This month's Round Robin question: Whatever genre you write, do you have a different one that you love to read? What do you think attracts readers to certain genres?
For this question, I'm going to take off my writer's hat and put on my reader's one. I LOVE to read Sci-Fi books, with and without erotic content (though I do prefer with!)
As a kid, I read all of the Dragonriders of Pern books by Anne MacCaffrey. There were some hot scenes in there involving dragon sex, that boggled my adolescent mind! I also devoured the Ann Rice vampire books, which only hinted at sex, but posed interesting questions, like, "If you were going to live forever, would you improve as a person, or would you just become more of what you were as a mortal?" In other words, if you were a selfish jerk as a mortal, would there be any inclination to become a more giving person, or would you become a bigger jerk, since you'd have much longer to do it? I love the philosophical issues that get raised in Sci-Fi.
I also am a huge fan of Margaret Atwood, having read her Handmaid's Tale long before it became recently trendy (and a series.) But my favorite books of hers are the trilogy that begins with Oryx and Crake. I'm not a fan of what the Europeans call our Frankenfood, the genetically-altered stuff we consume in the U.S. This series examines what the ultimate result could be, if some genius decided that not only could we improve our food animals with genetic engineering, but we could improve the human race as well...according to his parameters. It's a gripping read.
To me, Sci-Fi takes what we live with now, and extrapolates to what might be if we stay on the path we're on. Since I'm not happy with much of the choices humans have made recently, especially with despoiling the environment and over-populating our planet, I'm always interested in exploring how things might turn out for us, whether for the better, or for the worse.
Unfortunately, that's not usually the kind of story that my mind gifts me with when inspiration strikes. Most of my romances are Contemporary, and based in reality. I do have two books about vampires, and my female spies books are a stretch of my imagination, since of course, I've never been an agent. Recently I had a dream that presented me with an entire story arc that involves extra-terrestrials. I'm letting those ideas percolate for a while, but I'd like to try my hand at writing that one soon. And I'm working on a werewolf story that I'm enjoying writing.
So what do you think? What attracts you to my books? The characters, or the erotic scenes? Would you be interested in reading a Sci-Fi book if I wrote one? What's your favorite genre?
Find out what other authors think by visiting the next one on the list:
http://www.rhobinleecourtright.com