Guest Blogger Denise Lynn!

Welcome to the third week of my month-long celebration of the release of A Taste of Magic! Today, award-winning, ultra-talented author Denise Lynn is with us. She also happens to be one of the funniest ladies I know. 

Her newest release, Dragon’s Lair from Silhouette Nocturne received 4 1/2 stars from Romantic Times BOOKreviews. She’s also the author of seven historical romances through Harlequin Historicals, her most recent an anthology titled Hallowe’en Husbands. Her story in this three author anthology is Wedding at Warhaven.

For her very, very cool blog post today (which I promised–and she delivered!) she wrote about analyzing her craft.

The Bio Part!

Denise Lynn lives in NW Ohio with her real-life hero, their son and a slew of four-legged “kids.” Between the pages of books, she has traveled to lands and times filled with brave heroes, courageous heroines, never-ending love and the occasional otherworldy element. Now she can share with others her dream of telling tales of adventure and romance in lands filled with knights of old or chracters of the imagination.

You can visit Denise on the web at www.denise-lynn.com.

Please join me in welcoming Denise Lynn!

Analyze This

While lunching with a writer friend a few days ago, she asked how I write both medieval and contemporary paranormal romances. My ever so intelligent response was to blink. Swallow some ice tea, then follow it up with another mascara-less blink. Which I suppose was better than spouting off, “on a keyboard”.

Now, mind you, this is someone who knows me. She knows I don’t plot, outline, do character charts or arcs. She’s well aware that I tape a picture of the hero and heroine to the wall behind my monitor, if it’s a medieval I’ll do a calendar of battles/engagements, tape that next to the pics, then sit down and write a story. You know, just tell a story on the page. I’ve never understood all that pre-story busy work. The only time I tried all that other “stuff” I didn’t bother writing the story. Why would I? I’d just told it in the charts, outlines and things. But that’s just me and my non-process method of writing. I’m of the “whatever works” theroy of getting the job done. You take your road, I’ll take mine and we’ll meet up at the end destination.

After lunch I got to thinking, a dangerous hobby I should probably avoid, and couldn’t figure out for the life of me what my friend thought the difference was between the two types of stories. Let’s see, it’s romance so both have a defined hero and heroine. Of course there’s some internal and external conflict involved. Both types require some world building. In my case I get to have swords and castles in both sub genres, and how kewl is that? Then again, if I wrote a medical romance or romantic comedy I’d still figure out a way to involve a sword. Let’s just not analyze my fascination with long, sharp metal objects.

So, the next day, like an idiot, I called her up and asked for clarification. What was I thinking? (sigh) Her answer was to laugh and say that she had just wondered because she couldn’t imagine switching from contemporary to historical. Exactly what kind of answer is that? Swell, now that the gears in my brain are whirling around non-stop, she’s no help.

Don’t know about you, but I actually hate analyzing anything I do that’s creative. There’s nothing that’ll throw the brakes quicker than digging into the grey matter. Normally it proves about as useful as debating the chicken and the egg theory. Big. Endless. Circles.

It’s sort of like me judging contests or giving someone a review. Did I like the story? Yes. Why did I like the story? Uh, it held my attention and it was good? Now, put a number on it. Oh, please, give me a break. If I liked it, it’s a 9.0. If I didn’t, then it’s not a 9.0. Anything in-between? Isn’t that sort of like being a little bit pregnant?

As usual, I digress. Where was I? Oh – analyzing how/why I do what I do, or not. The more I thought about it, the more the differences came down to silly, unimportant things that don’t matter in the least – in the medievals the hero wears chain mail. But wait, isn’t a bullet proof vest sort of the modern equivalent? But the medieval hero lives in a castle. Oh? And what is the modern hero building? Sigh, a castle, but it’s a resort. Well, yeah, but the medieval hero uses a sword. Oh, man, so does the modern one. Um, the medieval hero is a knuckle dragging alpha at times. Uh, and you think the modern one isn’t?

GREAT. I’m telling the same story no matter the time period. SWELL. And for the next three days I don’t write because – I’m not creative at all, there’s no difference between my historical and contemporary, I really must reek and on and on and on. Don’t know about you, but I don’t have enough time to waste beating myself up.

So, two days later I give up, because I don’t have an answer. I read medieval, I read paranormal. Why wouldn’t my mind create stories in both settings? And if both come out a bit dark, isn’t that a good thing? I mean, isn’t that what all the branding stuff is about? OH. JUST. STOP. Don’t make me go there. I don’t want to analyze that whole branding thing any more than I want to figure out why or how I do what I do. I just want to tell a story. One that hopefully entertains someone besides me and the poor beleaguered editor.

What about you? Do you read in different genres? Why? Do you write in different genres? If so, why? And if so, what’s the difference between the two–outside of the obvious? Aren’t you glad I asked?

Take care,

Denise Lynn

For more information about Denise Lynn, her Harlequin Historical and Silhouette Nocturne novels, visit her at her WEBSITE!

The Contest Part!

I am totally in synch with Denise’s thoughts and love her take on it!

Huge thanks to Denise Lynn for taking time out to visit AND for offering some autographed copies of her books to giveaway as prizes! What’s up for grabs this week?