"Which one is your favorite?"

Whenever i come across someone new who finds out I'm an author, and they decide they want to read one of my novels, I ask them which one.  They inevitably respond with, "Well, which one is your favorite?"

This is a question that has no answer. My books are sort of like children--except for the fact that they don't get in trouble or embarrass me in Wal-Mart--but they are special and loved in their own way. I created them, I went through a process of "raising" them; struggle, joy, challenge, frustration, laughter....So if you ask me which is my favorite, I can't choose. I love them all equally for different reasons.

This situation also might have something to do with the fact that I don't write formula fiction, or one genre of fiction (Unless you count that there is always some mystery or unanswered question afoot in the story--but most stories have that or they wouldn't hold our interest). Genre specific writers like Koontz and King might not have this issue, because they generally stay within the parameters of one type of story (i.e., Horror, thriller, suspense). But i write in 14 genres. (Not that I have 14 different novels in 14 different genres, but this is to say that I write in many forms when I write). So I would have no idea what a person might like unless I know them well. And even then, it's a crap shoot. A potential reader, asking me this question would have to tell me what other authors they read, or what other genres or themes they enjoy most. Then, I can suggest one of mine.

They want mainstream, contemporary fiction with medical and/or legal content, with perhaps a killer on the loose? I would suggest Achilles Forjan. 

Mainstream contemporary fiction about families and relationships and secrets and struggle? Baggage.

A lesbian love story mixed in with a mystery and a female sleuth? Armchair Detective.

A quirky, humorous Southern Gothic kind of story with lesbians? Plethora.

A lesbian romance with a suspenseful edge? As You Were.

A highly erotic lesbian story of discovery and trust, that also has a plot and characters you can care about? Random Act of Blindness.

Yes, I have more stories about lesbians than I do about anything else, because, as they say, you write about what you know (though I often break that rule, because I want to learn something and so I learn it in order to write about it). But I also know that people are people and even straight people will find themselves or someone they know in those stories. If they don't, maybe they should get out more. And I do have a few other mainstream books on the way. So before long, there should be something for everyone. 

Just don't ask me which one is my favorite.

"Which one is your favorite?"

Genre Horizons: RAOB

Random Act of Blindness is unlike any of my other books...I say that with a generous leeway in definition, because none of my books is like any of my other books.

But i was trying to do something that was not only different for me, but different for authors in general. I wanted to take a genre that is relegated to the fringes, and elevate it into a mainstream sensibility. I wanted to write an erotic book with three- dimensional characters, a recognizable plot, and a handling of the material that made a reader care about what happened to the people in the story. I think I accomplished that, and so it is a book I am very proud of.

I think that authors often underestimate their readers--authors and perhaps publishers, agents, editors and marketeers. If a writer gains fame with a breakthrough novel, he then seizes on that formula and begins to write the same story over and over again; the same people, dressed up in different clothes. There are only a handful of authors I feel write with a certain formula, but still manage to write something new each time. Those are the authors Ii continue to read. And I will read everything they write, with little concern for what genre it falls into; in this way, I believe that many formula writers do their readers a disservice. I remain interested in that author because of his/her command of the language, the ability to create characters I care about; the cleverness to keep me guessing, and the presence of mind to tie up the loose ends and give me a satisfactory ending that will not leave me feeling as though I had wasted my precious time. I want to come away from a book feeling good about something. That doesn't mean I need fairy tales, either (although, really, fairy tales are notoriously dramatic, gory and often filled with characters and deeds no child should be privy to--Hansel and Gretel anyone?)

I find it exciting to hear of a favorite author breaking out of one genre and leaping into another. I can't wait to read that book. It's like seeing your love in new clothes; like driving a new car; like a meal you only get to have once a year, but that you love above all other meals. Thus, I hope to see more authors expand their genre-horizons. There are enough clones out there--both stories and writers. Give me a new species and my interest will be as intense as it originally was with the one that preceded it.

Genre Horizons: RAOB