From the Backlist: Forbidden Fruit (And Don't We Love It!)

Art by @horseman09 on Instagram 

Today's spotlight from the Backlist was written June 26, 2010 by the spectacular Fantasy author Karina Cooper. Her thoughts on contemporary monsters and why we love-fear-love them are timely, and well considered. 

Hope you enjoy!

Check out Karina Cooper on Goodreads!  

Forbidden Fruit (And Don't We Love It!)

by Karina Cooper

 

We've all met the forefathers of the paranormal world. Bram Stoker's Dracula, George Waggner's The Wolf Man, and other early prototypes of the much-maligned fur-and-fanged world have been ingrained in our racial memory almost as deeply as a fear/fascination of fire.

Think I'm joking? Don't worry, I am... mostly. While there is no (credible) evidence of fanged cavemen stalking the Neanderthals of ages past, there is, instead, a like fascination with the things that go bump in the night. We have loved to hate vampires who creep through bedroom windows, cheered when the werewolves have been put down by silver bullets (carefully crafted from one's father's melted down watch, natch), covered our eyes when the blood-bathing witch was burned at the stake and the souls of her cursed victims set free.

If you're here, then you share that love with me.

And perhaps you can answer a question that has always interested me: How, in all that is (un)holy, did vampires go from this unfortunate child of the night to this blessed hunk of blood-love? Where in our society did we decide that being stalked by furry-faced flesh-eaters was not nearly so fun as being seduced by them?

I have a theory, gentle (and not so gentle) readers. My theory is this: We as a species, a culture and a shared memory are routinely fascinated by the forbidden. From as majestic as the ancient tales of locked gateways to heaven to the mundane as being told we shouldn't touch the stove, we are drawn to that which we cannot have... 

 

Read the entire POST. 

 

Enjoy!

 

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Choose Your Weapon - Firearms

Jinx from Arcane - Season Two Theories - by Tom Hartig November 22, 2021

A firearm might not be the first weapon we think of sifting through the Fantasy genre, but when considering the popular subcategories, from Steampunk to Urban Fantasy, they do indeed appear. Think of it this way: In any world where gunpowder has been discovered, firearms can exist. 

Ever since Marco Polo started travelling the Silk Road, these exploding projectile weapons have found their way into the hands of Western inventors, and shortly after, Western literature, including Fantasy. Just take a look at these wonderful subgenre examples.

Steampunk

Gail Carriger's The Parasol Protectorate Series comes to mind.

Engagingly written in a Steampunk/PNR/tongue-in-cheek style, this is a 'five book (and one prequel short) series chronicling the exploits of Alexia Tarabotti, a lady of considerable assets including a large Scottish werewolf, a battle-parasol, and treacle tart. Oh, and she has no soul...'

“Well, my love,” said Alexia with prodigious daring to Lord Maccon, “shall we?” 

The earl started to move forward and then stopped abruptly and looked down at her, not moving at all. “Am I?”

“Are you what?” She peeked up at him through her tangled hair, pretending confusion. There was no possible way she was going to make this easy for him.

“Your love?”

“Well, you are a werewolf, Scottish, naked, and covered in blood, and I am still holding your hand.”

He sighed in evident relief. “Good. That is settled, then.”

― Gail Carriger, Soulless

How fun is that!

Think also of Sanderson's Alloy of Law, the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik and other great Steampunk reads like the Lightbribger series by Brent Weeks. 

From Western subgenres to the Victorian era and the Civil War, Steampunk has much to offer, including a 'new' take on weapons in the Fantasy arsenal.

Urban Fantasy

This genre has had its ups and downs, but Urban Fantasy is in our blood and here to stay. With its paranormal characters set against a citified backdrop, what's not to love?

I burned through the Southern Vampire Mysteries (You can check out this internet database of firearms found in True Blood, as an example). I  also relish authors like Patricia Briggs and her Mercy Tompson Series. 

But there are some caveats to consider when writing Urban Fantasy.

 Because we want readers immersed in the tale, 'modern' weapons require careful handling. Otherwise, their appearance might flip readers out of the magic and fracture the storytelling altogether.

The first thing I consider with this genre is giving the township or city backdrop a personality. Think of it as a main character:

The backdrop aesthetic in an urban fantasy... plays a key role in the story; For this reason, the urban setting needs to be very well developed. - Jacqueline Silveste

Weapons are part of this environmental dev. That's why, in some cases, these Urban Fantasy guns will have real names (like the Ruger in the Ava Sykes series), or even mystical ones that imbue magical powers. They may also have special modifications like species-specific bullets. 

... I opened my gun safe and slipped my Ruger 9 mm into my calf holster and smoothed down my jeans. 

I was licensed to carry, and I always did at work, more for the trip there and back than anything else. 

New LA wasn't really a city of angels, not good ones anyway...

From Ava Sykes - The Blood in the Beginning

Post Apocalyptic Fantasy

In this genre, guns make plenty of sense though there may be more issues around obtaining the firearms,

and maintaining them, let alone finding bullets. It depends on how far down the rabbit hole the world has gone. Try TW Piperbrook's Better Guns and Gardens for a quick intro!

And if you want to just kick back and watch a fantastic video-game-turned-Prime-Original-Series, there is always the newly released Fallout. 

"Based on one of the greatest video games of all time, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s almost nothing left to have. 200 years after the apocalypse, the gentle denizens of luxury fallout shelters are forced to return to the incredibly complex, gleefully weird and highly violent universe waiting for them above."

However we look at them, guns are fantasy weapons and when handled correctly, make exciting additions to the storytelling.

Do you have a fav fantasy-with-firearms series? I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

xxKim

Choose Your Weapon Series 2024

Poison

The Perfect Storm

The Sword

Firearms

Ranged

Spells

Unarmed

Curses

Time Travel

Invisibility

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About Kim Falconer

Kim Falconer, currently writing as AK Wilder, has released Crown of Bones, a YA Epic Fantasy with Curse of Shadows as book 2 in the series. Currently, she is working on the third book, out in 2024.

Kim can be found on  AKWilder Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. 

Throw the bones, read your horoscopes or Raise Your Phantom on the AKWilder.com site

 

When Genres Bleed

Beauty and the Beast by alicexz

When it comes to genre fiction, we can count on the labels - Fantasy, SF, Romance, Crime, Historical - to tells us what kind of a ride we are in for. It's like going to a restaurant. If we feel like the taco salad, we order up, and though it may be a good or not so good version, it's still a taco salad - not too far outside the box. We won't, for example, be served a Greek salad with a side of fries. There's something comforting in that. Same with our fiction, right?

Wrong . .  .

There are some genre blenders out there, and none so plastic as Urban Fantasy and Paranormal Romance, especially in the YA category (where there's a whole lot of blurring going on). Let's look at Urban Fantasy first. Many see UF as an offshoot of Fantasy, but its origins are in Gothic Horror and Hard-boiled Crime. The Urban setting in UF is contemporary, an almost perfect match to our everyday 'reality', save for the pesky 'breach' that has occurred, just the opening 'others' in various forms - angels, demons, vampires, weres, fairies, fay - can enter, and live among us humans. In Uf the streets are tougher, the crimes uglier and the nightlife grittier, forcing our heroine, or hero, to pack a lot of kick-ass and smarts. The protagonist borrows heavily from the Crime detective, and is often anti-authoritarian, tough, shrewd and ultra street savvy, not to mention, a little more than human.

Our Paranormal Romance heroine may have many of these qualities, both internally and externally, but for her, saving the day or solving the crime comes a close second to winning her heart's desire. HEA is expected, and almost always delivered, the driving motivation being connection. And why shouldn't it be? PNR is neither an offshoot of Fantasy or Horror but of Romance. It follows the path to relationship, through the land of the heart, even if that land has its share of vampires, werewolves, shifters and witches.

How to tell them apart?

Murder, suspense, sudden reversals, strong female protagonists and a contemporary setting may be present in both UF and PNR. They will also share supernatural elements and some other world-building, and usually a good fast pace, edge of the seat drama and a whole hell of a lot at stake. But if you take out the love interest from the UF, you'll still have a ripping good story, no holes in the plot. Take the love interest out of the PNR, and the story fails.

This is all fair and good, until the genres bleed too far. Readers, bloggers and even some publishers are looking at PNR and UF as if they might meld, or perhaps are one and the same. Unfortunately, this means a lot of readers will be confused when they pick up a UF that isn't pivoting on the romance or a PNR that ends without the traditional HEA. Again, genres evolve, a reflection of the readers who love them, but what of this mash up UF/PNR? Will both forms survive, or become something not quite one, or the other?

Have you ever felt misled by a genre label (or cover)? Did you mind? What direction do you see these genres going? As I'm writing a UF series now, I'm interested in your response. And perhaps our Supernatural Underground authors would like to chime in too! I know many of us write in multiple categories.

Cheers,
And warm holiday wishes to you all!
xxKim

Kim Falconer is a Supernatural Underground author writing paranormal romance, urban fantasy, YA and epic science fantasy novels.

You can find out more about Kim at kimfalconer.com or on the 11th House Blog. She posts here at the Supernatural Underground on the 16th of every month. Her latest release is"Blood and Water" in Supernatural Underground: Vampires Gone Wild.