The querying process as shown me a few genres and categories that i've had to google. I was just wondering if there are some you had never come across before and if so, what are they? I'll go first: Cottagecore/farmcore (i've heard of this as a fashion STYLE but not a genre category)- romanticizing western farm/country life grimdark- anything that ends on a bleak/dark note. stories with zero hope and ends in uncertainty romantasy- fantasy romance/romantic fantasy
Inventing here: Noire Amish romance: hardbitten detective falls for sweet Amish maiden who turns out to be the Bad Guy Grimance: sweet romance that that ends on a bleak/dark note. stories with zero hope and ends in uncertainty Shop and duck novels: woman determined to shop despite shots fired (similar to shop and f*** novels but without the naughty bits)
I didn't know about it until a few years ago, and even had to Google to remember the name, but the genre of the Omegaverse. I actually thought the genre name was like Alpha Pack or something since many of the stories deal with Alpha werewolves and their erotic encounters with submissives. It's mainly a fanfic genre but it appears there are some novels actually published (which is how I read about it, because there was a copyright/plagiarism lawsuit).
Grimdark has been around for a long while. I've heard the portmanteau 'romantasy' before but I've never heard of cottage/farmcore in relation to writing.
haha! These are too much! Yeah, grimdark is like Warhammer 40K. "In the future, there is only war . . ." "Shop and duck?" So the premise is that a store is being robbed but some crazy lady uses the opportunity to snag sale items? There are series of books like this? Haha, it's like they've met my mother-in-law. . . . True story. Whenever my mother-in-law shows up at my place, and when she's not shopping at TJ Maxx / Ross / etc, presumably dodging bullets now that I know how this works, we try to take her to a restaurant where she can't possibly complain. These are the fine dining establishments where we've never had even the slightest problem with food or service. They cost more, but it's worth it to not be emarrassed by food that is "too cold," "oh, so salty," and so on, when of course it isn't. The food is perfect but she likes harassing waitstaff and seeing if she can get freebies in apology for sins that weren't committed. Maybe she just wants to feel important. Maybe she needs people bending to her whims. I don't know. That issue is beyond the scope of this story. We sit down and I get a compliment from the busboy at the adjoining table for being awesome. This quick comment given, he ducks out of there. You see, I'm wearing a Black Dahlia Murder shirt and he approved, my mother-in-law does not. She didn't want to say anything before, she says. She can't believe that anyone likes my shirt (implying that she hates it, as I knew she would). This is an attack on me, but I laugh and tell how last week I got a discount at Jiffy Lube because the garage boss liked my Beyond Creation tourshirt. I can see the gears in her head turning because any talk of discounts is right up her alley. I'm wondering if she's not going to buy her own get-up. If it happened for me, it must happen for her. The metal crowd ebraces its own. We are all brothers. An old lady in a death metal shirt would really get attention and hence, discounts. She lives for discounts. It turned out that the guy waiting on us was the fellow we always referred to as the "super waiter." He's our favorite there. He's perfect, almost like a butler. He looks a lot like Alton Brown, which is funny too because that look goes with his dapper demeanor. There is no possible way that my mother-in-law could disapprove of this dude because he's a champ. She tries though. It's time to order a drinks and she announces that "Oh, I don't know. I think I would like a glass of hot water." (If you've ever watched "The Disaster Artist," the movie based on Tommy Wiseau, he does the same trick in the opening scene. It's meant to prove his insanity, because everyone, waiter and audience included, thinks this is nuts.) Our super waiter doesn't even blink. He nods curtly and gives a cheery "Yes, ma'am." Then he returns with this little ceramic tray. It has a teapot on top and a little mug. It even has a folded cloth napkin, which I at the time I thought was for anything spilled but only now realize that it was there in case the teapot was too hot for her fingers! Incredible. I swear this guy should be a butler in an English manor. My mother-in-law has no complaints and I give our super waiter a horns up. He discreetly returns the sign.
In a post the other day by @Not the Territory I learned there's a genre called Powder Punk, apparently something like Steampunk, but the technology is based entirely around gun powder.
Oh, lord, I imagined some kind of erotica involving great clouds of talcum powder. (Pun intended, Xoic.) Seven Crowns, I made up shop and duck, but you may've just written the first story in the genre.
Oh, lord, I read one of those once out of morbid curiosity. It was every bit as ridiculous and treacly as you'd expect it to be. And there were DOZENS of them on the library shelf! Ooh, now you've got me intrigued. "It was a dark and stormy night when a leggy dame in an Amish dress barged into my office. She may have dressed plain, but she definitely raised my barn, if you know what I mean."
I'm working on a series in a genre I made up called, "military history fantasy". I figure I'll at least be #1 in my genre on Amazon.
I think that has already been done with Jerry Pournelle's Janiseries series, or David Drake's Bellisarious book.
I see where you're going, but Amazon categorizes both as Military Science Fiction, and so would I. I have something a little different in mind.
Bildungsroman novels -literary novels where the primary focus is the protagonists growth from childhood into adulthood
I wondered about that too. Here's what I found: A Bildungsroman is a specific type of coming-of-age story that features the intellectual, ethical and spiritual growth of a young protagonist approaching maturity. A bildungsroman is a story of the growing up of a sensitive person, who looks for answers to his questions through different experiences. Generally, such a novel starts with a loss or a tragedy that disturbs the main character emotionally. He or she leaves on a journey to fill that vacuum. During the journey, the protagonist gains maturity, gradually and with difficulty.
Given that the genre dates back to at least the 18th century, it has nothing to do with "woke". Jane Eyre, David Copperfield, Little Women all fall into this genre.
So does the SWOT (Star Wars Original Trilogy). The only character more sensitive than Luke was C3PO. And that wasn't really sensitivity, it was more a caricature of simpering English butlers.
A caricature or stereo type character is fine they become fairly obvious, and are best placed in a supporting role imo. It is the whiny lost in their own heads characters that I dislike. The worst example I can think of is the Thomas Covenant series. If you cut the whining about being a leper from the first book it would be a third shorter. It is an issue that shapes the character and his outlook. That is all well and good, even necessary to put forward to a degree. But can easily be over done, and turn a reader off to the work. The only way I would recommend the Thomas Covenant series is as a treatment for insomnia.
I strongly recommend the Thomas Covenant series. Although leprosy can be cured now, it couldn't when the first series was written. Covenant had to constantly check himself for injuries and sores, because that could lead to him losing a limb if unnoticed. It's something that diabetics also live with.
I'm not entirely sure Luke is that sensitive. I mean, his uncle gets burned to death, and by the next scene, he's forgotten about them. I mean, no, "Vader, they told me you killed my father, you definitely killed my aunt and uncle, and I think you kicked my cat as well". I mean, even Peter Parker keeps going on about his dead uncle. Maybe Batman - a sensitive young boy grows up wanting to dress as a flying mammal and punch criminals.
