Monday 5 September 2016

Why I write different genres

All my stories are erotic romances but within that genre I have written in several different sub-genre.

Advice from one of my publishers was – if you want to be a best seller, stick to the same genre, particularly if it is BDSM.

However, as a writer, I like to go where the muse sends me (which is usually all round the universe!). And, besides which, it is more interesting to try out different styles and pushes me as a writer. So this is what I like most about writing the different genre:


·       BDSM (various books including the Doms & Aquaintances series, the Retraining duo, the two in the Manor of Decadence series, the two in the Haunt of the Wolves series/Dark Captive) – as a person I have an interest in BDSM. I have tried it out with a partner. Despite being a very strong person, in the bedroom I like the other person to be dominant but am not particularly into S&M. I did wonder if I would freak out at being tied up but actually as long as I have total trust in the other person, I really enjoy it. So it is nice to write about aspects of something that I find fascinating and to vicariously enjoy the parts that I don’t enjoy, through my characters!


·       
    Romantic comedy (the Friends & Acquaintances series in particular, but many of my books have comedic elements in them including Bounty Hunters’ Captive and Naughty Christmas Wishes) – I have a wicked sense of humour and find humour in many situations and love to include that in my stories. One of my favourite scenes was in ‘Friendly Seduction’ where the heroine is explaining to the hero why women like reading erotic romances and he sums it up by saying –



“If I understand correctly, you—and every other female reader possibly—like reading about manly heroes with beautiful heroines.” He counted these off on his fingers. “The hero has to be a leader of some sort and be dominant but caring, and there has to be some sort of conflict or misunderstanding, maybe even a kidnapping. If there is some BDSM involved and even a ménage a trois, that would be even better.”

 
·       Sci-fi (the Alien Manhunt trio, Bounty Hunters’ captive, the two in the Duoterra series, the new story coming out in Love & Lust in Space anthology called The Sonic Dilda’tor) – as a reader sci-fi is my preferred reading material (and as a watcher my preferred TV and film viewing) so I just have to write sci-fi! I love the fact that an author can invent whatever they want as it hasn’t happened yet! And world building is such fun.




·       

    Paranormal (the two in the Haunt of the Wolves series, The Last Werewolf). Paranormal in this case is werewolves for me rather than vampires or demons or other shapeshifting creatures. I love writing about werewolves and including wolf-like behaviours in my characters. As with sci-fi, world building is such fun such as inventing how your shifters will shift, eg, if it is instantaneous what happens to their clothes?





·       
    Fantasy (Naughty Christmas Wishes and hopefully a sequel to come this Christmas). I love fantasy but it isn’t the best selling of genres. However, I had such fun with this one and could play off my characters (eg, the fairy from the top of the Christmas trees who meets up with elves) against our preconceptions of fantasy creatures, so in this case the elves were handsome and hunky and the fairy had horny feelings!





·       
    
    May-December (in other words characters whose ages are far apart. So far, I have only had older women with younger men – Chasing Emily, Naughty Christmas Wishes). However, these stories don’t go down terribly well but I like to write about a woman my own age and the issues she might encounter such as hot flushes!







·       Older characters (where both are older – Retraining the Dom, Kink After Dinner). As above, unfortunately readers aren’t interested (and it is difficult for the book cover designers to get older models!)





·       Holiday (Naughty Christmas Wishes). It was fun to write about a time of year I adore!

Near a big store, a reindeer stood next to a fake Santa. They were surrounded by children wanting to pat it.

"Ho ho ho, children. One at a time, please. Rudolph isn’t going anywhere for a few hours, yet.”

The reindeer turned its head as Fay sneaked past and they shared a knowing wink. It wasn’t Rudolph, at all. In fact, it was Cupid.



·      

    Contemporary (most of my books including the story in the Men for Hire anthology, except the sci-fi). It is easy to write contemporary, eg, here and now, as you don’t have to do so much research! I generally set it in an unnamed town or city so I don’t even have to research the town and can spend my time working on the characterisation.






·       Kidnap (Bounty Hunters’ Captive and Dark Captive). This is a contentious genre and one of those categories you love or hate. Personally I love reading kidnap stories so I just wanted to write it myself and show how the captive falls in love with the captor(s).




 
·      

    MM/MMM (Alien Manhunt trio) – I never intended to write gay stories but I woke up with an idea and that got extended to three books! It was fun to do but I prefer to have a female in my characters.








·       MMF (The Last Werewolf) – this one came about because I was co-writing a story with Susan Laine and her area of expertise was MM and mine MF at that stage so we combined the two!





·       MFM/or more Menage (I have a few scenes in MF books where an MFM scene occurs, eg, a hot tub scene in Retraining the Dom, but stories where the MFM characters fall in love as a trio or more include the two in the Duoterra series, the two in the Haunt of the Wolves series, Bounty Hunters’ Captive, BDSM Weekend). Writing menage sex scenes involves some choreographing but can be done and I live vicariously through their sex lives! It is fun to work out how they get around issues of jealousy, or how the very different characters can live together in harmony.



·       Novellas (all of mine except Kink After Dinner, Alien Manhunt trio, Naughty Christmas Wishes, Dark Captive, the two in the anthologies and The Last Werewolf which was novel length) – this is my preferred length. I get bored writing anything longer.




·       

    Short story (Kink After Dinner, Alien Manhunt trio, Naughty Christmas Wishes, Dark Captive, the two in the anthologies – Men for Hire and Love & Lust in Space – the latter is due out in a few months – see below). It is great fun to write short stories as it is so quick to write and quick to edit – BUT you don’t have time for much characterisation or world building.




“What you need is a Sonic Dilda’tor."

“I beg your pardon?” Skarlet wasn’t sure she correctly heard Pock, the sex therapist. This was her second session here on the planet of Vulvania. Tactile, like all people from her own planet of Clusio, Skarlet was finding it difficult adjusting to life on the home world of her husband, Braemel.

In truth, it wasn’t just the rigid Vulvanian culture she was finding hard, but her husband’s lack of emotion. Married now for two years, she wondered if she had made a mistake in thinking the two of them could make their differences work. Not least, because a Vulvanian came into heat, whether man or woman, only once every five years.


·       Yet to do – historical (I am an historian so I know how much research needs to be done! Although am working on a crime anthology set in the 1830s-1930s), crime (am doing an anthology just so I don’t have to think up any intricate crime plots!), military (don’t have an interest in military stories), vampires (not interested), medical (well, my hero in the Men for Hire anthology story was a doctor…), lesbian (I have ideas and might do one but they really don’t sell well!), steampunk (I don’t have anything against steampunk but not particularly interested either), time travel (now time travel is a concept I adore, but I haven’t come up with any story ideas so far), western (no plans to write any as we don’t have a culture of cowboys in the UK where I come from!)

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