Me and Genres
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Apr 7, 2026 · 1 min read
I used to write your basic poetry and short stories. Then for a while very very Hard Science Fiction but editors said I had an certain amount (maybe as in too much) weirdness in my characters. Well, they were mostly all courting a quick death while losing a war with some surprisingly urbane aliens. So Sorry-yu-nada.
Next it was all witches all the time whilst winning Europe for Napoleon. Wow. That did not sell. Apparently a witch that can be Napoleon’s doppleganger is not upscale generic commersial fiction. I’d say such a witch is at least ambitious if not “high concept”…but (obviously) what do I know? (that’s sort of a rhetorical question).
Things changed when I wondered how one might recruit a Witch King or an assistant Witch King to do some odd Jobs for Napoleon. Here the genres start to mix since the recuitment vehicle was a video game inwhich said Assistant Witch King played the role of a Pagan Prussian Princess (I could already hear agents saying “No Talking Animals and No Pagan Prussian Princesses”)…from there it was all an ear-splitting saga of Soft Sci-Fi and slightly Hard Fantasy complete with lots of Talking Animals and the occasional Pagan Prusssian Princess.