What Genre Do You Write

I originally posted this entry on my website blog. Since it doesn't have an RSS feed and I want the post to show up on my Amazon blog feed, I'm posting it here. in fact, until Wix decides to let its blog pages have RSS feeds, most of the posts will show up here. I am working on an NFL Draft entry as well as another NFL entry. They should be posted come draft time. 

Here is one of the entries from my website blog: 

When talking to people and other authors, this is probably the most common question I've been asked. My most common answer is, I write whatever comes to mind.

And this is how this conversation goes...at least in my mind.

Really? Come on, dude. Every author has a genre.

True. As I write and publish, the genre I'm most comfortable will become more apparent.

Wait. You're a pantser, aren't you?

Yup. For those of you who don't know, a pantser is one who writes stories as fast as the ideas come. The term is taken from the phrase, flying by the seat of your pants. There is little to no planning when writing a story.

That also means you have to edit more than an author who is an planner. For those of you who don't know, a planner organizes his or her story out using outlines and notes before writing the first word. Most writers fall inside these two extremes.

It's true that I have to edit more and that part of the process is a pain at times, but the benefits outweigh the costs.

How?

When writing stories, I have a good idea how they will turn out. But the fun part is when things go sideways. It happened in Second Chance. I had the story ending a certain way, but things went sideways early in the process and continued to go sideways. The result was a story that turned out different and much better than what I planned.

So what genre is that story? After all, that's the subject of this post.

See? Things went sideways. The genre of Second Chance is paranormal time travel or some form of it. It's related to The Curse, or as my resident grammar police said, it's prequel-ish. Here's a scene teaser. The scene at the end of Chapter 6 of The Curse is the epilogue of Second Chance, but from different points of view. Once Second Chance is published, I would recommend reading The Curse first. Also, Popeye is a main character in both stories, but his story is explained only in The Curse.

So your other books are paranormal time travel, too, huh?

Uh, no. Some of the short stories in The Acts of 1 fit the bill, but not all. A Flash In Time is pure time travel and, believe it or not, it's the prequel to Rickshaw, New Mexico. I wrote The Hunted while angry, but there's a paranormal element. Rickshaw, New Mexico is time travel, but not paranormal, as is its sequel, Timewatch. Justice has ghosts or as some people think, figments of the main character's imagination. That story could be classified as a paranormal detective story or paranormal mystery. I wish Amazon, et al, had a better selection of categories and don't get me started on keywords.

Fess up, dude. Your genre is paranormal time travel and its variations.

Okay. I'll agree with the variations, so there you go. Therefore, until I publish more books, my genre is a variation and combination of paranormal and time travel.

You know, you could have said that the moment I asked the question.

Yeah, but remember. I'm a pantser and things had to go sideways.