I have a stack of books beside me and more on the shelves behind me. All different genres.
About crafting. The writing process. The writing life. How to write from the shadow, the darkness. Genres. How to write romance. Too many more on that bookshelf, beside my bed, stacked on a table.
And I only have written Christian Contemporary Fantasy. You get the Christian part, maybe. The contemporary part just means that my characters drive cars and use phones. But the fantasy part is … well … what’s going on in the invisible world? What are the angels and demons up to?
I love that stuff!
Like, Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness. Ted Dekker’s The Circle Series. Heck. C. S. Lewis. The Fall of Lucifer by Wendy Alec. Just discovered Brian Godawa and his Chronicles of the Nephilim Series.
But, there is so much more than what I currently write and publish. Like the second paragraph above. What if (Many of you readers know those are my two favorite words—what if! It causes me to dream bigger, to imagine freer, write like no one will ever read what I just wrote.)
When I first started writing and then having to fill in publishing platforms, I didn’t even know what category I wrote in. Supernatural? Paranormal? Christian paranormal? What does Peretti publish in? Dekker? Looks like Christian Fantasy.
Which is … what I publish in.
But there are other genres and sub-genres pulling at me.
Fantasy Romance or Romantasy. What is that?
Western Sci-Fi?
Apocalyptic Romance?
And ultimately, it’s about the reader. The one buying the books and (hopefully) reading them, then leaving an honest, but helpful review somewhere. If that reader likes what they originally read, isn’t it confusing when an author jumps into a totally unrelated genre?
It’s confusing to me.
But there is something in my gut that tells me that I need to pursue other genres. And that I need to write what is in that gut. There is something brewing that I sense is powerful. Powerful from an author’s point of view. Powerful from a Christian’s point of view. Powerful all together.
I have to write my heart.
Whether after writing Christian Contemporary Fantasy, my gut tells me to write a book about plumbing, I have to write it.
