Expanding my genre discussions

Hello there. I'm already on writers' forums for romance, gay fiction, and erotic fiction (those being genres I write in), but I also write fantasy and historical fantasy and (nobody recognizes this genre exists, but I stubbornly continue to write in it) friendship fiction, and I wanted to find a forum where I could discuss those genres. I discovered this place a long while back and liked the look of it - especially your self-publishing forums - but it took me a while to get in here because the layout here is a bit difficult for large-print readers. I've sort of figured out ways to get around that, though, so I hope to stop by now and then.

(Waves hi to glassquill and Nickie.)

glassquill wrote:

"What is friendship fiction?"

It's fiction that centers on a friendship, of course. There's lots of it around, in various genres. It's just not normally labelled as such (unless it's aimed at children), because the publishers' thinking seems to be that adult readers won't specifically seek out books about friendship.

Well, I do. I read Patricia McKillip's Riddle-Master trilogy for the friendship between Morgon and Deth, I read Alistair MacLean's When Eight Bells Toll for the friendship between Calvert and Hunslett, and I read Robert A. Heinlein's Have Space Suit - Will Travel for the friendship between Kip and Peewee. I read those books for other reasons too, of course, but I love the fact that friendship plays an important role in the plots.

I read friendship fiction for the same reason some people (including myself) read romance: because I like seeing the way in which the emotional bonds between two people affect the plotline. I just don't think those bonds always have to be romantic bonds.

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Gosh, what a nice outpouring of greetings. Thanks, guys.

ScarlettLeopard asked:

"Would historical fantasy be anything like alternative history?"

There's overlap between the two. Historical fantasy is a term that's used for a variety of fantasy genres. (I wrote a brief description of the different meanings a few years back.) The type I mainly write has an otherworld setting (i.e. not our world) that is loosely based on the Victorian and Edwardian periods. I don't try to replicate political events, the way Guy Gavriel Kay does in his otherworld historical fantasies, but I try to give some sense of the social concerns of the time, and the physical setting is similar, since I ain't smart enough to come up with fantasy housing materials on my own.

Historical fantasy hasn't received as much attention as other fantasy subgenres, probably because most of the people who are writing it use other labels for their works, such as alternate history or steampunk. I notice, though, that Wikipedia is now recognizing the existence of otherworld historical fantasy, which it wasn't doing at the time I originally wrote my description of historical fantasy. So that suggests the subgenre is becoming better known.

Veinglory wrote:

"If you were trying to cut back on forum time this is not the way to do it!"

Busted. (Veinglory knows that I have an Internet addiction.)