I'm skeeered...

I haven’t blogged about this because I hate to moan and gripe about stuff here. To put my current situation in a nutshell, I’ve been having a hard time finishing my WIP. For the life of me, I couldn’t put my finger on what the issue was. I like the characters, and I have a theme in the story that’s been in the news lately. I obviously love the setting, since it’s the third book in the series which is set in a small Alabama lake town. So what was the problem?
This weekend, while I was reading J.R. Ward’s The Thief and watching Will Smith’s Hancock , it came to me that there wasn’t anything wrong with my characters. The problem was with me. My characters have always been normal people with normal problems. What I need is to write a character(s) that isn't normal. I need to write something outside of my comfort zone. I’m not about to switch to mystery or sci-fi, but I want to try my hand at penning a paranormal romance. In one of my Facebook writer groups, someone posted this picture. When I saw it, I knew this guy had to be my next hero. In real life, he is model Christopher Flanagan. He has such a unique look, and I can see him as a man with extraordinary gifts – no not those gifts – although he will surely be gifted in that area too.
Although I can see him as a vampire, I don’t want to write about vamps. My brain has been churning all weekend as to what kind of supernatural powers he’ll have or how he came to have them. The thought of writing something so different scares me, but perhaps I need to be a little frightened in order step into new territory. I’ll keep you posted…


If you’re a paranormal reader, what characters have you read in African-American romance that made an impression on you and why?