I went through stages as a young girl. I loved fantasy. Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, C.S. Lewis were a few of my favorites. I’m not sure how long I stayed in that phase, but I remember why I left it behind. I had just finished reading a fantasy novel–decent story line, descent characters, not a bad book overall. The next book I picked up was by Jordan Roberts. It seemed as if I were reading the same fantasy over again. Same plot, different character names, thicker book. Something about reading the same story again turned me off. Not saying it was a bad novel, not at all. Fantasy just all of a sudden became redundant to me.
So I set down the fantasy and moved on to thriller–Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker. Somewhere along the line I got my pants scared off and haven’t been able to pick up another thriller since.
I’ve been on a Amy Tan, Anne Rice, Francine Rivers, Orson Scott Card, Tim LaHaye, and Jerry Jenkins binge and many more. I tend to become absorbed in an author’s writing and just read through whole series.
Then there’s romance. When I was a teen I felt I had to sneak my dirt little romance novels and read them in the bedroom. I loved them. Most of all, Native American romances fascinated me. There’s just something thrilling about the savage hero chasing the innocent maiden learning to toughen up and get by without all the pampering. But in time, all the stories just seemed to run together. Like fantasy novels, I found myself reading the same storyline over and over again–innocent heroine meets seasoned hero who’s trying to win her over while she played coy. Got rather tiresome, and I gave up romance for a LONG while, sticking to general fiction. So much variety there.
One day, while in Walden Books, the cashier asked me if I’d tried any books by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Not sure exactly what prompted it; maybe I had an Anne Rice book in my hand or something. The cover looked interesting enough; so I grabbed Fantasy Lover and checked out. Boy was that a different type of romance–new and original for me. I read through her entire Dark Hunter Series. At a later date the cashier mentioned Nalini Singh, and I had another series to surf. The list of these different paranormal romances just went on and on–Christine Feehan, Gena Showalter, Lynsay Sands, etc. So much fun! So many twists! I can’t imagine getting tired of them any time soon.
So when I decided I wanted to try my hand at writing, I gravitated toward a genre which fascinated me most at the time–Paranormal Romance.
That’s my story in a nutshell.
Reena Jacobs