Breaking All The Rules
by Dianna Hardy
www.diannahardy.com
My latest publication, Releasing The Wolf, book one of Eye Of The Storm – a brand new series – is very dear to me, because this series is how I envisioned writing a over year ago, but I wasn’t brave enough.
I’ve never been good with genre-writing. I don’t like it. I hate being defined by boxes.
When I wrote The Witching Pen, I kept to the box, and that series will always hold a special place in my heart, because it is truly the first series I have ever written. But I did keep to the “rules” – certainly in the first book – because romance has rules, and if you want people to come back and read your other stuff, you need to stick to them.
With Eye Of The Storm, I was finally brave enough to say “sod the rules”. I wanted to write something the way I want to write it, and give my characters freedom to move. It isn’t quite erotica, it isn’t quite romance, it is definitely paranormal, but different from what paranormal fantasy readers might be used to. Fantasy readers are likely to think the series is romance or erotica. Romance readers will not find the “romantic connection” they are looking for, and erotica readers will most likely not consider to be erotica. It truly does cross genres, not fitting into any one comfortably.
I braced myself for the bad reviews and low ratings, and went ahead and wrote exactly what I wanted: a series about werewolves that is raw and primal, that instils a sense of chaos in the reader … because when you deal with paranormal life and death stuff, it is chaotic – it ain’t all gonna get nicely wrapped up in one book.
My focus when I write is on my characters and on the plot. All else that comes from it (any romance or erotic elements) are an aside in my mind.
When I write a series, I see it as each book being like an episode of a TV series – it’s fast-paced, big on the action, several things are going on at once, and yes, you’re likely to have the cliffhanger ending too. Maybe it’s my background in Acting and Drama, but this is the feel I want for my books, and damn well knowing not everyone would like it, I went and did it anyway.
It was a scary step for me. The results remain to be seen – some people will love it, and others will hate it. I had to steel myself to do it, and I can’t wait to continue. It’s exhilarating, being able to write whatever I want now that I’ve let the restraints go. There’s no way I could have kept a leash on my werewolves – it’s like caging in a wild beast for real. Fiction is not fiction to me when I write it – it’s very real to me when I’m typing out the scenes, and I couldn’t do the story justice thinking, “I must make sure this all leads to a happy ending,” or “I must make sure there’s enough romantic interaction for the romance readers.” It’s not really a series about romance – it’s a series about lust and control – our animal nature – and how that affects our human nature.
For those of you who enjoy this new book and series to come, welcome to my very, very small group of readers who also do :)
For those of you that don’t, I thank you for taking a chance on it, and hope you’ll give one of my other books a chance – not all of my books are the same as the other ;)
Huge thanks to Amy at The Book Diaries for taking a chance on Releasing The Wolf, without knowing what she was going to be in for! I’m thrilled she enjoyed it, and you can her review here: http://the-book-diaries.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/releasing-wolf-eye-of-storm-1.html
Releasing The Wolf is available in digital and paperback format. All info and buy links can be found here on my website. You can also find the book on Amazon.
Dianna Hardy is a multi-genre author of paranormal things, dark things, poetic things, sexy things, taboo things, and sometimes funny things. She writes about witches, demons and angels. All info about her books can be found on her website DiannaHardy.com
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