Please welcome a very good friend of mine to the blog. Mary is a talented author and an awesome person. Enjoy! Oh, and don’t miss the contest.
The Mixology of Genre Mashing
Author Mary Behre
Hi Charlee! Thank you for inviting me to be a guest on Smart Girls Love Sci Fi and Paranormal Romance. My name is Mary Behre and my paranormal romantic suspense, SPIRITED, debuted this week. I’m here today to talk about the mixology of genre mashing.
For example, the TV show, GRIMM. It’s a paranormal show about a police detective who is also a Grimm—someone who dispatches evil “fairy tale” monsters. If the show were just about him chasing the monsters, it would be straight paranormal. It’s not, in almost every episode, he’s trying to solve a case. The clues are revealed in such a way as to give the viewer time to try to figure out who did it.Genre mashing happens when a story can be classified in more than one genre.
Another example is the movie, INCEPTION. While the visual effects were stunning and the science fiction aspect brilliant, when I saw it, I immediately keyed into the mystery. For me, it made the tale more powerful.
Sometimes, genre mashing can create a fan of genre he or she had previously disliked. For me, this happened with the show FIREFLY. I’ve never been into wild west anything, until Joss Whedon put cowboys in space. I went from avoiding all things cowboy to searching for more movies and shows with that awesome mash up. I found another one, too! COWBOYS VS ALIENS. Daniel Craig rocked as a cowboy with a damaged memory out to stop an alien invasion.
There are drawbacks to genre mixing. Purists don’t want to see their cowboys shoot it out with ET. Or they don’t like ghosts interfering in police investigations. But I think as more filmmakers and authors take risks, the more the fans want to experience the next mashup…provided they know what they’re getting into.
One thing I have heard from readers and moviegoers, is that they want to know in advance when a story is mix of two or more genres. Otherwise, they may walk away dissatisfied and uncertain how to classify it the book or show.
For me, genre mixing is as natural as writing. I couldn’t write a straight romantic suspense or a straight paranormal. When I brainstorm story ideas, I see murders, mystery, ghosts, and other psychic elements in my head. But I also warn people before they read my books. Everything from my website to my Facebook and Twitter profiles, to all the swag I give away has my brand, “Humor, Suspense and a Psychic Love-Connection…The Tidewater Series.”
Now it’s your turn. Do you like genre mixing or are you a purist? What’s the craziest genre mashup you’ve seen or read?
*one commenter from the US or Canada will win a signed copy of SPIRITED.*
(Be sure to enter the Rafflecopter to win)
Charlee, thank you again for hosting me on Smart Girls Love Sci-Fi and Paranormal Romance.
About Mary
Mary Behre is the lone female in a house full of males and the undisputed queen of her domain. She even has the glittery tiara to prove it. She loves stories with humor, ghosts, mysteries and above all else, a good romance. When not writing, she enjoys reading, gluten-free baking, and hanging out at the beach with the most important men in her life, her family.
Her debut paranormal romance, SPIRITED (Tidewater Novel #1) was an award-winning manuscript before it sold to Berkley Sensation. The Tidewater Series is mix of humor, suspense, and a psychic love-connection. The first three stories are about three sisters separated years before in the foster care system. As they search for love, each other, and a way to live with their psychic abilities, they’re tossed into the middle of mysteries that only their unique gifts can help solve.
Sign-up for Mary’s newsletter on her website. Or find her on Twitter or Facebook.
SPIRITED (A Tidewater Novel)
She’s running from who she is…
All Jules Scott wants is to live a normal, quiet life–preferably one that doesn’t include ghosts. Jules’s ability for communicating with the dead has brought her nothing but trouble. Despite her best efforts, needy spirits always find her and draw her into their otherworldly drama. When one implicates her in a series of deadly crimes, she may need to entrust her secrets to the person least likely to believe her…
He’ll do whatever it takes to catch her.
Detective Seth English can’t get distracted from the big case he’s working on, not even by his alluring new neighbor. He doesn’t believe that Jules had anything to do with the string of robberies-turned-murders that he’s investigating, but when she keeps showing up in all the wrong places, his gut tells him she knows more than she’s letting on. To solve his case, he’ll need to expose what the sexy redhead is hiding–no matter how impossible the truth may be…
PRAISE FOR SPIRITED
“Spirited is an intriguing blend of romance, mystery and ghosts to keep you up late at night.” – New York Times bestseller Dianna Love
“Great! A real-page turner. Be prepared, once you sit down to read, you won’t want to get up until you’ve finished the book.” – NY Times and USA Today Bestselling author Lynsay Sands
“A sweet, funny, sexy debut!” – Nursery Rhyme Series author Lena Diaz
“Rich with mystery, hot romance, and sneaky humor… No magic crystal ball is needed to foresee this writer is bursting with talent!” – Games People Play & The Fifth Favor author Shelby Reed
Smart Girls love SciFi 
I don’t know if I’ve ever heard the term “genre-mashing” before. I like it!
I’m not sure it’s a real term. But I figure if you can mash songs, than you can do it to genres. LOL 🙂
I’m a masher and a mixer, too. LOL I love reading mashups. I thought Cowboys vs Aliens was a great mashup. It was quirky and unexpected, but yeah, people do want to know. Your book sounds very fun!
Hi Pauline,
Yay for mashers and mixers! 🙂
Ah! My favorite genre is “genre mashing”! I’ve been reading any and everything I could get my hands on since I learned how to read (oh boy, was THAT a long time ago! :D) so it’s really difficult to pick one but you pretty much hit the nail on my head when you mentioned Firefly (my name is Joanne and I am a Whedon-aholic) and then to top it off, Cowboys and Aliens!!! It just so happens I watched that movie 3 times over the last week.
I love the usuals; Being Human, Lost Girl, Bitten, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Walking Dead, Dollhouse, and my new favorite, Orphan Black. Of course Buffy trumps everything in my mind 😀
When it comes to reading I can’t seem to read anything without some sort of genre-mash which has become so ingrained in my mind that I can’t write just one genre; I have 3 WIP’s right now (I know, pick a WIP and stick with it till it’s finished!) and each one has elements of paranormal because it’s what I love most.
{hits ‘post comment’ then runs off to Amazon to buy your book 😉 }
Hi Joannebest,
I believe the correct term is “Whedonnite.” There’s no such thing as too much Whedon! LOL
I’m so glad to hear that there are so many people out there who like genre-mashing. Yay!
Thanks for stopping by! And I hope you like Jules & Seth’s story. 🙂
Great post! I’m not a purist, so genre mashing works fine for me. I actually prefer sci-fi mixed with other genres. I’ve even done it a bit myself. Though, I’m not sure what the craziest I’ve read was.
Ooh, Jessica! Have you seen Almost Human? I started watching for Michael Ealy (his home town isn’t too far from mine). It’s a Sci-Fi police procedural. Very cool.
You are soooo right about genre mixing. And BTW… Firefly did the opposite for me. I loved anything western but was not into space stuffi. After that oh-so-fabulous show and all these years later, I’m a bon-a-fide Sci-Fi fan!
Letidelmarl,
Gotta love Joss! The man is a genius! 🙂
Hi Mary! Thanks again for visiting today and sharing this great post! I’ve always been a scifi/pnr fan, but it was often the addition of suspense that iced the cake for me in either genre. I guess the wildest mash-up I’ve seen is Shaun of the Dead. It’s Romance, Horror (Zombies), parody (Dawn of the Dead), Buddy movie, and an enormous does of comedy, Love it!
Hi Charlee,
I’ve never seen Shaun of the Dead. I was really anti-zombie for a long time. I have this thing about knowing the rules and I just couldn’t figure out why shooting a zombie in the head would kill it when it was already dead to begin with. (That still bugs me.)
But my husband convinced to watch The Walking Dead. Now I’m a fan. So I’ll have to check out Shaun’s story. I’d love to see how they add humor and romance to it.
This took me a moment to process this morning – and another sip of coffee. My name is Mary Brehe! And I’m writing a paranormal cozy mystery series which is genre mashing, right? Anyway, I bought your book. It sounds really good! And I collect gluten free recipes leaning towards paleo.
Wow – I can see why this might make you blink. LOL
Wow! Nice to meet you, Mary Brehe. Reading your message made me do a double take too. LOL How is your name pronounced? Mine rhymes with itself. Merry Berry.
Lovely to “meet” here on Smart Girls! 🙂
It’s pronounced “Bray”. I married into the name. He tells me it’s German. Nice “talking” to you. Lets both of us get rich and famous and confuse the heck out of people!
Congrats on your debut release, Mary. I do like genre mashups and I haven’t read any crazy ones. They’re mainly historical fantasies/urban fantasy.
Thank you, for stopping by, Jane. 🙂
I adore sci-fi historicals, such as A Knight in Shining Armor. That was the first I’d ever read of genre mashing up. 🙂 And I love historical fantasies, too. I can’t wait to read Spirited. I suppose it would help if I bought it first. LOL I’m zipping on over to Amazon to do just that. Congrats on your release and the best of luck with sales, Mary Behre!
Hi Lis’Anne!
Great to see you here. I love historical and fantasy mash ups. Well, I love reading them. LOL
Cool! A fellow Browncoat! LOVED Firefly. Genre mashing! My favorite reads. Just finished a wonderful series by Robin L Rotham that is a SciFi Action/Adventure Erotic Romance. Loved it. SciFi any thing is good especially if it includes some romance. Spirited is my kind of read and on my tbr list. Thank you for sharing.
Hi Pansy! I’ll have to check Rothman out. Thanks for mentioning it.
Like genre mixing when it’s done well; read a weird one that had contemporary, paranormal, suspense mixed in
Oh dear. That could be mine. Spirited is a blend of humor, suspense and a psychic love-connection.
I love genre-mashing too! Personally I think books that blend elements are much more shaped and interesting like Rae Carson’s The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Scalzi’s Old Man’s War with it’s awesome sci-fi base that builds with John Perry/Jane Sagan’s “regenerated” love 🙂 Other authors like Diana Galbadon, Kate Forsyth, Deborah Harkness and many others also do this really well. And a new and very deserving name to add to that stellar line up is MARY BEHRE. I devoured SPIRITED as soon as it hit my Kindle the other night and it’s fabulous. Thanks for sharing your prodigious talent with the rest of us Mary!
Wow, Pamala! Thank you! That’s quite an endorsement! And I love Diana Galbadon’s writing too. She’s brilliant. 🙂
Hi Mary, I enjoyed your post about genre mash-ups, and I certainly don’t mind the mix of genres. What is most important is that the writer has a engaging story to tell, no matter what genre elements are used to create a worthy plot. I would think for some authors, trying to stay within the boundaries of a specific genre could inhibit the creative process.
On another note, I’m excited about your new novel, Spirited, and it’s already on my Amazon wish list!
Hi Barbara Ann,
Thank you for stopping by. And Yay! I love hearing that readers are more interested in an engaging story than keeping to a strict genre.
Happy Reading!
Thanks everyone for joining in the conversation. The winner of Mary’s giveaway has been notified.