Stereotypes are Dying

And I couldn't be happier.

Stereotypes can be a pill for a writer. Those ingrained suppositions everyone has of what a book must be like that are garnered strictly from its genre can keep a great book from being published and can often keep it from being read. Every writer knows that up front. That being the case, you would have thought I’d have concentrated my unpublished efforts on writing something currently in fashion like Romantic Suspense or Paranormal. But no. I started my published career with a Western Historical series. I bet as soon as I typed that you all got a mental picture of a very prim and proper woman typing away at her computer, producing a story about a great love affair between the respectable school marm and the disreputable but lovable sheriff who runs the town with an iron fist. It's okay. I'm used to it. You just couldn't be further from the truth.

When I first started marketing my PROMISE books, they were considered too edgy for the Western Historical market. “Wonderful but not what readers would expect” was one phrase I heard a lot. Naturally, being the eternal optimist that all authors must be, I translated those words to mean, “You’re ahead of your time, try back again later.” I’m nothing if not persistent and eventually I persevered. In 2005 I did find my first Western Historical (PROMISE LINGER) a home with an editor that swore the series' appeal would cross genre lines. And, she was, as she is with most things, right.

The series took off from the first book. Surprisingly, the biggest percentage of my fans came from the Paranormal genre. That shocked me until I started thinking about it. There are a lot of similarities in the dynamics of the two genres.

The American West was full of danger, excitement, and opportunity. Contradictions abounded, and what was outrageous one day could be normal the next. Idiosyncrasies were a way of life, and everyone had a secret. The fate of good or evil could turn on nothing more than a coin toss or the timely intervention of a hero or heroine. Cultural norms mutated under the weight of necessity, and people either learned to adjust to the demands put upon them or they died. Women and men married for survival as much as they married for hope. Heroes and outlaws emerged out of the most unlikely backgrounds and anyone could be literally anyone on any given day. It was a time of endless possibility and potential. And just like with the Paranormal genre, nothing was ever what it seemed.

That’s the American West I love and write about. That is the setting in which my stories unfold. My characters tend to be as different as the stories they represent. One heroine was sold into prostitution, one into marriage, and another was just plain sold out by the man she trusted.

Their men are also a reflection of the times, their lives a record of the violence inherent in their day-to-day life. One’s a tough street fighter looking for a home, another a ruthless lawman looking for respect, and yet another is a bounty hunter fast losing touch with his ideals. In modern times, they’d be business moguls, veterinarians, and financial wizards. In the old West, they became what they had to in accordance with the exploitable opportunities provided at the time, which in that era and that region of the country, were not numerous and rarely legal. They grew up hard and practical with an inherent understanding of how a willingness to bend the rules worked to their advantage. They’re neither saints nor outlaws, just strong capable men able to do what needs to be done. Hot, gritty, and edgy, my Western Historicals may not be what people expect when they think Western Historical–one of my readers described my Western Historicals as, “HBO’s Deadwood goes Romantica”– but for me, they still fit neatly inside the broad parameters of what constitutes the genre.

Despite The PROMISE series success, I still thought the sale an aberration. But then, my totally fun, quirky, and yet intense SHADOW WRANGLER series (paranormal) sold to HQN, and next my HELL'S EIGHT series (western historical) sold to SPICE. At that point, I began to think that shift in the market I'd been waiting for might have just happened because I certainly wasn't writing any "safer." I still liked a grittier, bigger feel to my stories, loved that realism shadowing the fantasy. I started looking around at the new deals being signed. Really looking at them. There were a lot of books that stepped outside genre comfort zones, scooted around stereotypes. Books in which authors boldly prepared to take readers on a non-traditional joy ride through their definition of their genre.

It was exciting. It was wonderful. It was and is, in my opinion, the next "big thing" which I don't foresee as being a new genre so much as being thorough explorations of existing genres that will be filled with all the excitement authors vivid imaginations can pack into a hundred thousand words. It will be a phenomenal time to be a reader and a fabulous time to be a writer. When the dust settles, I suspect a few stereotypes will be gone, a few new genre mixes created, and a lot of satisfied readers will be eagerly anticipating many new releases.