When I started writing I just knew that I was going to write romance. It was almost solely what I read at that time, and I knew it. I knew I could write it. And I did. But slowly my muse changed. I met other writers and they wrote romance as well, but also they wrote paranormal, regency, and gothic-style stories. And I went, “Hey, I could do that too.” I could go out of my comfort zone, or should I say my “supposed” comfort zone, because in my travels from genre to genre I have found that my comfort zone is wide. I mean, wide. In the past year I have written contemporary romance, paranormal romance, Gothic horror with a dash of romance, and fantasy/horror.
That is a wide swath of genres, and I love it. I love that on any given day I am writing about pink haired tattoo artists, or elvish assassins. About a troupe of occult investigators in the 1800’s or a teenage dragon speaker. It keeps my head clear of all the many, many voices and it keeps my writing diverse. Also, I’m not going to lie, spending a good amount of time on Pinterest “researching” makes my writing endeavours even more fun. I mean how else am I going to find out that the wooden clogs Asian people wear are called “Geta”. Or that the ornate square carriages that are carried by people are called “litters”. I mean, did you know that? I didn’t, but once I started searching for background information for my new serial set in a sort of Feudal Japan, I got to learn all sorts of new stuff. And I never would have learned that if I had kept myself in that romance comfort zone.
I will never give up the romance, I’m not saying that, but I am having so much fun romping around in other genres, like I was my own weird version of Little Bunny Fu Fu, that I keep accidentally pushing the straight up romances to the back burner. In the coming months I’ll be working on more fantasy/horror, the sequel to my gothic horror with a touch of romance, and oh so much more. But the romance, oh man, the ideas are piling up. I have a whole folder of single lines, of short paragraphs, of inspirational pics and I will return to it, probably mid-next year. But until then it’s all gargoyles and parasols, kimonos and manor houses. Oh, and I can’t forget the trolls either. 🙂
I’m having a blast in all the worlds I’ve been making up. I hope you’ll come and join me there. My latest release was a short titled The Piano, in the Girls Rock Horror Harder EZine put out by the Forsaken Imprint of Booktrope publishing. And I’ll have more with them coming out in October, as well as a paranormal romance in the Bewitching Desires Anthology put together by some of my writing group The Writing Wenches (wicked cool peeps there).
You can find Sheri Williams on Facebook, Twitter, and at her website!
Her contribution to the Girls Rock Horror Harder EZine is available on Amazon (along with lots of other great stories), and her romance roots can be found in Unwrapping Love, an anthology of twenty-one short stories all sharing a holiday theme.