Earlier today I remembered that Diana Pharaoh Francis Crosspointe books was re-issued last year, and decided to do a search for them at Kobo since I was checking up something else. They were. My plan to buy the Black Ship was derailed when I saw the categories it was in. Science Fiction and Fantasy, Fiction and Literature and Historical Fantasy.

I have no issue with the first two, but I just shook my head at historical fantasy. To me historical fantasy takes place in this world with magic and supernatural creatures. But I googled and it turns out there are two schools: One that thinks like me and one that has a much wider definition.

One that means that technically the Portal Universe books are historical fantasy. Do I think they are? Not really. Would I have any problems with classifying them as such? That is a much harder question and one I need to think about. Part of me recognizes that would be a good cheap way to get my books in front of a new audience. The problem is that to me it would feel like lying to my readers. And I don’t want to do that. On the other hand, Kobo’s historical fantasy category contains books that isn’t fantasy at all.

Oh well. It is nothing I can do anything about right now, since Publit’s current dashboard only supports one category. But that will change it March, I hope.