Embrace Your Inner Cross-Genre

At a recent event, I had someone ask me why I decided to write cross-genre. It’s a great question. Except I didn’t decide to. It just happened. Relics was my first novel and I had no idea I was writing cross-genre. In fact, if you had asked what genre I was writing, I would have stopped dead and looked at you in great surprise.

“Fantasy?” I might have answered. “Modern fantasy?”

A version of this is exactly what happened internally when I stumbled across something that said authors should know their genres. I was researching how to do agent query letters, when advice said to include the genre. What? Genre? Oh my god! Genre had not even crossed my mind at that point. What was I to do?

Well, I started researching genres, but quickly realized I didn’t fit in one nice, neat little box!

Horror!

Panic!

Had I messed up? Was my new baby a disaster? Well, actually it had a lot wrong with it, and I ended up dumping the second half of the novel and completely rewriting it. But that’s another story. Back to the genre thing.

I decided I’d use “urban fantasy” and “paranormal,” interchangeably. Maybe no one would notice I used both, I told myself. Maybe I could appeal to both kinds of readers.

But during my internet travels, I happened to stumble over the term “cross-genre.” My heart sang! I was cross-genre. I had a box to fit in!

Yes, my brothers and sisters, there was actually a term for what I did. I wasn’t the freak I’d felt like when chatting with author friends who had their comfortable niches. The ones I secretly envied when they tossed out genres like mystery, romance or historical. I could stand up with pride and announce that I was…a librarian…wait no…that was a movie.

*cough*

My work was cross-genre. I held my head up and embraced my new designation with love – and relief. I no longer worried that I had elements of science fiction in my series. Elements that I hadn’t even admitted to yet because I was already crossing fantasy with paranormal mystery and adding in a third (fourth?) genre was wrong. Right? Aha! But was it?

By the time Portals was out, I was firmly admitting to not two, but three genres! I proudly claimed my urban fantasy / sci fi / paranormal label. And Magics is so firmly crossing all three it can be nothing but cross-genre.

And so I say to you, those who are troubled out there in the dark, those afraid because you don’t belong in one lovely, safe genre: Embrace your inner cross-genre.

Your romance has horror in it? No problem!

Your adventure has fantasy? Love it!

Your sci fi is also mystery? Go for it! (Besides Asimov himself did this! All the way back in the last century this master of Sci Fi crossed genres into mysteries.)

Let the story fly where it will and just enjoy the journey.

July 16, 2015 4 Comments

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Cross-genre Maer Wilson Writing Tips

Writer Tips #2 – Formatting – The Ruler

Using The Ruler

There are many great sites out there giving hints on how to format your manuscript before submitting it. All you need do is Google them. I’m adding mine to the mix only because I’ve seen so many “don’ts” in some of the submissions we have received. So I feel it bears repeating some of the tips. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments section and I’ll do my best to answer. Today, I’m covering the ruler.

One of the most important things to do is to use your ruler to set your indentations on a new paragraph. Do NOT use the TAB key. Or space bar over. You want nice even indentations for each paragraph, but the way to do that is through your ruler at the top of the page. So do not tab or even space bar over. Ever.

It creates nightmares for your formatter down the line. Yes, I could get into whys and wherefores, but take my word for it…universal corrections don’t always work. I’ve had situations where the “fix” didn’t work and I had to literally go in and delete every tab or space bar indentation. Every. single. one. So make your formatter love you and get into the habit of using the ruler.

Before I write one word, I set up how I want my manuscript to look, including the ruler. That includes my styles, but I’ll discuss those another day.

I write in Word 2013. In the picture below, you will see that I’m on the VIEW tab. (You can click the picture for a larger version.) “Ruler” is checked as seen in the first red box. In the second red box, you can see there are two arrows. The bottom arrow is set at one inch by default at the end of the grey area. I’ve moved the top arrow 2.5 ticks from the left. You can also move it in 4 ticks for a half inch indentation. Since I format our books and use the 2.5 tick mark for all versions when we publish, I now write in that format. It saves me changing it later. But not everyone uses that, so the 4 tick / half inch indentation is totally acceptable.

Once you have set the ruler, you are good to go. It will automatically indent for you when you hit “enter” at the end of a paragraph. And it will be perfectly even throughout the document. That’s not something you get if you tab or space bar over, as you can often change how many tabs or spaces you used without realizing it, resulting in uneven indentations.

Just remember – the ruler is your friend!

July 12, 2015 No Comments

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FREE eCopy of “Unwanted Ghost”

Love books? So do I!

Subscribe to my website and receive the latest news on my books, new releases for other authors and more. As a gift I’ll send you a free copy of “Unwanted Ghost.” So be sure to leave your email address. This novelette is one of the prequel stories in the Modern Magics series. It currently has 4.8/5.0 stars on Amazon.

Thulu & La Fi have inherited an old, furnished Victorian. What they weren’t expecting was that the furnishings included a ghost.

Usually the Thulukans are happy to take on supernatural clients for their detective agency. But there’s something about Darla Redding that bothers La Fi – and with good reason. They discover that Darla has a much darker past than hinted at by her “normal” life. She’s definitely not a ghost they want haunting them. So, if they want to be rid of their unwelcome house ghost, Thulu and La Fi need to solve her murder.

You can also find the entire Modern Magics series on my author page at these retailers:

Amazon – http://goo.gl/a84CIh
Barnes & Noble – http://goo.gl/jvA5QU
Kobo – https://goo.gl/UGslz7
iTunes – https://goo.gl/iVJ5e9
Smashwords – https://goo.gl/VP1rTD
Goodreads – https://goo.gl/4KzVOf

July 5, 2015 2 Comments

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Maer Wilson Modern Magics Paranormal Sci Fi Urban Fantasy

Cover Wars! Vote for Magics

Vote for Magics in Masquerade Crew’s Cover Wars!

The awesome cover for Magics is participating in Masquerade Crew’s Cover Wars! This brilliant cover was designed by M Joseph Murphy who did my entire Modern Magics series! I really think this is one of his best in a long line of fabulous covers!

For the entire month of July you can vote every single day for this powerful cover over at the page on Masquerade Crew’s website. Please scroll down because the list is alphabetical and Magics is located in Part 2 on that page.

Don’t forget to check out the other sections for some more great covers!

And if you want to read Magics, just go to your fave online retailer to get your copy!

Amazon – http://goo.gl/QT2xQa

Amazon Paperback – http://goo.gl/ruawNj

Nook – http://goo.gl/yFskKG

Kobo – https://goo.gl/6EOLlv

iTunes – https://goo.gl/KaFLff

Smashwords – https://goo.gl/kEQTkf

July 2, 2015 No Comments

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Cozy dark Maer Wilson Magics Modern Magics Sci Fi / Urban Fantasy/ Paranormal

New Release! Magics

Magics is here!

It’s really here! The third book in the Modern Magics series is now available! I’m so excited about this final book in the trilogy. It was a fun ride, for sure.

Here’s what M. Joseph Murphy, author of the Activation series, had to say about Magics:

A thrilling urban fantasy ride where the scariest monsters just so happen to be human. Wilson goes into realms most urban fantasy authors fear to tread. Watch as the world burns. Be prepared to cry. Magic is coming to Earth and no one will be left unchanged. An emotional, jaw-dropping finale to an epic series.”

In Relics, the creatures of magic returned to Earth.

In Portals, magic itself returned.

In Magics, we’ll wish it hadn’t.

The laws of magic have become as real as the laws of physics, and humans with magical powers are becoming the norm.

But human magic is out of control – powerful, wild, unpredictable. Five ultra-powerful humans rise above the rest to begin a reign of terror, and entire cities fall. The elves and other Elder Races are desperate to find and stop these magical terrorists. But for the first time, the magic of the Elder Races is surpassed.

Thulu and La Fi join the hunt for the human supes causing the planet-wide massacres. With their own magic evolving and erratic, the race to catch the killers becomes far more difficult. They need to find them and stop the chaos before there is no world left to save.

It’s available now at the following retailers. Coming soon to Nook, iTunes, Kobo and paperback.

June 15, 2015 3 Comments

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Apocalyptic Fantasy/Sci Fi Maer Wilson Magics Modern Magics

New Release – Ghosts of Modern Magics

Ghosts of Modern Magics

The entire collection of the novelettes from my Modern Magics series is now on sale! In addition to the four novelettes, I’ve included a brand new story written just for this collection. The topic of that story was chosen by the members of my awesome street team, Team Thulukan from Facebook, and is dedicated to them. Feel free to come join us in Team Thulukan.

Oh, and this collection also includes samples from each of the full-length novels in the Modern Magics series, with a special sneak peek at the soon-to-be-released third book, Magics.

The novelettes were written as companion pieces to the novels. Readers had asked about Thulu and La Fi’s lives before the events in the books. So, I began the stories to answer some of those questions.

The novels are cross-genre Urban Fantasy / Sci Fi / Paranormal Mystery and tell what happens when magic returns to Earth. However, the novelettes are firmly in the Paranormal Mystery genre. While set in the same universe and with the same characters, the novelettes have a slightly different feel to them than the books.

The cover for the box set was designed by the talented M Joseph Murphy, who designed the entire Modern Magics series. He also wrote the foreword to this box set. (Thanks, Joseph!)

My editor, Jen Ryan from Imagine That Editing, added an editor’s note to the collection, too. So there’s some behind-the-scenes insight from two of those connected to this series.

Ghosts of Modern Magics

Before magic returned to Earth in the Modern Magics novels, Thulu and La Fi’s clients were usually the dead. The Ghost novelettes detail a few of their more memorable cases.

“Ghost Memory” – An amnesiac ghost hires Thulu and La Fi to find missing money from his home for his aging husband.

“Unwanted Ghost” – The couple inherits a furnished Victorian, complete with its own noisy ghost.

“Ghost Dancer” – Young Danika asks Thulu and La Fi to save her dog from the killer who murdered her.

“Wedding Ghost” – Just before their own wedding, the detectives are hired to find out what happened to another bride ninety years before.

BONUS MATERIAL

“Lost Ghost” tells the story of eleven-year-old Thulu and Fiona’s first case.

This collection also includes samples from the Modern Magics novels – Relics, Portals and the upcoming Magics.

This collection will be available from the usual online retailers soon, but is currently on sale at:

Amazon

There’s plenty about me elsewhere on my blog, but feel free to check out my links and follow me at:

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A special thanks to all my readers, friends and supporters! You are all greatly appreciated. Please don’t forget one of the greatest gifts you can give an author is a review. So, feel free to rate any and all of my books and novelettes at online retailers.