Assigning a genre to a novel is like selecting pizza toppings. Yes, it’s that personal. Think of a hand-tossed mozzarella pizza as an example of fiction. With pepperoni tossed about, women’s fiction emerges. Next, black olives and onions appear, creating a new level, thus giving birth to fantasy fiction. Finally, magical realism triumphs when anchovies form the pizza’s top layer. The more selective the topping, the more specific the genre.
Classifying a book is crucial since it guides readers to choose well, especially given the cost of $10 to $30 per read. There are at least 50 recognizable book genres to choose from, with Amazon and other sales platforms listing well over 15,000 genres/subgenres. No matter how bizarre a reader’s preferred genre combination, it can be found somewhere—in a small, independent bookstore or online. It’s worth the time readers put into finding their next perfect read.
Still, readers aren’t the only ones obsessed with book genres. Authors are involved from the jump because they craft stories within genres that they’re most comfortable writing. Then, publishers and sales platforms like Amazon and Barnes & Noble join the process by fine-tuning any distinctions designed to channel books into the hands of eager readers. When everything aligns perfectly, the result is pure magic.
Combining magic, history, and a dark romance (hate disguised as love), A Southern Enchantress falls within a specific fantasy fiction subgenre recognized as magical realism. Drawing upon New Orleans’ history and Southern folklore, I created a dual-timeline fictional narrative with mystical charm, told through three distinct voices.
So, how do readers discover novels framed in magical realism?
Fantasy fiction is for those seeking an escape, often a very intense one. Ordinary mystery, murder, or even suspense novels cannot check the boxes sufficiently.
Upon entering A Southern Enchantress, readers encounter an immediate blur between reality and fantasy. This magical world is perfectly commonplace for the MC, Suzanne Lafountain. She communicates with trapped spirits and has long been associated with assisting their crossovers…into a peaceful afterlife. That is until the sudden death of Suzanne’s mother, Madelaine, who practiced hoodoo, a folk magic. Suzanne blames her mother’s death on irresponsible spellcasting and wants nothing to do with it—until a beloved spirit delivers an ultimatum.
Here, the allure of fantasy is believing people exist in an ordinary environment that offers extraordinary possibilities.
Though A Southern Enchantress employs familiar tropes of real-world settings, spiritual elements, ambiguity, and unexplained phenomena, this novel is truly a woman’s journey of self-discovery and revenge, a theme many readers find relatable.
How do authors decide on a writing genre?
An author’s genre choice in writing a novel is as telling about them as it is about the reader. I developed a passion for reading at a very young age…escaped into my library books for comfort and reassurance. I grew up with Alice in Wonderland, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (The Chronicles of Narnia), The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Charlotte’s Web, and so on. I found solace in fantasy literature.
As an adult reader, I am drawn to provocative and sometimes unconventional perspectives in literature. I adore Shirley Jackson, Mary Stewart, Alice Hoffman, and Anne Rice. When teaching secondary English, I refer reluctant readers to Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief and Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, hoping to rekindle a love of reading.
Completing the Circle
I dedicated myself entirely to A Southern Enchantress only after I felt the time was right in my life to write a fantasy novel. Research became a second calling: investigating practices I’d only heard about, though never witnessed, was as important as outlining the narrative. Then, crafting inspirational characters who used magical solutions to resolve the most daunting challenges imaginable became an obsession.
So, why? Why do authors go through this? They have a story to tell, simply put. What’s waiting, in the end? Readers who crave stories steeped in fantasy because they’d give anything to have magic at their fingertips…in their ordinary lives.
Because of this, we’re both here, together, right now.
