November 4, 2009 | Book Stuff,Draven Atreides,Draven Atreides, Teenage Informant Series,Life in General,Road Trip Wednesday,The 4-1-1 on Me,Writer Moment
Road Trip Wednesday is a “Blog Carnival”, where YA Highway‘s contributors post a weekly writing or reading-related question and answer it in on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.
You’re more than welcome to participate! Just answer the question on your own blog, and leave a link to it in their comments.
Topic #5
How do you choose your genre?
Well, that’s simple. Hello, my name is Celise and I’m a romanceaholic. And no, I don’t plan to get help for it. Let me start off by saying that I am addicted to adult romance books. Let me repeat that. I am Ad.Dic.Ted to adult romance books. For some people it’s sex, drugs, cigarettes, alcohol, chocolate, or a 32 oz Thirstbuster of Mountain Dew at 7am. For me, it’s adult romance books. Specifically, adult series romance books like Harlequin Blaze. 6 new titles, from 6 different authors, come out every month. Every month! It’s an adult series romance bookworm’s dream, I tell you. But I’ve been known to read outside the series, too—you can see a few of my fav authors in the blogroll over there (Alison, Jill, Crystal). And, like any typical addict, I go through withdrawals.
Seriously.
If I’m not reading, or know that I don’t have a stack to read, I’ll get antsy. Bored. Whiny. You don’t want to see me when I’m going through book withdrawal. It’s so. Not. Pretty. But Mr. Maul knows that I can easily be appeased—and bribed—with 5 simple words: “I’ll buy you a book.” I’m also easy when it comes to gift-giving times like Valentine’s Day, birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas: a BN gift card. I started reading adult romance books in high school (don’t remember exactly when). I read them so much, I barely graduated from high school.
Seriously.
I was at the public library nearly every weekend. It got to the point where they greeted me by name.
Seriously.
Those Blaze books are small—a little over 200 pages. I can get through two of those in one day. The bigger books by Alison, Jill and so forth take me an extra few days. All that to say (yes, there really is a point to the rambling), it’s no surprise that my genre of choice is romance. Actually, it’s romance/mystery. Through an online workshop, I learned about taglines, branding, etc, and one of the exercises asked about the running theme in all your novels. For me, it seemed to be romance with an element of mystery. When I had my site re-designed, I decided on the main page tagline: “High school has never been so mysterious.” That’s because there’s a slavery ring mentioned in Secrets and Kisses, body organs being sold on the black market in Dance Jam Productions (it’s not as heavy as it sounds, really) and a teenager recruited by the FBI as an informant in the Draven Atreides series.
My first two books are definitely romance/mystery, but the first 4 books in the series are all mystery. The 5th book will have an element of romance and then the romance will grow in the final installment.
Technorati Tags: Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway, Harlequin Blaze, Secrets and Kisses, Dance Jam Productions, Draven Atreides
Wendy says:
Ooh there’s going to be romance? Awesome
I’m a big romance fan myself, well that’s why I write paranormal romance I spose! I’m like you, I write what I love to read. It’s the best, you can tell the story you’d most like to read.
Michelle says:
Well, damn, girl – you sure are passionate about it! That’s awesome! I’d say I started out that way with mysteries when I was maybe 10 or 11, then it went to thriller, to horror, to fantasy/sci-fi, and now I seem to be on a contemp/literary kick. I’m a bit schizo with genres, I guess.
Amanda Hannah says:
Your books are intriguing! And I have a sudden urge to pick up a Harlequin book. I haven’t read a good old romance in so very long lol.
Celise says:
Amanda – Harlequin’s are good. Before that, during high school, it was Loveswept. Until they closed that line.
Celise says:
Michelle – LOL. Yes. I get teased about reading “those trashy books” and yes, while some of them are rather sizzle-worthy, some of them are really good!
Celise says:
Wendy – Romance for Draven? Yes, eventually. She has to let somebody close sooner or later, y’know?