I'm looking for some feedback on attaching a genre to this novel I'm trying to query.
Mathilde is a young Goth woman (4th century historical Goth, not modern Goth) trying to unite the Germanic tribes against the stronger surrounding Nations. I base much of what happens around actual historical events and real military leaders, tying them into my story. Because little is known about the Goths today prior to their later interaction with the Romans, and I don't "break" anything in a historical sense, I've just been calling it historical fiction.
That said, I based the founding of Mathilde's tribe on a myth passed down by Goth historians that some early Goths were banished as witches. This leads to my premise that a low level of mentalist type magic exists in the world, and Mathilde's self-training as a warrior incorporates some ESP and mind over matter type abilities that give her an edge. This is my fantasy/magic twist that I don't know whether it's worth highlighting in genre classification.
About halfway through the novel, the Huns show up for their historic conquest of Europe, and from that point the novel focuses heavily on military operations and fairly graphic battles. So it seems not unreasonable to include military in the classification.
As I mentioned at the top, I've been describing my novel as historical fiction. I tend toward querying agents who specifically say they're interested in military fiction, and either like or are not averse to some degree of fantasy. The letter itself makes the unmentioned genre elements pretty obvious, which is why I avoided trying to squeeze more into the classification. Basically I'm interested in opinions on whether this is a reasonable course or if I might want to consider calling it historical fantasy instead, and/or adding military in there, or some other option.
Mathilde is a young Goth woman (4th century historical Goth, not modern Goth) trying to unite the Germanic tribes against the stronger surrounding Nations. I base much of what happens around actual historical events and real military leaders, tying them into my story. Because little is known about the Goths today prior to their later interaction with the Romans, and I don't "break" anything in a historical sense, I've just been calling it historical fiction.
That said, I based the founding of Mathilde's tribe on a myth passed down by Goth historians that some early Goths were banished as witches. This leads to my premise that a low level of mentalist type magic exists in the world, and Mathilde's self-training as a warrior incorporates some ESP and mind over matter type abilities that give her an edge. This is my fantasy/magic twist that I don't know whether it's worth highlighting in genre classification.
About halfway through the novel, the Huns show up for their historic conquest of Europe, and from that point the novel focuses heavily on military operations and fairly graphic battles. So it seems not unreasonable to include military in the classification.
As I mentioned at the top, I've been describing my novel as historical fiction. I tend toward querying agents who specifically say they're interested in military fiction, and either like or are not averse to some degree of fantasy. The letter itself makes the unmentioned genre elements pretty obvious, which is why I avoided trying to squeeze more into the classification. Basically I'm interested in opinions on whether this is a reasonable course or if I might want to consider calling it historical fantasy instead, and/or adding military in there, or some other option.
