I’ve been corresponding lately with another writer who found my profile on Crit Partner Match. She’s interested in some collaborative brainstorming, so we’ve been going back and forth sort of doing the writer’s version of a get to know you first date and describing our current projects to see if we might be a match. After reading my brief explanation of where I was with HiS and what it is, her reply was “So you’re actually doing the prep-work for what sounds like a kick-ass Urban Fantasy.”
Well, no.
I think of what I’m doing as paranormal romantic suspense. I did a little poking around yesterday looking for a definition, only to discover that there is no formal genre of that name (that I can find anyway–my Google skills are a little diminished with all the cold meds). The two available divisions are paranormal romance and urban fantasy.
According to wikipedia,
Paranormal romance is a literary subgenre of the romance novel. A type of speculative fiction, paranormal romance focuses on romance and included elements beyond the range of scientific explanation, blending together themes from the genres of traditional fantasy, science fiction, or horror. Paranormal romance may range from traditional category romances, such as those published by Harlequin Mills & Boon, with a paranormal setting to stories where the main emphasis is on a science fiction or fantasy based plot with a romantic subplot included. Common hallmarks are romantic relationships between humans and vampires, shapeshifters, or fantastical beings (the Fae, Elves, etc.).
On the other side, we have urban fantasy, which wikipedia defines as
…a subset of contemporary fantasy, consisting of magical novels and stories set in contemporary, real-world, urban settings–as opposed to ‘traditional’ fantasy set in wholly imaginary landscapes, even ones containing imaginary cities, or having most of their action take place in them. The modern urban fantasy protagonist faces extraordinary circumstances as plots unfold in either open (where magic or paranormal events are commonly accepted to exist) or closed (where magical powers or creatures are concealed) worlds.
Hm, well there are elements to both in HiS, but it’s most definitely not urban fantasy as it isn’t–well–urban. HiS is set in a tiny mountain town of only a few hundred people. So even if the romance was not central to the plot (and in my case, it is), HiS still wouldn’t be classified as urban fantasy based on that definition. I wonder why they went with urban fantasy as the term instead of contemporary fantasy, which would encompass more. I know that there’s a lot of crossover between the two. J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood was originally marketed as paranormal romance and with the advent of the 7th in the series, she’s moving to a decidedly more urban fantasy slant (to very mixed reviews from fans–even some extremely rabid responses from members of both camps according to one Amazon forum I read). Which seems odd to me given that Caldwell, NY, the setting of the books, is not really urban either. Maybe my definition of urban is too narrow. I automatically think of big cities like New York, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas…but I suppose anything that isn’t technically rural would be classed as urban. Still, I would never think of my tiny mountain town as urban anything.
The wiki article on paranormal romance goes on to say
These novels often blend elements of other subgenres, including suspense and mystery, with their fantastic themes.[4] A few paranormals are set solely in the past and are structured much like any historical romance novel. Others are set in the future, sometimes on different worlds. Still others have a time-travel element with either the hero or the heroine traveling into the past or the future….[5]
As in the fantasy subgenre of urban fantasy, many paranormal romances rely on the blend of contemporary life with the existence of supernatural or magically-empowered beings, human or otherwise; sometimes the larger culture is aware of the magical in its midst, sometimes it isn’t. Some paranormal romances focus less on the specifics of their alternative worlds than do traditional science fiction or fantasy novels, keeping the attention strongly on the underlying romance.[7] Others develop the alternate reality meticulously, combining well-planned magical systems and inhuman cultures with contemporary reality.
So clearly, paranormal romance is the broader of the two categories. Not surprising. The breadth of things covered by the romance genre is staggering and probably explains why it remains the most popular genre in the publishing industry. So certainly HiS is paranormal romance that blends elements from suspense and mystery. There’s a decided mystery to solve and suspense over how it will all turn out. It’s magic set in a contemporary world.
I personally would like to see a bit more of a clear deliniation in paranormal romance. There are certainly some that I’d easily class as paranormal romantic suspense. Rebecca York’s Moon series for sure. The hero is a werewolf PI. Many of Heather Graham’s books would fall into paranormal romantic suspense. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy the more straight paranormal romances where the big elements of tension relate to problems between two worlds (be they of different paranormal races or between a paranormal h/h and a human h/h), but I guess in my mind I see paranormal romantic suspense as a different beast, and I’d like to see it recognized.
Anybody agree with me? Or do you see paranormal romance and urban fantasy as closer to the same thing?
I see Urban Fantasy kind of as what “chick lit” has morphed into, at least in the paranormal direction. It started, IMO with MaryJanice Davidson and her paranormal chick lit.
Now most urban fantasy isn’t quite this light, but it’s still snarky, and told in first person. So it just make me think it’s a new mutation of chick lit in a time when “chick lit” isn’t a popular thing for a book to be.
At the end of the day I think it’s all in how it’s marketed though.
Though urban fantasy tends to have tough chicks with a tramp stamp who fight bad guys and have several sexual partners. Not exactly romance unless they settle down for a bit. Though it lends itself more to series material.
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You make a good point. And that’s probably why I tend NOT to like stuff marketed as urban fantasy. I prefer a third person viewpoint and an actual relationship. And what I’m writing definitely isn’t portrayed with the snark that seems so characteristic of so much of what’s classified as paranormal anything.
I was having this same debate the other day with an author friend and just came across your post about it. I’ve posted something similar in the past. I definitely think I write paranormal romance as opposed to urban fantasy, as my characters are predominantly demons, vampires, werewolves or shape-shifters. I’ve allowed a little leeway with my Prophecy Trilogy as it does contain quite a bit of magic, and to me that’s what makes an urban fantasy rather than a paranormal romance. It has to have the right fantasy elements in the modern our-world setting. Vampires, etc, are definitely still paranormal to me!