The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group discussion

Authors and others: I've set up this topic so you can discuss whatever comes to mind, interact with other authors or readers, or just post interesting things about writing you might want to share with others. THERE WILL BE ABSOLUTELY NO PROMOTION IN HERE!!

Hey all,

I thought the members of this group would be interested in this piece on characterisation in crime writing:

http://autharium.wordpress.com/2014/0...

How does everyone go about creating their characters? Would love to hear from some of you.

Thanks,

Dean.

MURDER BEYOND THE MILKY WAY is the product of several divergent ideas that merged into one. The first one was simple. I’m a mystery writer and I wanted to write a mystery. But what kind of mystery. I thought a murder mystery would be nice… a simple, straight forward someone lying in a pool of blood kind of mystery.

Okay step one: if’ I was going to write a murder mystery, I needed a victim and not just any victim. I had to kill someone whom the people in the story would care enough about to do something about it and thereby bring the reader along on their quest for answers.

To me, in its basic form, a murder mystery is a “QUEST” story, like the Arthurian quest for the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail in a murder mystery is to not only find the killer but also to understand why the killer took that particular life in the first place. So, I needed a knight, a hero… someone who cared enough about the situation of the murder to put out the effort to find the answer.

You see, if no one cared about the murdered man or what the murdered man stood for, or why he was killed then no one would be motivated enough to find the answers to the unsolved questions. It’s not just the murderer who needs a motive. The protagonist also needs a motive to motivate him to solve the crime.

In the classic MALTESE FALCON, Sam Spade doesn’t care for his partner who is killed in the beginning of the book. But Archer was his partner and whether he liked him or not, Spade was honor bound to do something about it. Spade was a private detective. It would be bad for business if he let the killer get away with the crime. Spade cared about how he would be perceived by other people. He was motivated by self-interest rather than a sense of justice.

Step two: I am a great fan of General Hospital. I got hooked on it back in the early 1990s when I was in the hospital with a ruptured pancreas. (Another story for another time.) During the months I spent flat on my back, the only thing I could do was watch TV. This was in the days before cable and the hospital only had four stations: the hospital station and the ABC, CBS and NBC affiliates. The TV was mounted on the wall and set to the ABC channel and I was too doped up to change it so I became addicted to the ABC soaps. The Sonny/Jason dynamic has always intrigued me. So when it came time to construct MURDER, I wondered what Jason would have done if Sonny had been killed? (For you non GH fans, Sonny is a Godfather-like character and Jason is his chief enforcer.)

That gave me my first plot point: Steve Summerset is killed and Matt Quincey is angry enough to do something about it. (The why is a spoiler, I don’t want to reveal here.)

As Sherlock Holmes said, “Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot…” But where were their feet going to tread? Which brings me to the third idea that was floating around in my head: Communism. Marx got it wrong… well, sort of. He took a Biblical idea and missed the point in creating an economic system centered on the worker.

In the Bible in Acts 2:44-46 it is written And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart… and then in Acts 4:34-35 it is written: Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need…

In these two examples, the first experiment in Communism was not centered on the worker, but on the workers’ devotion to God. In the next chapter, Ananias and Sapphira bring a portion of the what they sold their property for and GOD killed them for claiming that they had brought it all. Their eyes were obviously not on the prize. Marx took religion out of the equation and made the state God. Big mistake. The state is merely a human construct that people may or may not develop devotion to. A state can be over thrown, God cannot.

Therefore, if a community is going to function communistically, the individuals in that community must have their eyes set on something higher than the concept of a “State” or they have to be so personally invested in whatever they have they eyes set on that to over throw it is to over throw themselves.

Since no place like that can exist on the Earth, I created Magnum-4, a planet in an isolated portion of space. The planet is made up of the most sought after commodity in the known universe, red ore. The people on Magnum-4 are there for one reason and one reason only: they intend to mine the planet to extinction and leave with more wealth than a human could hope to spend in several lifetimes (which is good since Youth Treatments have extended the normal human span out to close to a millennia if anyone had the money to pay for it.) The inhabitants of Magnum-4 have the money and more. Greed is their god and self-interest is the motivator. To go against the system is in every respect to go against themselves. Very few people will go out of the way to shoot themselves in the foot. It hurts and most people will do anything to avoid pain.

So… by necessity, in order to have fun with my idea of communism, I had to take my players into the realm of space opera. I consider MURDER more a space opera than a science fiction piece. A reader may disagree. One of my beta-readers has suggested that my Quincey character owes more to Kurosawa than to General Hospital since with Steve’s death, Quincey acts very much like the Ronin in YOJIMBO. I won’t deny it. I’ve seen Kurosawa’s films dozens of times and could easily have absorbed some of his ideas. In MURDER, Quincey is so angry that the Vigilance Committee, itself a star chamber with the power of life and death over everyone on Magnum-4, literally does not want to get in his way. They know that when he catches the killer, his justice will be as swift as theirs. It suits their purpose to give him carte blanche and back off. (Why is another spoiler.)

Okay. So I have a murder taking place on the edge of explored space. Who or what controls “explored” space? And here, I owe a lot to William Harrison’s ROLLERBALL. Corporations run things in the future, just as they do now, only there is no need to hide behind pseudo-governments. The corporations have divided the arm of the galaxy between themselves. They missed Magnum-4 because it was literally off their radar and by the time they realized it was there, the miners were already in place and producing. Think of the Kimberly diamond mines and you’ll pretty much have my prototype for the operation out in space and the effect that they would have should they flood the market with their product.

I have the crime. I have the place. Now all I needed to do was populate my fictional world with a planet load of fictional characters. (Who said that writing isn’t fun.) I had two problems, here, I had to overcome. The first, there were going to be no persons of color in the story. There didn’t need to be since by this time in man’s future, the human race had become homogenized. Periodically, you have recessive genes re-emerging giving people like Alyson Lehman her striking black hair and almond shaped eyes. The second problem dealt with aliens, or the lack thereof.

Way back in college, I read a book by a mathematician called THE BLIND WATCHMAKER. In it he postulated that it would take an infinite universe with an infinite number galaxies with an infinite number of planets just to reduce the probability of life occurring on one of them to zero. In other words, there are no aliens. We are alone. Using his theory, I can send anyone anywhere and not worry about stepping one someone’s squiggly toes.

I also chose to avoid the metric system measurements. By definition a meter is one-ten-millionth the distance from the equator to the pole measured on a meridian on Earth. To me that meant that unless the non-earth planet were the exact same size as Earth itself, a meter on one planet would be different than a meter on another planet. However, an inch on Earth is an inch on Mars and so on.

Once I had the who and the where, I had to create a timeline into which I had to weave the what, when and why of the story.

While Lydia is at a meeting with the planet’s mine owners, Steve is murdered. A blade-like shard of sharp silicon rock is shoved into his chest. I know by whom and why they did it. I know it, but Quincey doesn’t; neither does Lydia, Steve’s lover and member of the all-powerful Directorate that controls their particular parsec of space; nor Jane, Steve’s daughter; nor Harry Salem, the poor son-of-a-bitch who has been sent to the farthest reaches known to man to convince Lydia to return to Earth Prime and resume her duties as part of the Directorate. This allowed me to make Harry the unwilling Watson to Quincey’s Holmes.

Harry is literally dragged kicking and screaming into a mystery abut which he could care less. However, over the course of the novel he comes to care about it and the people who are affected by it. Add to this core of central characters a list of subsidiary ones who populate, live on and work on Magnum-4 and who frequently get in each other’s way. And there you have it, how I came up with my novel.

Guest posting today on Goodreads author Dianne Harman's blog. We're chatting about incorporating humor into one's writing. I offered four tips, but would love to hear what's worked for you.

http://dianneharman.com/blog

I started writing Black Boat Dancing in 2012. I settled on two main hinges, real events - 1) a $40m cyber theft 2) the act of cyber-espionage revealed when the Flame malware was exposed.

As 2013 progressed, real life facts overtook my fiction; civil war in Syria, ongoing attacks against Russia from jihadist and other groups in the southern Caucasus regions of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Ossetia, the Boston Marathon bombing linked to Dagestan, fears of attacks at the Sochi Winter Olympics, and then the overthrow of the government in Ukraine and the ensuing conflict in the largely Russian speaking regions of Ukraine.

The underlying Geopolitical framework of Black Boat Dancing (the Great Game between USA, Russia and China) seemed, initially, to be a fanciful conspiracy theory. As 2013 turned into 2014, my fiction seemed tame compared to the daily news headlines. I thought I was veering on the side of caution by not predicting how things would turn out. Nonetheless, since I was more or less finished writing in March 2014, I was compelled to rewrite parts of the novel to embrace the events in Crimea which were unfolding as the manuscript was being edited.

My task, as I saw it, was to write a diverting entertainment. All the same, I can't help but wonder how much stranger than fiction fact can be.

Here are some of the references I used:
1) Are Syria and Pakistan Pieces of the Puzzle for Assembling a Mega Gas Pipeline to China? (April 2013)
http://www.globalresearch.ca/are-syri...

2) Is the US going to war with Syria over a pipeline? (April 2013) http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-09...


3)Wired magazine - Flame Malware Coders left clues on infected machines (Sept 2012) http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2...

I don't know about anyone else, but I find this absolutely fascinating. Truth really is stranger than fiction. Scarier sometimes too.

I have drawn a lot of inspiration from real life events in Mexico. Not your typical fodder for crime and mystery novels, if you read the headlines. Instead there are rival drug cartels, kidnappings, government corruption, theft from the country's oil pipelines, etc. One of the most compelling things I have written was inspired by rallies held to bring awareness of the plight of those missing in the drug war. People would bring shoes of missing persons to turn city streets into cemeteries, with shoes as the headstones. Pictures miles of shoes filling streets, each pair accompanied with a small sign reading "Where are they?" Another story was inspired by the real life murder of a priest who was my pastor when we lived in Mexico City. He'd criticized a bar for serving drinks to minors and was found tortured to death a few days later. His killer was never brought to justice.

Carmen
One of the most poignant exhibitions I have seen was a presentation of the shoes of victims of murder here in the north of Ireland. In these cases, the victims were uninvolved civilians who had been murdered by State Security/Loyalist groups.
The rows of shoes are laid out with a short hand-written note added by a family member, just telling some memories of their loved one - a truly moving experience.

Some years back I visited the Holocaust museum in DC. My daughter was only 10 so my husband took her elsewhere while I toured the museum alone. I was ready for anything, and did okay up until I walked into an area that was just shoes. I totally lost it at that point.

I use Steven King's "what if" to begin a novel. In the three Dave Haggard thrillers I asked myself "what if..." and got a book about a priest who was a homicidal maniac, a hit man who questioned whether he was working for the wrong side, and two terrorists who plan to blow up Nationals Park but not for the same reasons. The "what if..." gives me a frame on which to hang the story.

Hi all,

I just wanted to let you know about the following site:

http://victorian-crime.tumblr.com/

Victorian Crime is a new site dedicated to... well, Victorian Crime. On this site I will publish articles relating to crime in the Victorian era. I will also post links to books on this subject (both fiction or non fiction) So if you've written a novel about crime in the 19th century, let me know and I will post a blurb and a link to your book on my site. Also, if you have written a blog or want to contribute an article on the topic, let me know and I will post the first few paragraphs on the website followed by a link for the rest. Just contact me on my tumblr site (top left corner) and I will send you more details. Or you can also send me a message via Goodreads (if you don't want to post your email address on this forum). If you write crime novels set in the 19th century, then this is a great opportunity to market your book. Likewise, if you like to read this type of books, then make sure you visit the site regularly and check for updates.

Hi all,
I know it's a bit gauche to beat my own drum, but writers, newbies or old hands, might enjoy my blog posts about the writing business--they're unconventional and irreverent, but many have found them useful. They're filed in the "Writing" folder. Read and comment.
r/Steve

Hi everyone,

I love reading mysteries. I'm also a mystery writer and would like to pass along this post to other writers who might find it useful.

Please visit author Joyce T. Strand's blog and check out my guest post, "What Makes a Mystery?" Here's the link:

http://strandssimplytips.blogspot.ca/...

NYT-bestselling thriller authors Taylor Stevens and Allison Brennan join me in discussing short story/novella writing at the International Thriller Writers blog, The Thrill Begins. My post, "The Short Story Solution" may be of interest to thriller and short story readers and authors: http://thethrillbegins.blogspot.com/

Dean wrote: "Hey all,

I thought the members of this group would be interested in this piece on characterisation in crime writing:

http://autharium.wordpress.com/2014/0...

How does everyone go about creating ..."

Hi Dean,

The characters I create are similar to Frankenstein, I piece them together with traits from real people.

Nancy wrote: "Some years back I visited the Holocaust museum in DC. My daughter was only 10 so my husband took her elsewhere while I toured the museum alone. I was ready for anything, and did okay up until I wal..."

Hi Nancy,

Several years back I visited the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. The thing that has stayed with me over the years was the part of the tour when you had to chose to go through two doors. The first door was for people who were prejudice and the second for people who weren't. The second door was locked to all who tried to go through it. It symbolizes everyone is prejudice.

Yesterday I posted the article "Rogue Waves in Calm Seas" on my blog. I think other writers might be interested. I talk about three rules writers should follow and readers should hold them to. I'm curious whether anyone agrees. One of my interests is scientific ethics, but I guess this would be classified as author ethics?
r/Steve
http://stevenmmoore.com
(Does this classify as beating my own drum? I hope not!)

Writer's block a problem? A simple type of writer's block occurs when just the right word eludes you. Don't stop and fret. Don't even slow down. Switch to RED, type exactly 5 capital X's and plow ahead. When the word occurs to you, and it will, go to FIND on your computer, insert exactly 5 RED X's and voila, problem solved and no lost time.
Richard L. Wren

Writer's block? One type of writer's block occurs when just the right word eludes you and you come to a screeching halt. Solution: Change to RED, type in 5 capital XXXXX's and plow forward. Later you can come back to that site when the right word occurs to you, and it will, easily by using FIND and the 5 RED XXXXX's.

So lately I've been thinking about keeping a pad and paper near my bed in case I dream about a good idea for a story. Normally I'd never consider it but last week I had two really odd dreams that I found would make for interesting topics for stories. One of my friends even told me about one of her dreams which sounds good enough to be a story. Thankfully I managed to remember my two dreams(which is rare) two days after having them and ran to my computer and wrote them down. During interviews I usually always get asked where do I get my inspiration to write from, well I get it from pretty much anything and everything in this case it's dreams. I've also found that during the day if I'm watching television and a good concept for a story comes across and I may be able to make it into a story or put my own creative spin to it then I go over to my computer and write it down by making a note of it. Also I even sometimes write on my notepad app on my phone if an idea strikes. Basically what I'm getting at is simple, I need to keep utilizing the tools around me to make notes of ideas and I suggest others to do the same if they aren't already because you truly never know when inspiration will strike!

FYI: This week on my blog (Thurs), I'll discuss the Goldilocks Principle. Readers can check to see if they agree with the ideas there; writers can analyze if they follow the principle. Enjoy.

Hi all! I just joined this group and the author section looks both interesting and helpful. Here's a question: How do you create villains? My husband Joe and I co-write and always find this challenging. If the bad guy is truly evil from the first, and the reader knows it, then where is the mystery? But if the villain is only revealed at the end, then the writer has little chance to make him or her despicable. Finally, we would love to know your favorite villains in literature.

Hello all :)
I hope I am doing this right - if not, I apologize :)

I am an author and my first novel (wrote 8 selfhelpbooks first, but that's a different chat) has become a bestseller in Denmark - this is not to promote it but to ask for your help - is now being published in English. I have chosen to selfpublish, both in Danish and English, mainly because I am impatient *insert lol smiley here*
I am a little unsure what my genre is. It could be nordic noir, crime, thriller, serial killer - but how do I figure out what genre it is? I had a hard time deciding the genre in Danish, but have settled for crime, even though the police does not play a big part in my novel. In English I do think that "thriller" is more accurate, but I would like some input on it :)

This is what the book is about:
Marie is a serial killer. We meet her in the beginning of the book, right after she has finished off her latest victim - an abusive guy, which seems to be her favorite type of victim. She is presented as a woman who has seen to much abuse and decided to retribute - spend her life to hunting down and killing abusive men.
It is a lonely life and she knows that and she is ok with that.
But then she meets Lotte - an ordinary woman - and they become sort of friends. Lotte knows nothing about Maries dedication. Lotte finds herself a new boyfriend, who of course turns out to be abusive and Marie decides to "help her" - without Lotte knowing it - but Lottes finds out.
A side story is a failed policeman, close to retirement who strikes gold when he stumbles upon evidence that Marie is a serial killer. He decides to use it against her and blackmail her.

This is the blurp - how would you caracterize the genre? Thank you for any and all feedback :)
I am in the process of finding book bloggers for reviews and it would be nice to have the genre down first :)

Maybe it's the same as in Danish - and maybe not?!

Best regards
Mette

Mette - It sounds as though it would fall into the 'Suspense' category. Good luck with it.

William wrote: "Mette - It sounds as though it would fall into the 'Suspense' category. Good luck with it." Great - thanks - will look that up =D

Mette wrote: "Hello all :)
I hope I am doing this right - if not, I apologize :)

I am an author and my first novel (wrote 8 selfhelpbooks first, but that's a different chat) has become a bestseller in Denmark -..."

I would say either "Suspense" or "Thriller', some say that they're the same thing.

Yeah I looked it up and it looked as if it was somewhat the same. I feel better with the word thriller, so I picked that and the keywords serialmurder, friends, abuse, poison, murder, psychological thriller.
Thanks for helping me out on this one =D

Mette wrote: "Hello all :)
I hope I am doing this right - if not, I apologize :)

I am an author and my first novel (wrote 8 selfhelpbooks first, but that's a different chat) has become a bestseller in Denmark -..."

Can be Danish noir with Female Serial Killer sub-genre category or just Danish -:)

For the most part I've been promoting my crime thriller to the setting and origin to which it takes place, Shanghai. One thing I haven't done that I'd like to is promote it as one of its genres..crime. I know it seems silly that I haven't really promoted it as such but seeing as its a crime thriller and psychological thriller and not a hardboiled crime I sort of took a step back in the focus of it toward crime fans.

Hi, everyone. My debut novel is a humorous mystery set in Costa Rica - Rum Luck. I don't know if any readers or emerging authors have any questions about writing humor or writing in general, but I'd be glad to provide the benefit of my (limited) wisdom.

I've also given workshops on managing revisions and integrating feedback from a wide range of sources (beta-readers, agents, etc.) Thanks, and look forward to hearing from you.

Hi!

I absolutely love to write and I find that I usually drift toward the mystery/thriller genre. It's always exciting to come up with a plot that leaves the reader both guessing and intrigued! The more plot twists and cliffhangers, the better.

Thanks for listening! :)

https://writerspayitforward.com/artic...Howard Kaplan

A challenge for new writers is that in this social media age, too much writing advice is available. Twitter in particular teems with authors on a spectrum of experience tweeting advice, it seems to me, meant mostly to draw attention to their books. Such guidance is usually trite, offers little real assistance to writers and ironically sells few books. New writers are trying to sell their own works not collect tweeted novels. Many of these new writers have thousands to tens of thousands of fellow-in-the-trenches writer followers who do not buy their books. This is not the way to mass a true fan base.

Simplify. I’d own one or two good books on the craft of writing, not much more. I recommend Scott Meredith’s Writing to Sell. Meredith was the premier literary agent of the 1950’s-1970’s. His clients included Norman Mailer, Arthur C. Clarke and Frank Herbert. He found a commonality in the first novel submissions he could not successfully market, which was most of them, in plot structure deficiencies. He wrote a book and explained simply and straightforwardly how to make a plot work. Stephen King’s On Writing is a terrific guide. The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler is a classic. After my first novel failed to gain an agent, I read Scott Meredith’s book, wrote The Damascus Cover with those insights in mind and became a client of his agency... (see link for continuation)Howard Kaplan

Hello! We are authors of the DI Jack Dylan series of 9 books, and TV police consultants for BAFTA winning BBC 1 Happy Valley & Scott & Bailey. On the publication of our latest book, Poetic Justice we wrote a few guest blogs for the blog tour and we thought a couple may be of interest to crime writers and readers alike. Her they are:- Identification https://elementaryvwatson.wordpress.c... And Fingerprint Technology - https://annebonnybookreviews.com/2019... Hope they are useful!

Does anyone know of any good places, not Goodreads that an author could promote their crime thriller novel? I'm not against Facebook groups but I feel like there could be better places out there.

Justin wrote: "Does anyone know of any good places, not Goodreads that an author could promote their crime thriller novel? I'm not against Facebook groups but I feel like there could be better places out there."

There is a GR group #MysteryThrillerWeek
Which has author promotions.

Thomas wrote: "Justin wrote: "Does anyone know of any good places, not Goodreads that an author could promote their crime thriller novel? I'm not against Facebook groups but I feel like there could be better plac..."

Hmm I'll look into this, thank you!

I'd like to let the authors in this group know that, if you are a struggling or aspiring mystery writer and live in Connecticut, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or West Virginia, you may be eligible to apply for scholarship funds to help pay for research expenses, or fees to attend writers' conferences or workshops, as needed to help you with your mystery works in progress. The application deadline for the Leon B. Burstein/MWA-NY Scholarship for Mystery Writing is October 9. Click here to go to the page on the Mystery Writers of America, NY Chapter, website to read up on the eligibility requirements and application process.

News was released earlier this week that All Due Respect (that wonderful publisher of noir and crime fiction) is re-starting its magazine.

They're looking for short stories and, better still, will be paying for them.

Chosen stories will also be included in an anthology.

I've been lucky enough to be associated with them for a while now and they're a brilliant outfit.

More information can be found here - https://allduerespectbooks.com/blog/g...

It's a wonderful opportunity for old-timers and newcomers alike.

Cheers,

Nigel

Thanks for this post, Nigel!

Hello fellow authors...

My question is this: has anyone discovered any sort of useful promotional angle on GR?

In all honesty, I use GR more as a reader than a writer - partly because I am an avid consumer of books, but possibly also because I get very embarrassed when it comes to self promotion.

However, my new book out next month is the best thing I've done and I really want to give it its best chance.

I'm working the early chapters of the 2nd book in a crime fiction trilogy. (Mob Girls: Genesis, Mob Girls: Phoenix, Mob Girls: Apocalypse).

I would appreciate any advice or comments you might offer. My question is this. How much recap / review of my 1st book should fill the pages of book 2? Should I expect, and or insist, that my reader has read book 1? I think I know that book 2 should be an independent story that, although moving the narrative ahead, should stand on its own.

Do I need to reintroduce all of my many characters? Do I reintroduce all of my locales? I expect that by the end of chapter 2, my reader should know the basics of what happened book 1, BUT beyond that what would you advise regarding the reintroduction of people, places, etc.

Thanks for any and all help you might provide.

Steve Pustay

Steve,

I had the same questions for my first two-book series.

I suggest fluidity of story and not a rehash of any part of the first book. Otherwise, readers might get bored and stop reading. You might want to touch on the important topics and move on.

Characters are different. If you have ever read novels by Dean Koontz, he does an excellent job at reintroducing the lead character for benefit of readers. Physical descriptions need not apply if you prefer to let the readers form an image in their minds as to what the character looks like.

Treat setting as you would in any novel.

Hope this helps.

Steve Rush

I read this and wanted to share it.

https://www.writersdigest.com/write-b...

Since I have a new book out, I bought a book on how to market books. The book is really good... but... to my horror, one of the first things I read was that if an author wants a successful career they should stick to one genre.
Oh no! I can see the logic in this. Unfortunately, so far, I've written action-adventure, memoir, SF, historical fiction, thriller, and am now 30K words into a second historical fiction.
Evidently, there's no hope for me.

Clive wrote: "Since I have a new book out, I bought a book on how to market books. The book is really good... but... to my horror, one of the first things I read was that if an author wants a successful career t..."

I hope that is not the case. I write in multiple genres as well. My first book was historic fiction, and my WIP is a mystery. I have shorts available on my website that are inspirational, romance, and mystery. My guess is that it's advantageous to brand within a genre, but I have seen several posts from authors who write multiple genres.

For Clive who like me didn't stick to one genre: We would think it was strange if Stephen King suddenly decided to write a historical romance. But neither one of us is Stephen King. So, I wouldn't worry about it. Write what you want. Let the world sort it out.