Switching Gears, Changing Direction: Moving into a New Genre

First off, I want to thank everyone who gave to my current GoFundMe campaign. It is still going on and if you’d like to give, I’d appreciate that.

Folks noticed, however, that the focus of my writing and genre has changed. I’ve decided to pursue romance writing full-time, and the science-fiction part-time. Sci-Fi is still my first love but the romance work has been much more fulfilling for me. Not only that, the ideas in romances are more abundant. I feel I can play around in the genre a bit more. This isn’t to say that sci-fi is rigid because it isn’t. I just feel there is more to explore in romance.

Romance isn’t just about the love of a person. It is the love of self. Love of community. I feel like I can wrap all of that into my writing and more.

Furthermore, I just didn’t want to stick to sad subjects. I often find that the most award-winning stories by black folks are wrapped in suffering: Slavery, poverty, bondage, abuse, etc. I am not saying that the underlying stories in Romance can’t deal with that (Beverly Jenkins has done a phenom job of tackling those tough issues of our history combined with romance). but I know my strengths. Storytelling in that way (say a historical romance) is not my strong suit. I am most certainly a contemporary romance writer.

I’ve had way more ideas for romance writing than I ever had writing science fiction. I think a lot of it comes from my time running my love/relationship blog. That was almost 6 years of my life. And it had a profound impact on the way that I view relationships. It also fostered some of the best writing I had done in years.

So, I’ve officially joined the RWA as a General Professional Member- which means they have reviewed my offering/sample and concluded that I am here for serious pursuit. I am also a member of the Georgia and CIMRW (Cultural, Interracial and Multicultural) chapters of the RWA. I’ve loved the resources that I have been able to glean from them.

I say all this to say I guess you can call me a “romance novelist” now. (Or let’s just say romance is the primary genre of my works.) I am really excited to see my ideas manifest themselves in ways that I cannot even imagine.

I pray that when I look back on this blog a year from now, I’ll have the pieces in place: agent, a book deal, several finished manuscripts.

And above all else, satisfaction with my work and knowing that it’s brought me and others happiness.