{"id":9804,"date":"2025-08-18T10:26:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T17:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/?p=9804"},"modified":"2025-08-18T13:12:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T20:12:25","slug":"i-write-literary-fiction-i-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/2025\/08\/i-write-literary-fiction-i-think\/","title":{"rendered":"I write literary fiction. I think."},"content":{"rendered":"

The first book I published, Before the Time Machine<\/em>, was unapologetically literary fiction. It was dual timeline, completely character-focused, had no threaded plot, and featured serious themes.<\/p>\n

\"Before<\/a><\/p>\n

But then I began to write historical mysteries, the Tommy Jones series, set in Victorian England. And immediately there was a problem.<\/p>\n

The meta information for a book (needed for publishing, Library of Congress information, and marketing) requires the author to state a genre. Are Murder at Old St. Thomas’s<\/em>, Murder at an Exhibitio<\/em>n, Murder on the Pneumatic Railway<\/em>, and my upcoming Murder at the Gasworks<\/em> historical fiction? You bet. Are they in the mystery (also known as crime) camp? Also yes.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Once in the mystery category, there are subcategories. Are they cozies? A cozy doesn’t have graphic violence or sex. Check. It is usually discrete, one crime solved per book. Check. It has some light elements or humor. Check.<\/p>\n

But historicals aren’t cozies, typically. So when I wrote a more typical light cozy mystery, Bummer at Luna Beach<\/em>, I stopped referring to the historical mysteries as cozies. Instead, they are historical fiction, and traditional mysteries.<\/p>\n

It got even more complicated when I published A Heart Purloined<\/em>, a historical romance that was also a mystery. And possibly a cozy. But certainly a romance, with a rivals-to-lovers trope. The meta list was getting longer and more confusing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Since my books have been available for a few years, I’ve had the opportunity to receive feedback from readers. I do not have a lot of readers. Historical fiction is not a popular genre at the moment, and people buy far more thrillers than traditional mysteries.<\/p>\n

Historical romance is nowhere near as popular as it was when I was reading them avidly in the 1980s and 90s. And historical romance mystery? Not even on most readers’ radar. My best-selling book is the actual cozy with no genre waffling, Bummer at Luna Beach<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What I keep hearing is that my books, particularly the Tommy Jones Victorian mysteries, are differently written than most in the genre. They are more serious, less trauma-based, and better researched than many books that are written quickly and sell a lot. They have deeper themes and more developed characters. The typical mystery elements are there, and they are whodunnits (not why-dunnits), but they come off more like — dare I use the word? —\u00a0 literature.<\/p>\n

That’s because my models were people like Anne Perry and P.D. James. At the time, they were considered mystery genre writers. But now, as I re-read their work, I believe their books would be reclassified as literary fiction, like Patricia Highsmith or Georges Simenon.<\/p>\n

Why? I believe that in the last twenty years or so, what we call genre fiction (mysteries, thrillers, romances, etc.) has become increasingly lightweight in terms of literary expression. Perhaps because attention spans are shorter, people want a fast read. It doesn’t have to be short, just easy to read quickly. They want their emotions hit through trauma, rather than character depth. Trauma is a faster route to caring what happens to a character. When they love a book, they want more like it rather than something new. (As a reader, I got into this tangle myself reading authors like Kate Morton, who use recurrent themes in similar settings.) Also, many readers today demand a “twist”, and are unhappy if they don’t get one. My twists are more ribbon than braid.<\/p>\n

In short (yes, I know it wasn’t), I’m considering thinking of my historical mysteries as literary fiction, at the other end of the table from cozy mysteries. If you’ve read my work, let me know whether you agree?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first book I published, Before the Time Machine, was unapologetically literary fiction. It was dual timeline, completely character-focused, had no threaded plot, and featured serious themes. But then I began to write historical mysteries, the Tommy Jones series, set in Victorian England. And immediately there was a problem. The meta information for a book […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","category-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9804"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9819,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9804\/revisions\/9819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lisahistory.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}