Sci-Fi and Horror/Urban Fantasy Mashup
Sci-Fi and Horror/Urban Fantasy Mashup
Mashing up genres into a cohesive story can be a lot of fun for writers, but also an enormous challenge. Not everyone is Ridley Scott, who can take the idea of a haunted house in space and make it work. There is a balance you have to find. When you set out to craft a story like this, you have to keep in mind your end game. Will everyone die a horrible death? Will there be a happily ever after? Will only one person come out on the other end (along with their cat)? Those are some big questions you have to answer for horror/urban fantasy, but that’s not all. You have to factor in the science fiction aspect. Will the story take place in space? Will the characters be on an alien world? Will they be in a space station? Is the story set in the future? What about technology? Will the world be dark and dystopian or something more like our world but set farther in the future? There is a lot to sort through and figure out.
Which, if I’m honest, can be great fun. These are the questions that get me excited when I’m telling a story, because, mostly these are questions I really want answered as a reader (not all at once, but by the time I’m finished reading the story).
When I set out to write Volaria, I wanted to do three things: the story had to be set in the future; I wanted there to be vampires, witches and werewolves, and I wanted the story located partially in a thriving city on the moon (which would involve space travel… another must).
