Things that Go Hump in the Night

By Marie Treanor

Yes, you guessed it, I?m talking about paranormal romance!

When Selena invited me to blog about this subject ? thank you, Selena! – I counted how long I?ve been writing in the genre.?Five years! My mind moved hastily on to how many humping things, or creatures, I?ve created in that time. And why!

I counted seven different species, and I suppose that?s the ?why? of it too. In this genre there are no limits to your imagination. From the traditional ghosts, vampires and werewolves to less traditional shifters like swans and water men and trees ? to say nothing about the most powerful race in the universe – I?ve pretty much gone where I liked, and it?s been fun. J

I do like putting a slightly different twist on the traditional, though. For example, I don?t see why vampires have to be the bad guys. Or the good guys. They make wonderful anti-heroes, like my Karoly inHunting Karoly. J And finding a rational (ish) explanation for why these creatures exist can be fun. In the?City of the Damned it was nuclear poisoning (or was it??). In?Dragul Rising, I looked for a reason as to why such myths as vampires and werewolves existed in the first place. And in my new werewolf trilogy?Wolf Hunt, I?ve used a completely different scenario of alien invaders and a frightened, oppressive government.

I?ve always loved a good ghost story, but writing them, especially within the romance genre, brings a whole new set of knotty problems: how can you have a Happy Ever After if one of your couple is materially insubstantial and ? er – dead?? I found a ?different? happy ending that I rather liked in?Ghost Unlaid (just released at TWRP!). And I suppose for my provoking but sexy Rab in?Requiem for Rab, it was a different beginning!? I confess I?m particularly fond of the mischievous ghosts in?Ariadne?s Thread ? they were great fun to write, and I did find peace for one of them, but at least it wasn?t my hero or heroine who was dead; this time the main characters were just the haunted.? Interesting to imagine the effect on someone of continual haunting, though ? it gave my hero a dark and brooding edge, made him just a little strange.

Another thing I like doing is infusing the paranormal into everyday objects. Like a chess piece (Queen?s Gambit) or a guitar or a crash test dummy. No, really ? I?have made a hero out of a crash test dummy, or at least out of the spirit which haunts it. It was a challenge, but it helped that when he was haunting it, he looked and felt like a sexy man and not a dummy. Check out?Killing Joe, and you?ll see what I mean.

And then there are fairy tales ? a wonderful source for paranormal romance. Magic and true love together ? who could resist? I?ve been playing around with those too, recently, in conjunction with the very talented Bonnie Dee, and the first of our?Fairytale Fantasies, Cinderella Unmasked, is just out at Samhain. In fact we?ve just completed a second one which, if anything, was even more fun – let me just say that Rumpelstiltskin is?not his name, and this hunk is no gnarled old goblin J

Of course you can have magic in any setting ? people with ESP, like Via in?The Devil and Via, sexy as sin medieval sorcerers like Drago in?Gothic Dragon… There?s no end to who or what you can write about, and I think that?s the secret of the success of paranormal romance. It?s the ultimate escapism.

Anyway, as I started off to say, I counted seven different species going hump in the night in my stories over the last five years: ghosts; cursed or enchanted objects; vampires; werewolves; non-traditional shifters like swans, trees, water etc; witches and sorcerers. And finally, that most mysterious of all creatures ? men. But I think I?ll leave someone else to blog about those?

Marie

Marie Treanor

Haunting Romance

www.MarieTreanor.com

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