Not just cover art shifts between urban fantasy and historical fantasy, at least when I write. In my case, it is deliberate, in part because the language has to shift too. There are a lot of modern terms that make no sense when writing about an early-Medieval culture (northern Europe during the peak of the Hanseatic League, AD 1100-1300 CE or so). That means I go more slowly and work harder to avoid using words like, oh, memo (no mimeograph), or “that doesn’t compute.”

My urban fantasy books are set in a version of now, so the language is modern. My writing style is more casual and free-flowing, even when the characters are being deliberately archaic and/or indirect. The genre tends to be more casual, so why not? Never slipshod*, no, but less formal, with a higher tolerance for slang and speech-like dialogue. It is our world, and readers have a higher tolerance for pop culture references and nods to current events, so long as they don’t end up locking the story into a certain place and time.

The Shikhari books require a more formal yet slightly old-fashioned language and way of thinking for all that they are far-future science fiction. They are “the Raj in Space,” so Victorian a la Kipling, or H. Rider Haggard, or Talbot Mundy, or John Corbett’s writings about India. High tech, yes, but a more formal mode of speech and thought, at least by the protagonist. She’s a very proper (aside from religion) matron who can navigate the shoals of Society and regimental dinners, while also cleaning game and shooting as well as the men do.

The most recent WIP is different again. One reader of the excerpts says that it has a different texture from my other books. That’s true, and I noticed it early on. Part stems from how much of the book was written long-hand, which forces me to go slower and be more particular with word choices. Part comes from the setting and the character. Both are different from what I’ve done in the past. Tuathal thinks in pictures and songs, lots of descriptions and kennings. Those take time. The world is also, well, mistier than most, with blurry edges. It reminds me of a well-worn tweed, a bit frayed and fuzzy on the cuffs but still hard and durable.

Different kinds of story seem to benefit from different styles and flavors. All are mine, as is the nonfiction I also write (academic history), but all share some commonalities. How we write also shifts over time, which can be good, or bad, or just is.

*Can work be slipshod in a world where people do not associate slippers with informality and casualness among men?