'Trailer Park Elves' Authors Michael Dalton And Adam Lance Dish The Dirty Secrets Of Men's Adventure Fiction

Men’s Adventure Fiction has two kings who dominate the top of the sales charts on Amazon authors Michael Dalton and Adam Lance. The category has a preponderance of sexy elves on the covers of the books, which makes it easy to misconstrue what these books are about, but there’s a lot to the genre of men’s romance.

Their recent book, Trailer Park Elves 3, is currently #1 in the genre, followed closely by the first two installments of the series. The books are in the LitRPG genre, where the characters are given stats and progressions as if they were players in a tabletop roleplaying game, though written out. The genre has caught fire among male readers in recent years, and Trailer Park Elves is a tongue-in-cheek take on fantasy with many humor elements added in, resonating with the readers.

Fandom Pulse contacted these authors to talk about their successes and writing careers.

What is men’s adventure fiction at this point, and how did the top of the Amazon charts become dominated with sexy elf covers?

MICHAEL: We’ve got to start with the recognition that “Men’s Adventure” is just an arbitrary category that the publishing industry came up with to help bookstores figure out how to organize their shelves. To a certain extent, it’s a catch-all for a lot of books that don’t fit anywhere else.

I don’t think the core themes have really changed that much. Men’s Adventure has always been dominated by strong men who stand up for themselves, beat the bad guys, and get the girl. That said, the settings of the adventure novels that appeal to male readers have evolved significantly over the past decade.

We could argue all day about why, but a lot of it has to do with changing tastes among men, not just in novels but in movies and video games, as well as changing ideas about masculinity. Westerns and detective novels are nowhere near as popular as they used to be. Instead, there’s a lot more fantasy content with the same sorts of themes. If you look at the core of it, however, it’s not really that different.

With respect to the covers, cheesecake has always been a staple of male-oriented fiction. That’s true, even though things have gotten tamer during the last decade or two as “male gaze” content fell out of favor. But if you look back on the history of the genre, it’s definitely there.

My dad’s paperback copy of Goldfinger, which I still have and which was published in 1963, has a naked girl on the cover that Amazon would probably throw right into its erotica dungeon. I have a large collection of ’80s pulp adventure novels that have similar styles of cover art. Trailer Park Elves, in my opinion, is squarely within that tradition.

ADAM: Like Michael said, Men’s Adventure Fiction is a “catchall” category. My gut is that the average reader has fallen out of favor with what was so popular when I was growing up. Meaning: Sword and Sorcery, Westerns, and Sci-Fi adventures no longer lead to the same sales as “cotton candy” – the delightful, fun reads that people can devour relatively quickly.

Who are your biggest influences as writers?

MICHAEL: I’ve always been a big fan of pulp adventure fiction. I have a degree in English, and I’ve read plenty of “serious” literary fiction. I have nothing against it, but at the end of the day, though, I just want to relax and escape into a good story that doesn’t require me to think too hard.

As far as authors, Clive Cussler, Stephen King, Alan Dean Foster, Barry Sadler, and Michael Moorcock all had a big impact on my writing style and interests.

ADAM: Basically anything fantasy in the 1990s or early 2000s. Robert Jordan, Tad Williams, Terry Pratchett, Terry Brooks (double the Terry double the fun), C.S. Friedman, Robin Hob, Jennifer Roberson, Matthew Stover, etc.

How did your success come about on Amazon?

ADAM: I found some success under my other pen name around the time COVID hit. Due to illness related to COVID, my partner suffered a number of health issues that have left her disabled. On top of that, we were blessed with our first child.

With no other alternative, I doubled down, writing as much as sixteen hours a day in the hopes to make enough money to pay for our increasing medical bills. With each book I released, I saw less return on investment. I joined Pivot Press, which has a team of editors and collaborators to help smooth the process out, reducing errors and improving my prose.

Still, it didn’t move the needle enough.

Looking for a way to diversify my writing portfolio and wanting to try something new, I enticed Michael Dalton to take a chance and co-author Isekai Emperor with me. He became my mentor as well as co-author. It is thanks to him that I learned to understand and navigate a new genre.

Isekai Emperor remains a hit as large as any “traditional” fantasy I wrote under my other pen name to this day. Thanks to his kindness, and the dedication of our fans, I’ve been able to afford life.

My success is 30% luck, 20% the Pivot Press Team, 20% Michael Dalton, and 30% being willing to write like my family depends on it.

Because it does.

MICHAEL: To write genre fiction effectively, you have to have a passion for the genre. If you’re only in it to make money, your readers will know, and they will hate you for it. I couldn’t write this stuff if I didn’t like it. Beyond that, I don’t know. People have asked, and I’ve told them that if I could bottle this stuff and sell it, I would. It would certainly be less work than writing.

Trailer Park Elves. Where did that idea come from and what was the thought behind the title?

ADAM: I wanted a story that would strike the humor of Isekai Emperor, but tie into the larger connected universe we’re writing in. At the same time, we’d seen a movement of fans away from high stakes or darker themes, so it needed to not just include humor, but weave it throughout the entire premise.

Trailer Park Elves is actually part of a 12+ book connected universe with an overarching plot, linked villains, and deep fantasy roots.

MICHAEL: I grew up in east Texas, and my redneck roots go pretty deep into the backwoods. So this is a subject I have some familiarity with.

I don’t even remember how exactly we came up with this, but it was one night when we were just throwing out concepts for a new book. The idea of a fantasy trailer park filled with fantasy races and creatures getting into the usual trailer park drama was fundamentally stupid and ridiculous, but after we started talking about it, the story just took hold of us and wouldn’t let go. I think we wrote the first book in about a week.

It looks a lot like this is a men’s romance genre similar to what we see with women’s, where it’s erotica driven. Do you see the work as pornographic, or is that mostly a misconception about the genre?