Today’s been one of those days where I need a beer. So I figured I’d write a blog post while sipping on some Blue Moon.
I want to talk about genre. What’s your favorite (to read and/or write)? Why do you love it?
Me? I’m a huge fan of horror.
Horror is my first love, my high school sweetheart, my firstborn—the first story I ever wrote was about a haunting (of course, it helps that I grew up in a haunted house, but that’s a whole other blog post—likely next week’s. 😉 ). I gobbled up horror books growing up (Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and anything/everything by R.L. Stine and Stephen King, just to name a few). So why horror?
Because it’s visceral.
There’s no other emotion more primal than fear. And I love to be entrenched in it, swimming amongst the bodies and cackling in delight.
*clears throat* Ahem.
But seriously, I NEED to be invested in the characters and emotion of a story—otherwise, I get bored. Plot is important too, of course, but I want to live through the people—I want to see, hear, taste, smell, and feel what they’re going through. Horror does this for me and more.
So does *drumroll*…
ROMANCE.
Romance made its debut for me later in life, around high school (so late), where my hormones started to ramp up and I wanted to write about luuuuurrrrrve. But I still adored horror, so I decided to mix them up, and voila, HORRIFIC ROMANCE.
Or maybe ROMANTIC HORROR?
Well, actually, it’s dark urban fantasy, but you know, I want my own genre, damn it!
I got into paranormal romance and urban fantasy in college and it was perfect for me—horror, romance, gritty worlds, mythological creatures, bad ass characters—what more could I ask for? So I read and wrote and read and wrote (many unfinished stories, of course) until I finally managed to write a book that shall NEVER BE NAMED (since I’ll use the name again for another book later, haha) because it was awful and over 250K words and COMPLETELY RIDICULOUS, but I learned sooooo much from it.
This book made me suffer and made me realize that sometimes you gotta say “fuck it” and start something new.
So I wrote the novel I currently have out on submission, Releasing The Demons, and I finally finished something I luuuuurrrrrved.
Is it horror? Yes, to an extent. Is it romance? Totally. Is it me? Absolutely.
As a physician by day, I’m constantly told how I should write medical suspense and how I’d make CASH MONEY like Tess Gerritsen and Robin Cook, because I know that “crazy shit” and I can “write”. Granted, these writers are fantastic (no seriously, read their books), but I’m so bombarded with medicine on a daily basis that I need to do something else altogether, to go back to my high school sweetheart and hormonal rage for awhile and write HORRIFIC ROMANCE, MAN.
‘Cause that’s what I luuuuurrrrrve to write about.
So I ask you, dear Reader, what’s your type? Tell me about your first. 😉
L.D. Rose 
This post is full of all kinds of awesome! I am a chicken and can’t take horror but I love the way you love it. I am all about enthusiasm,,sex, sorrow and poetry in my writing. Great post. I did have to glance away from the scary-ass clown.
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Mary Beth! I love poetry (and all the other things you listed) as well. Exploring the depths of emotion in general is a huge plus for me when I read/write. As for the clown, he just reminds me of my childhood. *emphatic sigh* 😛
Thanks for stopping by!
I started out reading horror, too, some of the same stuff you read and almost done Stephen King novels. My love for horror is tangled up with my love for fantasy and scifi, all of which have the power to provide really interesting commentary on life.
I’d like to point out that it would be possible to combine your medical knowledge with both horror and romance. 😉
Good luck with your book submission!
I completely agree about horror, fantasy, and scifi. They’re all great genres and mixing them up is even better.
Medicine filters in through everything I do (fortunately or unfortunately, lol) so there’s definitely elements of that in my writing. My current WIP has medical elements in it for sure, but I laid the horror on pretty thick for this one. 😛
Thanks for stopping by!
My pleasure! Happy writing!
I may not be someone who reads horror, but if Sam and Dean are in it, then I’m good 🙂 I’m a total chicken with scary stuff, but honestly, toss a romance into just about anything and I might overlook anything that leaves me terrified. Good luck with your book!
Sam and Dean! *dreamy sigh* All that show needs is a hot and heavy romance, lol.
Thanks for stopping by, Sharon! Hopefully RTD finds a home soon. 🙂
Hi Linda – great post – I’m with you 100%!! I’m a tad older than you, so Stine I didn’t read, but the 70’s were full of great horror novels, The Omen, The Exorcist, The Sentinel, Flowers in the Attic, and I ate them up along with Mr. King – His Royalty of Horror. While I write paranormal romance with a happy ending, I’m leaning toward what I refer to as Dark Romantic Fiction – but I love your genre of ‘horrific romance” 🙂 Good luck with Releasing the Demons!!!
I still have to read all of these greats! I just started getting into Clive Barker, but King is more my style.
Dark Romantic Fiction, I love that! Definitely more proper than Horrific Romance, lol. I love my happy endings too, but characters have to SUFFER for it, damn it! 😛
Thanks for stopping by and for the good wishes for RTD. *fingerscrossed*
And if people could see you, there would be a TOTAL disconnect, because you do not exude horror. 🙂
I’ve always been a strong proponent of the fact that there is no story without love. It may not always be romantic love, though that branch of it most always appears in SOME form. Combining love and horror may not seem “typical” but isn’t it? Even the earliest horror has love mixed in. Frankenstein, so much of Poe, Dracula. And forget about modern vampires! Yeesh! I think they make a striking combination. Yes, visceral. I love it.
Haha, Terri! What would you say I exude? 😉 I think if I exuded horror I would be one of the characters on AHS: Freakshow. Or maybe Penny Dreadful. 😛
You’re absolutely right about love–parental, sibling, friendship, all of it counts! It’s just a matter of making it believable. Poe, oh man, I should read his stuff again.
Thanks for the pitstop!
I guess I’m a genre whore. I’ll read anything as long as it makes me feel….something. Scared, happy, sad, amused, any emotion as long as I feel it strongly. I’m truly an escapist reader. I want to get lost in the story and I want, when I’ve finished the book, to wish there were a hundred more pages of it because I don’t want it to be over yet. And just to add to the Stephen King homage here: one of the scariest moments of my life was when I was 15 and was reading an intense scene from Salem’s Lot. I was reading in bed and when the scene was over I slammed the book shut, too wound up from it to read any more that night. Of course, I was totally screwed anyway because when I turned off the light I just lay there too terrified to fall asleep. That was quite a while ago and I’ve never forgotten that feeling. Well done, Mr. King, well done.
I feel the same way, Maura, and I also feel that way about writing too. I loved Salem’s Lot! I love that feeling after you finish a pretty powerful book, whether you’re scared or just contemplating what you read for awhile. Those are the best kinds. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by!