There are Still Taboos for 'Good' Characters

Many old taboo writing topics--sex, race and religion--have gone mainstream in genre fiction and popular best-sellers. But there are still lines authors of popular novels hesitate to cross, especially for "good" characters. For example, a male character who engages in unmarried sex or homosexual relationships is now more acceptable as a hero, but a rapist or pedophile repulses and must be brought to justice. A female character can reject marriage and support abortion without offending the majority, but if she embraces incest, she loses reader empathy. A protagonist may be opinionated and volatile--as long as outbursts are not racist, sexist, elitist or offensive to some group stereotype. Sexual antics can be described in detail without being called pornographic now, but other bodily functions are still taboo--even when writers try to spare sensibilities by "latinizing," as if characters who defecate, flatulate, regurgitate, and masturbate have less ick factor. Other no-nos are more surprising. Americans have become so sensitive about weight issues (even though we are one of the most obese populaces) that "fat" seems to have joined "retard" and "Negro" as taboo epithets. Many Americans also are such animal lovers that any character who doesn't like animals is unsympathetic, and animal killing is seen as a mark of depravity. Aging is another taboo; if the protagonist has to be over 50, no one wants to know about sags, bags, wattles, flab, flagging sex drive, or any other ills that aging flesh is heir to. Older heroes and heroines must be preternaturally lively and attractive, yet redeemed from shallowness by experience, the only positive of added years in our culture. But probably the biggest taboo of all is normality. Today's protagonists embrace "exceptionalism," as the conservative politicos say of America. Middling looks, middling intellect, and middle-class background, even if thrown into exciting circumstances, aren't going to win fans. Give a main character an exceptional skill, a shocking secret, or a unique personal challenge to engage readers. Have we stopped believing that ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things? For advice on writing about taboo topics, see https://litreactor.com/columns/storyville-writing-about-taboo-subjects

Taking Romance From Staid to Steamy

With the rise of "erotic romance," the romance genre has come a long way since I first discovered it in my early teens, when most of the piles of love stories I brought home from the library ended with a kiss, and only a kiss (plus a proposal of marriage). Some things about romance fiction haven't changed, of course: It still claims the largest share of U.S. consumer book sales, still is an almost completely female pleasure (91% of readers are women), and still appeals to an audience that has graduated young adult but is still far from senior (mean age 49 for print and 42 for e-books). But the popularity of erotic romance (exemplified by the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon) definitely has added new heat, in terms of sales and content, to an old formula. One reason for the growth of the erotic subgenre is doubtless the advent of the e-book, which allows women to download and read a sexy story privately, without the embarrassment of publicly purchasing and carrying the telltale cover. (I used to wish paperbacks would do away with half-naked Fabio back in the day.) And because of the success of erotica, I've noticed that other romance subgenres, including contemporary, historical, paranormal and even Regency romances, are being spiced up with steamy sex scenes. (The inspirational romances remain chaste, of course.) Adding "romance" to mystery or sci-fi probably requires penning a few sex scenes in today's market, too. For an amusing PBS/POV infographic on the evolution of the romance novel, see http://www.pbs.org/pov/guiltypleasures/infographic-evolution-of-romance-novels-fifty-shades-of-grey-ebook.php#.U7M6pJRdWSo

Mystery Fiction Embraces Genre-Bending

I've noticed, and a recent Library Journal article confirms, that the genre boundaries of mystery fiction are expanding and blurring. Mystery authors seem increasingly prone to borrow from other genres, ranging from romance, paranormal/fantasy, horror and thriller to Westerns. The resulting crossover novels may have the traditional mystery puzzle solving, but they've got a genre-bending persona. For example, how do reviewers categorize the hit Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn? The page-turning psychological mystery about a husband suspected in the disappearance of his wife seems to have jumped right over genre into "literary fiction" status. The current paranormal craze is especially infectious, with paranormal mysteries, like paranormal romances, proliferating. So no surprise that Southerner Maggie Toussaint (author of Cleopatra Jones and Mossy Bog mysteries) is going paranormal with her new book Gone and Done It about a landscaper/pet-sitter who uses dream-walking to help police. The crime-solving Western, following the trail of the late Tony Hillerman, seems to be another mystery crossover category; an example is the Western noir Bad Country by C.B. McKenzie (featuring a Native American rodeo-cowboy-turned-PI). Meanwhile, the success of the The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series has paved the way for imports with a foreign accent, and not just from Scandanavia. I'm looking forward to the summer arrival of Bernard Minier’s Frozen Dead, set in the French Pyrénées and winner of several French literary prizes. Of course, American authors are also pumping out standard mystery fare and doing it well: Police procedurals, spunky women sleuths, historicals and small-town "cozies" abound. But based on sales trends, I'm thinking about penning an erotic paranormal mystery set in Iceland. For the Library Journal preview of 2014 mystery debuts, go to http://reviews.libraryjournal.com/2014/04/books/genre-fiction/mystery/pushing-boundaries-mystery-preview-2014/