Thursday, May 9, 2013

Genres

When an idea strikes me, I find I have a hard time not putting the words down on paper, or as it were, in a word document. The first full length novel I finished, Awake My Soul, was inspired by me reading a nonfiction book about women who ruled in England. It's a great book called She Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, and I highly recommend it. I also have a history degree, although my focus was not medieval England, where Awake My Soul is set. But I was struck by an idea that was inspired by these women and I wrote it down.

Historical Romance isn't often what I pick up when I'm reading romance novels. Of course, I've read quite a few, but when it comes to short stories I've written and most other ideas I'm working on those are usually set in the present. When I write, I usually enjoy writing things that are happening now, and when I read romances, the ones that stick with me the most are contemporary.

As I've been editing Awake My Soul and spending free time writing Lay Me Bare, a contemporary I hope to have out this year, I worry that going from historical to contemporary may hinder me in some way, that people who read one will have no interest in the other. I'm especially worried that since most of what I write is contemporary, and readers I build up with Awake My Soul will be disappointed with what else I have to offer. I just don't want to see myself pigeonholed.

In the end though, I'm writing stories I love and at the end of the day it's all I can do!

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