Welcome to the unending discussion of fiction genre. With a tagline like "the girl next door with a dark side" she's gotta be interesting right? MJ Labeff, author, animal lover, liker of hot weather and all around great person has offered to do a multi part series on the subject. She and I go back and forth with questions and theoretical answers enough for it to develop into a series of its own. As always I have a curiosity for exactly what gets lumped under the horror banner and as she will explain, it doesn't always make sense. Please comment on the post with your own take, who knows, it may end up in my part two. Thanks MJ for continuing the discussion. By all means if you have something to contribute or have something to offer, please get ahold of me for further discussion, I'm always looking for a good guest post.

Genre Wars Part 1 with MJ Labeff

Genre wars- Horror versus Paranormal.
What’s the difference between the two?
It’s an ongoing discussion that Gordon and I have discussed over a few emails. Ha! I was one of your emails that didn’t get deleted. All right enough joking around- here we go. MJ LaBeff’s interpretation of horror and paranormal or as Gordon says, “my personal wiki.”


Paranormal
When referring to the word paranormal in books, I equate that to a story that either involves vampires, werewolves, witches, other shape shifters or characters with psychic abilities. I think of the supernatural where a strange occurrence has happened, some might refer to it as divine intervention. It's similar to the term super human. We've all watched news stories or read articles about a person who has exhibited super human strength. A car always seems to be involved in these situations. A person is pinned under a car and a man comes by and somehow lifts the car and simultaneously is able to save the person from imminent death. Paranormal conjures ideas of good and evil. I think of it as being an intentional force either perpetrated by a living or dead being for good or evil purposes.

Isn't it interesting that books featuring superheroes aren't in the genre of paranormal?
Superheroes are characters who usually live ordinary lives and then when needed change into their superhero counterpart with special powers. Hmmm, I'd almost think they'd fall in the genre of paranormal but seem to end up in the science fiction realm. Well, let's not confuse things. Back to paranormal. According to The Free Dictionary by Farlex online the word paranormal is an adjective defined as beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation- of or pertaining to events or perceptions occurring without scientific explanation, as clairvoyance or extrasensory perception.

So I wasn’t too far off in my line of thinking.


Horror
What about books where there’s a force of evil to be reckoned with- a restless spirit or soul seeking revenge, retribution, retaliation. It's the entity that causes strange things to happen, the unexplained which often scares. Speaking of scary, what is horror?
Gordon, you've written so many great blog posts on this subject I'm hesitant to discuss my thoughts, but here goes. Horror to me implies the macabre. It's taking what's evil or tragic and writing about that aspect in great detail, but it's much, much more. It's all that's leading up to that moment, it's what keeps a reader completely on edge like hearing the theme music to Jaws or Friday the 13th, but you've got to write it- there's no music in books- and then BOOM tragedy strikes and here's where all of the gore comes into flourishing description.

In my humble opinion the biggest differences between the genres would be this. In paranormal you don’t have to have anything “evil”- an author can choose to create a story with good shape shifters or psychics without any malevolent forces. I’m pretty certain if a reader picks up a horror book and it doesn’t horrify there’ll be great disappointment.

According to The Free Dictionary by Farlex online the word horror is a noun defined as a genre of fiction or other artistic work evoking suspense and horror, especially through the depiction of gruesome or supernatural elements.



So how does an author choose a genre?
We associate authors Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Anne Rice with horror but couldn’t some of their novels be classified as paranormal? In the world of mad algorithms, yes, but in theory paranormal is not a genre that can stand on its own. It’s always combined with a genre romance, suspense, mystery, thriller, science fiction, fantasy, urban fantasy.


What say you?
Readers, writers, agents, editors what are your thoughts on these genres? What are your expectations when you read a horror novel versus a novel with paranormal elements? Authors when pitching your book to an agent or editor or promoting it how do you choose between these genres?

Happy reading and writing! MJ grew up in northeastern Ohio but traded snow for sunshine and moved to southern Arizona over a decade ago where she lives with her husband and two dogs. When not at her day job in the financial services industry, she spends her free time working out, volunteering for the American Cancer Society and writing crime fiction.

She has completed two romantic suspense novels, Mind Games and Haunting Lyric and three books in a suspense/thriller series, Last Summer’s Evil, Last Fall’s Hunted and Last Winter’s Taken. Currently, she is writing Last Spring’s Stranger, the final book in the Last Cold Case series. She signed the series with Muse It Up Publishing. Last Summer’s Evil is scheduled to release fall/winter 2016. Last Fall’s Hunted is scheduled to release Spring 2017. Check back for future release dates in the Last Cold Case series.


http://mjlabeff.com/
@MJLaBeff