, especially cozy mysteries. It's probably not surprising that I've come up with an idea for a cozy mystery series. I'm trying to do more worldbuilding and plotting with this project, but even before I write the first word, I also have to consider the marketing aspect. Should I publish these stories under my own name or a pen name? Traditional thinking has always been that you need different pen names for different genres so readers can distinguish them. However, this doesn't seem to be too much of a concern for indie writers. Honestly, I have enough trouble doing social media and marketing for one name; doubling it would make it even harder. Book covers and blurbs do a better job of signaling genre than names, and I would put different books on different pages of my website.

Do you use a pen name, or have you thought about it? Let me know in the comments.

Writers and Genre Popluarity

Last week, I read an interesting article on The Passive Voice. It was about a study conducted by The Writing Cooperative, which develops software for writers. They surveyed 740 writers who use their products. I don't know how representative this sample is of all writers, so these answers may not be strictly accurate. Nevertheless, I was struck by one result: according to this survey, the most popular genre was science fiction and fantasy, with 34% of writers saying that was the genre they tended to write in. This is especially surprising when you realize, as one Passive Voice commenter did, that romance is the most widely read genre, so you'd expect more writers to write that. Only 8.5% of authors in this survey reported writing romance, which was the second most popular genre. Perhaps this genre breakdown is an artifact of the small survey group, or it could have something to do with some genre writers preferring other methods of producing their work.

As a science fiction/fantasy writer myself, I have mixed feelings about this result. If there is such a large group of writers in my field out there, then that means I have a lot of other writers to exchange ideas with and potentially become friends with. On the other hand, it may be harder to come up with unique ideas, and there's more competition for markets. Most of the conventions and other writing groups I participate in are genre-focused, so I have less contact with writers outside my genre.

What do you think about these survey results? Do you think they hold up when you consider larger groups of writers? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

IWSG--Genre Love

February's post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group is hosted by Stephen Tremp, Pat Garcia, Angela Wooldridge, Victoria Marie Lees, and Madeline Mora-Summonte. To learn more about the IWSG, check out their website, Facebook group, and Twitter feed.

For this month, we've been posed the following question: What do you love about the genre you write in most often?

 I write both science fiction and fantasy, though the majority of my work is fantasy. One of the main things that drew me to both types of speculative fiction is the chance to escape the everyday. Part of my author tagline is "A sense of wonder," and that's what I seek in both my writing and reading. Wonder is an underappreciated emotion, something many of us lose forever once we're past childhood. Without wonder, we take the world for granted. These days, I tend to experience wonder most in science or in museum exhibits; I've read so much it's a rare book or author that can surprise me. I still strive for wonder as a way to unleash curiosity and creativity.

Speculative fiction, particularly fantasy, is a flexible genre. It can be set in any world imaginable, tell any type of story, and be blended with other genres. You can ask any type of "What if?" question and create your own answer. Themes can range from so-familiar-they're-comfort-reading to revolutionary ideas that inspire scientists.

Finally, fantasy and magic can feel very empowering. Who wouldn't want the ability to cast spells like Harry Potter or Hermione, wield lightning like my Season Avatar Kay, or bond with a magical telepathic horse as in Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar books? Many fantasies employ a "Chosen One" motif, but there are others where an ordinary person is able to have an extraordinary adventure.

What's your favorite genre? Feel free to share in the comments.

Subgenres of Speculative Fiction

I've mentioned before that I'm going to be appearing at the Elgin Literary Festival this weekend as part of a speculative fiction panel. I've contacted my co-panelist, and we've come up with a list of topics for the panel. One of them deals with the various subgenres of science fiction/fantasy. I plan to talk about them briefly, but I'm not sure I want to list every single subgenre possible. I may find a list or diagram of the subgenres and share that with the audience.

When you think of science fiction or fantasy, which subgenres come to mind first? Time travel? Epic fantasy? Alien invasion? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.