My last post here was titled "The Accidental Series" because it turns out I am writing one. That was a surprise. But here's a bigger one: apparently, I am also writing romance.
This is more than a big surprise. It's both jaw-dropping and hilarious at the same time. For one thing, I am nearly allergic to romance novels. Now, I don't knock romance novels or their writers. Clearly, there is a huge market for romances and I doff my proverbial cap to anyone who can create delicious works to ease the cravings of so many readers. I know I couldn't. So bless the writers who provide that enormous service.
The hilarity is for anyone who really knows me. While my friends were discovering Gone With the Wind, I was head over heels for The Three Musketeers. While most of the gal-pals I had in seventh and eighth grade were checking out Seventeenth Summer by Betty Cavanaugh (remember her???) at the library, I was checking out The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Count of Monte Cristo. And it's not that there was no romance in the works of Dumas or Howard Pyle, it's just that romance was incidental and not the point of the story. Which is the way I like romance in a book. So anyone who really knows me would find it funny thatI have been tagged as a romance writer.
And it gets funnier. Someone said my book had "too much historical romance" in it. Historical romance? Really? I'm not even sure what that means, but images of bodice-ripper cover art, as Stephen King refers to it, keep popping into mind when I think about it. Me? Writing historical romance? I have no idea where that came from, seeing as how my book is set squarely in the 21st century and revolves around two college-age kids who investigate a haunting and a thirty-year old murder case. Ah, maybe that's the history? A thirty-year old murder?
At any event, I am currently working on book two so that I can put it out there and find out if I am now writing paranormal historical romance mysteries with metaphysical overtones. Can't wait to see what I learn about myself next! As all writers ultimately work in solitude, feedback is a wonderful thing, I admit. But sometimes, when I read the feedback directed at me, I find myself wondering if the reader is accidentally posting about a different novel altogether. Or maybe I'm just too close to see, and I really am producing history and romance?
Huh. Who knew?
Just goes to show you never know where your muse will take you. :)
ReplyDeleteMy current novel has much deeper romance aspects than I intended for it.
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