Friday Fiction

I do read. Not as much as I used to, and not as widely as I'd like, but I do get a few books in here and there. Usually a blend of fiction and non-fiction, favorite authors and "I really ought to try."

I write, as you know, erotic romance and what I've decided to call "paranormal romantic suspense" (I'm sure someone else has already called it that, but what the heck, so I'm a little slow.). I thought about calling it "literary paranormal horror romantic suspense" but I thought that was probably overkill, and besides, I'm not sure it's really very horror-filled or literary. So the few pages that are will just have to be ignored by the commercial-fiction majority.

Paranormal, though. Hm. The problem with paranormal, as I remember every time I judge a contest, is that it really covers a lot of ground. Trying to read one popular author this past week, I remember that some of it is really familiar ground, and I still don't know why some of it sells. Vampires, for example. I will freely admit to enjoying JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books, once my CP bludgeoned me into reading them. Truly, though, it's because I thought they were interesting characters and had a lot of chemistry, as well as some deviations from the typical "I vant to suck your blohd" schtick. The one I tried to read this week, not so much. Two chapters in, I gave up and put it on the stack to return to the library.

The story I'm working on right now--Dreamwalk--and the one that's more or less plotted out--Resurrection--don't have vampires, or werewolves, or any of the more typical paranormal elements. What they have are smart, talented people who accept that what you see isn't necessarily what you get in the world around you. Which is pretty much how I look at life. But then, how do I push them? If my heroine (in Dreamwalk, she's a ghost hunter) finds the unexpected to be, well, expected, how do I turn her world upside down?