When I researched Podevin, page to Good King Wenceslas, I thought I was dealing with history. When I wrote ‘Warrior Princess, Errant Page’ and ‘Podevin and the Queen’s Death’, I thought I was dealing with historical fiction. And that was the initial category I chose. But strict categories, it seems, don’t fit every reader.
When I put my books onto Amazon and Ingram Spark so others could buy them (at the standard price of £11.99 each), I put them into the historical fiction category. I tried to be as detailed as possible: I used keywords such as ‘medieval’ ‘European’ ‘Bohemia’, I used ‘Wenceslas’ as a key word, as I was telling the story of people’s lives (especially Podevin and Emma’s) I used ‘biographical’ as a key word. Only as my last option – sixth out of six – did I venture to suggest that my story came under the category of ‘historical fiction romance’. After all, Podevin and Emma, despite the orders and instructions to the contrary, did fall for each other – given another time and place, maybe they would have been able to make a go of it … but, there’s the rub, they were in their time and place; she is married off to Wenceslas’s nephew and he has been declared an outlaw.
Maybe I should broaden my reading habits – to be fair to Resolute books, I have started reading wider – if only to read what my fellow Resolute authors are writing. However, I cannot say I’d normally choose Fantasy, or Romance, as my bedtime books so, when I was told my titles were doing well with Romantasy readers, I was, to be honest, flabbergasted. Apparently, my books have ‘everything except the dragons’. I’m glad my readers don’t expect dragons (though I have been told I ought to consider them in the next part of Podevin and Emma’s story, ‘Podevin and Elgiva’s Return’, especially as I’ve set part of it in Wales – I hope my interlocutor was joking …), but I have to admit, plenty of the other tropes Romantasy readers look for are there: a princess who is ordered to marry a boy she doesn’t like but is guarded by one she might; we have knights of old, princesses sent far away from their homelands, we have enemies becoming friends - or more? All set in a medieval kingdom, ruled by a saint, but with enemies all too close at hand …
More broadly, I suppose, this whole ‘genre’ aspect of novel-writing can be very narrowing. I am aware bookshops need to categorise their stock somehow, and certainly age categories may be needful – I would not be happy about young people my sons’ age when they first asked about Wenceslas’s page, reading the story I found. Now they are grown up, it’s a different matter. ‘Warrior Princess, Errant Page’ is a story that is so much more than what may be inferred by ‘historical’. ‘Star-crossed lovers’ is a universal theme which covers more than one genre, and which occurs in more stories than just those on the romance bookshelf.
I am glad that Romantasy readers are appreciating ‘Warrior Princess, Errant Page’ and ‘Podevin and the Queen’s Death’, even if they were initially categorised as historical fiction – and they are based on events that really happened (and not just on an old-fashioned Christmas carol) – and I hope more and more readers will discover and enjoy Podevin and Emma’s adventures.
If you wish to purchase my books, ‘Warrior Princess, Errant Page’ is available on Amazon at https://amzn.to/4kErnNu and ‘Podevin and the Queen’s Death’ is at https://amzn.to/3XintQf