CHANGING HORSES IN MIDSTREAM: Guest Post by Kaye George

Well, not really. This is about changing genres, not horses, but I like that cliché, though I would never want to change to another horse in the water. 
 
But I did change to a new-to-me genre recently. I’ve done several types of writing, essays, literary short stories, murder mysteries (cozy, traditional, humorous, pre-history), horror (just a bit), and a teensy bit of poetry that you really would not want to read. 
 
The reason I switched from literary to mystery, years ago, was two-fold. My literary stories never got published, and the books I read were mostly mystery. It suddenly made sense to start writing the thing I loved to read. That’s worked out really well with 16 of those published and a contract for 3 more. 
 
Then I noticed I was also reading quite a bit of suspense, psychological/suspense/thriller—that sort of thing. And I got the urge to write one. 
 
I hoped it wouldn’t take me ten years to get one published, like it did mysteries, when I started writing that. And, lo and behold it didn’t! It took only two years. Maybe I finally know how to write a book. And not just a mystery book. 
 
To tell the truth, though, psychological (that’s darn hard to type, by the way, you’re welcome) stuff, the way I wrote it, is a lot like mystery. There IS a mystery to solve, just not a murder. 
 
I layered it together: characters, plot, and setting. I have an online friend named Darla and I think that she seeped into my subconscious. I woke up one day and found that I had named my main character her name, Darla Taylor. I used her whole name, too. Darn! BUT, when I asked her if it would be okay to use it, she was beyond gracious. I set up the rest of the characters around her. Some who would be likely to be carrying out the harassment she was getting. She had to have family and friends and co-workers. I also gave her a darling dog, Moose, a big chocolate lab fashioned after Henry, who lives with my son’s family. 
 
Mystery writers like to say we put our sleuths up a tree and then throw rocks at them. This was even better, a chance to put Darla up the tree and throw boulders at her! Bad things! Punctured tires, a brick through her window, evidence that someone had been in her house—lots of stalking and menace and danger. Very fun for this writer!
 
That’s pretty much it for the setup of plot and characters. Now, where to put it. The most threatening weather I’ve been subjected to have been tornadoes. I’ve never been IN one, but I’ve been very close, within a mile a couple of times. The worst one that was nearby was the Xenia tornado, when we lived in Dayton Ohio. 
 
You’ll have to read the book to see how the tornado comes into play. But I use looming weather throughout, storms that are building as, I hope, the tension builds. 
 
I was successful in finding a publisher for it too! That’s why it’s being published by Rowan Prose Publishing on April 15^th, Yeah, I know, that’s tax day. But maybe this distraction will make that day better.
 
It was so fun to step into this genre, or leap into it, midstream, that I might try another one. After I fulfill my three-book mystery contract for Comfy Cat cozies, set in Michigan. A whole ‘nother ballgame. Or horse.

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Kaye George is an award-winning novelist and short-story writer who has written novels and short stories in several subgenres of mystery. But in April, her 17th book and her first suspense novel, SOMEONE IS
OUT THERE, will be published by Rowan Prose Publishing. Link for the novel: https://books2read.com/u/m27rkG.

You can find out more here: http://kayegeorge.com/