Genre Cross-overs by Marvin Wilson

But people, including literary professionals, tend to pigeon-hole, so ... where to publish? – Marvin Wilson

I am pleased to be able to participate in Marvin Wilson's Hugs Therapy Virtual Tour 2010. Doesn’t the tour name alone make you want to give someone a hug? But what if a homeless, smelly, ugly, unkempt old man had a hug so powerful it could cure cancer? Cause a prostitute to stop hooking and seek true love? Shake the demons of addiction free from a junkie? Make a Christian want to hug and love a Muslim and vice versa? But rare is the beneficiary of his divine embrace – nobody wants to come near him out of fear. That's the premise of Marvin’s latest release, Beware of the Devil’s Hug. You can buy it now from Amazon in order to find the answer to those intriguing questions.

Marvin D. Wilson has a widely varied and rich life experience background - from Hippie Rock and Roll musician, to nightclub entertainer, to Zen Buddhist minister, to carpenter, to small business owner, to network marketer, to sales and sales training, to skilled trades instructor and adult education teacher, to public speaker and motivational coach, to now in his chosen “golden years” career, a writer and multi-published author with the self-proclaimed, “audacity to write novels”.

Today he’s talking about genre-choice dilemmas, so take it away Marvin.
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Jane, thank you so much for hosting a stop on the Hugs Therapy Virtual Tour 2010 today. You asked for a guest post from me, on any topic of my choice. I thought today I’d expound a bit on the nature of my novels as it relates to genres.

As anyone who has read my fictional works knows, I write primarily in the spiritual/inspirational genre, but my books ‘cross over’ a lot into more secular genres as well. Owen Fiddler, for instance, has romances in it, complete with a few sex scenes, and the Christian theological aspects of that book are delivered in a rather humorous, sometimes even shocking and ribald way. Beware the Devil’s Hug takes the cross-over thing even further, with elements of suspense, mystery, intrigue, romance and even some erotica, violence, betrayal and betrothal.

Why all the cross-over? I like to appeal to a wide audience, and while my books are intended to deliver messages of love, unity, oneness—the all-encompassing, nonjudgmental, unconditional Love of Christ is my quintessential impetus for writing—and all things spiritual, I do not choose to ‘preach to the choir’. In fact, I don’t ‘preach’ at all. I want people to be entertained with an excellent page-turner of a story and let the messages seep into their deeper psyche—for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see.

So this does give rise to some genre-choice dilemmas, as far as marketing and finding a publisher or agent goes. I used to submit my manuscripts to Christian book publishers, but always they rejected them, feeling the books were too graphic and worldly to publish. Conversely, the secular pubs would eschew them for being too ‘religious’—even though I am not a religious person, nor are my books ‘religious’, at all. I am a non-religious, dogma-free, Maverick spiritualist Christian, and that is the sort of tenor of the spiritual messages that come through in my novels. But people, including literary professionals, tend to pigeon-hole, so ... where to publish?

My first book, I Romanced the Stone (Memoirs of a Recovering Hippie), I had to go to a vanity press, through a very good and high quality small publisher, Global Authors Publications, who liked my story enough to publish it. And that book, by the way, still sells quite well, even though I’ve stopped actively promoting it for some time—other than at personal speaking engagements where I am talking about the perils of addiction and the route to not only recovery but absolute cure and freedom from addictions.

Then with my first novel, Owen Fiddler, I came across Cambridge Books, who considered the work highly enough to offer me my first contract. I got a tiny advance, which to me felt like a psychically valued million bucks! And with my last two releases, Between the Storm and the Rainbow, and now Beware the Devil’s Hug, I had the good fortune to have connected with All Things That Matter Press, with which I am on staff as an editor. ATTMP actively seeks out and publishes new and unique authors who deliver ‘message’ books, but in a non-preachy, well written, fictional format. It’s a great fit for me and my writing style. And while ATTMP is still a small pub house, they are growing fast and garnering an impressive lot of talented writers-on-the-rise, with an equally impressive inventory of high quality books offered and many more on the way. If anyone reading this is an aspiring author—who writes about any of the many ‘all things that matter’—seeking a pub house, and has gifted talent and is willing to go the extra mile for self-promotion and marketing, I’d advise him or her to submit their work to ATTMP.

So in closing, and back to the primary topic and the book being promoted here on the Hugs Therapy Virtual Tour 2010, Beware the Devil’s Hug is, true to The Old Silly’s style, definitely a cross-over novel. It is a book that can be read on the surface for pure entertainment, and/or read deeper into, and the reader will derive inspiration and spiritual messages from it. Either way, and preferably both ways, it’s a work meant for all to read. Probably best for high school age and up; it is definitely an ‘adult’ book, so don’t buy and give it to youngsters still with virgin ears, but anyone who appreciates real world, tell-it-like-it-is, no punches pulled, hard-hitting action novels with a couple darn good messages thrown in to boot, will enjoy “Hugs”.
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Thanks, Marvin. I think many new writers worry when their work doesn’t seem to fit into one particular genre. Hopefully this informative post will let them know that there is room in the publishing world for cross-over genres. Please feel free to leave questions or comments for Marvin.

The fun of the Hugs Therapy Virtual Tour 2010 continues tomorrow (10/26) on Mason Canyon’s Thoughts in Progress.

Also be sure to stop by The Old Silly’s Free Spirit Blog to find out more about Marvin, his books, the tour and to enter his contest for lots of prizes and giveaways.

Additional Links:
Beware the Devil’s Hug
Owen Fiddler
Between the Storm and the Rainbow
I Romanced the Stone (Memoirs of a Recovering Hippie)
All Things That Matter Press

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope to see you again next Monday.

Tags: Marvin Wilson, cross-over genres, Hugs Therapy Virtual Tour, Beware of the Devil’s Hug, All Things That Matter Press, genres