A lot – well, most – of the books I write are hotter than hell. A good many of them are my favourite of the erotic romance genre: MMF Romance. Two make-your-teeth-ache-alpha heroes, a snap-your-spine-strong heroine, a storyline on steroids and a happy ending for all three.
One of my books, Terror Stash, is the last in my big Romantic Thriller collection. It’s MF romance: bedroom shut, sensual only. A good friend of mine, who knows what I like to write, raised a brow at this and asked: “Why even bother?”
Good question. I thought I would answer it in public as I’m sure he’s not the first to wonder, as my MMF romances out-sell anything else I write by five-to-one, they garner the most five star reader reviews, gather more critical acclaim, and win more nominations and awards than anything else I write. So why in hell would I bother writing anything else?
Not all my readers like menage romances
I didn’t always write menages, and some of my readers have been with me for a very long time. I like to keep them happy.
Not all my readers like erotic romances.
Some of my readers have been with me even longer than that. They’ve been with me since the beginning, before I started writing erotic romance. My most faithful readers and I go back to the dawn of time (and some mornings it feels like the beginning of evolution, and I am the primordial ooze). Some readers found me when I first started out writing erotic romance, when erotic romance was what is now just a hot romance. Again, something for everyone.
It’s a change of pace.
I love writing MMF Romance, but I suspect that if that was all I wrote, I might eventually get sick of it…and I don’t want to do that. So, I mix it up.
It’s a challenge.
I’ve been writing erotic romance and MMF romance for over a decade. You can get very comfortable writing the same genre and sub-genre for that length of time, even if your style and technique are evolving. By changing genres, I’m challenging myself to concentrated just on story and produce something highly entertaining, emotionally moving and page turning, without the distraction of hot sex and body parts to gloss over any potential plot weaknesses. (Although, that is not to say that writing hot sex is easy – it’s not. I’ve just had a lot of practice writing it.)
I like straight MF romantic suspense.
I like both writing and reading romantic suspense. It doesn’t make me a lot of money (alas), so I don’t write a lot of it, but I still like writing it every now and again. (Same with straight historical romance.)
What about you? Do you mix up your reading? Or do you remain faithful to one sub-genre? Why?
______________________