The Hemlock Notations

~ The writings of Faust S. Amazing

The Hemlock Notations

Monthly Archives: July 2014

Genres the Niche in Your Market

25 Friday Jul 2014

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Christopher Barzak, Christopher Merkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Genre Fiction, Genres, George R. R. Marten, Literary Fiction, Samuel Eden, Stephen King, writing

Alright, y’all, I recently got something stuck in my craw about genres, and what’s considered “literary,” and stuff. A few months ago in a discussion someone brought up literary fiction and the idea that it was a niche market unto itself since only a certain type/amount of people actually read it. The conversation didn’t really go anywhere because most of the people there were literary types. I guess maybe they thought it was a null point since everyone they knew reads literary fiction.

Over the next weeks the subject kept popping up, I couldn’t escape talk about literary fiction and what the people who read it thought about it and genre writing.

Clarification: For those of you who might not know according to Academia there are basically two types of fiction, literary fiction and genre fiction. Literary Fiction refers to books like: Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, and Christopher Merkner’s The Rise and Fall of the Scandamerican Domestic. Genre Fiction (and this term is almost used in a derogatory sense) refers to books like: George R. R. Marten’s The Song of Ice and Fire series, Stephen King’s IT, and Christopher Barzak’s One for Sorrow.

Here’s my problem with the people in the Literary Fiction corner: they are continuously writing papers and articles about literature. In most of them there is a clear bias towards Literary Fiction and how so much better it is than Genre Fiction. They are clearly arguing that Literary Fiction rules while Genre Fiction drools.

This makes them a bit of dicks for two reasons. 1) This is a one sided argument, because most (not all) of the people reading these papers and articles are other Literary Fiction people (most of the Genre Fiction people are reading something fun). It’s easy to win an argument when you’re the only one arguing. 2) They want people to read but then they’re telling people that how they read is wrong. It’s like a person telling someone they need to eat to stay healthy, watching them eat, and then telling them how they eat is wrong and they should stop until they figure out how to do it better.

Not that there haven’t been salvo’s fired from the Genre Fiction side, and now here’s my two cents. The whole Literary vs. Genre Fiction argument is just plain dumb. And not just for the above reasons. The simple fact is Literary Fiction is a genre. Go into any bookstore or library. There’ll be a section marked Literature (it will be the section that’s empty or populated by some teens looking for a school assignment).

Genres whether they be literature, fantasy, horror, or mystery are there to help people find what they like to read. It’s really quite clear. That’s it. How hard would it be to find the book you want if you walked into a store or a library and it was just a big pile? That’s why some smarty said: “Why don’t we put them in order like the alphabet?” When there got to be too many books for this to be helpful some other smarty said: “Why don’t we group the books that are like each other in the same section and label the sections after the unifying theme?” Hocus-pocus genres were born. And how helpful they are too.

The point of this whole thing: find what you like to read and don’t let anyone stop you.

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Not As Many As A Lost Princess But I Do Got Some LINKS

21 Monday Jul 2014

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AJ Sabino, Community, Fantasy World Writer, hemlock notations, Samuel Eden, Teen Ink, writing, Writing Community

Okay, so as you can see I have some links up on the page. I want to talk a bit about them.

First is AJ Sabino. AJ is the first person I met through a convention. He’s a good guy and a talented artist. He actually did the superheroine for the All Ameri-Con flyer this year. If you get a chance give his site a look.

Second, we have Fantasy World Writer. I met Matt at this past convention after sending some e-mails back and forth about him wanting to review my work. He’s got a review up for Superiority Complex that I think is more than fair. He’s a good guy. From what he told me he runs the website as an aside from his day job. And that’s why I love the Internet; it allows you to indulge in what you like/love/are obsessed with and find other people who like/love/are obsessed with the same thing. It’s a great place to build a community or find one. He doesn’t just do books either, he also reviews movies and television shows, and recently setup a calender for release dates on movies and shows and books. Go on over and join the community.

Thirdly of the new links: Teen Ink. A young woman at this past convention told me her story was on their website. After checking it out (search: Raven Darius, the story is Delusional), I spent some time bopping around the site. It’s pretty cool. It encourages teens to write. There ain’t nothing wrong with that. They have both a print magazine and the website. Again I think this is great because of the whole sense of community. When I was a teen and trying to find my voice through writing there really wasn’t anything like this. I’m a fan of anything that encourages people to write. So once again take a look at the site and be part of the community.

Now a word on future links, while I like the distinct lack of clutter on my website I can’t very well rave about building a community through the Internet and then not put links up on my site. So more links will appear, but there isn’t a set list or schedule for that right now. Just keep an eye out. Until next time.

2014 All Ameri-Con

07 Monday Jul 2014

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Akron Comicon, All American Cards and Comics, All Americon, Samuel Eden

Hey, All!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I had fun at the Con. Thanks to everyone for showing up and supporting comics, actions figures, and everything geek-tastic. For those of you who stopped by the table I had fun talking to you. I dispensed a lot of writing advice (and I hope that helped).

For those of you who picked up a card, and are visiting the site for the first time: WELCOME! There’s a free story here that I hope you enjoy, a brief bio of your’s truly, and tons more writing advice along the way. You’ll also find links to electronic versions of the stories I had at the convention if you’d like to take a look at those in your own time.

I just want to say that I’ve enjoyed my time at conventions thus far and it’s all because of the people (you guys and the organizers). I was hoping to head out to The Akron Comicon later this year, but was late in getting my calender organized so I’ll be missing it. I do want to give it a shout out though because it’s an awesome convention. You can learn more about it by clicking here. You can also follow them on the book of face.

I also met a few new friends who’ve inspired me to fiddle with the site controls and try to get some links going to their pages. So hopefully I’ve figured out how to do that by the time you read this post and you can take a look at them. Over there ——————————————————————————————>
I think.

Until next time, keep thinking good thoughts and writing good words.

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