I’ve tried. I’ve tried to write a “Normal” book. But something always shows up Para. A ghost here. A psychic there. Coincidences too uncanny to be coincidences… A door opening up to another realm…
So what I’ve come to terms with is that Para is my Normal. It’s my second skin. I can’t fight it, and frankly an author shouldn’t fight what they adore. I now celebrate the fact that I am a weirdo, a geek, obsessive, over-dramatic and seen most often wearing black.
When listening to advice from other authors, we often hear the “write what you know” directive. Which I believe to a certain extent. However I can’t say I “know” the futuristic setting I created in my psychic fantasy romance DARK NEST, or know just what it was like to live in Victorian England for my upcoming gothic romance for Dorchester, THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER, but I know what I’ve researched, read, seen and most of all, I know what I’ve always loved like the back of my hand. Most importantly, write what you love.
I love the weird, the wondrous, the alternate, the infinite possibility of the universe and all that cannot be explained or revealed; the Paranormal. It calls to me like a siren. And I know tons of people who feel the same.
What I love about writing in, around, near and through this genre is that it’s expansive enough to include everything I write, and everything many of my friends write. I tow a fairly cross-genre line, but my stories always contain something of ghosts, psychics, past lives, mythic forces, portals to other worlds, a dark flavor, a wicked threat, a bit of sarcasm and sardonic wit. Thankfully, Paranormal has a welcoming, beautiful if not eerie entrance foyer for disparate, unusual aspects coming together in one narrative.
And if the manuscript doesn’t have something of the above list in it, I can’t write it. I’ve tried, and the most I get is a novella or a short play. Anything longer and I must bring on the weird in heavy doses. If I’m committing to something like 90,000 words, then I need a place where anything, truly anything can happen. And does.
Thankfully, these days, we don’t have to be something we’re not. There’s enough sub-genres to go around so that there’s a little something for everyone to write, and something for everyone to read. There’s a place on the shelf for all of us.
The escape that writing what I love but don’t exactly “know” is a huge high. Making up an entire new world is addictive. Still, there’s no doubt that my real life influences my writing. I can pinpoint exactly which Shakespeare play I was performing in depending on the scene in STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL because I was working for a Shakespeare Company when I started the manuscript, and little quotes or situations from the various plays of that season flavor my chapters as the novel progresses. My favorite shows and books definitely feed into my inspirations. I’m sure it would not surprise anyone who reads DARK NEST that I’m a huge Battlestar Galactica and Star Trek fan, as certain genre conventions carry. But I don’t have to experience something exactly to write about it, I just have to translate it uniquely, as I would a character I were playing on stage.
All this to say that as the spotlight has been on Paranormals this month at We Write Romance, I encourage you to hug your favorite weird and wonderful book today, or if you know an author who writes them then hug them too.
So what about Paranormal compels you? Or if you don’t read or write it, then what compels you about your favorite genre?
Blessings!
Leanna Renee Hieber
Visit Leanna at www.leannareneehieber.com!
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey, Leanna!
Great post! And I love the picture of the cats. It made me think when I first saw it of a hunky man (aka kitty) with two chicks stuck to his side. LOL!
Heather R.
Heather,
Thanks! I am a big lolcat fan, so paranormal lolcats = the ultimate awesome. Indeed, it’s quite a posse they’ve got there.
Nice post Leanna. Big cat fan here. Very cute.
I don’t always read para, but I have to write it. First it is easier, when you need something done, you can just make it up. I just love the idea of the paranormal present in modern time. It is so much more fun than my boring little life LOL.
Bright Blessings,
Marie-Claude
I love paranormal! Even in my medieval historical that I wanted to make as realistic as possible, the heroine has premonitions of danger. :)
I’m an eclectic reader, but my favorite is writing urban fantasy and the paranormal…started when I was a kid and was into ghost stories….
Great post Leanna and I love the kitty picture. Lol cats rule! I adore paranormals, but I’m always looking for something a little different than the usual vampire books. I’m glad to see the genre expanding to include other paranormal elements.
Great post Leanne. I read only paranormals, toss some horror in there, and a couple of scifis, and I’m a happy camper.
When I write, I always lean toward the paranormal. I can’t write boy meets girl…it’s always something evil stalks girl, boy, who is a vamp/were/demon/miscellaneous, jumps in to save girl, girl punches him in the face, letting him know she can save herself, boy and girl run around in the dark, get chased, use cool weapons, have some sex, and then crush evil under their black leather bootheels
Marie-Claude,
Thanks for stopping by!
I couldn’t agree more, I love problem solving in my worlds by simply inventing how point A becomes point B. And I completely believe the paranormal is present in our lives, sometimes in tactile ways and sometimes in the myriad ways in which we become inspired. We just have to tap into that fun, thrilling, inexplicable energy, it’s just a few pages away!
Elizabeth,
Thanks! Yes, the kittehs did their job and made me lol.
YES, I am all about diversity! In the real world and in the Para world!
Leanna, I know exactly how you feel … No matter how my idea starts out, odd things always start to happen. Instead of a stranger behind the door – comes a lunarly-challenged stranger. Not only do my heroines get hunches, they get full-out psychic visitations. But isn’t it great to imagine a world where the rules are all different? No one is what they seem and the unexpected is all that one can expect! I find it always great fun when these little gremlins appear in what seems, innocently and at first blush, to be a normal, unassuming story … which suddenly takes on an entirely new slant.
And, yes, the whole creating your world, making all the rules, and daring people to come along on your journey and get to know YOUR reality is marvelous fun.
Who doesn’t imagine, when they walk around a corner, perhaps at dusk, or under a full moon, that the man they meet won’t be just another mortal….
Keep up the amazing writing! Your worlds are all so beautiful.
Well, I am just a reader not an author but I love paranormal books. Growing up I always felt out of place and like I was wierd because I loved anything having to do with the paranormal.
Now that I have found the new tv shows and these wonderful books I really am ok with everything.
I no longer hide my fav pics or books in a trunk at the foot of my bed.
I have met people with similar interests and am actually happy. So keep writing for all of the readers like me.
Lise,
Can I steal you for my PR team? :) I love all the scenarios you describe, and it’s thrilling to hear you talk about them, and when the world at large MEETS them, it will be an exciting day indeed!
Hi Leanna,
I love your kitty pic. I’m a huge cat fan. In my current story (follow up to The Magic Knot) my heroine has a cat familiar.
I’m with you on your love of the weird and wonderful. I love blending the ordinary with the extraordinary. The whole concept that there is more out there than we realise facinates me.
Helen
Hi, Leanna!
I’m a para-freak, too. Love to read it, can’t help but write it. (And I fought writing it for the longest time, too.) I love it that there are almost no boundaries when you’re writing in the genre, that your options are limited only by your ability to justify them. Challenging and addictive, as you said. Good luck with your book — it sounds great!
Natale
I always thought I would be a contemporary romance writer, but paranormal crept into my first book set in a Victorian house. But, of course, the past and present melded together. And then I tried a pirate story, and somehow a ghost and a mysterious musician appeared. Then I wanted a straight contemporary on a Caribbean cruise featuring a lonely widow, but I’ll be darned if her dead husband didn’t show up, unwilling to let her go. I wanted a train story. Had to be a time travel. I just can’t seem to leave the paranormal though I never thought I would write them. It’s so odd, really, almost paranormal. :-)
Love the kitties!
Great blog, Leanna
Bess
VIVI ANNA!
Eee – fangirl moment – I’m so thrilled you stopped by, I love your books and your evil crushing boot-heels!
Bertena
- there is no such thing as “Just” a reader, you are a beautiful, wonderful, blessed READER and without you we’d all die. (Well, maybe that’s overdramatic, but we’d have absolutely nothing to do if it weren’t for readers!) I completely agree with you, I felt like I ‘came home’ to new friends and family when I found paranormal stuff. I was always the uber-wierdo in school, and this genre filled a huge and awkward hole in my heart. I’m so glad you’ve found it similarly fulfilling.
Helen – yep, that may be my favorite lolcat ever. Happy writing wishes to you on your sequel!
Natalie – Hey Lollie!! Yes, the lack of boundaries means ultimate creative freedom that other genres can’t always offer. The boundaries are what we create to enrich our conflict. Yay para-addicts!
Bess! – Thanks!
I’ll have to pick up that Victorian of yours, all your storylines sound great! I love how the paranormal just “shows up” even when you don’t intend it. It’s like the muse tells US what our writing style is, rather than the other way around.
I totally agree – I would not write anything that wasn’t paranormal! I have seen so much in my own ordinary life that would be deemed by most to be extraordinary, I’m just compelled to bring that element to my writing! Although I delve into some suspense and horror novels for my reading pleasure, most of the time, when I’m not writing it, I’m reading paranormal romance. :) Elissa
Hey Elissa!
Thanks for dropping by! I too dabble in suspense and horror as a reader, I count Stephen King as one of my big influences as a writer. I’ll also dabble in mysteries, as there are some wonderful Victorian mystery authors like Elizabeth Peters and Anne Perry that help get my Victorian-brain-juices flowing.
Alas, since I’ve been in the thick of edits and working on the STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL sequel, my paranormal TBR pile has gotten unwieldy!
Terry!
How did I miss you up there earlier? Congrats again on your awesome Best Books of Year listing, SO exciting! Yes, ghost stories, that’s exactly when this whole love affair started for me, I had a little ghost story book that I read as a kid so often the cover fell off. Still have it’s little tattered self on my bookshelf. :)
Hi, all!
Ah, the kitties are so adorable! I believe that animals are the best “paranormal” elements on earth. They’re also probably the smartest in a book! Man do I love some shape shifting sexy men!
Okay, so I’ve gotten that out of my system now, and can tell you Leanna that I love the mysterious cover. The way the hero and heroine are placed just lend enough mysticism to make you want to go out and grab it right away. And that castle is something.
Can you tell us more about your upcoming Victorian Gothic tale?
Hey Alyson!
Thanks so much, I agree that animals are a wonderful tie in with a paranormal due to their keen ability to sense things us average humans can’t. I utilize “familiars” in my Victorian novel, a raven and a cat.
Thanks for enjoying the Dark Nest cover, I’m so glad to hear the cover does what it’s supposed to. :) I got lucky with my artist. The elements are very true to the story, as the bulk of the action takes place on a spaceship that is indeed built to look just like a gothic cathedral, and I use gothic architecture terms to define the parts of the ship.
Why, I’d love to say more about my upcoming Victorian Gothic, thanks for asking! THE STRANGELY BEAUTIFUL TALE OF MISS PERCY PARKER will be out in September 2009 from Dorchester Publishing, with it’s sequel to come in early 2010.
Teaser:
Victorian London does not know what it owes the striking, enigmatic Professor Alexi Rychman and The Guard as they conduct artful exorcisms on an unsuspecting public. While Jack the Ripper spreads terror through the city, The Guard seeks fulfillment of Prophecy to settle the precarious balance between the mortal and the spirit world lest demons like “Jack” overtake them. Sweet, timid Percy Parker, new to the secretive Athens Academy in the heart of London, is haunted by inexplicable, ghostly visions and shamed by her eerie, snow-white skin, eyes and hair. Her only solace becomes the stern and stoic Professor Rychman, with whom she’s increasingly smitten. Percy and Alexi are drawn into an intimate, titillating and dangerous dance as the Guard begins to lose the control they’ve held confidently for eons. On this Victorian stage, Gods of an ancient world use these incredible companions, bound by affection, humor and supernatural power, to settle an ancient score before spiritual Apocalypse results.
I’m beyond excited about the book, it is indeed one of those infamous “Books of the heart” as I’m completely in love with these characters and the Victorian setting like nothing I’ve ever written.
I just set up a no-spam Newsletter on the homepage of my website at http://www.leannareneehieber.com to keep track of release information only.
Thanks again!
Thanks for sharing with us, Leanna! I love the sound of your book. I’ve been enjoying the strange and beautiful world of paranormal fantasy for a bit now, and this story sounds interesting and unique to anything I’ve read, so count me as a buyer! ;-)
I’ll check on signing up to your newsletter, but for now got to get back to work…
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