Between the Cracks 101

Though fantasy is my first love, I write anything from children's picture books to horror fiction. I believe that genres are crippling literature. A story takes on what ever form it needs. I do not set out to write a fantasy or a romance. Rather, I write the story as is demands to be written and then try to fit it into a category only for the sake of convenience. Needless to say, some of my stories fall through the genre cracks. So I have created my own genre: Between the Cracks Fiction.

I get excited about stories that push the boundaries of current labels, fiction that creates new labels. My favorite authors accomplish this feat. Timothy Findley's Not Wanted on the Voyage, is the best fantasy novel that I have ever read, but don't look for it in the fantasy section of your book store. Likewise, Guy Gavriel Kay's fantasy novel Tigana has little magic, no elves, space ships or anything otherworldly. Still, it is a rip-roaring epic that delights in thwarting the readers' expectations.

These are the qualities that I strive to emulate in my writing. I believe there are others out there who crave fantasy fiction that is both meaningful and fun. So I invite you to browse these pages and experience a new genre of literature: Between the Cracks Fiction. The only common thread among these stories is that they needed to be written.

Apart from my own stories, poems and photographs, I will also bring you reviews of other Between the Cracks novels, interviews, and articles on subjects that spark my creativity. I hope you enjoy this site and find in it something to inspire you.

Kim McDougall

My name is Kim McDougall. Welcome to my site: Between the Cracks Fiction. Not sure what that is? Let me tell you a bit about myself first, and then into the cracks.

I am a writer and photographer with a BA in English literature from Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec. I was born in Montreal and have lived in Nice, France, Toronto, Long Island, New York and now beautiful Pennsylvania.

Between the Cracks 101

Once upon a time. Four words that evoke memories of princesses and goblins, of fables and fairytales. They have become an archetype, harking back to a time when the word novel was synonymous with fantasy. In fact, English literature was forged in the fires of sorcery and unreality. Think Faerie Queen, Dr. Faustus, Gulliver’s Travels. Sound familiar? Where would you look for these stories in your local book store? Certainly not in the fantasy section. Back when Moby Dick was published there were no fantasy and sci-fi, no mystery or romance, only novels. Alexander Pope did not worry about cross-genres when he composed The Rape of a Lock. And Robert Louis Stevenson was not catering to horror fans when he wrote Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide.

When did literature become a slave to labels? Who else but marketing managers profit from categorizing

literature? Certainly not the consumer. Fantasy buffs head straight for these shelves, but how many great fantasy stories are missed, because they are classified as “literary” instead?

Likewise, how many readers that might disdain genre-fiction also unknowingly abstain from quality literature? In the new big-box publishing industry, many great writers fall through the marketing cracks simply because their writing falls through the genre cracks.

As a reader I’m all for an errant knight epic or a sexy vampire thriller, but the books that stick with me, the stories that I find myself reviewing on sleepless nights, are those that break the barriers. As a writer, I strive to avoid stereotypes by writing a great story first and worrying about classifying it later. Unfortunately, writing in the gaps has its drawbacks too. I once sent the same story to two different editors, receiving polite rejections from both, one claiming that my story was fantasy and his magazine did not publish this genre, the other that the story was not fantasy and he only published such. Same story.