I write mysteries. I write romances. My mysteries always have some romance in them. My romances always have some mystery or suspense in them.
As I mentioned in a post several weeks ago, I seem to be getting known for the combo. Last weekend at Left Coast Crime I enjoyed being on the panel From Romance to Murder: Love and Death. Not all of the panelists wrote romantic mysteries. In fact, some were more inclined to have love interests murdered. Me? I love writing genre fiction, partly because you know you have to have a satisfying, and perhaps happy, ending.
My romances always end on a happily ever after, and the suspense or mystery is resolved, too. Even if they’re part of a mini-series, the romances need to be able to stand alone, so a satisfying wrap-up is necessary.
In my mystery novels, all murders are solved by the end, although the relationships don’t necessarily get resolved. But hopefully the endings entice readers to look into the next story to see what’s happening on the romance side.
I’ve finished the first manuscript for my new spin-off mystery series about Lauren Vancouver, Pet Rescuer. Yes, she has a love interest--at least a potential one. We’ll see where she wants to go with it...
This coming Sunday is when I appear on a cross genre panel for Mystery Writers of America, Southern California chapter. With me will be a sci-fi mystery writer and a writer of mystery graphic novels. I, again, will represent combining mystery and romance.
My Story Stew University on-line class Blending Romance and Suspense begins on April 19. I’m really looking forward to it. Once again, here’s the link to Story Stew U: www.storystewuniversity.com Join me there! I’d love your input on combining the genres that are so much a part of my life. I’ll, of course, be teaching what I know, or think I know, and giving my suggestions and opinions there, too.
And... this just in! I’ll be presenting a morning workshop at the September meeting of the Orange County Chapter of Romance Writers of America. The topic? Looks as if it, too, will be about combining romance and suspense!
Am I being typecast? Maybe, at least to some extent. But I also have a panel on the paranormal coming up, as well as some for which I don’t yet have a topic. Plus, I’m working on other ideas that don’t fit smack into a romance or mystery.
But if I do turn out to be typecast to some extent, at least it’s for something I really enjoy!
Are you typecast in anything? And do you enjoy the combo of mystery and romance?
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5 comments:
I definitely have romance in the crochert mysteries. Actually, it's a bit of a triangle. I get emails pushing for one guy over the other all the time.
You mean love isn't a mystery?
Yes, I incorporate a love interest in my orchard series, and in the book I'm working on I've explored why my heroine is so unwilling to trust her own feelings. In the next one, the two parties are going to get snowbound in a blizzard and work things out for themselves. (But there's no third party involved!)
Sometimes solving the murder is the easy part.
That's fun, isn't Betty, to get reader input about how a relationship is going in our mystery series?
I agree, Sheila! It's sometimes easier to solve a fictional murder than to resolve a love interest in a mystery.
Cross-writing, I love it!
And ditto on how resolve relationships in mysteries, especially series. How soon, etc.!
SO great to meet you finally, Linda!
I loved meeting you, too, Camille. Wish we'd spent more time together--with Betty, too!
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