Writing in a Sub-Sub-Sub-Genre



Sue Swift in Venician Mask

First, what’s that?

My newest novel is Temptation in Tartan. Like most of my stories it’s a pastiche, partaking of several genres at once. It’s (take a deep breath) vampire Gothic historical erotic romance.

That’s a pretty specific niche, but lucky for me, a lot of readers like to mix and match genres and sub-genres as much as I do.

Second, how?

I decided to write this book looking at several factors. To begin with, I love to write historicals. I love the research. It gives me a great excuse to fool around on the web a lot, researching how people used to live as well as events to include in the book.

In Temptation in Tartan, the most important event shaping the book doesn’t occur in it: the defeat of the Highland Scots at Culloden Moor in 1746. That battle broke the back of the clan system in Scotland, as “Butcher” Cumberland, the general who led the English against Bonnie Prince Charlie, ordered that every Scot lying injured on the battlefield was killed. Thus, the strongest of the Highland males were murdered.

As the result, my hero, Kieran Kilborn, the second son of Laird Kilborn, becomes laird as his father and older brother died at Culloden. My heroine, Lydia Swann-Williston, is left a widow when her husband was also killed at Culloden, fighting for the English. Their union is arranged by her cousin, one of Cumberland’s aides, in order to pacify Clan Kilborn by marriage rather than by the sword. Clan Kilborn got privileges other clans were denied—they were spared the worst of the reprisals, bore weapons with impunity, and wore their tartan.

 I wrote a vampire Gothic after selling the sequel, Highland Vampire, to Harlequin Spice Briefs. Highland Vampire is a contemporary vampire Gothic set in the Highlands. After selling it, I wanted to build on its success, but couldn’t see continuing the story as a futuristic. So I took a page out of Tolkien’s book and decided to write a prequel. (Did you know that The Adventures of Tom Bombadil was written long before The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings?)

And as for erotic romance—that’s what I write. All romance is erotic, but with varying degrees of graphic sex. In some books, the bedroom door is closed and the sex is alluded to rather than shown. In my more racy books, such as Temptation in Tartan, the sex is on the page and clearly described down to each groan, lick, and suck.

As Bertrice Small put it, “Sex sells.”

And for me, portraying a fulfilled romantic relationship includes portraying the sex. A lot happens between a couple when they have sex. Sex, at least in a story, invariably changes the relationship. Couples become more committed—or less—when they have sex. Sex can create or resolve conflicts between the hero and the heroine, or it may create or resolve conflicts for other characters. For example, when Kieran brings Lydia back to Kilborn Castle, one of his former lovers feels compelled to…

Oops. That would be telling!

No spoilers here—guess you gotta read the book!

Temptation in Tartan reached #1 on the All Romance Ebook bestseller list (for historical-other) and spent an entire week in the top 5. It can be found wherever ebooks are sold, including:

http://www.jasminejade.com/m-251-suz-demello.aspx

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html

http://www.amazon.com/Suz-deMello/e/B002WNJ7SO/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

I can be found here:

Website: http://www.suzdemello.com
Twitter feed: @ReadThis4fun
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SueSwift
Blog: http://www.fearlessfastpacedfiction.com

Best-selling, award-winning author Sue Swift, a.k.a Suz deMello, has written over fifteen novels, plus several short stories and non-fiction articles. She writes in numerous genres including romance, mystery, paranormal, historical, contemporary comedy and erotica. She’s a freelance editor who’s worked for Total-E-Bound, Ai Press, Liquid Silver Books and Etopia Press. She also takes on private clients.

Her books have been favorably reviewed in PW, Kirkus and Booklist, attained the finals of the RITA and reached the top ten on a bestseller list.

A former trial attorney, she resides in northern California. Her passion is world travel, and she’s left the US over a dozen times, including stints working overseas for many months. Right now, she's working on her next manuscript and planning her next trip.

Why Dracula?

Wow! Summer. The time of sitting out in the garden, sipping cold tea and enjoying a favorite book. Despite my voracious appetite for books, I always come back to my all time favorites. For those that know me personally, they can attest to the obsession I have for anything vampire. I have photos, novels and even a couple stuffed vampires in my office. From the day I could read a real book, I was reading about vampires. And, of course, my all time favorite is Bram Stoker's Dracula.
I'm sure you're thinking it's every vampire lovers favorite. But I'll let you in on a secret. It's every one's favorite, because it started the vampire romance craze. Honest! Think about the formula for all romances. Boy and girl meet, they fall in love, something keeps them apart until they overcome that obstacle and end with a happily ever after.
Bram Stoker's Dracula follows that exact formula with a love that extends time and space thrown in. Isn't that what modern vampire romances are all about? Dracula is the epitome of a man who will go to extreme lengths to find the love of his life and keep her to himself, which is why he is one of my inspirations for my vampire steampunk series and will always inspire me.


What are your favorite reads? The one's you'll go back to time and again?

The Eclectic Summer Read

Hola!! It's B. A. Binns again here with the Genre-Istas for July. I don’t think my reading changes with the season. Whether I’m curled in front of a winter fireplace or relaxing by the pool, I want a good read. Handsome, brave and strong hero (a girl needs something for the imagination), beautiful, intelligent and courageous heroine (I have to identify with her after all).  

I keep my reading eclectic. I admit here (and only here) that for fifteen or maybe twenty minutes I put 50 Shades of Grey on my to-read list. Then I came to my senses. Every review I read told me it was poorly written, and I like my erotic romance like everything else, well-written. So, no getting caught up in the hype.  Especially since I never even liked Twilight, and this book evolved from fan-fic based on same. It's a phenomenon because it started out with the built-in fan base and then it got good word-of-mouth and soon lots of people, including me, tried to jump on the bandwagon. I've just jumped back off again.  I’ll stay with the five or six individuals in the country who never bothered.  Instead, I’ll give you a sample of recent reads and my reading plans for the rest of this summer.

Romance

Earlier this year I was at a conference where I met the fabulous Celeste O. Norfleet. And I got a copy of her June release, Just One taste. Set in Key West, gorgeous caterer eager to expand her business vs. drop-dead handsome businessman who needs the same property for his company. But the way to a man’s heart has always been through his stomach, and the fantastic recipes this woman brews leap from the page and kept me licking my lips, for food and for him. Yummy.

I also got my hands on her newest Young Adult novel, April brought Download Drama, with high schooler Kenisha Lewis becoming a YouTube sensation. I  know this could have gone in Romance or Young Adult (below) but I like the love. 

Paranormal

I have a thing for dark-hunters. And apparently for Beladors. And for guys destined to destroy the known universe.  Sherrilyn Kenyon treats me to all three.  I'm looking forward to two new stories from her. (More in the YA section)

August will bring Time Untime, a dark-hunter story with its own twist about a 2012 end of the world prophecy and the dark-hunter who may be forced to sacrifice his heroine to save the world.

September, just in time for the end of summer, will bring The Curse with Evalle and the Beladors (sounds like a rock group doesn’t it). Poor Evalle has a variety of love interests. And her two best friends have love problems of their own. But they are out to keep the world safe from demons and witches and other things that go more than just bump in the night.

Young Adult

Give me my dystopian!! I recently finished Ship Breaker (I know, last year’s book but I’m a little behind in my reading). As I journeyed with the teen hero, Nailer, through everyhorror imaginable including a battle to the death with his father, I realized why the genre appeals to me. A new world/reality with characters that go through horrific conflicts, crises, and moral dilemmas. It’s the moral dilemma part that really draws me. The “how would I handle this situation” that keeps me rolling. The next item on my to-read list is the companion novel, The Drowned Cities. I want to get back to that awful future and see if another character can find their way through chaos

March brought Infamous, volume 3 of The Chronicles of Nick (A guy who just may may bring about the end of everything) How can you go wrong reading about a guy destined to destroy the world reaching back in time to his younger self to change his destiny? Especially when this series ties in to the rest of Sherrilyn Kenyon's dark-hunter world. It alters the past just enough to keep things eresting.   I mean, what if the kid's monster demon father designed to destory the world didn't really die when he was fourteen after all.   All of which means there are not one, not two but an unprecidented three world destroying demons running around in New Orleans at the same time.  Great for readers, not so good for the future or all mankind.                                                              

In case you didn't notice, once I go outside the realm of  straight romance I have a hunger for death and destruction and the end of everythign. Maybe that does go with the sweltering summer heat!!

Hey, want to share anything on your summer read shortlist?  Comment and let me know if there's something I should not miss.

Grey Hot

By Opal Carew

Hi, everyone! My name is Opal Carew and this is my first post as a regular Genre-ista at Romancing the Genres. As mentioned in my introduction, I’m from Canada and I write erotic romance. I write three books a year for St. Martin’s Press, plus I write for Samhain Publishing, and I squeeze in a few self-published short stories and novellas between projects, or when I’m stalled.

This month’s topic is about hot summer reads. Well, at the mention of hot summer reads, my mind jumps right to the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. (Or were you hoping we wouldn’t go there?) I won’t talk about the books themselves; lots of people have done that on lots of different blogs. Instead, I’d like to talk about how their huge popularity is changing the landscape of romance, or at least erotic romance.

Whether you loved the books or hated them, you have to admit that the trilogy is quite a phenomenon. It’s topping all the bestseller lists and movie rights have been sold.

Publishers are scrambling to catch the attention of that new set of readers. It makes sense. The trilogy has captured the interest of a huge new potential audience and those readers are looking for something similar to read. Publishers are trying to make it easier for them to find books along the same line. For instance, St. Martin’s Press, has set up a webpage to show off their contenders. They call it Fifty Shades Hotter.

This bid for attention is causing a new trend in book covers. Grey covers are popping up everywhere.

The books are monochrome with the focus on an object, and often the title offers a subtle splash of colour, like on BEAUTIFUL DISASTER by Jamie McGuire. On the cover of Sylvia Day’s book, BARED TO YOU, the yellow of the title is carried over to the cufflinks, too. I love this cover!

Publishers are even repackaging some of their older books with snazzy grey covers. For instance, my book BLUSH has a great new cover and will be popping up in bookstores soon. Also, Lora Leigh’s WILD CARD.

My next two releases will also have grey covers. A different cover was originally designed for Illicit (February 2013) and has been on Amazon and Barnes and Noble for months now. The new cover isn’t public yet, but should be soon.

I like the simplicity and elegance of these covers and think it makes it easier for readers to identify some really hot (or should I say sizzling) reads.

What do you think of this trend?

Summer Armchair Travels

When you say summer reads or beach reading, I don’t think I’ve ever really understood the term.  I   read a book because I wanted to, not because it was a “summer “read.

In the house I grew up in, I had a beach chair under a tree in the back yard, If the tide was  not in, I usually found myself in that seat reading, anything and everything. We lived two blocks from the beach so in the summer, if the tide was in I was at the beach,

Summer was the time I read any and everything I could get my hands on. Just as I did the rest of the year. I just had more time to do it.  I didn’t have school to worry about and even if I had a summer job, it was usually part time.  I have wonderful memories of summers spent reading in my chair in the yard. From that chair I travelled many places.

I went to the wilds of Canada with Mrs. Mike, Nazi Amsterdam with the Diary of Anne Frank, I traveled back in time to colonial Boston, Victorian England  and  the Civil War of the south.

One of my favorite memories was the afternoon I spent reading Gone with the Wind. I took my lunch out to the yard and began reading didn’t stop until my mom called me in for dinner. She said every time she looked out the window I was reading.  I was engrossed in Ashley, Melanie, and of course Rhett. I thought Scarlett was a spoiled little brat. I felt as if I was in the middle of the siege of Atlanta and not in a back yard in Boston. I finished the book that night before going to bed.

So when I hear summer reads I don’t think of lying on the beach but of traveling, even if it’s from my arm chair, Traveling to all the exciting worlds contained in a book.