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Romantic Overtures
You know what, LJ? Sometimes I just want to write a great big epic pulpy sparkly paranormal romance series with over-the-top, ridiculously passionate couples saving the world from Evil and falling in love at the same time.
I just can't think of anything that hasn't already been done. And when I think about the paranormal romance series I've read or read, I realise I get bored of them pretty quickly. I read Dark Lover and laughed so hard at the "abs like smuggled paint rollers" line that there was no possible way for me to continue with the series. I loved the first three Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter (especially The Darkest Pleasure - awesome book), but had no interest in following it after that. Not sure why; maybe because the two characters I liked the most already had their stories dealt with in books 2 and 3? Likewise, I enjoyed her first two Atlantis books, but didn't enjoy The Nymph King and had no interest in the vampire's book.
I liked the first of Jacqueline Frank's Nightwalkers books, but found the second to be very much the same but with different names. I've read and loved the first of Anna Windsor's Dark Crescent Sisterhood books, and have the next two on my shelf, but keep bypassing them in favour of other books. I've read a handful of Harlequin's Nocturne line and liked them all, but never bothered to follow up if there's more than one book in the series. I'd make an exception for Stephanie Draven, because her two Bite novellas were magnificent. But I've no idea when her full-length Nocturne novel is due out.
I think part of the problem for me is the repetitve nature of these sagas. You can dress them up with in-depth worldbuilding, throw in plenty of mystery, murder, mayhem, and myth, but at the heart, it's always a love story. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a good love story as much as the next person, especially if werecreatures are involved, but essentially, once you've read one novel in a PR series, you've read them all. I know that's partly down to genre convention, and I shouldn't bash genre conventions because they're important and they're why genre fiction works. And I certainly shouldn't complain about the love story being at the heart of a Paranormal Romance novel because... duh.
But there you go. One story of an angst-ridden vampire/demon/werecreature with a stupid name falling in love with a pretty girl is pretty much the same as another unless the execution is particularly special. And that's what puts me off trying to write a great big epic pulpy sparkly paranormal romance series with over-the-top, ridiculously passionate couples saving the world from Evil and falling in love at the same time of my own. That and I don't think my voice lends itself particularly well to love stories. My big passion is, of course, Urban Fantasy, and in the past whenever I've tried to write something romancey, I've always ended up accidentally turning it into a UF novel.
Anyway. That's how I feel.
I just can't think of anything that hasn't already been done. And when I think about the paranormal romance series I've read or read, I realise I get bored of them pretty quickly. I read Dark Lover and laughed so hard at the "abs like smuggled paint rollers" line that there was no possible way for me to continue with the series. I loved the first three Lords of the Underworld series by Gena Showalter (especially The Darkest Pleasure - awesome book), but had no interest in following it after that. Not sure why; maybe because the two characters I liked the most already had their stories dealt with in books 2 and 3? Likewise, I enjoyed her first two Atlantis books, but didn't enjoy The Nymph King and had no interest in the vampire's book.
I liked the first of Jacqueline Frank's Nightwalkers books, but found the second to be very much the same but with different names. I've read and loved the first of Anna Windsor's Dark Crescent Sisterhood books, and have the next two on my shelf, but keep bypassing them in favour of other books. I've read a handful of Harlequin's Nocturne line and liked them all, but never bothered to follow up if there's more than one book in the series. I'd make an exception for Stephanie Draven, because her two Bite novellas were magnificent. But I've no idea when her full-length Nocturne novel is due out.
I think part of the problem for me is the repetitve nature of these sagas. You can dress them up with in-depth worldbuilding, throw in plenty of mystery, murder, mayhem, and myth, but at the heart, it's always a love story. Now, don't get me wrong, I like a good love story as much as the next person, especially if werecreatures are involved, but essentially, once you've read one novel in a PR series, you've read them all. I know that's partly down to genre convention, and I shouldn't bash genre conventions because they're important and they're why genre fiction works. And I certainly shouldn't complain about the love story being at the heart of a Paranormal Romance novel because... duh.
But there you go. One story of an angst-ridden vampire/demon/werecreature with a stupid name falling in love with a pretty girl is pretty much the same as another unless the execution is particularly special. And that's what puts me off trying to write a great big epic pulpy sparkly paranormal romance series with over-the-top, ridiculously passionate couples saving the world from Evil and falling in love at the same time of my own. That and I don't think my voice lends itself particularly well to love stories. My big passion is, of course, Urban Fantasy, and in the past whenever I've tried to write something romancey, I've always ended up accidentally turning it into a UF novel.
Anyway. That's how I feel.