From Fantasy to Paranormal Romance
by Isobo Kelly
I came to paranormal romance from the horror and fantasy genres. Back in the day before there was paranormal romance, the only place to find creatures like vampires and ghosts was the horror genre, and the only place to find magic, dragons and faeries was fantasy.
I found romance novels satisfied my craving for more love story, but then I missed the fantasy. So when I started writing romances, I wrote what I wanted to read—fantasy romance. I was avoiding horror because I scared myself too much. But in the background, I still loved stories of vampires and werewolves and witches (oh my!).
Then early paranormal stories started to appear, many published by fantasy publishers as urban fantasy or horror. They combined world-building fantasy, horror and had good dollops of romance. More romance centered paranormals also started to appear. The move from reading fantasy to reading paranormals seemed quite natural. And I started to realize there was little difference between what I was already doing—world-building fantasy romance—and paranormal romance.
It still surprised me, though, how easy the transition was from fantasy to paranormal. The transition from horror is even easier as many paranormal worlds rise from the spooky realms of the horror novel—vampires, werewolves, demons—but as I mentioned, I don’t do serious horror (I like to sleep at night!). Between the two genres, there’s also a lot of overlap, and combining elements of each makes for some exciting paranormal stories.
By taking my fantasy worlds, throwing in just a touch of horror (in my case horror light) and setting the stories in a contemporary time period, I started writing my first paranormal romances.
So how did you come to paranormal romances? From the romance genre? Or like me, from the fantasy and/or horror genres? Or maybe even the spooky Young Adult books? What started your craving for the paranormal?
{ 5 comments }
Lord Isobo, I laughed out loud! I loved “horror light”. I can’t tell you why, but I thought that was hilarious.
I started into science fictiony type stories long before paranormals. I enjoyed aliens, the strange, mystic and unexplored worlds in books before I went on to the romance ones. I don’t think I would have tried any of the romance books, but a friend lent me one and I was hooked.
What stories do you have out? Do you have a website? I searched but I believe I did something wrong.
Hi, everyone!
I’ve been away doing a bit of shopping this morning and didn’t get Isobo’s post up until lunch. I loved reading about the changes in the industry since she’s been writing. Hope you will too!
Isobo, can you tell us about your upcoming releases?
Thanks!
Heather R.
Thanks for the welcome, Heather! And I’m glad the “horror light” made you laugh, Karen :) What can I say, if it’s too spooky, I scare myself! I am dabbling in a paranormal world with some pretty spooky monsters at the moment, but I try not to think about them too much–especially at night! I write about them in daylight when I know they’re not hiding under the bed or behind the curtain. LOL
My website, Karen, is http://www.isabokelly.com. It desperately needs updating, though, sorry about that. I just had a baby four months ago, my first, and I’m still figuring out how to be a working mom.
As for the books I have out, I’m glad to hear you like science fictiony stuff too, since I have a few of those out there along with my fantasy. I also have a release coming out December 2nd from Samhain Publishing called The Promise of Kierna’Rhoan which is a science fiction romance and the first of a three book series if I can get the second book edited properly :)
A list of my currently available titles are:
Siren Singing, Ellora’s Cave (science fiction/fantasy)
Faery Song: The Lady of the Herd, Crescent Moon Press (fantasy)
Bonfire Night, Ellora’s Cave (paranormal)
Christmas Help Her, Ellora’s Cave (paranormal-ish)
The Heron’s Call, Samhain Publishing (fantasy)
Thief’s Desire, Cerridwen Press (fantasy)
Destiny’s Seduction, Cerridwen (fantasy)
Marshall’s Guard, Cerridwen (science fiction/space opera)
And I’m working on two paranormal series–one a paranormal romance series with a twist on shapeshifters; the other a more urban fantasy type series (same hero and heroine). There’s an excerpt from the urban fantasy book on my website. The title is The Trouble with Black Cats and Demons.
Okay, this is almost as long as my original blog so I’d better stop now (baby is asleep so I’m free to write a bit–can you tell? :))
And I have a short story called Hali’s Rescuein the anthology Tales from Lachmuirghan from Samhain(kind of futuristic-y)
Great post Isabo! Lol, I’m definately a ‘horror light’ kinda gal too! Paranormal is such a beautiful cross-roads of everything I love, it’s a fitting single word to describe what we do, since I know your books (and mine) incorporate so many aspects of what we crave into a genre. I particularly love how Paranormal has expanded into more types and creatures, in both the heroes and in the bad guys, and has brought a lot of avid fantasy readers comfortably into the Romance world.
Congrats on your upcoming releases!
Oopsie!
Well… As dear friend of Isabo, here I am writing from Isabo’s computer, Auntie Leanna playing with (and gets distracted by) the newborn in the room, while attempting to catch up on my lamentably slow uptake on the blogosphere. But I forgot to change Isabo’s settings. So the comment above? Well, it’s mine.