Crossing genres
From historical to contemporary
As a reader, I don’t have a particular genre. If the description is interesting and I’m in the mood, I’ll pretty much read anything. But for my first book, I wrote a dark historical romance. And then a more “hopeful” one set in an alternate medieval world. After two stand-alone stories, I started to wonder if I had more stories to tell. And for a few months, nothing came to mind.
Where does inspiration come from? Well, mine happened to come to me in dreams. Or in that dream-like state, when I just let my mind wander as I’m doing something else utterly mundane.
It was in that early morning hour, between sleep and waking up that a new story came to me. Contemporary. Romance. And it had to be written. I mean it. I actually felt my fingertips itch. I raced to my Chromebook and tapped out a 20 chapter outline within three days. Then came the slow process of going over each chapter to flesh out the personalities and give color to that world.
Yes, I’ve forayed into the world of billionaires and the women they can’t live without. If you know my work at all, you know I prefer not to overuse the word “love.” Because to say “I love you” isn’t all that hard, but to actually mean it can feel extremely difficult. I enjoy the process of describing how two people fall into that deep, all-consuming passion. The way everything reminds one of the other. And without their breath, air feels difficult to breathe.
Rather than have my characters meet each other in the office, mine have known each other for years. There’s history behind them that hadn’t been explored. I leave the love-at-first-sight to other authors. I want two people to love one another because they know each other. It’s something that I played with in “Kingdom of Lore.” Love that is built on friendship, rather than that all-consuming, blind passion in “Duplicity.”
Love.
I challenged myself not to overuse the word. But in a contemporary setting, it’s almost inevitable. And perhaps that’s why I’ve set out this challenge for myself. Two people. Bit of an age gap. Different social classes. Her father used to work for his family, and he was her brother’s best friend. They’ve known each other all their lives, but he had to stand by and watch when her whole world collapsed around her. Some time goes by and they’re in each other’s life again. She’s now older, hardened by life. He still has a vision of who she once was, and who she can still be. Can such a couple work? Can they do it when everything and everyone around them tells them it’s impossible?
Stay tuned for my new book/s.