Urban Fantasy Notes - Comic Con 2009V

The Urban Fantasy panel consisted of 6 authors with whom I am not familiar: Juliet Blackwell, Marjorie Liu, Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittredge, Diana Rowland, Sina Grace, Seanan McGuire, and Harry Connolly. I've compiled a short bibliography for each of them at the end of this post.

Ater brief introductions, the panel delved into the first point which was "common denominators': what factor(s) are prevalent in a significant portion of the urban fantasy design space. Two prevalent points emerged from this:

1. A very "detailed" and "accurate" NON fantastic world must be created and explored so the 'fantastic"element has a place to fit in. If you are writing about Venice, CA., for example, be sure to build an accurate and interally consistant Venice BEFORE you add the supernatural elements.
2. Because the audience is more savvy, has access to MUCH more information (due to the internet), and communicates internally MUCH more and much more frequently than ever, you internal consistancy, rules construction, and overall world structure has to be tighter and more compelling than ever before. Expectations escalate MONTHLY in this genre.

The panel then explored one of the most critical choices an author must make early during their creation process: is the fantasy or supernatural element "open" or "closed"? To be fair, rather than an either/or situation, there's really a continuum ranging from completely closed to completely open and every story has a place on the continuum. For clarity, "open" means the general public is aware of the general situation (i.e. in the Anita Blake series, most folks know about the existance of Vampires, there is state and federal legislation, etc.; "closed" means the secret(s) are closely held and only a small slice of the gereal population is aware of the situation. In addition to the two obvious choices (make it closed, make it open), two additional options were prevalent:

1. Much like real life, there are just a few folks who choose to see (and thus can see) while the overwhelming majorit choose NOT to see or believe. So it's not closed by way of intentional secrecy but rather but public acceptance or avoidance. It's really a matter of the collective subconscious..
3. Do NOT make the determination ahead of time, but rather start telling the story and see how this issue plays out. It becomes more a matter of weighing how things go rather than predetermining the outcome. It's more organic.

The panel then breifly discussed the Harry Potter series in terms of "open" and "closed" and pretty much everyone agreed that it was mostly closed (a few folks seem to be aware, but most people are pretty oblivious to the entirety ofthe situation).

One last peice of advice that several of the panelist agreed upon was that often stories are written for a small circle of friends/people initially. Any one else who enjoys it is just a bonus.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Juliet Blackwell

• The Faint of Art (as Hailey Lind)
• Shooting Galery (as Hailey Lind)
• Brush with Death (as Hailey Lind)
• Arsenic and Old Paint (as Hailey Lind) [forthcoming in 2010]
• Secondhand Spirits

Marjorie M. Liu

• Darkness Calls
• Hunter Kiss (e-book)
• The Iron Hunt
• Companion Story - Hunter Kiss
• Inked [forcoming in 2010]
• Tiger Eye
• Shadow Touch
• The Red Heart of Jade
• Dark Dreamers
• Eye of Heaven
• Soul Song
• The Last Twilight
• The Wild Road
• The Fire King [forthcoming in 2009]

Jackie Kessler & Caitlin Kittridge

• Black and White

Diana Rowland

• Mark of the Demon

Sina Grace

• Cedric Hollows in Dial M for Murder

Seanan McGuire

• Rosemary and Rue [Forthcoming in 2009]
• A Local Habitation [Forthcoming in 2010]
• An Artificial Night [forthcoming in 2010]

Harry Connolly

• Child of Fire [Forthcoming 2009]
• Game of Cages [Forthcoming 2010]