Why I Wrote an Urban Fantasy Series

Why I Wrote an Urban Fantasy Series:

In this hellhole of a couple of years, I could not stomach my epic science fiction space opera about the revenge, trauma, and why humanity can’t seem to get along that I’ve been working on for years. So I started a little story in one of my favorite genres, urban fantasy.

But this was going to be a little different. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE urban fantasy. My favorite authors in the genre are Audrey Faye, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, and Neil Gaiman. But there are a LOT of werewolves and vampires around. A seriously ridiculous number of werewolves and vampires. If you look at the top novels, they’re all shifters of some sort or another.

No Werewolves, No Vampires.

Rule one, I was going to investigate all of the other creatures we’ve created in our fairytales. There are so many more legends than Eastern European bloodsuckers born of the fact that humanity didn’t understand rigor mortis and the fact that we move after death. Or the myth of the alpha wolf that the creator of that theory spent years trying to debunk. (That majestic alpha he saw ruling over his pack? Yeah, that was a girl.)

My main character is a goblin because the characters that always fascinated me the most in the stories I grew up on – mostly Celtic fairy tales and the traditional Grimms – are the tricksters. They’re not evil or good. They’re helpful or unhelpful. They’re not the most powerful creatures on the block, but often ensure success or failure of the quest. The dramatic potential seemed endless. Orange is one of my favorite characters I’ve ever created.

Beyond the European Myths.

One thing that fascinates me is the folklore creatures you find the world over. There is a goblin character in almost every country’s mythology. The trickster seems to be a universal avatar. I’m also fascinated by the difference between cultures. The monsters of Japanese folklore outweigh anything any other people have come up with, while the European creatures are so much smaller, but so much more violent. I remain always fascinated by the stories we tell ourselves and why.

Humor Wins Over Blood.

If you’re not the most powerful creature on the block, then let’s hope you’re funny.  Sometimes urban fantasy is a synonym for horror and my squick factor is dialed to 11. I’m not saying I’m against horror. I’m just saying the horror I would try to write would not horrify most fans of the genre because I wimp out so much more quickly. Beside, craftiness and humor are at least as good as a sword, right?

Set in Washington DC

DC is my favorite city in the world. I lived there for a decade until a breakup and the humidity drove me home to the West, but it has so much history and so many amazing places. It’s another more rarely used setting in fantasies. I didn’t want to watch one more heroine striding around New York brooding. Thus far I’ve ranged the settings from Union Station to the Capitol, to Civil War forts and battlefields, to the Smithsonian, to the monuments. This is my love letter to my adopted city.

Solving Crimes

One dirty little secret of urban fantasy is that it is a genre made up of other genres. Harry Potter is a coming of age children’s novel – with witches and wizards. Twilight is a teen romance – with vampires and werewolves. There are urban fantasy cozy mysteries and thrillers and horror and and every other genre. Growing up, my favorite author was Agatha Christie and I love puzzles, so now that I gathered all of the mythic creatures on earth I wanted to know better, what were they going to do? They’re solving crimes with the FBI, because I couldn’t think of a stronger contrast between a college-dropout, broke hobgoblin and a straightlaced FBI agent who’s never taken a wrong turn in her life.

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