PLENILUNE: Defining Genre

elisabeth g. foley // reviewWhile preparing for a party totally unrelated to anything literary, I stressed about how to define Plenilune.  You all know the struggle: the moment you mention your overarching genre, you feel you've been pigeon-holed as an author.  Plenilune is a fantasy, no doubt about it, but it does not lend itself to pigeon-holing.  So how did I present myself, as an author of fiction, with a book newly hatched on the market, without immediately consigning myself to the enormity of the fantasy realm?  How did I define my genre?

The last thing I wanted to do was hem and haw.  "Well, it's a fantasy, but - " long-winded back-pedaling.  "It's historical-fiction in the sense that - "  "But, you know, it's definitely a fantasy because - " "Only, you have to keep in mind that my style is very ordinary and doesn't hinge on the fantasy aspect..."  Kicking a lame tin can of rhetoric down the road is a great way to lose the listener's interest.  I needed to be short and snappy and know my stuff.  The problem was, Plenilune is complicated, and I'm so close to the mark that I have difficulty picking out its defining features.  In the end, I decided the best way to pick it apart was to look at some of its biggest aspects, its tell-tale, key features, and find their categories in literature.  I wound up modifying the fantasy genre. 

magical realism meets planetary fantasy

No hemming, no hawing: two legitimate sub-genres collide to define the novel, just forceful enough to stop people in their tracks on the way to the nearest pigeon-hole.  It adequately summarizes my approach to fantasy in general, it gives a glimpse of my style, sets my writing in the swath of literature to which it belongs, and you're left wanting to know, "Wot."


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