Is Urban Fantasy Dead? -- Part 2: Where Has All the Urban Fantasy Gone?

In this multi-part series, I ventured out to discover what was happening to the Urban Fantasy genre. In Part 1, I asked Rachel Caine and Rachel Vincent about the end of their adult UF series. In part 2, I take a look at the trend of authors jumping to pen young adult UF.

Neither Rachel Caine nor Rachel Vincent have plans to end their YA UF series. This is good news. I've re-discovered YA myself and I'm enjoying the lighter tone and smaller size. I know I can finish reading about two YAs for every one adult. And this is one reason for this newest trend. Authors can produce YA stories at a faster rate than adult-sized novels, when the average word count for a YA is 60,000 words and double that for the average adult UF. (Sometimes the adult novels nearly triple for books later in the series. Kim Harrison's WHITE WITCH, BLACK CURSE clocked in at 189,000 words-- 140% of DEAD WITCH WALKING.) So there's a definite attraction for both authors and readers.

We can look at the popularity of the Harry Potter and Twilight series to see that teens have buying power. Publishing is a business, and businesses like to make money. This is another reason why we're seeing big names-- like James Patterson, John Grisham, and Sherrilyn Kenyon -- cross over to YA.

However, supposition about time and money only goes so far. I would have liked the opportunity to ask Kim Harrison and Kelley Armstrong about their reasons for writing YA, but neither are available for interviews.  Fortunately, they've answered this question elsewhere on the web. :)

Kim Harrison:

Why make the switch? Some people have asked me, and for that, I just smile. I saw the reason at the Supernatural Summer signings time and again, reaffirming my resolve to give this my all. My adult readers came out to see me on tour, but they didn’t come alone. More often than not, when one of my books was slid across the table to me, there was a copy of Once Dead, Twice Shy on top, and next to a beaming parent was a teen, sometimes eager, sometimes bored, sometimes shy, but there because Mom or Dad wanted to share that good feeling they got from my work with their son or daughter, they wanted to talk to their kid about something they both experienced, and perhaps they wanted to pass their love of reading on–if they hadn’t already. If I could be a part of that, if I could share my own love of reading, the breathless “what if” with someone new . . . then I would feel like I’d done something real and worthwhile.

And that’s why I write YA.

-From http://thebooksmugglers.com/2009/07/supernatural-summer-kim-harrison-on-inspirations-influences-and-a-giveaway.html

 Kelley Armstrong:

Why write a young adult version of your Otherworld series?

I've been toying with the idea since 2005. I had an idea for a plotline with younger characters, which meant I needed to do it outside the regular series. I really wanted to explore the idea of what it's like to be that age, coming into your powers. And the plotline I had in mind added a lot of extra twists and hurdles to what would already be a difficult time in a young supernatural's life.

-From http://www.harperteen.com/contests/kelleyarmstrong/

I had an idea inspired by my second adult novel, but it was about supernaturals just coming into their powers. In my world, that happens at puberty, which wouldn't work in a series with adult characters! That idea was in the back of my mind as I began getting emails from readers I considered a little too young to be reading my other series. Put all that together and I decided it was time to try writing my YA idea.

The biggest challenge was that I'm a whole lot older than my main character. As a teen, I hated it when adults tried to write in a teen voice and it was painfully obvious that they were on the wrong side of thirty. Having a daughter in the right age group made that easier--I had a living subject to study and a built-in focus group.

 -From http://thebookbutterfly.com/2010/04/interview-with-kelley-armstrong-author.html

I went to two more authors who'd also made the move to YA, to hear their reasons for making the change. The first YA for Jennifer Estep will be published August 2011, TOUCH OF FROST. Jackie Morse Kessler's first YA, HUNGER, was released October 18.  Both books are the first in a series.

What attracted you to UF? 

JE: I was attracted to urban fantasy because the genre has a little bit of everything – action, magic, cool world building, fight scenes, and romance. I like to read books with all of those elements in them, and that’s what I enjoy writing as well.

You can also do just about anything you want to in urban fantasy in terms of characters, magic, and world building, which I think really lets me be creative and stretch myself as a writer. Plus, urban fantasy is known for its strong heroines, and I wanted to add my own heroine, assassin Gin Blanco, to the mix.



JK: For me, urban fantasy is all about the battle between Good and Evil. That’s always fascinated me. I grew up reading superhero comics and Greek mythology, so super powered beings wreaking havoc felt rather normal to me.

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There is an increasing trend in UF authors jumping to write YA. What made you decide to write YA? 

JE: I had a story idea that I thought would work better as a young adult urban fantasy book, about a Gypsy girl with psychometry magic who gets shipped off to a school for the descendants of ancient warriors like Spartans, Valkyries, and more. That’s the basis of my Mythos Academy series. The first book, TOUCH OF FROST, will be out in August 2011.

Also, young adult is such a popular genre right now, and it attracts both teen and adult readers. I thought it would be a good way to hopefully build my reader base. I also wanted to challenge myself as a writer and see if I could write a young adult book in the first place. It was a lot of fun.



JK: HUNGER had been brewing for a while before I finally wrote it. And at first, the protagonist wasn’t going to be a teenager. But when I figured out who the protagonist needed to be, she wound up being 17. The YA just happened.

Frankly, I’m thrilled that YA is booming. When I was a teen, we didn’t have that option; it was straight from Judy Blume to Stephen King for me. :)

Do you have plans to end either your adult or YA series? Is there a finite number of books planned for either?

JE: Right now, I’m under contract for five books in my adult Elemental Assassin urban fantasy series and three books in my young adult Mythos Academy urban fantasy series.

The five books in the Elemental Assassin series will finish out the story arcs that I have planned, and I also hope to write at least five books in my Mythos Academy series. Of course, I would love to write more books in both series. I think my characters have a lot of adventures left in them.



JK: The Hell series ends with book four, which I’m currently serializing. Between that and the four new short stories coming out in late 2010/early 2011, I feel like all of the stories in that arc have been completed.

The Icarus Project is a duology,with room for new stories in the future.

I’ve started referring to the Horsemen books as The Riders’ Quartet. :)

Will we get to see your YA main character kick butt? (I'm curious for this in your series, Jackie, since these girls already have to fill their roles as Horsemen of the Apocalypse while battling their own inner demons.)

JE: Absolutely! I might be writing young adult, but it’s definitely still a Jennifer Estep book, which means there’s a strong, smart, sassy heroine and lots of fight scenes. Fight scenes are one of my favorite things to write, and my young adult heroine, Gwen Frost, gets herself into and out of plenty of trouble along the way.


JK: Hee. Who’s to say those inner demons are necessarily only internal? :)

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While not every UF author is going to make the jump to YA, I don't see the trend coming to an end any time soon. It makes sense in this economy. It's easier for authors to fit in writing and editing a YA between writing and editing an "adult-size" novel. The teen years don't last forever, so there's the bonus of teen readers growing up and discovering an author all over again. 


Eventually everyone will grow tired of this hula hoop. Writing YA isn't for everyone, and some authors will succeed, while others will not. Teens can be a tough audience to write for.  

It's the UF trend that concerns me. More on that coming in Part 3 -- The Survival of Urban Fantasy. Hear what best-selling authors and bloggers have to say about it.

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I'd like to shout out a big thank you to both Jackie Morse Kessler and Jennifer Estep for participating in this interview!

To find out more about the authors in this article, please visit their websites:

http://www.jenniferestep.com/

http://www.jackiemorsekessler.com/

Review: BURTON & SWINBURNE IN THE STRANGE AFFAIR OF SPRING HEELED JACK by Mark Hodder

To be completely honest, I wanted to read this book from the moment I laid eyes on the cover.  Once I read the cover blurb, I was sold.  The book is even more gorgeous in person.  Pyr really did a great job with the packaging.

But lest I be accused of solely judging a book by its cover, in my case, the contents lived up to the packaging.  Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is at once Victorian Steampunk, Pulp Mystery, Alternate History and Science Fiction that is complexly plotted and extremely entertaining.


The story begins in Victorian England circa 1861 and sets the scene with the palpable grime and poverty one would expect from the era and infuses it with a mix of steampunk inventions, courtesy of the Technologists.  In addition, the Eugenicists have altered animals to perform specific tasks.  My favorite of these were the messenger parakeets who deliver and recite verbal messages interspersed with swearing.

The story is framed partially by the political factions of the aforementioned Technologists, who want to advance society through technological means and the Libertines who wish to stave off such advancement by protesting through the arts as they view this type of progress as detrimental to the core of society.  Then there are the Rakes who have taken the counter-culture views of the Libertines to the extreme and wish to be completely liberated from any sort of morality, social code or limitation and are influenced in part by the idea of the seemingly unconstrained legendary figure of Spring Heeled Jack.

The story begins with the protagonist, Sir Richard Francis Burton, ready to verbally spar at a public engagement with his rival and former colleague, John Speke.  Shortly before Burton is to take the stage, he is informed of Speke's attempted suicide, for which Burton is the prime suspect.  But once Speke is kidnapped from his apparent deathbed, Burton is drawn into the investigation and is awarded a commission from the Prime Minister on behalf of monarchy as a special agent to the crown. 

As mentioned earlier, The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is part alternate history with the likes of Charles Darwin, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Oscar Wilde and Florence Nightengale making appearances as characters that are plausible in their new guises if you turn the lens of life a click to the left or right.  Given the alternate path, their responses to life as it is presented are not unbelievable.  The author also uses the aspect of time travel, a plot device that people seem to be extremely opinionated about.  I didn't have a problem with this and I like how he used the trope to not only illustrate character, but also as a window to varying perspective on certain key events. 

The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack is richly detailed, complex and exciting.  The turns the story take not expected.  The choices that the characters make are not necessarily what you want to happen, the right thing to do or neat and tidy.  I like this.  I also think that some of the hero's decisions will come back to haunt him at some point in the future.

Burton & Swinburne and the Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack was an excellent book and I eagerly await the sequel:  The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man due in March, 2011.

Mark Hodder's blog:  http://markhodder.posterous.com/


Coming Soon:  Exploring the Gaslamp subgenre and a review of The Iron Duke by Meljean Brook.  

Haunted Gingerbread House Check-In

Have you started on your entry for the Haunted Gingerbread House Contest? I bought all my supplies last week, and this week I'll be baking and icing.

And look -- Rachel Vincent's running a contest, too! Now you have more chances to win! I can't wait to see what she bakes up this year!

I know hers will be better than mine. I wasn't kidding about my failed previous attempts. The last one I made fell down, so I set up a skeleton to look like a demolition project:

See the piece missing from the roof? And the broken corner that was "glued" back together? The gingerbread came out very soft. But I love the evil grin on the skeleton in the bulldozer and the look of fright on the skeleton on the bicycle at the back.

Here's hoping this year's house turns out better!

Is Urban Fantasy Dead?

A quick look around the Internet and one might start think interest in Urban Fantasy has dwindled despite July having been declared UF month by so many blogs. August brought us the news of Dorchester going to e-books and print-on-demand, which would seem to be a move to save money. Does that mean UF and its sister genre, paranormal romance, are not selling as well as they used to? September not only brought us the end of Rachel Caine's popular Weather Warden series, but also the end of Rachel Vincent's Shifters series. Both Rachels write Young Adult UF. Maybe YA UF is selling better than adult UF? It would seem to be the case with so many authors scrambling to start up YA UF series. What is going on with UF? At this rate, will it still be here for winter solstice?

A few years ago when UF became hugely popular and the buzz word for the blogosphere, there were nay-sayers who were adament UF was merely a passing trend. Are they right? Has the bubble burst?

I decided to go to the sources. In this multi-part series, I ventured to find out the state of UF from the authors themselves, agents, and UF-loving bloggers.

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PART 1 -- RACHEL AND RACHEL ON "THE END"

So what led to your decision to end the series? Did you always have a finite ending in mind?
[Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series began with ILL WIND, published in December 2003. Rachel Vincent's Shifters series began with STRAY, published June 2007.]

RC: It's not really possible to have a finite ending in mind for a series that keeps getting renewed by the publisher ... I thought it would end at three, then at six. But I really felt that nine books was as far as I wanted to take it. There's a fatigue factor on books that have such a high punishment factor for the characters -- both for the writer, and for the readers. So when I started Book 7, I knew this was the last 3-book cycle. 

RV: First, let me make it clear that the Shifters series was not cancelled. I decided it would work best in six books back when I wrote Rogue and started mapping out the entire series arc. And when I was doing edits on Alpha, the last book, my editor asked me to leave an opening for a possible spinoff later on (though I’m not actively pursuing that option right now). So I don’t think you could really point to the end of the Shifters series as one of the signs of the Urban Fantasy Endgame—although I do like that image in my head. ;)

To actually answer your question, I decided years ago that I would end the Shifters series at the logical conclusion point—when Faythe’s story is over—rather than drag it out past its prime just because the books are still selling. I want Faythe to out with a bang, not the proverbial whimper. ;)

Do you have a planned ending for your YA series? 
[The first book of Rachel Caine's Morganville Vampire series began with GLASS HOUSES, published October 2006. To date, 8 books have been published with book 9, GHOST TOWN due to hit shelves in hardcover October 26, 2010. Vincent's Soul Screamer series began August 2009 with MY SOUL TO TAKE. The fourth book of the series, MY SOUL TO STEAL is scheduled for release January 2011.]

RC: Not specifically. Morganville is odd, because it's really as much about the town as the characters, and short of destroying the town (a la Sunnydale in the Buffy series!) I don't really know what an ending would look like. I plan to have a natural stopping point at Book 12, just in case, though. No cliffhanger. Promise.

RV: No. Unlike the Shifters books, the Soul Screamers series is open-ended. I’ll keep writing them as long as there’s interest from readers and my publisher. The difference between the two series for me is that the Soul Screamers world is much larger than Faythe’s Shifters world, and because it’s populated with many, many more species of monsters/characters—plus that whole Netherworld alternate dimension—there are many more possibilities for story arcs. I have tons of ideas for Kaylee and her world, including a possible spin-off (2 options for that). The Soul Screamers books are more episodic than the Shifters books, meaning that they can be read as stand-alones (though you’d miss character development), whereas the Shifters books need to be read in order (at least after Rogue) to fully understand the story and the world. 

I read on your website that you are working on another series. Will this new story have "urban fantasy" elements? 
[The first book of Caine's Outcast Season was published February 2009, with annual releases scheduled every February. Vincent's new series is not scheduled yet.]

RC: I would definitely classify Outcast Season as UF - it's set in the same world as the Weather Warden series, and Cassiel is definitely kick-ass, although sometimes not fitting into the mold of a heroine. The plot does mainly focus on action, and yes, there is that pesky romantic subplot, too (although Cassiel's defining characteristic is her ruthlessness, so ... hmmm.)
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RV: I honestly don’t know yet. I won’t actually start the first book in this new series until October, and because it’s a new series, with a new world and new characters, I don’t know precisely how everything’s going to line up. I will say, though, that the books in this series will not all have the same narrator, though I hope to be able to revisit narrators (similar to how Kelley Armstrong, and I believe Yasmine Galenorn do) if the series is extended.

Or will your plot focus more on the romance?

RC: I would say that Outcast Season is more purely UF than romance, although there's a strong romantic component. 
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RV: It will probably have a stronger romance focus than the early Shifters books did, but probably not enough to qualify as a traditional romance novel. I can’t see myself writing a book in which the action and plot conflict are overwhelmed by the love story. That’s just not the way I think. Though for the record, the last half of the Shifters series has a very strong romance subplot.

What originally attracted you to urban fantasy?

RC: I hate to say it, but I was writing UF before it had a name, and my books weren't selling at that time (although hopefully, also, I've become a better writer!). I've always enjoyed writing contemporary settings more than full-on fantasy worlds, but at the same time, I always wanted to sprinkle in unreality a bit, too. This changed from "horror" to "slipstream" to "magical realism" to "urban fantasy," which finally seemed to get a popular audience. But I can't really say I was doing anything very different, except that I did change to a female main character.

RV: Possibility. The same thing that attracts me to everything I like in life. I love the freedom that urban fantasy gives a writer. Anything can happen. While as a writer, I am restricted to what I can make the reader believe, I’m not restricted by the laws of nature as we know them in the real world. Anything goes. ;)

I don’t see urban fantasy and paranormal romance as adversaries. I see them as partners. They attract many, many of the same readers, and a boom in one subgenre can only positively affect the other.

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Many thanks to both Rachels for taking time out of their busy schedules for this interview.

To find out more about Rachel Caine's books, please visit her website.
To find out more about Rachel Vincent's books, please visit her website.

I for one am glad to hear both Rachel Caine and Rachel Vincent haven't ditched urban fantasy, and I'm looking forward to fresh series from both. So, that leaves me wondering--

WHERE HAS ALL THE URBAN FANTASY GONE? -- Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series.

Review: HUNGER by Jackie Morse Kessler

When I was thirteen I had a teacher keep me after class to ask me if I was anorexic. Mortified, I tried to laugh it off and swear to her I wasn't. Whether I managed to convince her or not, I don't know, but she didn't ask me again. The moment made a lasting impression on me, however. I wondered what prompted her to ask. I became self-conscious of what I was eating, worried I was being watched. Was I too thin? Not eating enough? Eating too much? Eating the wrong foods? The right foods? If I didn't have an eating problem before that moment, I sure did after. I was obsessed.

I mention all this because I could be a little biased.

When I heard about the first book of Jackie Morse Kessler's new YA series, in which the main character suffers from anorexia nervosa and yet becomes Famine, one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, I was intrigued. How could anyone who refused food become someone with the power to take food away? How would she deal with that?

When HUNGER opens, the main character, Lisabeth (Lisa) Lewis, is sitting on her bed staring at the set of Scales just given to her, which interrupted her attempted suicide by pill overdose. The pills get swept aside, and Lisa goes to sleep. The next day she thinks it was all a dream. Except for the wanting to die part. She remembers that. She tells her new best friend Tammy about her dream, while they make a batch of cookies. Tammy, we learn is bulimic and an avid supporter of Lisa being anorexic. We also learn Lisa's mom is never around, and her dad is a workaholic.

Lisa sees a black horse standing in the yard. No one else sees it. Then she sees the Scales on the kitchen table. She thinks she's going crazy, but dismisses the thought and carries on with her day.

She goes out on a date with her boyfriend. They bicker, and we see more of Lisa's disorder and how it's affected her relationships and personality. And how her new powers will manifest themselves. While on her date, she accidentally turns her food to ash. Then she makes it disappear altogether. 

Death, another of the Horsemen, comes to meet Lisa, to try to convince her of what she is, who she has become. She doesn't believe him. Not until she accidentally induces hunger-fuelled rage in a restaurant full of people.

The rest of the book becomes more about Lisa coming to terms with being anorexic, than about Lisa becoming Famine, the Horseman of the Apocalypse. And yet, the anorexic issue is not really dealt with either. It's not preachy, by any means. In fact, the story skims over being anorexic, over being Famine, over being a teenager, over pretty much everything. There's not enough to emotionally invest in the story or a character. We get just a nibble about a character, a drop of the story, and then the plot moves on.

The problems with this book start right from the first page. We don't get to see the suicide attempt or any of the events that lead up to it. We don't even get to see the Scales being handed to Lisa, except by flashback. While the flashback and the chronology of the story events are handled well, we should have seen these scenes unfold first-hand since they are pivotal moments in Lisa's development. She refers to them many times throughout the story. The story question, posed by Death, is for Lisa to decide if she wants to live or die. Other events and pivotal moments are thrown at Lisa and she just accepts them. Take for example: on page 53 Death tells her she's not Lisabeth Lewis anymore, now she's Famine. Her response? On page 54, "My dad's going to worry." She accepts being Famine the same way she accepts having to wash the dishes or make dinner. So why doesn't she accept being anorexic? Her friend Suzanne tells her she's anorexic (another event that takes place before the story opens), her boyfriend tells her she's anorexic, Lisa even admits she exercises too much, she's aware of the voice inside her that whispers caloric counts and tells her not to eat, she makes an attempt on her life (that she is entirely aware of), and yet she denies having an eating disorder. I'm not suggesting this is all out of whack or that it's a bad story; I think the character needed more development. I needed more time with Lisa to truly wonder what she was going to do in the end.

I found Lisa to be bland, one-dimensional, defined only by anorexia. Death, War, and even Pestilence were all more interesting characters. I feel this has to do with choice. The other four Horsemen made interesting choices. Lisa didn't really make interesting choices. She made predictable ones.While I'll remember the other characters well, Lisa is forgettable. She needed more details, something that might have explained how this particular teen knows the difference between a philosopher, a philanthropist, and a cynic, or knows what "Junoesque" or "heroin-chic" means. Maybe she reads the dictionary for pleasure or hangs out at museums. I don't know. As it stands, these five-dollar words feel more like author intrusion than character-defined thoughts.

The best scene of the book is when Lisa goes back to fight hunger in an undisclosed Third World community. Finally, finally, we get to see Lisa make choices, grow a spine and do something.

My favourite passage has to be at the end of Lisa's date, when she returns home and Death is waiting in her backyard.

"What do you think?" Death asked. "Should I give her five minutes? Let her calm down first? Maybe give her some time to get ready for her big night out? Or should I throw her to the metaphorical wolves?"

The black horse flicked its ears. The pale horse snorted.

"You're right," Death said. "Girls take forever to get ready. I'll go get her."

Like I said, I'm biased. HUNGER is also fast-paced and informative without being preachy. Heavy topics are nicely concealed within an imaginative fantasy world. But I guess you could say I was left hungry.

Ultimately, I'll read the next in the series, but I don't really care one way or the other if we never see Lisa again. I'm intrigued enough by the world, and the subjects of the next book (rage, cutting, and War) to take a chance on it, but I hope the next character will be a little more interesting. RAGE hits shelves April 2011.

HUNGER hits shelves October 18, 2010 with a portion of the proceeds going to the National Eating Disorders Association.

Jackie Morse Kessler's website.

Haunted Gingerbread House - Contest Announcement

Every year when October hits and the leaves turn orange, I get the urge to bake a Haunted Gingerbread House. I didn't used to get this urge in October. The only gingerbread house I wanted to make was the Christmas one and I was perfectly happy at that. Then along came October 2006 and ever since then, I've had to attempt the Haunted Gingerbread House, too.

It's all Rachel Vincent's fault!

October 2006, she posted this cute little homemade project:




But in October 2007, she made improvements and posted this:




In October 2008, she just had to go one step further with this house:



Then last year, October 2009, she left me hanging. Something about having to move or some other lame excuse for not making a haunted gingerbread house from scratch. But posted this homemade Christmas house a couple months later:



Even years later my own attempts still resemble the October 2006 house, barring major icing disasters and I've had many of those. I've even had to resort to using a pre-fab kit.

Do you make a Haunted Gingerbread House? I know I'm a little demented, but I can't be the only one.

I want to see your houses! So let's make it a contest! Here's how to enter:

1. Follow us on Twitter (http:/twitter.com/litlandscapes)
2. Re-tweet this contest announcement tweet to let all your friends know about it.
3. Post to your Twitter the pictures of your results. Use the hashtag: #llchauntedhouse

That's it! The top five will be posted here for final voting. Winner will receive $25 Amazon gift certificate! Contest closes October 31. Entrants must follow the rules to qualify. Check back November 1 for final voting.

Happy baking!

Stocking Stuffers Wanted

Trust me, you don't want to know how many shopping days you have until Christmas. You just need to know what to put in the stockings. Probably as much as I do. 

Don't look to stuff your stocking with the mass market paperback of Jim Butcher's CHANGES. The soft cover won't be available until March. 

Likewise, don't look for the mmpb of Kim Harrison's BLACK MAGIC SANCTION. It'll all be over with the wrapping paper still on the floor by the time it hits the shelves on December 28, 2010. 

So what am I going to put in there? (It's a sad fact that I have to stuff my own stocking, but that's what happens when a chain-reader marries a non-reader.)

Backlist titles for authors I've never had the chance to try. I like to do my shopping on-line and not only get softcover titles and the chance to try a new author or two or three, but the books are shipped in brown boxes. No hiding necessary. I leave the box sealed and wrap when I'm ready.

I'm looking for suggestions on titles and authors to try. Got a favourite author you'd like to promote? Suggested reading? Please leave a comment. Thanks!