Happy Memorial Day everyone!

Today, the book tour kicks into its second half. There is a chance this guest post might be a little controversial, especially for those with a love for my last novel A Jane Austen Daydream (and if you haven’t read it yet, why? It is wonderful). It’s called “Creating an Anti-Romance: The Fun of Betrayals and Sex in Permanent Spring Showers.”

Here is an excerpt from the beginning:

For over a year I was the Jane Austen guy.

Before Permanent Spring Showers, I wrote the novel A Jane Austen Daydream, a fun re-imagining of her life; turning it, in a way, into one of her own tales. The reaction to the novel was really great and it spread quickly through the different Austen circles. It was even reviewed by the Jane Austen Centre in Bath!

Yet, whenever I was interviewed about the book (as well as in the many reviews) my gender would always come up. I was definitely in a world not used to a guy intruding upon. I was like the dude who was invited by mistake to the bridal shower. Chick lit (which is a term I never liked), romance, historical romance, etc., my book appeared on each of the sites around the women’s fiction genres. I’m not complaining about the attention! Not at all! Like I said the reaction to the book was always awesome. It is just that I became in many eyes a romance writer, and that was it.

I’ve never been a fan of the idea of genres. I think when an author latches on to a genre it can limit them. And when I set out to write A Jane Austen Daydream, my goal was not to write a romance novel. I had a great idea and twist (I’m all about surprises in my stories), and that book had a doozy. That is why I wrote it, and in the end it worked.

But then what?