Guest Author: SJ Clarke

Today we are welcoming Author SJ Clarke to talk about Genres.  Welcome and Thank you for taking the time to spend some time with our readers.

Is PNR Dead?

 

When I tell people I write paranormal romance, I get mixed reactions. Among my favourites are the pursed lipped nod, which translates to “I have no idea what that is.” and the apologetic grimace. Both are generally followed by blank stares or a quick exit, leaving a trail of unspoken questions in their wake.

Why would you paint yourself with that particular brush? What will you do when interest in the paranormal fizzles? Don’t you know some artist will come along and create a new, hot trend?

Sure I do. She’s already here, blurring the edges, creating something new from something past its prime.

Demystifying the Paranormal

Should I be worried? Will my chosen genre abandon me as I’m creating my platform as a paranormal writer? I don’t have the answers. No one does. But I can narrow down the parameters a bit.

When people hear the word paranormal their minds fill with images of a familiar world, altered from current reality by the existence of vamps, shifters and demons. Quite often these elements describe a sub-genre of paranormal that fall into the category of Urban Fantasy. Urban Fantasy has plenty of monsters, as well as kick-butt heroines intent on taking them out. (Until our heroine comes across a monster that stirs her sympathy along with her hormones and she’s attracted to the very aberration she hunts.)

Fighting for humanity’s survival takes a toll on a body. It can’t endure the fight forever. It’s a subtle change at first. Creatures recede into the shadows and tormented souls wreaking vengeance for humanity, instead seek therapy. Can a world without the paranormal be far behind?

Of course not. They’re great stories, and I read a lot of Urban Fantasy. But I also read a host of other paranormal tales. Paranormal encompasses so much more than nightmares given life on the page. There’s the psychic component as well, and this is the element I use in my stories.

The list of psychic abilities is long, often obscure and difficult to pronounce. Most of us are familiar with common psychic gifts like visions, telepathy and telekinesis, but there’s a world of other psychic abilities to explore. Some lesser known skills include clairaudience, bilocation, psychometry, retrocognition, transvection and remote viewing. I’m having a lot of fun right now with the power of remote viewing in my current work in progress.

 

But is having fun enough to keep your readers reading? Aren’t you afraid they’ll abandon you for the next go-to genre?

Hidden Dangers in Genre Writing

By writing in a genre category, one risks slapping a label on their work and forever linking their writer’s identity with that genre. Can a writer survive so labelled? Visit any writer’s or reader’s forum and you’ll find both sides of the argument well represented.

Fans derive their name from the word fanatic. They possess an intense interest in the subject matter, yes, but also in the way the story is told. But even a great story premise falls flat with lacklustre writing. Readers crave entertainment while they escape the harsh reality of their lives for the brief time they immerse themselves in a story.  If those needs aren’t met, the reader will go elsewhere for their fix. But is it poor craftsmanship, or the promise of a new, hot genre that lures a reader away? Everyone strays to investigate the new and interesting, but true fans come back to those who deliver consistent entertainment.

 

But how will you get away with sticking with a dying genre?

Paint my own picture

Will I write to the masses and change genres to follow  up-and-coming trends? No. I might include aspects of new trends in my writing, but at their core, my stories will remain paranormal in nature. My first story, written at the age of eight, was a paranormal time-shift. I’m drawn to the genre. It’s what I read. It’s what I write. It’s in my pores.

I’ll continue to weave paranormal elements amongst romance, mystery and suspense, mainstream genres that endure the test of time.

 

I’ll paint my word pictures on my canvas. Those readers who share my interest and find my stories entertaining will stick around to see what my brush strokes create next. New trends may feather over the image, altering it slightly, but I will always deliver on my original promise to my readers by providing entertaining escapism with a touch of the paranormal.

I’m interested in your take on the future of PNR. Please continue the conversation in the comments section, and stay in touch through the links listed below.

SJ Clarke

Mind Over Matter
By S.J. Clarke

Rebecca McKenney grieved the loss of her daughter for three years. Now, a vision showing Sabrina three years older, suggests her baby is still alive, and the FBI agent who gave up the search is the only one who can help find her.

Special Agent Dan Cooper is haunted by a tragic mistake made early in the investigation of Sabrina’s disappearance. Now to ease his conscience he agrees to help Rebecca search.

Together they fight inner demons, all to real bad guys, and an attraction neither wants to admit to. Each step closer to finding Sabrina is a step deeper into deception and evil.

Can Rebecca and Dan save Sabrina before it’s too late?





About The Author

S. J. Clarke has published over fifty articles as a columnist and regular contributor for a variety of lifestyle and human interest websites. She is a grateful member of the Writers’ Community of Durham Region, and proud to sit on the Board of Directors for The Ontario Writer’s Conference.

Sandra also co-authored Touretties, a touching tribute featuring testimonials from patients and and their loved ones living with Tourettes.

Mind Over Matter, released in November, 2011 through MuseItUp Publishing, is her first novel.

Check out my new website at: http://sjclarke.com

Friend me on Facebook: http://on.fb.me/jzcSq4

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sandrajc 

Join me on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/home?trk=hb_tab_home_top

Mind Over Matter Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/MindOverMatterbySJClarke

Guest Author: Jerri Drennen

Hello, all! I’m Jerri Drennen and I’m been working at this writing gig for over eleven years. One of the first rules I was told, write what you know. Really? I’m not gung-ho on that idea. I know kids, and being raised on a farm, I guess I know a little bit about farming. I can drive a tractor. I can clean a house pretty well. All Boring stuff. Who’d want to read about that?

I’ve learned over the years that you should write what you want to read. I just happen to write about men packing more than just handguns and the kick ass women who love them. I have secret agents, men and women who can handle just about anything that comes their way. I love run-for-your-life storylines that have strong male and female characters who aren’t afraid to say what needs to be said, so far from my snore-worthy life it’s laughable.

In Her Man Flint I pushed a lot of boundaries. My characters Flint and Adriana both love each other, but are afraid to commit. They’re worried that somehow they’ll lose something of themselves by admitting they need the other. The story has silly elements since that’s what I like. Look at the TV show, Castle. They aren’t afraid to get a little goofy for entertainment value and that’s what I wanted to do with Her Man Flint. So, it’s not your typical romantic suspense, though there are some serious aspects to the book.

Here’s the blurb for the book.

If James Bond and Cleopatra Jones had a daughter, Adriana Kent would kick her ass.

Everything Adriana knows about being a top-notch, undercover agent she’s learned from her partner, Flint Morgan, in and out of the sheets. That is, until he’s caught between those same bed linens with another woman. Heartbroken, Adriana refuses to forgive him. But when ‘the other woman’ is found dead in Flint’s apartment, she steps up to prove his innocence–he might be a womanizer, but he’s no killer.

As Adriana closes in on a suspect, she’s kidnapped and sent overseas to a sadistic prince who collects women like priceless pieces of art. Now this tough as nails agent finds herself playing the helpless courtesan to a man hell-bent on breaking her spirit. Flint arrives in the nick of time, dressed as a harem girl, fighting off randy guards and surly camels to rescue Adriana so they can fly back to the states to find a way to exonerate him for murder.


Her Man Flint
By Jerri Drennen

Blurb

If James Bond and Cleopatra Jones had a daughter, Adriana Kent would kick her ass.

Everything Adriana knows about being a top-notch, undercover agent she’s learned from her partner, Flint Morgan, in and out of the sheets. That is, until he’s caught between those same bed linens with another woman. Heartbroken, Adriana refuses to forgive him. But when ‘the other woman’ is found dead in Flint’s apartment, she steps up to prove his innocence–he might be a womanizer, but he’s no killer.

As Adriana closes in on a suspect, she’s kidnapped and sent overseas to a sadistic prince who collects women like priceless pieces of art. Now this tough as nails agent finds herself playing the helpless courtesan to a man hell-bent on breaking her spirit. Flint arrives in the nick of time, dressed as a harem girl, fighting off randy guards and surly camels to rescue Adriana so they can fly back to the states to find a way to exonerate him for murder.

Author Bio:

Jerri Drennen was raised on a farm in a tiny town in Minnesota where the winters were long and being stuck inside awarded her the opportunity to read and tell stories. Years later, after moving away from family, marrying her husband of twenty-five years and having their four children, she started writing when her youngest was three. Eleven years and many manuscripts later, she has one contemporary romance and three romantic suspense novellas with Samhain Publishing, a category romantic suspense at The Wild Rose Press and two action-adventure romances at Liquid Silver Books. Now, she’s trying her hand at self-publishing

Author Guest Post

The Meaning of Family

By Avery Flynn

More than seven million women in the United States have an impaired ability to have children.

Slightly more than two million married women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four are infertile.

Nearly twelve percent of women between the ages of fifteen and forty-four have received infertility services.

Many women are childless by choice and I say more power to them. However, there are millions of women out there who are unable to conceive despite it being their greatest wish and they report often feeling alone in their struggle. My heart breaks for them.

I have three rugrats of my own, but spent quite a bit of time researching infertility issues before writing A Dry Creek Bed, the second in my hot and steamy romantic suspense series. With A Dry Creek Bed, I really wanted to explore the idea of family and what the word parent really means.

Beth Martinez is the heroine of A Dry Creek Bed and she’s recently had a hysterectomy because of a fibroid tumor. This has rocked Beth’s world. Her parents died when she was eight, the grandparents who raised her have passed on and now she won’t be able to have children of her own.

To twist the knife even more, she’s been in love with Dry Creek County Sheriff Hank Layton for most of her life. Hank wants Beth, there’s no doubt about it, but he also wants to start a family and Beth’s emotions are so tangled ups she’s not sure if she ever wants to adopt. Not wanting to force Hank to give up his dreams of a family or make him feel obligated to stay with her, Beth keeps her infertility a secret and denies she has any interest in him.

Hank can’t stop thinking about Beth to the point where he’s afraid of becoming permanently bowlegged. And even though the sexual tension between them is thick enough to trip over, she runs every time he chases.

But when a mysterious developer forces her neighbors off their land, Beth becomes the one person standing between the scoundrel and millions of dollars. Only Hank can help her uncover the truth. Together they risk their lives exposing decades-old secrets and learn that everything is not as it seems in their rural Nebraska town.

A Dry Creek Bed
By Avery Flynn

Blurb

“I do believe I can arrest you for looking at someone like that. You’ve got to be breaking some indecency laws.”

Taking a deep breath, she recovered her bearings. Mostly. “You’re out of your jurisdiction, sheriff.”

Dry Creek County Sheriff Hank Layton is the stuff of dreams. Nasty, steamy, delicious fantasies that leave Beth Martinez weak-kneed and desperately wanting the man she can never have.

Hank can’t stop thinking about Beth to the point where he’s afraid of becoming permanently bowlegged. And even though the sexual tension between them is thick enough to trip over, she runs every time he chases.

But when a mysterious developer forces her neighbors off their land, Beth becomes the one person standing between the scoundrel and millions of dollars. Only Hank can help her uncover the truth. Together they risk their lives exposing decades-old secrets and learn that everything is not as it seems in their rural Nebraska town.

 
About the Author:

Avery Flynn, the author of UP A DRY CREEK and A Dry Creek Bed, books one and two in the Dry Creek series set in Nebraska, grew up in a small town in the western part of that state, a far cry from her present day home just outside of Washington, D.C. It was no accident that she went back to her roots for the small town setting for her romantic suspense.

“When I graduated high school,” she says, “I couldn’t cross the state line fast enough. The older I got and the farther I moved away, the more I realized what a wonderful place Nebraska had been to live. I swore I’d set a novel there as a way to give people a look into the amazing folks that live in my home state.”

The name Avery Flynn is a pseudonym for the author who, at least for now, prefers to remain behind the scenes. She believes having Avery as her alter ego is a very good thing because, as she says, “Pen name Avery is way cooler than me. Her favorite color is hot pink. She drinks single malt scotch on the rocks. She loves the Argentinean tango and stays at Iceland’s Ice Hotel.”

Author Avery has been writing since she was a child and her father gave her a baby blue Brother typewriter. She couldn’t read but nonetheless wrote numerous stories about her stuffed animals in gibberish. She hasn’t stopped since, though she maintains that her spelling has gotten much better and she now prefers to write in English.

Today she’s enjoying her own happily ever after with her dashing husband, three crazy kids and two arthritic dogs. She dreams of one day having a floor-to-ceiling library à la Beauty and the Beast and is working to perfect the coffee IV drip.


http://www.averyflynn.com

http://www.evernightpublishing.com
Twitter: @averyflynn
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Avery-Flynn/177161972329973