Update: The inner of a copy of GRAVE NEW DAY is…Cindy Carrol! Congrats, Cindy!
Paranormal authors must have certain qualities in order to write in their genre: A very open mind. Imagination that goes beyond the earthly realm. Love of the unexplained. Maybe we all have a bit of scientist in us. In our own way we’re exploring our world and beyond. We look at our plot and ask ‘what if’ we twist this into something darker and more dangerous (just saying that makes me smile). And for those whose imagination extends beyond the boundaries of earthly unexplained phenomena or mythology – there are no limits to what can be done in the paranormal genre. Editors are looking for what’s different, but in a way that is familiar and sought-after by readers. As difficult as that sounds, there are elements that are intrinsic in all books.
Good writing is based on emotion. In my mind, the main, most important element of your book is emotion. The eerie/dangerous/magical/maniacal, and the list goes on… elements lend themselves nicely to building emotion and angst in our books, so it’s lots of fun to write. The characters are bigger than life, so their emotions and angst have to be bigger than life as well. That can be a challenge.
More often than not these characters are physically stronger than normal. Maybe they can’t die. Or maybe they can die, but it’s very difficult to kill them. Or they have superpowers, but a green meteor rock is their Achilles heel. <G> That creates major differences from writing non-paranormal books (obviously) but it goes further than that. Creating these personalities is different, not just because our characters are paranormal, but because their emotions can’t possibly be the same as a real person’s. Their lives aren’t impacted by the same things as mortal men, therefore, their fears and desires must also be different. For example: What are paranormal characters afraid of? What kinds of angst do they have? Their daily lives are unpredictable, and their abilities are not the same as mortal men.
I’ve always wanted to write category romance as well as paranormal but couldn’t quite sell the romances even though I came close. I now believe it was because I didn’t understand the importance of emotion in the romances. Sounds silly not understanding the importance of emotion in a romance – I know. I thought I wrote enough emotion, but in reality I was more interested in creating unique plots, etc. than making sure the hero and heroine were emotionally and inseparably connected.
It wasn’t until I began to write paranormals that I realized how paramount emotion is to binding my whole story into an unputdownable book. That’s when I realized what I’d been doing wrong. For some reason, I “got it” when I wrote paranormal. Paranormal romance has many of the same relationship elements as does a regular romance, only in a paranormal, life and death often come into play; relationships are doomed if not impossible, problems seem insurmountable, needs are bigger and emotion is as jagged and exposed as many of the wounds and conflicts in the books.
Given that information, writing a paranormal character who can’t die, or who is exponentially stronger than any human, it’s important to create a set of problems for the hero or heroine that is as large as the characters themselves. Uber emotion. Their problems have to be worse. They don’t worry about death, they don’t worry about pain (sometimes) — so what do they worry about?
My heroine is a vampire, her brother is a priest. She worries about losing her faith. About going against everything she and her brother believe in. There’s nothing small about that. It’s her daily angst, she worries that she’ll lose herself to the darkness that invades her soul every minute. She can’t die, but she can lose her immortal soul. A worse than death problem for her.
It wasn’t until I started writing Jess Vandermire, my female vampire and John Brittain, her love match and human ex-cop that I learned how integral emotion is in a book. She’s strong—he’s weaker physically. She might kill him if she loses control; and if that happens, the only way he can stop her is to kill her. Not something either of them wants to contemplate. Their problems seem insurmountable. Yet, I did give them a point of connection at the beginning of the series. She’s a vampire and can no longer practice her faith, he’s an ex-cop who believes he committed murder and therefore won’t go back to the church because he committed a mortal sin. It’s the one area where they are equal and they understand how the other feels. They understand on an emotional level, rather than physical level.
The next time you read a book, try reading it for the emotion. Maybe compare the books you really like to those that aren’t quite your cup of tea. You might find the differences are in the amount of emotion conveyed in the books…
Thanks to all the readers and writers who’ve joined in on this blog and have taken the time to listen to this author’s perspective on writing. It’s been a pleasure.
Thanks very much, Cynthia, for inviting me to your blog. You’ve done a great job with it.
There’ll be a ‘Grave New Day’ – New Release giveaway at the end of the day. If you win, and you’d rather start with the first book in the series, rather than the third, I’ll send you Grave Illusions to get you started.
A little introduction, I’m 
