As I was trying to figure out what to blog about, I received an email from a marketing firm. It was promoting a course they teach, but also offered a little bit of knowledge. One of the questions it said authors should think about is: What do you write?
Usually when I get these kinds of emails, I'm at sea trying to figure out answers, but this I know.
I love movies that have action and romance, but the action is a little bit over the top. Think movies like Speed or The Terminator.
My plan with my books is suspense that is a little bit larger than life. Like Misson: Impossible. I think of my stories as Adventure Romance. My tag line on my website is: Where Love Finds Adventure.
I spend months and months writing and I don't want to immerse myself in gritty realism day after day. I want Jack and Annie trying to save a bus full of passengers from a bomb. I want Sarah and Kyle trying to defeat a cyborg who's come to stop her from giving birth to the child that will lead the resistance.
That's my aim for the action/adventure/suspense part of my stories. When it comes to the romance, I like heroes and heroines who work together, even if they're reluctant partners.
A good example is Griff and Cat from Wicked Salvation. She wants nothing to do with a man she believes is a mercenary, but she needs his help--whether she likes it or not. As for Griff, he has a weakness for damsels in distress and feels compelled to help no matter how much trouble it causes for him.
My characters are not gushy, say a lot of sweet nothings kind of people. In Wicked Intention, Finn and Zo have lived together for two years and a big issue is that neither of them is sure of the other because neither of them have said I love you.
Trying to change my heroes and heroines to be different than who they are never works. If I try to force them to do something, they go on strike. I literally can't write forward until I delete what they refuse to do and rewrite it. I've stopped fighting it. Now I just figure out what they don't like and rewrite immediately.
