Why I Write Urban Fantasy

 

While cruising around social media lately I’ve seen this question come up a few times: Why do you write in the genre you do?

Why indeed? Urban fantasy is a relatively new genre, just becoming popular in the past couple of decades. The definition is basically this: magical and supernatural characters and events based in a gritty, (mostly) urban modern day environment.

Growing up I was fascinated by the paranormal and the occult. The more fantastical it was, the more I devoured it. Monsters and vampires and ghosts and witches and werewolves didn’t scare me. I was more afraid of the things that could come at you in real life, like rapists and serial killers (though zombies are still my trigger fear). So I read everything I could get my hands on in the genre that was then mainly classified as horror. When I couldn’t find the stories I wanted to read, I made them up and wrote them down. Thus began my writing career.

Vampire stories were my favorite–I read everything I could find. I didn’t like Dracula; he was too, well, moldy. I liked my vampires up and living in the real world, interacting with humans, and not always the villain. I can’t remember all the authors I read, but their stories left their mark on me. And one book in particular had a profound effect, from a little known writer at the time, Interview With A Vampire. Anne Rice’s vampires were a revelation. Finally, here were vampires who weren’t the villains, they were the protagonists. The Vampire Lestat is still to this day one of my favorite books. I’ve worn out two paperback copies of it and have it on my kindle, and I still return to it when I need inspiration or just that comfort read. I may know practically every line in it, but it still entertains me.

I believe Anne Rice ushered in the birth of urban fantasy. Yeah, there were others before her, but she brought it into the light of mainstream fiction. There have been others since that have fed my love of this genre and have influenced my own writing, like Jim Butcher, Tanya Huff, Elaine Bergstrom, Kate Griffin, and perhaps my current favorite, Rob Thurman (though I can’t forgive her for leaving her readers in the lurch on a cliffhanger in the Cal Leandros series). These authors and many more feed my imagination and make me a better writer for it. I really do read heavily in the genre I write, and am constantly looking for new voices to devour.

So why do I write in my chosen genre? Because to me it best represents the fodder of my imagination. Stories about real life leave me cold. I have to live real life; when I read (and write), I want to escape it. So I go to my happy place. Urban Fantasy. To me, it’s the best of both worlds.