Dark Urban Fantasy …
Posted by Rowena Cory Daniells on October 29, 2010
Readers of the spec fic sub genres have noticed the advance of a related sub genre appearing on the bookshop shelves – Dark Urban Fantasy (DUF) or Paranormal Romance. This cousin of spec fic’s Dark Urban Fantasy has been doing really well, gathering a legion of readers. (For my light hearted take on the topic see the Mad Genius Club post here).
So I invited Eleni Konstantine onto the ROR blog to share her insights. Eleni has just set up the Dark Side Down Under blog for this sub genre.
Thanks Rowena for inviting me to the ROR blog. Great to be here with all you fine folk.
I’m here to talk about my views on what the differences between Fantasy, Paranormal Romance and Dark Urban Fantasy are.
Years ago when I joined the Romance Writers of Australia I used to say that I wrote Fantasy with a romantic subplot. Then I thought it may be Fantasy Romance but have come to the realisation that to add the word romance in there the romance is the main focus. Mine is not. Since then, I have gone back to my original concept. I write Fantasy with romantic elements.
Having said this, I have noticed that when I use this term when querying I get the response of ‘not sure of the market’. Sigh. Am I in a no-man’s land where I have too many romantic elements for fantasy readers and not enough for romance readers? So really what is the difference?
Maybe none at all. After all Fantasy – and what I define fantasy here is the traditional fantasy – does have all sorts of elements in it. This includes action, adventure, mystery, and relationships including romance. Love is a powerful factor in many fantasy tales. I may not need the term “romantic elements”. Maybe it comes down to marketing.
And this is where the paranormal romance and dark urban fantasy debate comes in. To me when you use the word romance, it focuses on the relationship between the hero and heroine. Yes there are subplots and other things happening but this is paramount as well as a HEA (happily ever after) or at least a happy for now. Now DUF on the other hand does not have to focus on a romantic relationship. It can have a romance in there but it’s not the only factor and there is no promise of a happily ever after. It can also be darker and grittier and a hero in a DUF novel can be more unpleasant than one in a paranormal romance, where readers want to fall in love with him even if he is rough around the edges.
But with the marketing machine, readers may find each of these types of stories in the other category. There is a broader audience to sell to if you place them in other. So is it just economics? Yes and no.
I notice the same sort of cross over in libraries. One copy of a book – say Keri Arthur’s Riley Jenson Guardian series (which I classify as a DUF and has romantic elements), may be found in the romance section, in the fantasy section, or in the horror section (vampires, werewolves). In some libraries there is a separate paranormal romance section. Again it’s about trying to get more readers to read. I suppose the more readers they have, the more the library can justify its existence, so maybe it IS all about economics.
Still a condensed version of my classification is – (I’m a former librarian, my life was to classify items for many years *smile *):
Fantasy – traditional fantasy set in another made up world, or maybe some crossover of another world with ours. There can be a lot of romance or little or even none depending on the tale.
Paranormal romance – set in an urban ‘earth’, contemporary or futuristic setting, with paranormal/supernatural elements or creatures, where the romance is the main focus, and a guaranteed HEA.
Dark Urban Fantasy – set in similar worlds to the PR, but the romance is either not the main focus or not there.
On my website I say I’m a fantasy and paranormal writer because then I can cover both PR and DUF if I so choose, and not all my short stories have romance in them. Sometimes depending on the audience, I add the phrase romantic elements in there.
I’d be interested to know what you all think of this topic?
While I’m here, I’d like to plug a new blog – Dark Side DownUnder. It is by writers from the RWAus Paranormal group banding together to showcase speculative fiction with romantic elements and our members. Yes we’ve used the romantic elements because big or small romance has a play in our work. We launch on the 31st – Halloween is appropriate don’t you think? So we’d love if you come along to join us with a chance to win some great prizes in the coming weeks.
~Eleni Konstantine
Nicole Murphy said
Great post, Eleni! I absolutely agree, which is why I prefer to call my series paranormal romance, because the focus of each book is on a happily ever after. But to each their own – as long as we can find and read the books we love, everyone will be happy.
Rowena Cory Daniells said
Eleni’s at a wedding all day, Nicole.
Best of luck with your books. I see the cover for the second one is looking lovely!
Nicole Murphy said
Thanks Rowena. It does look good, doesn’t it?
Kylie Griffin said
Hey Eleni,
Like you I’ve had trouble classifying my work – never made it easy writing those query letters and in the end I had to look at who I was pitching it to and jigger with the labels. It’s going to be interesting to see where my books are put on the shelves once they’re published.
I think you hit the nail on the head when you pinpointed economics as determining where/how a work is placed/classified.
Rowena Cory Daniells said
Kylie, if you had to classify your books, what would you call them?
Jess said
Hi,
I spend alot of time on US author websites and because of that I have always mimic whatever they class their genres. I call Keri Arthur, Ilona Andrews, Patricia Briggs, Kim Harrison etc as Urban Fantasy ( I never put the Dark in front of UF before)
Paranormal Romances has to have an overall romantic story arc and a Happy Ever After for me. So authors like Sherrilyn Kenyon, Chrisine Feehan, Karen Marie Moning, Shelley Laurenston, Gena Showalter, an many many more is what I consider PR..
The thing I love about both genres and that they can blend and change into different genres, JR Ward started out Paranormal Romance in her series but then morphed into more of a gritty Urban Fantasy.
From all my favourite authors in the Urban Fantasy genre they all seem to have some kind of romantic sub plot. I hadnt thought about that before.
Thanks for a thought provoking post
-Jess
Rowena Cory Daniells said
Hi Jess,
Eleni is at a wedding today.
If you look at Nalini Singh, her Psi-Changeling series is paranormal romance (top quality, with an SF premise). While her new series about the angels is more DUF, because the character arcs are on going and the love story isn’t resolved in each book.
Links of a literary bent … | CMIS Evaluation Fiction Focus said
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Eleni Konstantine said
Sorry everyone for my delayed attendance. I had a wedding on Saturday and then a family birthday yesterday. I’m just now starting to catch up. Glad you could all pop in.
I agree Nicole – labels are just that labels. I’m happy to find a good story no matter where on the spectrum they sit and where they are put.
Kylie – it will be interesting to see where your books are placed. Wherever it is, I’ll be hunting them down
Again, congratulations with your fantastic news!
Jess, while I see J.R. Ward as gritty, I still classify her as PR as each book has a HEA for at least one couple. Actually I’ve just finished reading Lover Mine. Loved seeing John Matthew get his girl.
Thanks for the link CMIS
And Rowena thanks for having me on ROR.
Meet Rowena Cory Daniells … « Ripping Ozzie Reads said
[...] belong to a couple of shared blogs, MGC and ROR. From hearing about the experiences of these other generous and talented writers, I know the [...]