A Touch of Magic – #Paranormal #Giveaway #HauntedOctober

Although my early novels were contemporary and at least superficially realistic, I’ve been drawn to paranormal fiction for a long time. When I was just a kid, my dad would thrill my siblings and me with his original tales of magic and monsters. I spent high school (mentally and emotionally) living in supernaturally-infused Middle Earth. The first novel I tried to write, in my teens, featured a romance between a woman living in a New England seacoast town and the ghost of a ship’s captain from more than a century before. (Unfortunately I never got past the third chapter.)

I started seriously writing paranormal romance back in 2006. I will be showcasing many of my books over the next month as part of my Haunted October event. Naturally, I've also read quite a few paranormal books by my literary colleagues.

I've found that there's a big difference between my work and that of most of my paranormal colleagues. My paranormal stories are very firmly grounded in the real world. I don't generally invent underground societies or rival magical races. I haven't, so far, created any fantasy kingdoms populated by beings who with super powers. Almost all my characters are normal humans who just happen to be afflicted with paranormal capabilities.

Serpent's Kiss is set in rural Guatemala. The heroine is a physician running basic clinic in a remote, poverty-stricken village more or less ignored by the central government. The hero is a handsome peasant who discovers that he is the shape-shifting reincarnation of a Mayan god. Scenes of magic and wonder alternate with the routine of Elena's work and the trials of the villagers.

At the Margins of Madness has an urban setting, complete with tenements and homeless shelters. Kyle is a young man driven nearly insane by his true visions of the future. His lover Rob is a gruff, honest city cop, closeted and lonely, with psychic abilities he's not even aware of. The action of the story plays out in neighborhood diners, highway rest areas and the locked ward of the state psychiatric hospital―not in the jeweled castles of dark emperors or the barren plains of mythical kingdoms.

Fangs, Fur and the Single Girl is probably my story that’s closest to the paranormal romance tradition, featuring as it does the rivalry between vampire and werewolf tribes. Still, the powers of each race are quite circumscribed and they exercise them within the constraints of everyday society.

Sometimes I ask myself whether my tendency to firmly root my paranormals in mundane reality is a weakness. Is this a sign that I lack the imagination to create a parallel universe? I don't think so. The problem with magical worlds is that, too frequently, there are no laws. The powers wielded by the characters are so great that they can twist the plot in all sorts of implausible directions. Mortal wounds can heal. The dead can be resurrected. Space and time melt away. It's all too easy.

I'd rather have a fairly simple premise involving a limited set of powers. Then I enjoy seeing how these powers interact with the forces of nature and man. I have the same preferences in the science fiction that I read. One of my favorite scifi authors is Kate Wilhem. She begins with a single, simple idea―an immortality serum, or an encounter with a cloud of space dust that alters the properties of water―and then goes on to explore the societal and individual implications.

I do worry sometimes that readers won't share my preferences. I can see the appeal of an escapist romance that includes Big Magic―apocalyptic struggles between good and evil, cliff-hanging climaxes resolved by the invocation of irresistible power. These stories are like big budget movies, full of amazing special effects. My books are more like indie films, where less is more.

Maybe my stories won't appeal to the average paranormal romance reader (if such a person exists). I guess I'm seeking readers who are looking for something different―a realistic story with believable, sympathetic characters―and just a touch of magic.

This post is part of my Haunted October event. Every comment is an entry to my grand prize giveaway of a $25 gift certificate.