Thursday, May 13, 2010

Genre jumping

I have to admit, I haven't quite yet figured out what kind of writer I am, genre-wise. My forthcoming first novel, which is currently in the editing stage, is Forget-Me-Not, a romantic suspense novel. It's kind of funny that my first sale should come in this subgenre, because I haven't read a ton of books like it. Maybe that's why it was easier for me to write--I wasn't constantly fretting whether this had "been done" before. It probably has, but I don't know about it. Like the saying goes, "What you don't know, you can't be neurotic about." I've got a western romantic novella I'll be starting revisions on in a month or so, and I'm hoping to sell it shortly. (I have some editor interest on it, but who knows?) And last but not least, one of these days, I'll return to working on my current project, which is sort of a funny/sexy crime caper thing in a contemporary setting. I'm not sure that this is smart, marketing wise, to jump around from genre to genre, but I can't figure out how else to proceed. I seem to be destined to have to try everything and fail at most of it before I figure out what I'm good at. I can think of only one writer I like who really jumps from genre to genre, and that's Lisa Cach. She's done everything from mainstream to historical romance to paranormal, all with her own flair. Are there any other well-known genre jumpers I'm forgetting?

1 comments:

Lyndi Alexander said...

Linda, I write the story that comes to me, not to a genre in specific, so I have sci-fi and romance and mainstream and urban fantasy and horror, and I understand your quandary. I've created different pen names for the genres that are very different, lumping the sci-fi, fantasy and horror together under one, and the more romantic novels under another. My first contracted romance for The Wild Rose Press comes out next year; the urban fantasy series has already begun. Best wishes for your forthcoming launch!

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