History to Fantasy

How do books evolve? Well, sometimes the writer's mind is a little warped. At first, the writer believes she is creating a work of historical fiction. Something that could have happened. Then she adds some elements of adventure, weaving it into the plot and dashing the main character here and there. The whole time, the writer thinks she is delving into history. Staying accurate. Researching the past by reading books written by archaeologists, historians, even linguists. But then something happens. The writer goes astray. She ignores her research. She ignores the carefully thought-out plot. She even ignores the thought that the past six months of writing will have to be dumped into the trash folder.

She writes. The characters tell her they want something more. Something fantastical.

And voila! The novel bleeds into another genre. Fantasy. Now it's an historical action-adventure fantasy.

Exciting. Yay!

But now the questions are: Where would this book be shelved? Is it too different from my last novel? Am I making a career-long mistake?

And you know what? I don't care. This book is rich.