Genres

Which genre do you like to write in? Sometimes I begin a work, thinking that I'm writing in a particular genre and find later that the story has 'morphed' into something else. Now, that can't be all bad, but it can't be all good, either. You have to have the discipline to do one of several things: throw out the story, file it for later use when you are in the mood to write in the genre it has 'morphed' into, or continue writing and hope for the best. For instance, when I began writing Eggs of Empire, I believed I was writing a fantasy with macabre overtones. Little by little, the action/adventure aspect of it crept in, along with a small dose of sci-fi and before I knew it, the book was complete and I was left with a book that I felt was almost impossible to categorize. Thanks to the folks at Amazon, the book was included in several categories and just last month, it was the number one, English-Language, Tales of Intrigue or Spy Story, available in the Kindle Store in France and Germany. How's that for serendipity? ********Spoiler Alert!******** Genres come in a variety of 'flavors' and something that may turn one person off may appeal to someone else. In Eggs of Empire, I began writing a book that I thought was to be about undying love and devotion, centered around a modern (and doubtful) form of reincarnation. The premise was that an individual's memories could be stored in their DNA and awakened in a clone. The story was to be about the devotion that the Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora held for each other. It still is, but along the way, the Peter Sunday character became an action hero of sorts. When the action carried the story quite far afield from the original premise, I killed Peter off and put Dorothy(Theodora) and her friend and ostensible sister, Toni(Antonina) in a position to demand that Peter be cloned. Since I had established that memory could be transmitted through the centuries via DNA, it was presumed that Peter would regain not only his Petrus Sabbatia(Justinian) memories, but also his Peter Sunday memories. To determine if such was actually the case, please read another of my books in the Port Morgan Cycle, Questionable Interests. That book followed the guidelines I had set for a not-quite-what-it-seems action/adventure story. With the addition of a vampire of my acquaintance, it became something different than it was intended. I know, I know, I haven't really touched on genres very much in this post, but the point, at least for me, was to get my thoughts out about how I felt regarding genres and the discipline of writing. Thank you, Derek A. Murphy Author of Dolly Games, Laying Ghosts, Eggs of Empire and others.