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M. Darusha Wehm

Science fiction and mainstream books by award-winning author M. Darusha Wehm

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One Trick Ponies

December 6, 2012

photo credit: tanakawho via photopin

Most people know me as a science fiction writer. That’s not terribly surprising, given that I’ve got four SF novels out, plus a bunch of SF stories in various markets. I’m active in conversations about SF in various online locales (Google+ is a hotbed of great discussion lately) and I’ve attended SF-themed conventions as a participant and speaker.

If the above isn’t a description of a science fiction writer, I don’t know what is.

But.

I’m not just a science fiction writer. Aside from the fact that I’m not just a writer, I write things that don’t even come close to being classified as SF. Not wanting to get into a “this is SF, this isn’t” argument, I definitely write outside my most recognizable genre.

I started writing seriously as a poet and I’ve had classic haiku published recently. I’ve got a mainstream novel cooking away in edits and I’m getting into straight-up mystery writing. That’s just what’s going on now – who knows what I might do in the future.

Plenty of writers don’t stick to a single genre, and there are certainly anecdotal stories of well-known writers being hamstrung by their readers’ (or editors’) desires to make sure they keep doing what they’ve always done, rather than what they want to do. Which is a shame.

Genre shouldn’t be a cage, whether gilded or rusty barbed-wire. As writers we need realize that one genre-based readership isn’t necessarily going to be interested in our work in other areas, but that should not stop us. Working in other genres is a way to create new readers, plus it keeps us excited about our work. A win-win.

So what do you write that’s not what you’re known for?

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Comments

  1. kris kris says

    December 6, 2012 at 6:19 pm

    Limericks.

    There once was a gal named Darusha…

    I can’t tell you the rest; it’s too dirty.

    Reply
  2. Nobilis Reed (@Nobilis) says

    December 7, 2012 at 3:27 am

    I have been writing seriously for only about seven years now, so I really haven’t produced enough material to really feel any constraint in writing spec-fic at this point.

    I have, on occasion, written contemporary stories, but they’ve all been erotica.

    I have, on occasion, written stories that weren’t erotica, but they’ve all been spec-fic.

    I mean, what is genre, anyways, but a marketing tool?

    I write what I write, and let other people worry about what labels to put on it.

    Reply

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