Maria Lewis

Of course it does.

I think cliches can be really powerful and useful for a reason.

But at the same time, it's what you do with those recognizable elements.

And there's so many authors at the moment

You know what, converting people to fantasy is like doing a really intricate psychic reading.

Like I would find out, okay, what kind of books do you read?

And if they say they're more of a true crime person or they love crime fiction or they love romance or they love historical fiction, that's the beauty of fantasy is that you can, depending on what their preference is, depending on the thing that they love,

you can find something for them.

You can point them in the direction of something that is going to cater to their crime interests.

So for instance, like Charlene Harris, for instance, most of her books have crime elements to them.

There's a central mystery that's being unraveled or like it's a bit of a detective story.

And yes, okay, there might be

shifters or vampires or angels or whatever you choose your poison involved in there but that's part of it as well um somebody like Tamora Pierce you know that's a more traditional idea of like knights but it's a female knight it's

story that has been flipped the gender has been subverted and it challenges a lot of those themes about what it means to be quote-unquote a woman a girl uh in a world that's largely dominated by men you know if somebody is is big into police procedurals i'd probably flick them black magic if somebody's looking for something that's a little bit has more of a sci-fi bent i'd probably you know steer them towards terra nullius by um claire j coleman like there's so many different

elements that no matter what somebody is interested in, you can pretty much find something for them.

Fantasy as a genre is a little bit, and this is going to sound very Forrest Gump-y, but it's a little bit like a box of chocolates.

And that depending on what somebody's flavor is, depending on what they're after, you can find something for them.

I mean,

There's a book called, and you might need to bleep this out, The Girl Who Could Move Shit With Her Mind by Jackson Ford that is like X-Men meets Alias.

You know, it's fantasy, but it's very grounded within the real world setting of Los Angeles.