Spectacular Sub-Genres for Spectacular Speculative Romances
AUTHOR: Joyce Ellen Armond

This October past, the Bravo television network counted down the 100 Scariest Movie Moments. A big fan of scary movies, I cheered as scenes from The Exorcist and Silence of the Lambs made the top ten. You know what movies scored the top two scariest moments, though? Alien and Jaws. They aren?t considered horror movies at all, but science fiction and suspense, respectively. How did they beat back traditional scary offerings of flesh-eating zombies and psychos and possessed little girls? By doing exactly what we love to read and hope to publish: mixing traditional sub-genres to create memorable stories.

As readers and storytellers of romance, we all know the virtual plethora of sub-genres in our industry. But how aware are we of the sub-genres recognized by the science fiction, fantasy and horror industry? The writers of Alien and Jaws parlayed their understanding of genre-mixing into prize-winning writing. When the famous chest-popper scene in Alien won the Second Scariest Movie Moment, a commentator pointed out that for all its science fiction window dressing, Alien is basically a story about a haunted house in space. Jaws can be analyzed as a mix of sub-genres as well: the science fiction gem of a bug-eyed monster hunt juxtaposed into a contemporary gothic.

Following those successful examples, let me introduce you to some lesser known categories of science fiction, fantasy and horror, which may be hidden niches for our kind of speculative love stories.

A quick peak at science fiction industry websites made me realize that sf might have more sub-genres than romance. Before this educational experience, I categorized my science fiction as being either ?hard? (having universe-explaining sciences like physics as a story base) or ?soft? (having people-explaining sciences like sociology as a story base.) What did I know?

Emma Holly knew a lot more than I did, because she set a guy-meets-girl-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-tracks love story in a steam-punk world. The result of that is her well-reviewed new novel, The Demon?s Daughter. (You haven?t read it yet? Read it now!) In steam-punk science fiction, the author speculates what Victoria?s England might have been like if technology had arrived a little sooner.

Two other science fiction sub-genres waiting to meet up with love are cyberpunk and alternative history. Cyberpunk was created in the 1980?s with the publication of the novel Neuromancer and speculates on how computers and related technology might redesign our world. Alternative history stories answer a big ?what-if? question, like what if Hitler?s Third Reich hadn?t been stopped.

Some mainstream science fiction writers and commentators consider cyberpunk to be pass?, but that?s probably because sci-fi writers are not focusing on relationships between lovers. Who could have foreseen the cultural impact of falling in love online, for example? Considering the advances in neuroscience and bio-engineering, future cybernetic technology could conceivably control the neuroreceptors in the brain that make us experience that ?in-love? feeling. Where technology meets romance, cross-genre classics can be made.

On its face, alternative history and romance don?t seem a good mix. I suppose answering the question of what if Cleopatra had lived happily ever after with Marc Antony and not kissed the asps instead might make a good read. But consider alternative history on a smaller scale: what if your Regency heroine could live out an alternate history in which she married the man she loved, and not the man with the money? One screenwriter mixed just that sort of personal, small-scale what-if question with the world?s most annoying holiday, and came up with the fantasy/comedy romance Groundhog Day. It could work for you, too.

When I checked out fantasy sub-genres, I found that as far as my experience has shown, romance has done a good job in using fantasy sub-genres. Epic, heroic, historical and mythological fantasy romances are in no short supply. But one sub-genre caught my imagination: court intrigue. It brought to mind a sub-plot from one of my all-time favorite fantasy romances, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. (You?ve never read it? Read it now!) He plays out one of the most wrenching, heart-breaking love stories ever inside the overheated, backstabbing mini-world of a royal harem. Whether you choose to tell your love story in a quasi-medieval court or a grand space opera empire, basing the external conflict in court intrigue couldn?t be a bad choice.

Finally we reach my favorite speculative genre and the one that would, in my opinion, most benefit from an infusion of romantic elements: horror. Our industry has enthusiastically embraced heroes and heroines who are undead or shape shifters, and for that I am eternally grateful. But there are sub-genres of horror out there that still kill off any character who enjoys sex and allows a Mary Sue virginal heroine to save the day. Gentle readers, join me in stamping out these abominations by melding positive sensual relationships to these horror sub-genres.

Psychological horror offers a treasure trove of potential conflict for your hero and heroine without spilling one drop of anybody?s blood. Let them fall in love fighting a memorable psychopath in a science fiction or fantasy setting. (If you want a nice primer on psychological horror, I recommend John Katzenbach?s 2002 novel, The Analyst. You?ve never read it? Don?t read it alone.)

Interaction with worlds of spirits and demons gives horror the sub-genres of ghost stories and possession stories. Ghost stories are making a big comeback in pop culture. Michael Keaton stars in a release called White Noise this winter, which uses electronic voice phenomenon as its hook. The Sci-Fi Channel ran a weekly reality series last season that followed real live ghost hunters. Stories fraught with supernatural dangers are a hothouse environment for growing love between a hero and heroine. Encounters with the unknown bring heightened emotions. Heightened emotions lead to memorable romances. Break the negative stereotypes of horror and have your hero and heroine?s mind-blowing sex be the one thing that saves the day.

What I?ve presented here is by no means a comprehensive list of speculative sub-genres. Browse through the websites I?ve listed to get your own ideas, and use what you find to make a creativity exercise. Write down your favorite categories in romance and speculative fiction. Put the romance in one hat, and the spec in the other. Pull them at random and see what stories can be told from the combinations. Don?t limit yourself to just two sub-genres, and don?t forget that other types of literature have their own sub-genres you can harvest. My next project uses elements of supernatural horror to tell of an unlikely love that develops between two competing thieves during a heist ? a classic sub-genre of mystery stories. All types of novels (even those mind-numbing literary ones) have conventions and sub-genres. The combinations are endless.
Sources:

?Subgenres Demystified,? by H. E. Smith: www.neverary.com/N7/N7Subgenres.htm

?Science Fiction & Fantasy, A Genre With Many Faces,? by Amy Goldschlager: www.sfsite.com/columns.amy26.htm

?The Subgenres of Science Fiction,? by Marg Giles & Moira Allen www.writing-world.com/sf/genres/shtml

The Whole Genre Section at Fiction Factor www.fictionfactor.com/genre.html