NOT YOUR USUAL SUSPECTS

A group blog featuring an international array of killer mystery, suspense, and romantic suspense writers. With premises and story lines different from your run-of-the-mill whodunits, we tend to write outside the box. We blog several times a week on all topics relating to romantic suspense and mystery, our writing, and our readers. We welcome all comments and often have guest bloggers. All our authors can be contacted separately, too, using their own social media links.

We find our genre delightfully, dangerously, and deliciously exciting - join us here, if you do too!

NOTE: the blog is currently dormant but please enjoy the posts we're keeping online.


Julie Moffet . Cathy Perkins . Jean Harrington . Daryl Anderson . Nico Rosso . Maureen A Miller . Sandy Parks . Lisa Q Mathews . Sharon Calvin . Lynne Connolly . Janis Patterson . Vanessa Keir . Tonya Kappes . Julie Rowe . Joni M Fisher . Leslie Langtry

Friday, November 9, 2012

What's in a name?



 When I won an award for romantic suspense with a historical, it really made me think. Almost every book has an element of suspense, because we need to introduce conflict—without conflict, and it doesn’t have to be antagonistic—there is no story.
Two of the series I write have a great deal of suspense. It’s built-in. The Department 57 series, where paranormal beings fight against a hidden enemy, all without the public knowing, and the STORM series, where shape-shifters, vampires and other paranormal beings are “out,” a world I want to develop as it goes on. The STORM world is set “tomorrow,” when paranormal beings have come out of the closet and are trying to live in harmony with other humans. I take the view that we are all humans, but different kinds of human. Just as cheetahs, lions, tabbies and Persians are all types of cat, vampires, shape-shifters and others are all kinds of human. We share a DNA.
That makes it difficult because whenever something unknown emerges, the response in some quarters is fear and anger. Although I’m busy writing a non-suspense series for the publisher of the STORM books, there is another one in the pipeline, and I want to plan more. But set in the world of politics.
I’ve already sent one Talent (that’s what my vampires etc call themselves) to Washington, DC, but little has been heard of him for a while. I want to develop that side. Because isn’t it going to be really complicated to legislate for people who are different to you? Who might have superpowers but also vulnerabilities that need to be catered for? But I don’t want to concentrate on the debate and discussion side. Rather, the people who oppose Talents being given full human status. Who want shape-shifters to be legally animals. That would give them the power to control them.
See where I’m going? Conflict.
I absolutely adore that kind of thing, and mirroring it in the private lives of the characters in the books. Because, above everything else, I’m a romance writer. I believe in the power of love, and how it can bring people together, as well, sadly, as driving them apart. But the redeeming power of love is awesome, and something people often overlook these days, except for romance writers. I like to blend the love story in with the suspense and get the people involved, counterpointing everything so that just when their love life is working, something comes up to threaten everything they’ve just discovered.
I also like vulnerable characters, something some reviewers dislike. I had a book in the STORM universe about a character who until recently was in a wheelchair. His conversion “cured” him, but his mind was slow to catch up, so although he was now powerful and healthy, he still thought of himself as handicapped. It’s when he’s forced to go undercover as his old self that he begins to realise what he’s won—and what he’s lost.
That was called “Shifting Heat,” and it was really interesting to see the reviews. Some reviewers absolutely loved it, and some hated it. Because the hero wasn’t an alpha, he was a loner, the type I love best, because they tend to be more complex, and he was deeply vulnerable. Some readers prefer a straightforward hot romance between an alpha and his woman. I do write those, too, but I found it really interesting to see that the people who loved it, really loved it. The dichotomy was different, interesting and it taught me a lot about how people read romance books. Some read them purely for escapist pleasure, and some want to see more complex relationships. I suspect that very often the two “kinds” of readers are just the same person with different moods, because that’s the way I read. A multi-layered Nalini Singh or Lynn Viehl novel is a treat and invariably ends on my keeper shelf, but there’s times I want a less nuanced, more straightforward read.
It just goes to show, it takes all sorts to make a romantic suspense community!

Lynne Connolly

3 comments:

Clare London said...

Great post, Lynne. I certainly like to read about more complex people, and I think that's what keeps romance/suspense fiction fresh, both for the reader and the author.

Rita said...

*I also like vulnerable characters, something some reviewers dislike*
Eeeep. What do they review for, Your Lawn and You? Vulnerability makes a story for me.
The romance reader is complicated. I think they appreciate the many different types of the genre out there. I have a difficult time defining alpha so I quit. If I bond with the character and enjoy the story I don’t give a flying fig what he is.
Great post. Thanks

Anne Marie Becker said...

Interesting. I've noticed I do choose what I'm going to read based on my mood. And I have a certain genre/type of book I read as the ultimate reward for a job well done. It's totally different than what I write, BTW. Hmmm....

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