{"id":6286,"date":"2016-12-20T08:41:36","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T13:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6286"},"modified":"2016-12-20T08:41:36","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T13:41:36","slug":"on-the-crifi-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6286","title":{"rendered":"On the CriFi Horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"June

June Lorraine Roberts<\/p><\/div>\n

Vicki asked me to comment on where the crime fiction (CriFi) genre is headed. I\u2019ve enjoyed her diverse and timely blog for a while now. Certainly, her request has caused much reflection on my part.<\/p>\n

Let me start with an online definition of crime fiction. Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalises crimes, their detection, criminals, and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as historical fiction or science fiction, but the boundaries are indistinct.<\/em><\/p>\n

I quite like the term indistinct. It indicates the versatility and flexibility available to the genre. Two posts I did earlier this year were on the blend of science fiction and steam punk with crime fiction. For me it\u2019s one way to broaden reading horizons and generate ideas on how to move CriFi forward.<\/p>\n

Several books have done well examining marriage and family relationships within crime fiction since Gone Girl<\/em> appeared on shelves. The word \u2018Girl\u2019 still appears in book titles, but not for much longer I suspect.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next? If we could predict the next big trend we\u2019d be hard at writing it now. However, there are authors who are using an inventive edge.<\/p>\n

Currently, I\u2019m halfway through Fickle<\/em> by Peter Manus. Written as blog posts on two different websites, followers speculate and ask questions of the bloggers. The storyline is easy to follow, no talking over one another. And it\u2019s well done. I have no idea how the book will wrap up, but it\u2019s sharp and clever and I\u2019m enjoying its modern, noir atmosphere.<\/p>\n

Is it the next big thing? Probably not. But it makes the point that, when talent isn\u2019t enough, a different way of looking at things can boost the likelihood of being published. One of the many challenges for writers today is beating the numbers and getting your book noticed. First by an agent, then by a publisher, and then by readers. Every year thousands of CriFi books are released worldwide by publishing houses. Imagine how many more are self-published!<\/p>\n

A number of recent books run dual storylines: past and present. While not new, this construct is very effective at moving along a storyline, giving readers the backstory for the main character in a concise fashion. (I just reviewed one exactly like this\u2014What Remains of Me<\/em>\u2014for CrimeFictionLover.com<\/a>\u2014ed.)<\/p>\n

In other storylines, we have narratives written from the perspective of two or more characters. Add to that blog posts from two websites, and location changes for protagonists–all this shows a duality of nature that is as common as villain vs. hero. Perhaps there is opportunity here to leverage our creativity and reader interest. Or at least to have us think about storylines from a different slant.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the openness to new ideas and the willingness to try an atypical approach that marks today\u2019s crime fiction. It speaks to our society and the cultural mores of this place in time. Much has changed in the past 15 years. What we need to do, as authors, is harness the change and let it generate new ideas, and, as readers, be willing to experiment.<\/p>\n

The thing about a book is that it is both tangible and intangible. You can hold a book in your hands and take it many places. But the story, the story is what you carry inside you, and it can take you to places you never expected.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Guest poster June Lorraine Roberts is a Canadian and a graduate of the London School of Journalism. Her work has appeared in Tengri Magazine and Aware Magazine. Her first CriFi flash fiction story was picked-up by the Flash Fiction Press earlier this year, and she continues to work at plotting devious story lines. Check out her website: MurderinCommon.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vicki asked me to comment on where the crime fiction (CriFi) genre is headed. I\u2019ve enjoyed her diverse and timely blog for a while now. Certainly, her request has caused much reflection on my part. Let me start with an … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"On the CriFi Horizon - trends in crime fiction from author June Lorraine Roberts","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[174,60,29],"tags":[31,166,754,28],"class_list":["post-6286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-first-draft-blog","category-storytelling","category-writing","tag-author","tag-creativity","tag-june-lorraine-roberts","tag-writers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Do","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6286"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6288,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6286\/revisions\/6288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}