Is it...or isn't it?

World building is a big part of writing. You need to immerse your reader into your world quickly, seamlessly, and so nicely that they aren't aware they've just left their own world behind.

In my paranormal books, I use my everyday world then add a paranormal element to that existing world.

Take my upcoming release for example. The Haunting of Amelia Pritchart (releasing 9-30-09 with The Wild Rose Press). In this book, it's set in the present day with one exception: the heroine meets a ghost. Then the story shifts back to 1918 and we are allowed a glimpse of the ghost's story.

Or in The Art of Fang Shui (releasing 01-08-10 with Eirelander Publishing) I chose the backdrop of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Park for the setting of most of that book and as the hero (a vampire) and the heroine try to hike their way out of the forest, they encounter fairies, a witch, a goat man, etc.


Remember, you don't need to physically build a whole new world with foreign sounding names, rules, etc. Oftentimes, you can use the real world and just sprinkle in paranormal elements.

It's that balance of believable/unbelief that makes a good book!

Just keep writing...

So, yesterday, I finished up a novella I'd been working on regarding demons. Of course, it still needs to be edited a few times, etc., but it's a pretty darn good feeling to know it's been knocked out. Now I can move on to other projects.

For the first time in several months, I think I'll start a novel that doesn't have anything to do with the paranormal. Gasp, right? Sometimes I need to go a different direction with my writing to stop from getting burned out on one genre. So, for a couple of months, I'll be doing the contemporary thing--until I get the hankering to go back to the paranormal :-)

Does anyone else switch gears and genres to keep your brain fresh?

No "weres" here, sorry!

I have no werewolves in my story.  No werecats or weredogs or even werefish.  I'm completely were-less.

There are no vampires, either.

I also have no romance in my story, which makes me an oddity in the paranormal world, I think.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for romance.  I wish I had more of it in my own life.  I'd love to have some of the "wine me and dine me, sweep me off my feet, and give me flowers and chocolates for absolutely no reason" type of romance.  But, alas, I don't.

I've been married for more than a decade and romance has gone from a box of chocolate at a speciality store to a candy bar picked up at the checkout aisle because hubby forgot the grocery list at home and wanted cover his bases.  

It's that way for Cerri (my heroine), as well.  She and Matt have been married for a bit and have three kids under age 10.  Chocolate and flowers and hot, steamy sex just don't fit in their lives right now.  

So where is the market for paranormal stories with no sex, a married couple who sometimes are too tired for a kiss, no warewolves, and no vampires?  Is there such a market?  One for a reluctant witch who sees and hears spirits?  Who grew up in a tradition of spells and charms and tarot cards?  Who has found her one-true-love and wouldn't even consider cheating on him?

I have faith that market exists.  Don't you?

Blessings!

Nichole

I'm sorry, Ma'am. Did you say Paranormal books?

Does that phrase sound familiar to you? No? Try going to your local bookstores and asking for the paranormal romance, mystery or suspense section and you're bound to hear it. All works paranormal are flying off the printers faster than you can say ghost. Unless you KNOW who you're looking for on the shelf, then you'll be out of luck. How can you discover new authors with a golden pen for ghouls if you can't find the genre?



Sure, publishers know a potential for big sales when they see it, but can't they petition the bookstores for a section all its own? So that the loyal readers and writers of the genre can find them?



Sci-Fi and Fantasy have their own sections, why not paranormal, huh? Where's the justice? What would it take? The cost of another shelf? The excuse I hear most often is "We just don't have enough customers with interest to specialize in that category." Oh, really? You would if we could find them.



With so many different sublabels under paranormal, you could probably fill two aisles. I write paranormal suspense and paranormal romance. How much easier would it be to publish and sell your book if the reader didn't have to sort through all the romance, fantasy and suspense novels in the store? Imagine going in and finding a whole aisle of paranormals full of new promising authors! Wow! You'd have to tear me away from the store and my purse. My fondest dream is to walk into Books-A-Million and find my novel on the paranormal shelf. It'd be great to see Barbs, Nichole's, Heather's and J.K.'s right beside mine too.



I'll start a petition ....Who's next to sign?



*waves*



Beth