What Do You Write?

I was asked this question today, and the simple answer is Romance. But I'm not certain my novels are strictly Romance.

Because there is some mystery thrown in, some supernatural activity which gives a lead into the fantasy element...One of my characters is a demon named Beast who operates to foil the characters romance in an effort to change the power structure of his little kingdom.

There is also the quasi-character of the Dragon Queen...in The Farmer's Daughter, she is the dream representation of one of the main character's abusers. How this character changes in the dream is indicative of how Craig perception of her crime changes, giving her less and less power over him and his life. Does he forgive her? Not necessarily. But he no longer lets her actions rule him.

We see more of the Dragon Queen's real-life persona in the sequel, Ring of Fire, and we realize there's more to the Dragon Queen than just Craig's imagination. Because it's hinted at, that the Dragon Queen has started entering Angela's dream as well...and that the physical realm and the dream realm are connected, as seen in the thunderstorms at the novel's end.

And some of that is the influence of my own love of fantasy novels. Although I once got rid of some of my books because I thought they were somehow sinful, I have since changed my mind...not only do I own the complete Harry Potter series (thanks to my mother-in-law) but I also rebought and completed my collection of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Including the prequel novel. As well as Tad William's Memory Sorrow and Thorn series. And the Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson. You get the idea :)

The one element missing from my novels would be science fiction. Maybe if you stretched it,  considered the demons as aliens and the dream realm a different dimension. Maybe possibly. Maybe someday I'll try a science fiction story...I'd love to have a Star Trek novel someday...I'd say Star Wars, but I hung that dream up years ago. I do have a novel series to write someday set in a fantasy world, complete with demons, based around triplet royals (2 princesses and a prince)....two sets really, but that's for later.

I have enough fuel for at least four books dealing with Craig and Angela and their families. I have a spark of an idea for a fifth novel, but that doesn't have a green light yet. I am about 2/3's of the way through retyping The Farmer's Daughter, and once that is done I am going to read through RIng to see what will need to be fixed there. There has been at least one name change for a character and it's possible another character will get a name change.

Some of the religious content is being edited/deleted/restructured as well. Not the spiritual aspects, don't be confused by that like I obviously was when I originally wrote the story. And it is far from being theologically correct. I am taking vast creative liberties with the spiritual realm - we will meet both Lucifer and Jesus and Legion before the series end as well. One of the liberties I've taken with some of these characters is giving them different names. Many of them no longer go by their 'given names' choosing to be known by the names humans have given them instead. This is why it's called fiction.

I have cut some chapters which I felt was slowing the pace, which in turn has led to new scenes...because some of the cut chapters still happen, but I'm changing how I let the reader learn about them. So once this is done...I'm going to have to treat those sections as a rough draft again. Some scenes have been restructured so we're only seeing through one character's point of view instead of everyone in the scene...I may have to go through that again, see if the few blended scenes still work. I'm also changing some of the formattings...there will no longer be a ~ separating scenes. Rather, just using space and a font change.

The more complicated answer to the question directed at me today would have to be Extreme Romance. If that's not a genre, it should be. My definition of Extreme Romance would be to reference the 2002 Spider-Man movie...specifically, the Bridge Battle scene where Hob Goblin forces Spidey to chose between his beloved MJ and a tram full of kids, forces him to chose the kind of hero - the kind of person - he wants to be. I'll include the clip so you can experience it.

If that's not Extreme Romance, I don't know what is!

Happy reading peeps!