And Now For Something Completely Similar

I always worry when I get an email from a reader telling me they've just discovered me and are devouring my backlist. Not because I don't like hearing from readers. It's like crack. I can't get enough and an email from a reader always makes my day. And I'm certainly not complaining about picking up some backlist sales because this writing career thing is also awesome. (I'm going to get a monthly check just for making stuff up and writing it down? Whoo-hoo!) What worries me is that the reader is going to put down the third or fifth or tenth book (figuratively if they're reading on a desktop, of course) and say, "Huh. Déjà vu."

I know that writers have themes that they like to explore. Sibling-parental issues, redemption, and reunions (guilty!) are just as common to genre fiction as secret babies and marriages of convenience are to series romance. I hope that all of my characters have a unique way of responding to the crap I throw at them. But hey, I worry, because if I didn't worry about that, I'd probably have to deal with worrying over something else that I'd rather not think about.

Take what happened to me last week. I was all set to start work on the next Fragments book, when another character started screaming in my head. I'd just turned in Bad Company and I knew from the minute Eli Wright popped up as a secondary character that he would be demanding his own book sooner rather than later. I had an idea for him (or an idea of how I could seriously mess with him) and I planned to get to that ASAP, but I didn't expect the guy I had planned for him to get so damned loud. He came to life and started spewing back story and issues so fast I couldn't have kept up if I had five secretaries taking shorthand.

What does this noisy guy have to do with my worries over rehashing the same theme? Well, Bad Company, which I love more than my favorite brownies and my favorite cookies together on a plate, is about sexuality being a bit more fluid than the characters expect. And what does the new man in my life have to tell me? That a lover's fluid sexuality just bit him in the ass. And not in the fun way. Even the title my brain gave me, Bad Boyfriend, just goes to show that my muse is determined to explore the B-side of the same issue. Now if I can just have the guts to not pull punches—to write on through no matter how painfully raw the feelings get in this—I should have one hell of a book to tell you about by the time you meet Eli in Bad Company. In the meantime, I hope you find things just as different or as familiar as you like them.

My Current Obsession

For some reason that might have to do with migraine medication and lack of sleep, I was going over my list of projects for 2009 (so far) and noticed there was a really consistent theme that underlaid quite a few of them. So consistent and clear I felt like an idiot for not really consciously paying attention to it before.

Guess I could claim I planned it... nah, no one that knows me would believe that.

My current obsession seems to be "Don't believe the surface" :)

There's my erotic chocolatier who is not nearly as tough as his tattoos, muscles and motorcycle would seem to imply. He's rather a soft-center or truffle, really. A nice creamy one... ummm, right, back to the subject at hand.

There's a little sniper who is deadly and feared, but caretakes the man he loves.

There's a kilt-wearing shape-shifting black dragon that is sent to kill but hates it every time.

How about my celtic fiddler who turns out to be a classically trained violinist - and gay.

When I told Mr. Maura this eureka realization, he looked at me like I'd lost what little brains the migraine meds leave me with and said "You JUST figured that out?" Then he went off to get me some Diet Coke - I think he's hoping the caffeine will reconnect a few brain cells.

I still have a lot of love, compassion and forgiveness in these stories but it does make me wonder what pattens other people see that I don't. Anyone care to whap me upside the head with things you've noticed about my writing.