Gran-Lit

This morning, I was reading a piece written by one of our very own bloggers, kasmin. She is an excellent writer. Check out her stuff! I ran across an article on her site about seven new genres of fiction that are emerging and it was fascinating. They all interest me, but one particularly interests me and that is the Gran-Lit genre. If you’re over the age of 40, you really should have a look at some of the writing in this genre. If you’re under 40, you might just be in for a nice surprise!

You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure out what it is. More than 90 percent of fiction involves the heroine or hero and most of the supporting characters who are under the age of 40. Most are under the age of 30. Is that real life? Absolutely not. Take the romance genre. People over 40, 50, 60 fall in love and have sex just as often as people in their 20s. The mass market has just tricked us into believing that everyone that is having fun is in their 20s and that could not be any more wrong.

I am sure there is a whole segment of the population out there, in the age brackets of  40,, 50, and 60 who would love their romance novels, and other genres, to be about people their own age. I know that I get tired of reading fiction where everyone is in their 20s. Sorry, but that is not real life. Most of the baby boomers are now 60 years old and above, the original sex, love, and rock and roll generation. Do you think they have just stopped having fun, love, and sex? Since I’m a baby boomer myself, I can tell you, with certainly, that is not true! We, in fact, invented fun!

My novel, a psychological thriller, has a heroine who is 60 years old and I think you will find it a whole lot of fun and a real thriller to boot. I’ve not finished it yet, but I’m diligently working on it. I didn’t know until today that not only is it a psych thriller, but also gran-lit. How fun to be writing in a brand new genre.

So grab a snack and search your favorite online bookstore for gran-lit and let me know what you think. I promise my contribution will be exciting!