Friday 14 February 2014

To Romance, or Not to Romance – What’s in a Genre Label?



Now that The Bull At The Gate, the second in the Torc of Moonlight trilogy, is out of editing and with its beta readers, my mind turns to the thorny subject of genre labels.

Is the essence of the novel ‘boy meets girl, loses girl, wins girl back’? Er.. eventually, over three novels. Then it’s a Romance. 
Er… not exactly.

True love never did run smooth might be the adage we use from Shakespeare’s quill, but does that make it a Romance? According to the genre labels of the industry, a Romance has a Happy Ever After ending, or at least the promise of one [tick].

However, if the true love has life or death consequences [tick], does that make it a Thriller, or a Romantic Thriller? If the true love is separated by death [tick] does that make it a Paranormal Thriller, or a Paranormal Romance, or even an Urban Fantasy? And if the true love has to overcome a rebirth from legend [tick] might that make it Mythic Fiction?

Ah, a rose by any other name… Happy Valentine’s Day.


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