Genre Busting - Guest Post From Author Michael Estrin

Genre Busting (with 100% fewer zombies)

I tried to write a zombie story once, but my zombie just sat on the couch watching Dawn of the Dead on Netflix. It was the original George Romero Dawn of the Dead because I’m classic like that, and I like my satire bleak and a little cheesy. But my zombie—Bob was his name—liked the taste of Cheetos more than human flesh, and he was extraordinarily lazy, even by zombie standards. Bob was, I’m sorry to say, a crap zombie, and because of that he is forever doomed to languish in character limbo. (But don’t worry, I left Bob a honey bear bong like the one Brad Pitt used in True Romance; and before I said goodbye for good, I wrote a passage explaining how he retained enough dexterity in his thumbs to pack and light said bong, because I am not a cruel bastard.)

ANYWAY, when I tell people I wrote a novel that’s available as an ebook, one of the first things they ask about is genre. More than moviegoers, readers are genre diehards. Dudes—it’s usually dudes—want to know my take on zombies. Do your zombies run or just stagger? Are the sensitive to sounds like gunshots and heavy metal? On the other hand, women want to know if they can expect sexy vampires or hunky werewolves (or both!), which is a little surprising since I’ve always heard that ladies aren’t fond of dudes with excess body hair.

But I wrote a book without the wholly trinity of genre. There are no zombie hordes overrunning Los Angeles (unless you count the mindless hipsters in their autopilot iPhone daze). There are no vampires, which makes the sex scenes decidedly toothless. And there are no werewolves, despite several Warren Zevon references. Oh sure, it was tempting to Seth Grahame-Smith it by adding zombies to the existing text Pride and Prejudice style, but that idea has been done to death, right?

Instead, I wrote a literary mutt—part crime novel, part stoner noir, and all dark comedy. It’s what you might call a genre-buster. But to be clear, I bust genres in the way that MC Hammer busted moves, not the way Teddy Roosevelt busted trusts. Which is to say, that I love genres. I love their rules, and I love their conceits. But I also love to break those rules and tinker with those conceits. It’s fun to write that way, and it’s fun to read books that don’t fit neatly into a specific box. Sure, a genre really can tie the book together, but that’s just like my publisher’s opinion, man. And if you don’t get that last reference, you’re obviously not a golfer.


Michael Estrin grew up in Los Angeles, fled, and returned.

He has written for a broad range of publications, including American Way, Nerve, Bitter Lawyer, AskMen, Draft, California Lawyer, and Penthouse (yes, they have articles, too).

Murder and Other Distractions is his first novel.