Things that Go Bump in the Stacks: Whole Collection Advisory for Paranormal Fiction
Sponsored by RUSA CODES
by Jane Jorgensen
One of the first things I did when I realized I was attending ALA was to look for RA programs. Imagine the thrill of realizing that long-time favorite Charlaine Harris was going to be participating on a panel about paranormal fiction. And to find that the panel was moderated by Neil Hollands and included Marjorie Liu and Charlie Huston – it really doesn’t get better then that.
Neil started things off with intros (after we got to listen to Bad Things by Jace Everett, yay True Blood). Marjorie Liu hit big in 2005 with the first of her Dirk and Steele series, Tiger Eye. Since then she has been going strong with more of the D & S books and the start of the new Hunter Kiss series. Charlie Huston is “looking for the socially alienated, disaffected young men” who like to read his Joe Pitt books. These are noir crossed with vampires and “if someone looks maladjusted, that’s my (sic) core readership”. And Charlaine Harris who sees herself as a “romantic hard-boiled person” really needed no introduction. After years of toiling in the midlist (I like to think I discovered her when I read A Secret Rage back in the day) Charlaine has hit the bestseller world in a big way. I think you can guess why.
After the introductions Neil gave us a bit of perspective about the history of the paranormal and urban fantasy genres which blend a contemporary world with alternate, paranormal elements. Some seminal works in the timeline: Emma Bull’s War for the Oak’s and Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire. Parnormals used to be almost exclusively part of the horror genre and the vampires, werewolves, ghosts and other beasties were the villains, not the heroes.
Neil’s elements of appeal:
• magic in the real world
• genre crossover
• paranormal creatures
• strong female heroes
• humor, sexuality and fast-paced action
• real world issues
Once he suggested we try to be aware of trends to better prepare our collections, Neil started with some questions. First up was about what the authors have learned about their readers since they began. What it boiled down to for all three authors was in how Charlaine summed it up – after telling us about the 16-year-old who wrote and asked that she not have a heart attack and die because then we’d never find out who Sookie would choose! Though we all laughed at the self-centeredness of that teen (and maybe oh so secretly agreed) Charlaine’s point that readers’ views of the books have everything to do with who the reader is is a good one.
Next up were some specific questions for each of the authors: Bon Temps as the new murder capital of the world, how has Charlaine dealt with that? It was not the intention, the series and Sookie have evolved. How has Marjorie’s own experiences contributed to her international settings? She finds she sees things more vividly in new and strange places and that helps with the writing. Joe Pitt is a character driven by obsession and anger and yet somehow still sympathetic, how does Charlie manage that? Charlie doesn’t think he does. He’s surprised when anyone finds Joe Pitt worthy of sympathy because the guy’s a sociopath.
While I loved the questions about the how of what they do, I was happiest when Neil began to talk about the RA aspects and who they’d suggest to their readers if they put on a librarian cap for a moment. Charlie thinks his books would most closely appeal to readers of James Ellroy, Raymond Chandler and Charles Bukowski. Marjorie says there has been some difficulty for her because her Dirk and Steele books are romantic fantasy and her new series is fantasy with some romantic elements. If advising her readers she’d suggest Caitlyn Kittredge for those looking for paranormal fantasy and Sherrilyn Kenyon and Nalini Singh for a romance reader. And Charlaine most often suggests Kim Harrison and Patricia Briggs. This tied into a question asked about covers later in the program. The authors agreed that cover art and labeling has an impact on how the book is initially viewed by a reader and much of that is beyond their control though they think that librarians can have an impact as well when they make the choice about where to shelve the books.
Highlights from the questions from the audience: Marjorie was once asked to change the race of her hero because it would be too hard to have an asian guy on the cover. Charlaine was happy to hand Sookie and company over to Alan Ball because, well he’s Alan Ball. And Neil’s final question, which author/character would they like to see one more time in a book? Charlie would kill to be able to read another by Charles Bukowski, Charlaine wishes for another Jane Austen and Marjorie wants more Jane Stratton Porter (to cheers from the audience) and Arthur Conan Doyle.
Fun and informative, a perfect panel event.
