Writing a New Genre
Guest Post by author Heather Thurmeier
I really love writing contemporary romance, but when I heard there was a call for prepper romances for a new line at Decadent Publishing, I couldn’t resist trying my hand at one. I had a little experience with the prepping lifestyle, as I am a mild prepper. I don’t have a hidden bunker full of supplies, like my heroine Sara does. But I have researched long-term food storage options, go bag supplies, alternate energy sources and a myriad of other survival/preparation related things. So I felt I had a good background of information to go into this new book with.
What I didn’t account for before starting to write was that my hero Dane and my heroine Sara would have a very different mindset than I was used to writing. Most characters in my contemporary stories have pretty minor problems compared to Dane and Sara facing a pandemic and potentially the end of the world as we know it. They wouldn’t make the same decisions that maybe you or I would make in a normal setting. For example, the book opens with Sara stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway. She’s trying to get out of the city and so is everyone else.
Now you or I would probably gripe a bit about the circumstances and complain about having to wait or be late to where we were going. But Sara doesn’t feel she has the option of waiting. She knows (as do other preppers) that the first few hours and days are crucial in your survival success. So she does what any other prepper would do—she drives her all-terrain vehicle off the road and into the woods to find an alternate route to the bunker.
There were other moments where I really had to stop writing and think like a prepper to determine how my character would act and respond in different situations. It’s not our typical human nature to think that everyone is wonderful and good, but generally speaking, I think we do give people the benefit of the doubt until they prove us wrong. But to Sara and Dane, that kind of thinking is not only a luxury they no longer have, but also a vulnerability they can’t afford.
Once again I had to think about what a prepper might do in their situation. Often times the outcome was surprising and not surprising at the same time. No one really wants to think about how scary and different the world might be if something catastrophic were to happen, but once you do start thinking that way (even temporarily to write a book!) you’d be surprised at the decisions your suddenly willing to make if the circumstances are bad enough.
In the end, I’m happy I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone and wrote something so different than what I usually write and from what I usually think and feel. It was a good writing exercise and I also learned that I really enjoyed writing these kinds of adventurous, dangerous books! I may just write another one some day!
So tell me in the comments, have you ever written anything that forced you to think a different way? How did you approach it and how do you think it turned out? Would you do it again or are you sticking to “writing what you know” from now on?
Happy prepping and writing!
Heather Thurmeier
http://heatherthurmeier.com
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/HeatherThurmeierAuthor
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@hthurmeier
Escape to My Arms blurb:
Sara’s been preparing for this moment her whole life—she just never believed it would actually happen. With her bug-out bag and emergency food already in her truck, her only goal is to get to her family’s hidden bunker and wait out the pandemic that’s hit every major cruise ship port in the US. But her plan quickly falls apart. She’s out of gas, her route to the bunker is now a two-lane parking lot with no alternative in sight, and her only weapon is a pocketknife. For an experienced prepper, she’s made every rookie mistake.
Dane believes he’s safe in his cabin, off the beaten path and in the woods with his own source for water, electricity and an endless supply of food to hunt. After finding Sara stranded and alone, he’s suddenly not only providing for and protecting himself, but also the girl who wandered out of the woods and into his life. When looters come looking to take what he has, Sara and Dane’s only option is to make a run for their last hope—the bunker.
Can Sara and Dane find safety in each other’s arms and will they survive long enough to escape to a future together?
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Read an excerpt here! http://heatherthurmeier.com/prepper-romance/
Escape to my Arms ~ Available now at:
Decadent Publishing
Amazon
Nook
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