All right, I don't mean the ones about the girl in the next row, I mean the genre. A lot of agents seem to be very stern in specifying 'no fantasy'. This disheartened me a little as fantasy happens to be what I like writing, however, I noticed Christopher Little is among these. And I would have thought that Harry Potter fell, broadly, into a fantasy genre.
What makes fantasy, then? A quest, a dragon, mountains and armies? Or wizards and goblins sat on toad stools, driving around in little yellow cars?
I am also a fantasy writer and I agree it's deadly difficult if it doesn't fall under the umbrella of Tolkien or Grimm.
If you are trying to pin-point it it is quite difficult because by nature it is a diverse genre.
By the way I write fantasy too, so I understand. :)
Hi Mark.
Wikipedia states, fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme or setting.
However, there are quite a few sub-genres that branch off from this. Urban, low, high, contemporary and paranormal are to name but a few, so it's really hard to distinguish fantasy as just a genre in itself.
Oh, and Harry Potter falls in the sub-genre high fantasy.
Don't know if that's any help or not.
Sarah :)