Writing a book is hard work; I'm not going to lie. Marketing the book is even harder; I'm not going to lie about that either.
One of the most common questions people ask is this: "what genre is it?"
Okay, an easy answer here would be to give them a simple, one word response like "mystery, historical fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, YA" etc.
For some reason I just can't do that. Without fail, I stumble over my answer to this question Every. Single. Time. Why?
Well, as a reader, I am interested in all sorts of books. For example, two of my favorite authors are Sarah Addison Allen and Clive Barker. I love historical, YA, literary, horror, among others. You see, variety.
So naturally when it comes to writing, a little bit of various genres begin to creep into my work. My upcoming book, Perennials, is a novel that features a teenage protagonist and is set during a particular summer when there is a serial killer roaming about. I think of it as a contemporary Southern fiction coming-of-age mystery YA/adult crossover novel that has the backdrop of a slasher flick. LOL!
I like what I write. I would read it. I really would. Heck, I would even buy it ;)
Trying to sell it to other people is the trick.
There is one major thing that everything I've written so far has in common - the setting. I write stories that take place in The South. It is what I know. It is a place that I love. I love the quaint towns, the endless miles of farmland, the culture, the food, the pace, the weather, the history, I could go on and on.
Here is a link to a Wikipedia article that describes Southern Gothic fiction. The characteristics pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to my writing style.
A tag line that I recently came up with for myself is this: "I write Southern fiction that takes readers to charming and oftentimes sinister areas of The South."
What I write is kind of like, what if Nicholas Sparks and Stephen King wrote a book together?
and called in Alice Hoffman to help.
Oh, and Lauren Kate.
Oh, and Lauren Kate.
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