IWSG: A Risk Worth Taking . . . and a $0.99 SALE!

Our Insecure Writers Support Group question for April is: “Are you a risk-taker when writing? Do you try something radically different in style/POV/etc. or add controversial topics to your work?”

Though basically a corner-seeking wall flower, I’ve been around too long as a writer to have not taken my share of writing risks. Safe sells but novelty catches the eye of new readers who’d have never looked my way otherwise. Here are just a few of the blind leaps of faith I’ve taking in the past thirty years:

• My Lauren Giddings’ SWEET TEMPEST (also my first published book) was a sizzling Regency-set historical when proper lords and ladies still slept behind closed doors.
• The one-of-a-kind two-sided playing card my printer ex-husband created from my design for one of my early Dana Ransom historicals was credited with helping kick off the brand new (in the ’80s!) bookmark craze and won me my first industry award!
• I forced myself out of my comfort zone to approach the head of my publishing company to ask if there was anything in development that I might submit to and ended up writing out of my traditional genre as one of the launch authors for Zebra/Kensington’s “Lucky In Love” contemporary line.
• The three books that started my “Touched by Midnight” series were pitched to my editor within an hour of the word vampire being whispered at a writers conference (too soon it seems, as bookstores didn’t know where to shelf them and I often ended up nudged in with horror).
• My 15-book “By Moonlight” series broke all the rules by continuing with the same hero and heroine beyond more than one book. I don’t know how many times I heard “You can’t do that!” Though regularly practiced in Urban Fantasy, it was unheard of in romance at the time. Now, I’m glad I was deaf in that ear. That series broke many of the rules I’d “grown up” with in publishing including having a say in cover creation and writing my own back cover content, guest blogging on the launch of Simon & Schuster’s interactive publisher site (one of the first, if not the first!), filming a promo for my series while at a conference in New York, and creating one of the early author-made book trailers on a shoestring budget. All cutting edge back then. I’m surprised by how far writers have come since with all the advances in technology.

Hats off to the risk-takers, the rule breakers, the line crossers, the unicorns in the pony corrals who bravely ride the swell of that new wave that now carries so many of our careers! I’m proud to say this dog-paddler was one of them.

Here’s one of those early risks that’s still playing well on the tables . . . MIDNIGHT KISS, the Regency-set Book 1 in my “Touched by Midnight” vampire romance series (in its third incarnation!) is on sale April 1-15 for only $0.99!! Talk about an unexpected life expectancy!

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The Insecure Writer’s Support Group

Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!

Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Post your thoughts on your own blog. Talk about your doubts and the fears you have conquered. Discuss your struggles and triumphs. Offer a word of encouragement for others who are struggling. Visit others in the group and connect with your fellow writer - aim for a dozen new people each time.The awesome co-hosts for the April 7th posting of the IWSG will be PK Hrezo, Pat Garcia, SE White, Lisa Buie Collard, and Diane Burton!

Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!

Twitter hashtag is #IWSG