(no subject)
Good morning everyone, and thanks to Jan and Shared Wisdom for asking me to guest here today. :)
As Jan mentioned in her intro, one of the things people often reference about my writing is diversity. I've heard that for a while now.
Back when, that actually came as a huge surprise to me.
At first. What diversity? Well, I do write contemporary as well as paranormal… okay, I do write high fantasy as well as urban fantasy… novellas, novels, short stories… well, okay, I write May/December, I write Yaoi-flavored relationships, I write best friends… I've written some male/male/female ménage… maybe a little light D/s… a single dad… comedy… a dash of historical…
Right around there I had to tilt my head to the left and acknowledge a universal truth had struck once again: I am ridiculously slow on the uptake.
I'm the kind of person who would seize upon this revelation and pick it to death, so when it first sank in (and trust me, it took years) I set myself to figuring out why.
It could be because I have diverse tastes. My iTunes library runs from Loreena McKennitt all the way through Eminem, with stops for Johnny Cash, Kelly Clarkson and Jefferson Airplane en route. My paperback shelves are stuffed with everything from The Dresden Files to everything Cynthia Voigt to nonfiction and my latest obsession with lobstermen and the Maine coast.
It could be because like so many writers, I have no idea where my ideas come from except "everywhere". A lyric, a thought that took shape during a bus ride, a trip to the antique barn, you name it. Anything can trip me off, and sometimes totally different stories grow out of the seeds from the original. Kind of like planting iris and ending up with daisies (or possibly nightshade). Ideas can come at any time, too. My family knows all too well the thousand-yard-stare of someone whose mind is abruptly lost in a story and is not going to finish that salad, so they can help themselves. (My cats are simply annoyed by it.)
It could just be that I'm as scattered as a game of 52-card pick-up.
In the end, I think it does come down to story and what the story demands. I couldn't have dropped the guys from "Lovers, Dreamers and Me" into a high fantasy setting. I couldn't have written "Wild Hunt" as a contemporary. "A Year and a Day" had to be set in the South. "Dona Nobis Pacem" had to be a historical. And so on and on it goes. While I seem to be settling down more in contemporary these days, I have a box stuffed full of plot bunnies and some of them have elf ears or vampire fangs. They are apt to break loose at any time, and I like to follow where they lead.
Erotica Quixotica? I think so. I embrace it. And I'm having an absolute ball with it :)
As Jan mentioned in her intro, one of the things people often reference about my writing is diversity. I've heard that for a while now.
Back when, that actually came as a huge surprise to me.
At first. What diversity? Well, I do write contemporary as well as paranormal… okay, I do write high fantasy as well as urban fantasy… novellas, novels, short stories… well, okay, I write May/December, I write Yaoi-flavored relationships, I write best friends… I've written some male/male/female ménage… maybe a little light D/s… a single dad… comedy… a dash of historical…
Right around there I had to tilt my head to the left and acknowledge a universal truth had struck once again: I am ridiculously slow on the uptake.
I'm the kind of person who would seize upon this revelation and pick it to death, so when it first sank in (and trust me, it took years) I set myself to figuring out why.
It could be because I have diverse tastes. My iTunes library runs from Loreena McKennitt all the way through Eminem, with stops for Johnny Cash, Kelly Clarkson and Jefferson Airplane en route. My paperback shelves are stuffed with everything from The Dresden Files to everything Cynthia Voigt to nonfiction and my latest obsession with lobstermen and the Maine coast.
It could be because like so many writers, I have no idea where my ideas come from except "everywhere". A lyric, a thought that took shape during a bus ride, a trip to the antique barn, you name it. Anything can trip me off, and sometimes totally different stories grow out of the seeds from the original. Kind of like planting iris and ending up with daisies (or possibly nightshade). Ideas can come at any time, too. My family knows all too well the thousand-yard-stare of someone whose mind is abruptly lost in a story and is not going to finish that salad, so they can help themselves. (My cats are simply annoyed by it.)
It could just be that I'm as scattered as a game of 52-card pick-up.
In the end, I think it does come down to story and what the story demands. I couldn't have dropped the guys from "Lovers, Dreamers and Me" into a high fantasy setting. I couldn't have written "Wild Hunt" as a contemporary. "A Year and a Day" had to be set in the South. "Dona Nobis Pacem" had to be a historical. And so on and on it goes. While I seem to be settling down more in contemporary these days, I have a box stuffed full of plot bunnies and some of them have elf ears or vampire fangs. They are apt to break loose at any time, and I like to follow where they lead.
Erotica Quixotica? I think so. I embrace it. And I'm having an absolute ball with it :)