Angeli (Kindle) is 99 cents from July 22-July 28! Get it now and save $2!
I have this thing, like a curse cast upon me by a gypsy with a sick sense of humor.
My curse is that everything I do is just a little off. Just enough to screw the easy layup. I could offer a multitude of examples, but then I’d start sobbing and screaming “Why? Why?” and I’m not a pretty crier.
My latest curse example is the genre of my book Angeli: The Pirate, the Angel and the Irishman, which is a Romance, but not just a Romance. It is a Fantasy, but while there are paranormal characters, it reads like real life. (i.e. no sentences sound like “Rokor was the Paradan of Fidian…”) Angeli is a Humor and a Mystery, but not only those things.
My lead character is Anne Bonny the pirate, an actual woman who lived in the late 1700s. (History!) She’s still alive in modern day, and works for the Angeli, who are, in short, the guardian angels of humanity. (Fantasy!) Some of the Angeli have been infected by a disease called Perfidia, which causes them to go rogue and start killing humans instead of protecting them. (Thriller!) Anne’s job as one of the Angeli’s Sentinels, is to hunt down the corrupted Perfidians. (Adventure!) In this first book of the series, Anne, Michael the Angelus (with whom Anne has a complicated-yet-sexy relationship), and Con, Anne’s former lover and a fellow Sentinel, realize there is a very unusual and badass Perfidian on the loose, and they have to work together to solve this problem. (Mystery!) Con and Michael are in competition for Anne’s affections and her voluptuous, sexy bod. (Romance!). Throughout, Con is comic relief, Anne is a bit of a smart-ass, and Michael is nearly all powerful but also totally OCD. (Humor!).
See my problem? I even have references to chaos theory (Math!) and a pretty terrifying monster (Horror!).
If Angeli was a straightforward bodice-ripper of a Romance with a few sexy vampires, then I could market it as a Paranormal Romance. My sister-in-law buys books with topless cowboys on the cover and she knows, going in, that someone will be bent over a chair, car, carousel horse or picnic table every five seconds. She knows what to expect.
I can’t market Angeli as a straight Mystery, even though there is a mystery to be solved, because if I did that, Mystery fans would be like “wait… she’s not a detective? She’s a sexy 300 year-old pirate??”
And while Angeli is a Contemporary/Urban Fantasy, (a genre that didn’t even exist not that long ago) it isn’t about dragons eating Chicago or werewolves taking over Hollywood, so that doesn’t seem quite right either.
(Note to self, book idea: werewolves taking over Hollywood)
So I think there needs to be a new fiction genre for books with fantasy/romance/mystery/whimsy elements. This sort of book is not unheard of; The Southern Vampire Series by Charlaine Harris, which eventually became True Blood on HBO, fits in this mold. Sookie always has to solve a mystery, in a world where paranormal/fantasy characters exist, and she’s falling in love with and bangin’ vampires and were-critters as she goes.
HBO neatly solved this conundrum by turning it into a porn.
The Charley Davidson series, by Darynda Jones is another series that fits this mold. Her eponymous lead character is the Grim Reaper (fantasy) who has to solve a mystery and starts bangin’ the devil’s son. All the while, she crack jokes.
So I’d like to officially create a new genre called SMFFS: The Sexy Mystery Funny Fantasy. Pronounced “smiffs.” Is that too awkward? How about Sexy Paranormal Adventure Mysteries? (SPAM?) Paranormal Humor Romance Mystery? PHRM? (to be pronounced like you’re clearing your throat).
I’m starting to see why this isn’t a thing…
In short, if you like True Blood, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Charley Davidson, you’ll like Anne Bonny and Angeli - just don’t ask me where to find it because I change what genre it is in on Amazon every other day.
Are there other books you can think of that fall in this realm? I’d love to hear about them if you do! I’m looking for other series like mine, so mine has friends with which to play.
FYI: Angeli is being featured on Wednesday July 23rd 2014 at eBookSoda, a new readers’ site where they’ll send you ebook recommendations tailored to your taste.
And if you didn’t notice the graphic on this post, Angeli (Kindle) is 99 cents from July 22-July 28! Get it now and save $2!
AND I am simultaneously giving away a copy on GoodReads (and if you don’t win, there are still 3 days to go back and get it for 99 cents on Amazon!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Angeli – The Pirate, the Angel & the Irishman
by Amy Vansant
Giveaway ends July 25, 2014.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
Enter to win