Why Science Fiction Romance?

The other day I was thinking about the old idiom, "Write what you love." As a writer you hear a lot about "The book of your heart." I realized something. When I started out writing, I didn't have a burning need to tell science-fiction stories.

Some of you are probably gasping in shock. That's okay, bear with me.

I started out writing historical shape-shifter stories because I liked certain elements of those stories. I wanted to have characters struggling with a raw and primal self. That's fine. Shape-shifting stories are good for that sort of thing. On top of that, I wanted to constrain them with the social mores that no longer exist in modern times. Great, I'll just throw my shape-shifters back in time to an era that is more reserved.

I ended up with a mess. While I think the paranormal elements worked, I had a hard time working with history the way I wanted. I was tied down by actual history. To tell an effective historical story, you have to make the historical constraints of a particular time the crux of the story. In my opinion, historicals lose their impact when the time is just part of the setting. It should be part of the conflict as well.

My problem was, I wanted the nature of the shape-shifters to be the crux of the story. So I ended up with something that was cross genre that wasn't effectively telling the story I really wanted to tell.

I liked reading science-fiction romance. I was on board with Susan Grant and her Star King from the very beginning. I loved Dara Joy, and the sheer abandon of her fantasy. So when someone prompted me to "write a futuristic," I played with the old concept of high-conflict. I thought about the arsonist falling in love with the firefighter and tried to think of two people so completely opposite one another, the conflict was inherent. That's when Cyani and Soren were born.

So I had my conflict, I wanted someone who needed physical interaction to survive, to pair up with someone who had to avoid it at all costs, or face deadly consequences. I love Christine Feehan's Carpathians because the need and the consequences of love are so stark in those stories.

But if I was going to write a series, I wanted it to be open. I wanted to be able to create whatever crazy conflict I wanted and build around that. I didn't want every story I told to be about someone who needs touch to survive, or someone who has to avoid it.

I discovered Science Fiction Romance is perfect for the stories I want to tell. Where I was bogged down by actual history, with my own worlds and own cultures, my imagination is my limit, and I love thinking about the interconnected reasons a culture would give birth to certain behaviors or cultural norms. I love thinking about how the geological features and biodiversity of the planet I've created would influence everything from the physical stature of the people who inhabit the planet, to their curse words.

Science Fiction Romance gives me what I need to tell the story I want to tell. It gives me scope, depth, and dark, dangerous adventure. I love it.

I didn't intend to write it, but I'm so glad that I do.

It fits.

Jess