Week 6: Assignment 1
I followed the Street Fiction site. It tends to work better as a general resource, rather than a blog. Favorite features: lists of urban books categorized by place (yes, Baltimore is a prime location for urban fiction) and categories (pimps, motorcycles, hip-hop).
Week 6: Assignment 2
Enjoyed exploring the Genre/Subgenre chart.
Week 6: Assignment 3
Three subgenre sites are listed below. I found them by doing basic google searches. I was specifically looking for sites that are regularly updated and incorporate user-generated content.
Buzz among fans: this site has a tag cloud, so it made a nice way to find popular topics, such as City Girl Lit, Humor, Working Girl Lit and Set in NYC.
- Three authors: Sophie Kinsella, Jill Mansell and Holly Chamberlin
- Appeal Factors: Light in tone, personal stories, may be humorous.
Buzz among fans: one of the most popular parts of this blog is the Recommendations. Each month, readers share cozies they loved that month. There’s also a nice TV/Movie section, listing cozy adaptations like The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and A Touch of Frost.
- Three authors: Susan Wittig Albert, Joanne Fluke, M.C. Beaton
- Appeal Factors: setting often important—often take place in small village, lack of violent or sexual content.
This site is devoted to Christian Fiction, I focused on the Christian Romance content.
Buzz among fans: There are current reviews but this site also has a “deal of the day” feature, linking to Christian fiction titles that are free or very affordable through Amazon.
- Three authors: Lynn Austin, DiAnn Mills, Laura V. Hilton.
- Appeal Factors: focus on romance and relationships rather than sex, may also issues of faith, as experienced by the characters.
Two mash-ups of subgenres:
1) Traditional Western + Epic Fantasy: A recent favorite was Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. It contains many elements of a traditional western (ghost town, historical detail, gold rush) + epic fantasy elements (imagined history, several different characters, SWORDS!).
2) Traditional Western +Paranormal Horror: Blake’s Crouch Abandon is another example of subgenre mash-up. It has the Traditional Western elements (Western outpost town, set toward the end of the Gold Rush, clearly defined “bad” and “good” characters (even has the required prostitute with a “heart of gold”) PLUS ghosts and other paranormal activity. In this case, the mash-up works particularly well because it flips back and forth from the 1870s to present day, where ghost hunters are able to pick up on the paranormal activity in this abandoned frontier town.
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