Monday, August 30, 2010

Urban Fantasy

While I'm new to the genre, Urban Fantasy has become very popular over the past several years.



What is Urban Fantasy?
I ended up using wikipedia for this but oh well. The basic definition is a subset in fantasy defined by the location, which is an "urban setting." Often times the story is set in modern times (with some exceptions) and there is a fantasy element that is usually under the category of supernatural. While there are different time periods and fantasy elements used, the setting is what gets the subgenre its label as "urban fantasy."

One place to get information and to meet people in the subgenre is the chat on twitter called #UFchat. Using tweetchat helps and it's a great environment for those who enjoy Urban Fantasy or just want to learn a little more about it.

Authors:
Ilona Andrews                          Holly Black
Patricia Briggs                         Jim Butcher
Neil Gaiman                             Claudia Gray
Laurell K. Hamilton                 Simon R. Green
Tanya Huff                               Devon Monk
Melissa Marr                            Kat Richardson
to name a few...

As I said above, I'm new to the subgenre. I think I've read maybe one or two books so far but there are a few on my list of books to read.  So, I don't have a lot of information to provide. Here are some websites to consider. Also, check out urban fantasy bloggers because there are plenty out there for sure.

Links:
http://www.urbanfantasywriters.com/
http://www.urbanfantasyland.com/
http://www.samhainpublishing.com/category/urban-fantasy
http://www.urbanfantasyfan.com/
http://urbanfantasyfiction.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/urban-fantasy

3 comments:

Summer Ross said...

thanks for the definition. I haven't had much time myself to research on this sub genre, though alot of markets are starting to add it to their lists of acceptable genre...

Loralie Hall said...

(I want your novel widget). I love the idea of urban fantasy. I wasn't big on classic fantasy growing up...probably because my mother was, but I loved any fantasy set in an urban/modern environment so I was thrilled when I saw there was a sub-genre for it. Even happier that there's a market for it, since that's what 2 out of 3 of my finished novels are.

Dawn Embers said...

Summer Ross - I don't really write UF but I've been taking part in the chat for a few weeks. Plus the #Flitchat has a few UF writers so it comes up often.

Ariana - If you click on the widgets, they should take you to the site to do your own. It's some nanowrimo type and if you know the codes for colors then you can change it from blue to whatever you want. See, I like epic, middle ages type fantasy and never really read urban.