Vampires and Monsters not Fantasy?

I would assume they want a fairly ordinary, modern, everyday world as we know it today, yeah. So no world-building along the lines of creating a complete sort of world as fantasy tends to do. However, the idea that vampires and monsters can exist at all is, to normal people, complete and utter fantasy so the prohibition against it makes little sense.

In addition, the avoidance of mystery novelization is kind of odd. Vampire and monster novels almost have to have an air of mystery to them. That's part of the attraction.

I suspect that the person who wrote the website doesn;t know what the hell the difference is between science fiction, fantasy, mystery, and vampire/monster novels and thus doesn't really have a clue as to what the editors really want.

There is a difference between a Vampire "Paranormal" and a Vampire "Horror" ...Horror is much darker and the vampires don't sparkle! *lol* A paranormal would be more about what vampires are about, where the horror would be more about what wholesale slaughter the vampire unleashes on the town he/she terrorizes.... does that make sense?

The creature in the book does not determine it genre, as noted above.

Fantasy is when the vampire is not a monster. They are just making it clear they want real horror, and preferably monster oriented horror, and sparkle f#$@ing free, thank you very much. No mystery means it would be best if the Vampire weren't some suave gumshoe saving the innocent, but an actual MONSTER!

I think that's very clear. And no UNICORNS!!

As a Sci-Fi / Fantasy writer, the term Fantasy to me means Magic, elves, unicorns, dragons, etc set in an medieval setting ala Tolkien Lord of the Rings.

On rare occasion, you can find a Vampire or vampire-like creature in a Fantasy, however, since it is an entire world of magic, Vampires aren't all that special.

IMHO, the reason why Vampires and other monsters do so well in a contemporary setting is due to the extreme contrast.

In a Fantasy realm, with all the magic going on, Vampires are like meh, there are more interesting and powerful forces available.

but in our modern day world, a Vampire would be an awesome force to be reconed with.

o.k. enough babbling

Mel...