Guest Post: Gabriel Madison ~ artist and indie author

A Guest Post: from Gabriel Madison

We have talented artist, creative wordsmith and prolific indie author/writer Gabriel Madison here today to share with us.

Gabriel uses several different mediums when creating his artistic works of fiction. (In addition to his numerous writings he has made some incredible movie shorts). In honor of his latest book released recently ~ Ariel ~  we have his perspective on changing a genre to fit a new audience. Here he begs the questions: Is it necessary or do we as readers and writers mold ourselves or find new interests?   I do have to admit I like Gabriel's attitude quite a lot.   *Side note: Since Gabriel “doesn’t do pictures” we have a picture of his cute dog, Jade, with a towel on her head. Contrary to my thoughts Gabriel refuses to admit how handsome he really is!**

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Let’s welcome Gabriel as he addresses the intriguing question:  Should a Genre Change to Fit a New Audience?

A little while ago I came across an article suggesting that sci-fi fantasy should change how women are portrayed because of the large amount of women that like that genre now. In the comment section, people were going back and forth (mainly women and men were arguing with each other) about if the genre should change to be more female friendly. Now, we all know that the majority of sci-fi fantasy is geared towards teenage boys. I didn’t want to get involved with the back and forth in the comment section of the article, so I’ll give my opinion now. I don’t think it should change.

I’m a black male from the south, and my favorite TV show of all time is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Most of the shows I watch now come on ABC Family and the CW, and let me tell you, none of that is geared towards me. To be truthful, most sci-fi fantasy isn’t geared towards me. I remember the first time I went to a sci-fi convention, my college professor, who is also a sci-fi geek like me, looked at me with complete shock on his face after finding out I’m a sci-fi geek.

I think the cool thing about women liking sci-fi, is that it’s not geared towards them. I think it’s interesting when people are into things that aren’t really meant for them. I knew Buffy wasn’t written for me to like, and I knew there would be a lot of things in it that wasn’t for me, but I didn’t want it to change to include me, just like I don’t want any of the shows on ABC Family or the CW to change.

When Game of Thrones was being promoted, I saw a lot of women offended on twitter because it was being deemed a show geared towards men. Well, it is a show geared towards men, which is why the large female following of the show and books are so cool.

Yes, there are a lot of women and girls that like video games, sci-fi fantasy, graphic novels, tricked out cars and many other things that most people consider to be male centric, but I don’t think any of that should change to be more inclusive.

I remember when I went to an event in Atlanta Ga. with a black author, whose books were geared towards young black readers. I mean the books were written with so much intercity slang, I found myself lost a few times trying to read the first one. I gave the book to a black friend of mine, and she was lost reading it also, because the book was completely geared towards the intercity New York hip-hop crowd. Anyway, at the event, there were middle aged white women scattered around the audience. Even the author looked shocked to see them. And they were asking questions and it was obvious they had fallen in love with the characters and had followed the story better than I had. But like I said, I’m a middle aged black man and I can almost recite everyone’s line in every episode of Buffy.

All I’m saying, in my opinion, to change something to be more inclusive, would take away from the beauty of people outside of the targeted audience falling in love with it just the way it is.

What a refreshing perspective. Thank you for sharing Gabriel!

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Ariel ~ is Gabriel’s newest young adult novel about a fallen angel. It has some diverse and well thought out characters:

About ~  Angel Santos just wants to be an average seventeen year-old girl. That's kind of hard for a reincarnated Archangel who's hiding her powers. It gets even harder when God vanishes from Heaven and her old friends turn to her to find the last angel to see Him. Now all she has to do is stop the impending apocalypse and fend off her best friend's attempts to make her popular. All in a week's work.

Related Links:  Audio Excerpt/Interview with Gabriel; and to buy the ebook via – Smashwords; and Ariel’s Blog with more ebook purchasing links.

About Gabriel:   Gabriel loves anything British and Vampire, not necessarily combined or in that order. An avid TV aficionado due to his screenwriting experience he enjoys everything from Roswell to his top favorite Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

Beginning his foray as a writer in high school with short stories, poetry, and then screenplays, he later attended a private University in Atlanta, GA for Media Production Arts. He began writing script and film making, creating several screenplays and a few short movies- one of which is a twelve-minute vampire flick adapted from a short story called “Midnight Diner”.  Recently he has shifted toward writing stories again and lives in Albany, GA which he considers home. To find out more and to connect with him try his Blog; Newer Blog; Twitter; and Goodreads. Say hello; he is a very nice guy!

Gabriel will be responding to questions or responses that you may have so don’t forget to check the follow up box.

So we ask you all:     Should a genre change to fit a new audience?  Do you  read books or watch movies or TV shows that would be considered outside of “your” type casted genre?

Thanks for reading!