I’ll start with a cliché – variety is the spice of life. Yeah, it is. The one thing I hate is to be bored. Life is too short to carry on watching TV series that suck (except for Trueblood – I like that sort of suck) or read books that promise so much and then peter out in the middle if not before. (I won’t name any but I’ve had a disappointing run of downloads on my Kindle.)
I love variety in my reading and I write almost everything. I started off with MF, still write that, moved quickly into MMF and still write that and only more recently veered into MM. I write contemporary stories, paranormal ones and also sci fi. I’ve written straight suspense novels and even had some flash horror pieces published. I think variety might be my middle name and not Jane. Oops – didn’t mean to give that away.
So why does it upset people that writers don’t stick to one genre? And by people I specifically mean a significant number of MM readers and writers. I don’t like to see cliques but I’ve come to realize they exist in the MM world. I don’t set out to irritate or ‘break the rules’ whatever they might be. I don’t put gratuitous MF sex scenes in my MM stories, though I have had the odd MM scene in my MF ones and I’ve put the obligatory warning at the bottom. I don’t expect all my readers to like MF and MM. They can choose to read or not but I can’t help but notice that the MM crowd have a lot of purists who get very upset if writers who have previously written MF, start to write MM. It’s a shock-horror situation.
Isn’t a romance a romance whatever the inclination of the main characters? Two or more people falling in love after overcoming a variety of obstacles, including horrible back stories if they are my characters. After all Dr. Seuss said “I am weird, you are weird. Everyone in this world is weird. One day two people come together in mutual weirdness and fall in love.” Is the world not big enough for all of us? It doesn’t make me any less of a writer because I choose to write different things. I’ve had a lot of lovely comments from some MM readers, reviewers and writers but – and there is a but – I still feel excluded from the pack somehow as though I’ll never belong because I don’t stick to one thing.
Oh – or maybe it’s because I stink. I hadn’t thought of that. Darn it.
**********************
Barbara Elsborg lives in West Yorkshire in the north of England. She always wanted to be a spy, but having confessed to everyone without them even resorting to torture, she decided it was not for her. Vulcanology scorched her feet. A morbid fear of sharks put paid to marine biology. So instead, she spent several years successfully selling cyanide.
After dragging up two rotten, ungrateful children and frustrating her sexy, devoted, wonderful husband (who can now stop twisting her arm) she finally has time to conduct an affair with an electrifying plugged-in male, her laptop.
Her books feature quirky heroines and bad boys, and she hopes they are as much fun to read as they are to write.
My Links
www.barbaraelsborg.com
www.barbaraelsborg.blogspot.com
http://www.facebook.com/#!/barbara.elsborg
I want you to write more M/M because I love your writing. Probably your M/F writers feel the same. However, we’re the readers and you’re the author. Assuming that your job is just like the others in this world, you have to do whatever makes you feel most fulfilled at the time. In other words, just keep on doing what you’re doing and we’ll be fine.
Since I read all over the place, MF, MMF,MFM,MM, although not too much FFM. I don’t see why you can’t write all over the place? If a story pops in your head then tell it!
Males can be such drama queens 😉
I’ve not read any of your m/f books but absolutely love your m/m books. I can only guess that you write a great het story as well so I’m not sure why any one is complaining. I’m curious though – have your m/m books been more, less or just as successful as the m/f ones?
I enjoy reading books by great authors who tell great stories. I’ve enjoyed yours and I don’t mind who or what combo characters there are books so long as they support the story and the story is good. Carry on as you are please!
Thanks, guys! Hmm – interesting question as to whether my MM books have been more successful. None have been as successful as Strangers, my most popular MF, but the MMs have been more popular than some of my MFs. I’ve noticed I’ve garnered more reviews for the MMs – but I’m not sure that proves anything – except MM readers/reviewers are more vociferous than the MF crowd. I’m still waaaaay behind in the review stakes compared to most. I’m talking on Amazon of very few indeed. I have to keep writing what I like, because I’d grow too bored otherwise but MM has been a fairly recent venture for me – though as I said, I do have MM scenes in the MMF stories. But thanks to everyone who supports me – I really do appreciate it!! We writers are in a bit of a vacuum – when we do venture out to read what people think, we either fall over in a faint or scurry back into our holes – well I do!!