Jeaniene Frost and I often chat about the industry and business. We shop talk and gossip, in other words. But once in a while I will say something, and J’s will counter with, “Yes, but I am shelved in Romance, so it’s different.”
I went to the local BN yesterday to buy and entire set of Harry Potter books for Kid 2 and a birthday present for Gordon and of course, I went to the all my favorite sections. So here I am browsing and, oh my goodness, what’s this?
What is this on the third shelf? That right there? Let’s look closer:
Still don’t's see it? Even closer!
Oh my goodness. And what does that nice orange sign says above these lovely bookshelves?
It says New Science Fiction!
Dear J, welcome to the ranks of Science Fiction authors. You may now be officially shunned by the old guard, because you have girl cooties and you are not literary enough. Thank you! My job here is done!
I love how cheeky you are Ilona
Oh snap!
B&N is crazy, I much prefer Powell’s, or even Boarders.
Poor Borders!
Although I am sad to see them go I will admit the clearance sale they ran when they closed was fun…I walked out of there with 2 bags of books for next to nothing.
I always find her stuff in the Sci Fi section when I go to the store. Course, I usually buy my stuff online. Gotta love nook for instant gratification.
I shop at Hastings and Books A Million, and have seen her books in the SciFi in those stores, too. Being hard to pigeon hole could be a good thing!
Girl cooties!!!
LOL
In middle school I gave book reports on Science Fiction writers. Not a girl thing in the late 60′s early 70′s. Early Comic Cons were always an adventure too. My current high school students are still surprised that my interest in all things science fiction/fantasy goes so far back. And there is still a sense among my male students that girls don’t read real sci fi. I am always happy to help correct this perception!
Yes, same here – I am younger but Russia was more chauvinistic. It goes hand in hand with Girls Don’t Do Math/Science and If Girls Do Math, that’s because they look terrible and can’t find a man.
Phhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!
Oh yes. My interests in SciFi were from my dad’s Asimov books, but I was a physics major, so I guess that made it okay for me to like it.
Fantasy came a little later – I read LotR in 1979. But Asimov was 1973 – my first bookish crush.
ditto. Mind you I still don’t know many women in Russia who read sci-fi or fantasy… But yay! UF is taken seriously at last if it’s within ranks of sci-fi and fantasy
)
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Hey! I’m old and still managed to become a married botanist. Er.
I never had a choice with SF. There were hundreds of copies in the house, and Heinlein taught a red-headed child chess because he hated parties. My chess skills are still poor.
Gee, a lot of the books in the picture weren’t, by any stretch of the imagintion, science fiction. Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine, really are they serious?!
I love Jeanine Frost books Cat and Bones are really hot and her world is very cool but … science fiction? really? I see the fiction but where the science in the serie?
Same thing for kelley Armstrong. Are the people in this bookstore drunk? Or did they read the book before classified them? lol
What ever happened to the good old “sci-fi/fantasy” designation?
Totally unrelated: when I worked at my local library, I overheard a patron insist that dragons were real and he had the proof. The patron then produced a copy of Dragonology that he had found in the non-fiction section, saying that only true books were put there. The librarian tried to explain that it was shelved with the fairy tales and this did NOT make dragons real. He was not convinced…
LOL LOL Live to see
Back in the day when I was in college there was a class on Science Fiction. There were all sorts of prerequisites to keep out those who wanted to read for fun. At least one of the books was pure fantasy. Needless to say I was the only female in the class. The whole class somehow felt illicit. I don’t think it was ever offered again. There is very little out there that I consider true Sci Fi. There is more a tendency for psychological aspects then science aspects. It is a good thing that I enjoy fantasy and paranormal with or without science.
I took a SciFi fiction class in undergrad as well. I don’t think there was a single actual English major there…half the class were physics majors (surprise, surpise!).
LOL, you are too funny! Most of the time, I find all my favorite urban fantasy authors (You, etc.) in the scifi area rather than in the romance area. As a matter of fact, B&N’s staff don’t always know where the books should be–I’ve had several staff members get upset because the books are not where they should be placed.
Snort. You are too funny! (and hey, mis-shelved or not, now I get a chance to be shunned by the old SciFi/Fantasy guard. I was getting bored being only shunned by the old Romance guard for writing a series with a recurring hero/heroine
).
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That is one of the things I really enjoy about your series. There are other paranormal romance/urban fantasy authors who change main characters every book but continue to write in the same world, and sometimes I just can’t get into the series even if I absolutely adore one of the books. That’s how I’ve been with Kresley Cole’s series. I read Kiss of A Demon King first, and I absolutely love Sabine and her sister, but I haven’t really been able to get into the other books in her series I have bought/checked out.
Considering the boom in Urban Fantasy, I have wondered if it will ever get it’s own section in book stores. Most of the ones I have read mix various genres and not just fantasy + city and/or contemporary times settings.
Heh, mustn’t forget! It’s one of the things I like about Ilona and Gordon’s books as well – I really like seeing a relationship evolve between one book and the next. I’m also seeing this in a few other books I read, but they’re more firmly categorized as Urban Fantasy than in the Paranormal Romance category. I’ve almost always seen the Kate Daniels and Edge series in the Fantasy section, but the Cat & Bones series and spin-offs are almost always in Romance.
Yep, you’re gonna be double-shunned now, Jeaniene. And girl-cooties? Ewwww.
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Who doesn’t want to be shunned all around?!
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I was hooked into SF/Fantasy in the mid 70′s by Andre Norton and it was years before I realized “he” was a she. I learned to look for authors who used initials instead of a first name – apparently they were told to do that so they could sell in spite of girl cooties. The covers with their girls in bikinis embaressed me- especially since so few of them actually had girls in the stories.
Today is so much better with women writers all over SF/Fantasy and girl heroes all over the place (not heroines ’cause they don’t scream and wait to be rescued, they kick ass!)
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Haha, did you know the cover artist (Josh Kirby) for Terry Pratchett purposely put scantily clad, voluptuous women, (or chain mail bikinis) on the cover… even if the woman in question was fully dressed and didnt feature as a main character! XD
terry pratchett even did a whole section on chainmail bikini!
[our bookshop recently made a new section... cant remember what they called it but all your books are in the same section - also paranormal romance, dark fantasy romance, urban fantasy etc... beside it is horror, and across from it is all the 'straight' fantasy/ sci fi books
makes it easier to find things!]
I can never find your books or Jeaniene’s in Borders in Australia.
In Dymocks though, I find everything I like in the “Paranormal” section, right next to the “Romance” section.
So, in Australia, I’d say Jeaniene’s books are sorted the same way as yours.
Over here – Waterstones have classed PNR/UF as ‘Dark Romance’
That is where I find all the UF and PNR along with the Twilightesque YA books.
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Personally, I like SF as in speculative fiction. That way you can cover SciFi, Fantasy, Urban Fantasy and all other sub-genres and get the job done. Of course, I find people remarkably resistant to this idea. . .
Congrats, Jeaniene!
I just go to the information desk and ask where they have the author I’m looking for. Sometimes I have to do this even with an author I’ve bought before. I think the shelving decisions depend on who is at work that day.
Hey Wont,
I need you to email me please.
No worries it is nothing bad.
Thank you,
Gordon (GordonSm3@gmail.com)
I am starting to think that there needs to be a new sub-category of “Urban Fantasy/Urban Fantasy Romance”. That is where I would be able to find all of my favorite authors in one place:)
I’d love this! I have such a hard time finding the authors and books I like in brick and mortar stores.
Found the Kate Daniels books today shelved under Romance. It was at Books-a-Million. Just sayin’.
Also, the local used bookstore has both of you under “urban fantasy.” Probably the most accurate of the headings.
The first time I went looking for Jeaniene (After the forum recommended her) I went looking in the SF section. I could not find it and was so mad that I couldn’t walk home with them that day. I ended up ordering them online. It wasn’t until later that I learned that she’s usually shelved under Romance.
LOL!!! I’d get her books no matter where they are! I am glad she has girl cooties!
O_o might be a U.S thing? If theres no fantasy/sci fi section i’d be more likely to find Jeaniene frost (and other supernatural urban fantasy) under horror here, not romance… (very rarely mixed into the whole fiction section)
The category of books seems to vary a lot depending on the store/person making the list/whatever. I’m shocked whenever anyone describes Kate Daniels as a romance, because while there IS a romantic element, there’s much more time spent focusing on the character- and world-building.
It’s so cool that you two are friends.
Forget what everyone “thinks”. What are we, in Jr High?
SciFi/Fantasy rocks! It makes us happy.
I wonder how much the SciFi genre rakes in annually compared to all the other defined subjects.
Rumour has it that it’s your birthday Andrew, so Best wishes and i hope you have a wonderful day
At my local bookstore I have to look in Romance, SF and Horror to find what I want, and sometimes an author will be in all three places.
I found my copy of This Side of the Grave in SF, by the way…couple shelves down from Magic Bleeds. Neither of these are SF by my definition.
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I have noticed a shift in my local stores. They are moving more and more books from horror and from romance into the sci fi/fantasy sections. Most of the PNR and UF are there already. Even some of the stuff published through romance only publishers (I think part of it is romance books are normally priced cheaper by ~15% so the shift lets them price the books higher). It may also be the social shift into accepting sic fi and fantasy more. I like it when all the books are mixed up. It means I’m a lot more likely to see something new and different.
My store has a small sci fi section and the uf/ fantasy is right below. PNR is waaaayyyy down to wall with traditional romance. I usually can find my I Andrews in the UF. I look first in UF then R and have even found them in Fiction- i have been suprised to find that general fiction is where my store has place authors like Kim Harrison etc?
I usually look through a few different sections when I am in a book store. I have seen UF shelved in fantasy, sci fi, romance, and horror. Of course I usually only buy Kindle books now though so I don’t have to worry so much.
I love your humor Ilona!
Well, I actually ventured into our terrible, horrible, no good very bad local bookstore which is a BAM last week. I gave up using them for anything over a year ago. Usually they can’t even put the SAME author and SAME series in the same place. I regularly had to look in romance, Sci fi/fantasy, fiction, and new books for any title I was looking for and if I couldn’t find it, it wasn’t unusual the clerk working couldn’t find it either even if the puter said they had 5 copies. If bookstores want to know why their butts are getting kicked. It’s bad service.
Great Site Dude
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Ditto – bookstores just don’t seem to really know where to you put all yet. You’d think after 5 years they’d pick something (Paranormal Romance, Urban Fantasy, whatev) and just stick to it. I’ve also had to look all over the store and in multiple genres to find books by the same author.
Of course, back in the nineties when I discovered Anne Rice I thought she was misfiled in Horror and should have been shelved in Scifi/Fantasy since her vampire stories weren’t scary.
My public library system has basically just given up on genres in certain branches. Fiction. Non-Fiction. Graphic Novels. YA Fiction. Childrens. Done.
Honestly, I find it much easier find what I’m looking for but would be terrible for my High School self who would just walk the shelves looking for books to catch her eye.