With the recent release of RHYTHM AND BLUEGRASS and the
upcoming release of my third werewolf book, HOW TO RUN WITH A NAKED WEREWOLF,
loyal and lovely readers often ask whether they should crossover between my genres. My contemporary readers aren’t sure how
bloody and scary I get in my paranormal titles.
And my paranormal readers aren’t sure whether my work will be the same
without pantsless werewolves running around. So, allow me to compare and contrast the two areas of my
work. Here’s what is the same about my contemporary and paranormal
work: Snarkiness – My writing voice is very much the same
sarcasm-laden, first-person quirkiness in both genres. I guarantee laughter, from belly laughs to
abrupt snickers. In either category, I
will make public transportation very awkward for you. (People tend to move away from you if you
laugh too loud for no apparent reason.) Wackiness – I put my
poor heroines through their paces no matter what I’m writing. Librarians get mistaken for deer, shot by
drunk hunters and turned into vampires. Human
gals find out that their expected job promotions are not forthcoming in front
large groups of influential people – while wearing satellite-sized picture hats. Holiday dinners are ruined by exploding side
dishes. The situations will be awkward
and completely unexpected, because many of them are inspired by incidents from
my life. (Except for the deer
thing. I have never been shot. Not even by mistake.)
Sexiness – The
“hotness” rating is pretty equal between the two areas. I don’t see any reason why humans should have
less enthusiastic or creative love scenes than vampires or shifters. I will say that of all my books, AND ONE LAST
THING… and HOW TO FLIRT WITH A NAKED WEREWOLF are considered my sexiest
works. Then again, HOW TO RUN WITH A
NAKED WEREWOLF
hasn’t been released yet, and trust me when I say that Anna and
Caleb put the “naked” in Naked Werewolf.
Here’s what’s different. Monsters – Clearly, I don’t include vampires and witches in
my contemporary novels. My brand of
supernatural creature is a bit weird compared to the average paranormal
romance. Some of my vampires live in
trailers and occasionally deal in counterfeit Snuggies. My werewolves are more
interested in carbo-loading than human carnage.
Imagine the weirdest, but still basically harmless, guy you know and
give him magical powers.
Cursing – For some reason, my werewolves use a lot more cuss
words than my humans, who are more demure. I blame their isolation from polite
society. It gets rough in Grundy,
Alaska. Or maybe it’s the nudity thing. Once you’ve seen most of your adult relatives
naked, dropping the f-bomb doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Dilemmas involving death – I don’t kill off characters in my
contemporaries. (At least, not
yet.) For some reason, I end up bumping
off my adorable old man characters in my paranormals, to the point where my
writing partner asked if I have grandpa issues.
To be honest, I torture myself over it and usually end up crying for
several days after writing the death scenes. But really, for books about supposedly
bloodthirsty creatures, my books include very little violence. I can’t handle a lot of blood and gore
myself, so I’m writing for people who have a very low “ew” threshold.
For more information about my books, go to www.mollyharper.com. RHYTHM AND BLUEGRASS is available now in
ebook and audio. HOW TO RUN WITH A NAKED
WEREWOLF will be available in print, ebook and audio on December 31, 2013 from
all major book retailers.
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