Sunday, December 11, 2011

This is about writing, but what if I put porn in the title?

Okay, you can stop laughing and/or rolling your eyes now. One blog post of mine had the word porn in it, over a year ago. I find it hilarious that this particular post (which wasn't even about porn, but merely used the word) gets so many hits. That's sad.

This post is, like I said, about writing. My writing to be specific. I can't tell you how tired I am of people (mainly relatives) asking me if I "still write about werewolves and stuff." Yes, I do. What part of paranormal romance author are they not understanding? I've worked for 4 years to try and build an audience. I want people to think of paranormal romance when they read my name. Why the hell would I throw 4 years of work down the drain? Wait, that wouldn't be thrown, it'd be flushed. Anyway, you get my point.

That would be stupid! First of all, my loyal readers expect paranormal when they get one of my books. That means, I'd need to come up with a new name to write a different genre. THAT would mean I'd have to do TWICE the marketing. I don't think so! According to my family, contemporary romance is what I should write. Good grief. Obviously, they've never looked at my bookshelf or even paid attention to me as a person.

No offense to those who write contemporary romance and to those who enjoy reading it. I'm just not one of those people. It doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. No matter how great the writing may be, I find it boring. It's just not my thing.

I want to scream every time a relative says, "Why don't you do a regular romance?" Regular meaning contemporary. Um....maybe because it doesn't interest me!

"Well, there's lots of people that don't like that kinda stuff." (Meaning what I write.)

"Then they shouldn't read my books!" Seriously, that's what's great about free will.

I can't seem to make them understand that I cannot write something that doesn't interest me. Before I was ever a writer, I was a reader. I have never liked "regular" anything.

When I was in elementary school, I liked ghost stories. In high school my interests progressed to romance novels (mostly medieval because that came closest to my gothic tastes), and horror. Soon after I discovered sci-fi and as a young adult I finally found some vampire romance books. It was like a light going off in my brain. THIS is what I'd been looking for all along. This thing called paranormal romance combined everything I loved about fiction. It was perfect!

I've known since I was 6 years old that I wanted to tell my own stories someday. Well, someday is now and I love what I do. The sad thing is, it's only a matter of time before someone reads this, takes it completely out of context and starts a whole shitstorm again. (I can't find my umbrella.)

Why can't I just be who I am? And why after 32 years do none of these people know me?

P.S. I have no intentions of ever writing anything "normal," so don't ask. Ever.

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