As an author working on a couple of future releases which I’d describe as “supernatural thrillers set on another world,” I chafe at the implied genre constraints.

On one hand, I sympathize with the “color inside the lines” wisdom of sticking close to genre norms. It shows respect to Readers. If they pick up one of our books because they’re hoping to immerse themselves in — for example — a rousing urban fantasy à la Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, we’d better deliver. We’ve broken an implied promise if our book is really a mash-up of cowboys, automotive repair, and an alien recipe book.

As a result, it looks like (a) we don’t know what our genre really is, or (b) we don’t care enough about the Reader to deliver on the book’s promise. Neither is good.

That doesn’t mean we can’t add some salsa picante to our chili.

For example, dystopia

The Tracker Trilogy is dystopian. Its near-future setting is a world (ours) where the “one percent” have built walled cities to keep out the 99% (most of us). Add advanced micro-technology, political intrigue, socioeconomic disparity — and, of course, homicidal Trackers — and it’s a societal Molotov cocktail. I’m perfectly fine with calling it “dystopian.”

On the other hand, a lot of people are sick of slavish dystopian trope-writing. Articles entitled Overused and Unimaginative and Moving Beyond the Tropes are growing in number. Youtube curates a collection of shrill and shrieking opinions on over-used dystopian tropes, but I’ll spare you the auditory assault.

Ahem (cough, cough) — I’d rather not have my Trilogy lumped into that kind of dystopian writing.

So the reviewer who described Tracker (Book 1) as “a fresh, new take on a tired genre” really made my day. I could breathe a sigh of relief. That’s the sweet spot — It fits the genre without slavishly imitating what’s been done before.

(I also liked when the reviewer called my characters “instantly relatable,” but that’s a topic for another day.)

Cross-genre

Some of the most exciting books I’ve read in the past year are cross-genre. They’ve found the sweet spot of honoring the tropes while augmenting the story outside of “normal” conventions. They combine elements of sci-fi, crime thriller, ancient mysticism, organized crime, film noire, and paranormal.

I could point to books like Stephen King’s Under the Dome or The City by Dean Koontz. When I do, I often receive push-back because, well, their names are Stephen King and Dean Koontz — they can mix genres to their heart’s content, and get away with it because they’re King and Koontz.

With that in mind, I’m going to instead highlight another set of authors over the next few posts. Their books are highly engaging and they’ve each found the genre-blending sweet spot.

Stay tuned.