Week 6, Assignment 3

The instructions for the first part of Assignment 3 are to choose three fiction subgenres with which I am unfamiliar and to locate a fan website for each. In order for this to be useful, I would like to choose three subgenres that customers have actually requested. So...I selected paranormal romance, hip-hop urban fiction, and epic fantasy. In addition to the websites I list below, I also consulted  Fantastic Fiction, NoveList, and Goodreads to get more information for these entries.

Paranormal Romance
Fan website: This was a good subgenre to pick. Finding a fan website for this was easy-peasy: I just googled "fan website for paranormal romance" and came up with a slew of them. I initially choose a site that unfortunately was not up-to-date. Some pages were last updated in 2010; the most recent reviews were from 2012; and the New Releases page didn't have any actual content. So, I selected a blog that appeared at the top of the search results, called "Paranormal Romance Fans for Life," which was updated two days ago. This site keeps tabs on new releases and is maintained by an author in this genre.
Authors/Titles: Danica Winters (blog owner), Nalini Singh, Christine Feehan
Hallmarks/Appeal Factors: According to Goodreads, paranormal romance books feature romantic relationships in conjunction with non-human, other-worldly, paranormal creatures and phenomena ("vampires, shapeshifters, ghosts, time travel, fantastical beings, and psychic abilities." ~from Goodreads). These books are also typically fast-paced and can be graphic.

Hip-Hop Urban Fiction
Fan Website: I searched using Google for "hip hop fiction" and came up with a number of websites that discuss urban fiction/street lit/hip hop fiction as interchangeable terms, but had a harder time finding a site that defines "hip hop fiction" in the way that it was defined on the Prezi graphic--as encompassing just urban titles focused on the music industry. There are many good resources and lists, such as this Urban Fiction/Street Lit/Hip Hop Fiction article and The Urban Book Source. Searching for hip-hop fiction on Goodreads produced lists of largely nonfiction titles. I also came across this informative blog about street lit.
Authors/Titles: Teri Woods, Ashley and JaQuavis, Nikki Turner
Hallmarks/Appeal Factors: Hip-hop/street lit/urban fiction books typically feature an urban setting, a fast pace, realistic dialogue, and realistic depictions of life on the streets.

Epic Fantasy
Fan Website: Once again, I turned to Google to see what I could find with a basic search (knowing that of course I could find lots of info on Goodreads and NoveList as well). I found a site called Best Fantasy Books that has lists of all kinds of fantasy and its subgenres, including epic fantasy. A "top 50" list of epic fantasy books can be found on this page.
Authors/Titles: J.R.R. Tolkien, George R. R. Martin, Steven Erikson
Hallmarks/Appeal Factors: Epic fantasy works feature struggles of good versus evil, are populated with heroes, wizards, villains, richly detailed worlds, and are often large, multi-volume works.

The last part of this assignment asks us to find two mashup titles--titles that blend two subgenres. Here are two that I found and my rationale for each:
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen qualifies for mashup status because it blends magical realism with chick lit and a heartwarming modern romance. A woman of some repute around town turns up hiding in sheltered Josey's closet, urging the hapless twentysomething to get a life and go after the man she admires.
Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce contains elements of several genres: literary fiction (superb writing), fantasy-fairy tale (betcha guessed that from the title, huh?), a good dose of cultural commentary, and a heckuva lot of psychology to boot. Sixteen-year-old Tara goes missing after a major falling out with her boyfriend, and shows up twenty years later, looking the same as she did when she "left." She claims to have been kidnapped by fairies.