Bethanie Armstrong

I would like to welcome author Bethanie Armstrong to the blog today. She is here to share her thoughts on the paranormal genre with us.

 

 

Paranormal is More Than What You See

Just the word paranormal has such a ring to it. I guess that is why that is the genre I write in. However, to understand what one might find in this genre I think we must first look at the definition.

Paranormal (according to The Merriam-Webster Dictionary) is not scientifically explainable: SUPERNATURAL.

Now there is a word—supernatural—outside of the natural.

Just the concept of that—outside of the natural—can be almost anything your creative mind can come up with. That is why paranormal is so much fun to write, because you don’t have to follow any specific idea.

It can be someone who reads minds, someone who is an angel, someone who is a demon, someone who moves things with their mind, someone who can communicate through thoughts alone. It can be magical, it can be fantastical, and it can be myth or legend. It can be anything outside of the natural realm.

So, let’s take this a step further. If paranormal is supernatural and can be anything outside of the natural realm, then why, on 75% of the fiction bookshelves in my local bookstore, have the only paranormal novels I have seen there, dealt with vampires and weres??? There are so many more aspects to paranormal than vampires and weres.

Now, granted, I absolutely loved the Twilight Saga. Don’t get me wrong, but everyone decided to chase that subject over hundreds of books. Now, I am tired of it. If you want to write that, great, but find a new angle on it, PLEASE!! The hot vampire that falls in love with a normal human girl or the werewolf that wants her so bad he turns into her pet dog, has already been done, and done well. Let’s leave it at that.

What makes me happier than anything, though, is the new paranormal / supernatural books that I have seen coming across my computer in the INDIE writers. I have seen so many new books in this genre that I could actually dance. Granted some still contain vampires and some still contain werewolves, but WOW at the concept, new and unique and very fun to read. Now let’s get off of vampires and weres and look at some of the new concepts that I have seen.

Parallel worlds and fictional kingdoms seem to be one of the faves right now. Although all dealing with a parallel world or fictional kingdom, the concepts of these places are so completely unique with some of the most amazing backgrounds I have ever read. Walking through your neighborhood one day and suddenly this fog comes upon you that turns the neighborhood you’ve always known, back about one hundred years, back to the Civil War Era, or back to the pioneer days, and you’re standing in the middle of it, when it was 2013 just a minute ago. In your backyard one day you hear laughter coming from the woods, you go to see whose child it is and you walk through a veil into a different land, a land that you decide what it becomes, whatever you imagine is what the land turns into—how unique is that? Some hero or heroine from here that is supposed to save the parallel world they know nothing about, but have drawn it or described it or dreamed about it. Love these!

So many different ways to write paranormal books, and guess who has suddenly grabbed the market and my attention? It’s not the huge publishing companies’ authors, but the INDIE authors who chose to take a risk, and the small publishing companies that support them. Way to go guys and girls!! Thank you for showing me that not all hope is lost and I cheer you on. One day we will take the market!!

 

 

 

I would like to sincerely thank Bethanie for sharing her thoughts on the paranormal genre. I hope everyone has found her post both helpful and entertaining! Thank you for stopping by the blog and taking the time to read her post. For more information on Bethanie and her writing please visit her blog at http://lovesfirstkiss.wordpress.com/