Hi, friends and family. I hope you are having a great day. A great day can be inside the cool A/C on a hot, humid day. A great day can be outside at the pool or lake. A great day can also be working on some research about fiction. I love real-life detective stories, real crime books, and fiction that includes police work, forensics, and detective work. I’m working on things here and there, and doing some laundry. Laundry is always there, isn’t it?
Around the house, I have stacks of new books, purchased since we moved here. Many, if not most, are fiction. Historical fiction, police work fiction, and some real-crime stories. I have many books still packed away from when we moved. I need to sort through them for discards (donations), keepers, and not going to read ones. It’s time.
When I was a kid in the 1960s, my brother and I would walk to the South Omaha Branch of the Omaha Public Library and find the section labeled “Science,” or “History,” or “Fiction,” and peruse for a book. Not so much anymore.
If you keep a list of your books on Goodreads, just look sometime how vast the “Fiction,” category is anymore. I am not kidding. Speculative fiction includes Sci-Fi and Fantasy. I thought Realistic Fiction would be a possibility, and I find out it means things that happen to people and how they overcome. Geared towards older readers (older than what? Dirt?). Novels are deemed to be sequential telling of stories of a certain length. (What would that length be?).
Women’s fiction? Books marketed specifically towards women of all ages. Most are written by women. Romance Writers of America lists stories of women, significant growth, emotional reflection, her relationships with others, and hopefully a happy ending.
I want to write a realistic fiction book, mimicking real life, with real life tragedies, based on some things I’ve seen over the years. The age category I think my story may interest is older than the category for realistic fiction. It’s a very important decision that is a pretty big deal. Wow. So much to consider.
I don’t want to limit my audience. I want to reach as many people as possible. This story is about a young woman who learns she is stronger than she thought, more independent than she thought, and more capable than she thought. I suppose from that, I would call this a woman’s fiction book. I think it will also have a Christian flavor to it, as my character has a strong belief in God and His communication with her. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m open to suggestions, believe me.
Thank you for reading today. I will do some more research this evening. I appreciate you reading and spending time with me today. I will see you back here tomorrow, and hope you have a great evening! Be safe. Wash up. Cover your face. Wear a mask.
Kathy Raabe 