Michelle Sharp's Blog
July 29, 2014
Variety or Voyeur? by Michelle Sharp
The recent release of Dream Huntress has been a fun and fabulous few weeks. Actually, the most fun is when someone asks, “What’s next?” One friend called, genuinely concerned about whether Ty and Jordan will stay together and have that ultimate happily ever after. She explained that she usually gravitated towards the kind of series where you have the first hot brother and his story. And then in book 2, the story of the next hot brother, or best friend, or Marine buddy, so on and so forth.
It wasn’t the first time I had heard this. But it was the first time I decided there really are two different kinds of “romance series camps.” We’ll call the first camp—Camp Variety. Romance fans who plain old need a little change. They want a new hero and heroine in each book, diverse story arcs, and varied conflict in each book. Nothing wrong with that. It’s the way the romance world has operated for years, pretty darn successfully I might add.
However, I think there is a different camp becoming more and more popular in the romance genre. One comprised of inquisitive (perhaps obsessive) people like me. Camp Voyeur, if you will, infatuated with what happens after that, “Gee, I love you” moment. I mean seriously, you want good old fashioned conflict? When I look at my relationship with my husband, I realize that things didn’t get real until after we moved in together. Merging two lives into one can be explosive. Right?
So why must the fantasy end at I love you?
If I really fall for a character, I want the true grit that comes after all the firsts, too. What happens when an old flame comes back into town? What if one of the characters is wrongly accused of a crime, or hiding a deadly secret? How does the relationship work then? And man, OH, man—there is something to be said for reading a sexy love scene between two characters that know each other’s hot spots and history.
I get that books are supposed to be romance, fantasy—escape. No one wants to read about characters clipping their nails or arguing over the electric bill. But it still doesn’t mean I don’t totally want to be a voyeur while Roarke is washing Eve’s back in J.D. Robb’s In Death Series. (And screw tradition, because if Roarke did nothing more than clip Eve’s fingernails, I guarantee it would be sexy.)
I must, must, must know how Nick and Sam are doing in Marie Force’s Fatal Series. And don’t even get me started on Eva and Gideon. Sylvia Day has me hook, line, and sinker when it comes to those two.
My point is, I like the fantasy of the first kiss, the first time our characters make love, the moment the first “I love you” is spoken. But life happens. There is no greater thrill than exploring it with the characters I love. It’s like coming home to the familiar or visiting with family I haven’t seen in a while.
So to my friend I said, “Don’t worry, life will go on for Jordan and Ty. And because of Jordan’s gift, you can bet it will be a wild and complicated ride.”
I found that to be a perfectly politically correct response. But my friend said, “You’re seriously not going to tell me? You suck.” LOL. (But I know she still loves me.)
How about you? Are you Variety or Voyeur? Maybe we need a little of both camps to really keep the excitement flowing.
It wasn’t the first time I had heard this. But it was the first time I decided there really are two different kinds of “romance series camps.” We’ll call the first camp—Camp Variety. Romance fans who plain old need a little change. They want a new hero and heroine in each book, diverse story arcs, and varied conflict in each book. Nothing wrong with that. It’s the way the romance world has operated for years, pretty darn successfully I might add.
However, I think there is a different camp becoming more and more popular in the romance genre. One comprised of inquisitive (perhaps obsessive) people like me. Camp Voyeur, if you will, infatuated with what happens after that, “Gee, I love you” moment. I mean seriously, you want good old fashioned conflict? When I look at my relationship with my husband, I realize that things didn’t get real until after we moved in together. Merging two lives into one can be explosive. Right?
So why must the fantasy end at I love you?
If I really fall for a character, I want the true grit that comes after all the firsts, too. What happens when an old flame comes back into town? What if one of the characters is wrongly accused of a crime, or hiding a deadly secret? How does the relationship work then? And man, OH, man—there is something to be said for reading a sexy love scene between two characters that know each other’s hot spots and history.
I get that books are supposed to be romance, fantasy—escape. No one wants to read about characters clipping their nails or arguing over the electric bill. But it still doesn’t mean I don’t totally want to be a voyeur while Roarke is washing Eve’s back in J.D. Robb’s In Death Series. (And screw tradition, because if Roarke did nothing more than clip Eve’s fingernails, I guarantee it would be sexy.)
I must, must, must know how Nick and Sam are doing in Marie Force’s Fatal Series. And don’t even get me started on Eva and Gideon. Sylvia Day has me hook, line, and sinker when it comes to those two.
My point is, I like the fantasy of the first kiss, the first time our characters make love, the moment the first “I love you” is spoken. But life happens. There is no greater thrill than exploring it with the characters I love. It’s like coming home to the familiar or visiting with family I haven’t seen in a while.
So to my friend I said, “Don’t worry, life will go on for Jordan and Ty. And because of Jordan’s gift, you can bet it will be a wild and complicated ride.”
I found that to be a perfectly politically correct response. But my friend said, “You’re seriously not going to tell me? You suck.” LOL. (But I know she still loves me.)
How about you? Are you Variety or Voyeur? Maybe we need a little of both camps to really keep the excitement flowing.
June 22, 2014
Where did DREAM HUNTRESS come from?
My debut novel, Dream Huntress, releases on June 23 with Entangled Publishing—and wow—what a journey! I’m feeling a bit nostalgic, because as I prepare to do interviews and blog tours, I’ve been asked over and over what or who inspired me to write this book.
After thinking about that question for a long time, I’ve realized there wasn’t a single incident or person that Jordan is created from, rather it was a culmination of events and interests that formed her.
I’ve always loved reading romantic suspense novels, especially if they involve a great police detective story. I often think I should have been a cop or a profiler because I find crime fascinating. Have you ever sat down and just chatted with a police officer? I recently had the pleasure of doing just that, and I could have listened for hours to all the crazy situations this detective had encountered. He looked at me at one point and said, “Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up.” I’m forever grateful to the men and women who are brave enough to strap on a gun every day to go to work. And I love talking with them because their stories make great fiction.
I also had an interesting experience after my father passed away and I think it contributed to the creation of Jordan. I am an only child and my parents were divorced, so I felt very alone in that grief filled process of tying up loose ends for someone I loved. Before losing my dad, I had never given much thought to whether or not a loved one could “hang around” after they passed. But as I was going through his things, talking to him as if he were there, a strange occurrence made me certain he was there with me. I won’t go into specifics, but it was eerie and my hair stood on end. I have never forgotten how certain I was that he was communicating with me.
After that, I enjoyed reading about and watching shows that dealt with psychic mediums. No surprise that Medium was one of my favorite TV shows. But it always ticked me off, that no matter how many cases Allison solved with her psychic abilities, the police department always doubted her visions. I looked at my husband one night and said, “Allison should just tell all those people to jump in a lake and get a badge of her own.”
I suppose my mind subconsciously toyed with that idea for the next few weeks. Shortly after, the character idea for Jordan Delany—cop and medium—came to me in a gush of writing. But I knew instantly that my Jordan Delany would never be like any of the composed, self-assured mediums on TV. Following a tragedy in her past, she would be a darker, more wounded character that has never been at peace with herself or her gift. I spent the next few years getting her story down on paper. I hope I’ve done her justice, but there are still days she rolls her eyes at me and says, “Seriously? That’s the best you can do?”
She’s been a different kind of heroine from the get-go. A little rough around the edges and her vocabulary might be sort of… ahem… colorful. But her badge means everything, and she has a fierce compassion for the dead who appear in her dreams and need help to find justice.
My hope for the reader is that you will enjoy reading about her life (and the dead she communicates with) as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
Keep Dreaming-
Michelle
After thinking about that question for a long time, I’ve realized there wasn’t a single incident or person that Jordan is created from, rather it was a culmination of events and interests that formed her.
I’ve always loved reading romantic suspense novels, especially if they involve a great police detective story. I often think I should have been a cop or a profiler because I find crime fascinating. Have you ever sat down and just chatted with a police officer? I recently had the pleasure of doing just that, and I could have listened for hours to all the crazy situations this detective had encountered. He looked at me at one point and said, “Seriously, I can’t make this stuff up.” I’m forever grateful to the men and women who are brave enough to strap on a gun every day to go to work. And I love talking with them because their stories make great fiction.
I also had an interesting experience after my father passed away and I think it contributed to the creation of Jordan. I am an only child and my parents were divorced, so I felt very alone in that grief filled process of tying up loose ends for someone I loved. Before losing my dad, I had never given much thought to whether or not a loved one could “hang around” after they passed. But as I was going through his things, talking to him as if he were there, a strange occurrence made me certain he was there with me. I won’t go into specifics, but it was eerie and my hair stood on end. I have never forgotten how certain I was that he was communicating with me.
After that, I enjoyed reading about and watching shows that dealt with psychic mediums. No surprise that Medium was one of my favorite TV shows. But it always ticked me off, that no matter how many cases Allison solved with her psychic abilities, the police department always doubted her visions. I looked at my husband one night and said, “Allison should just tell all those people to jump in a lake and get a badge of her own.”
I suppose my mind subconsciously toyed with that idea for the next few weeks. Shortly after, the character idea for Jordan Delany—cop and medium—came to me in a gush of writing. But I knew instantly that my Jordan Delany would never be like any of the composed, self-assured mediums on TV. Following a tragedy in her past, she would be a darker, more wounded character that has never been at peace with herself or her gift. I spent the next few years getting her story down on paper. I hope I’ve done her justice, but there are still days she rolls her eyes at me and says, “Seriously? That’s the best you can do?”
She’s been a different kind of heroine from the get-go. A little rough around the edges and her vocabulary might be sort of… ahem… colorful. But her badge means everything, and she has a fierce compassion for the dead who appear in her dreams and need help to find justice.
My hope for the reader is that you will enjoy reading about her life (and the dead she communicates with) as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.
Keep Dreaming-
Michelle
