2004 Romance Author Roundtable

10. AOTW: Have you ever written a book outside the genre?

Susan Crandall: I've written several different genres --- or maybe you could say subgenres --- although I've only been published in contemporary women's fiction. I dabbled in paranormal and historical, but all of my manuscripts have had a very strong love story at the core.

Kimberly Raye: Yes, I've written outside the genre. I've written two horror novels --- yes, I said horror --- under a different name --- Kimberly Rangel. I'm a book hound at heart and I love to read everything, from mystery to horror to romance. I had a few dark, grisly stories in me and I had to get them out. What resulted was The Homecoming and Shadows. The Homecoming was, and will always be, one of my favorite books. The serial killer in that book was both a challenge and a triumph. While his way of thinking was so dark and twisted, at the same time I wanted it to have a scary sort of logic to it so that readers would understand him better. From the response that I received on that book, I feel that I was able to make him real and believable and sympathetic --- tough stuff when the guy pops out eyeballs for his trophies --- and so he will always have a special place in my Favorite Characters Hall of Fame.

Lisa Jackson: My most recent contemporary books, such as Cold Blooded, The Night Before and The Morning After, which will be published February 24, 2004, are far more suspenseful than romantic, though there is always a tiny thread of romance running through the books. Why? Because that's what I like to read, and so, naturally, that's what I like to write.

Nicole Jordan: I read thrillers to escape from my work, but I've never considered writing anything but romance. I just wouldn't have the passion for it. The essence of romance's appeal for me is the idea of two people overcoming great odds to find true love and live happily ever after.

Actually, I credit my mother with instilling in me my love of romance. I was ten years old when she started reading Pride and Prejudice and The Scarlet Pimpernel aloud to me. I soon graduated to Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt. The romance that started my career, however, was Laurie McBain's Tears of Gold. I stayed up all night devouring that book and afterward began dreaming of writing my own stories.

Mary Balogh: No. I have written outside the Regency era, though not far outside it. I have written a few Georgians (18th century), a Victorian, and two Welsh books set in the 1830s (I grew up in Wales). But I have never wanted to write anything but romance.

Lisa Kleypas: I've toyed briefly with the idea, but I came to the conclusion that my heart is with romance, and those are the kind of stories I want to tell.

Jane Feather: My office is littered with piles of non-romance manuscripts that so far have not made it between covers.

Judi McCoy: No, and I don't think I could. I'm a romantic at heart. I won't even go to a movie unless it has a love story with a happy ending.

Stephanie Bond: No. I grew up reading romance novels and after the writing bug bit me, I never wanted to write anything else. But hardly anyone knows this: I once wrote a column in a sewing magazine!

Linda Francis Lee: I've written a couple of nonfiction articles in the past, but my first love is romance.

Linda Lael Miller: Not really. My vampire romances were still romances. My romantic suspenses are still romantic.

Karen Rose: Not at this time, but life twists in strange ways, so who knows?

Cherry Adair: I love romance, so no.

Beverly Jenkins: No, but the future is wide open.

Laura Lee Guhrke: I tried once. It was a sci-fi thriller. I was ten.

Jill Marie Landis: Not yet.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips: No.