How Did a Horror Loving Girl Grow Up to be a Romance Writer? ~by Darlene Kuncytes

In my very first blog post, I decided that I wanted to discuss this topic a little bit, because I have people ask me ALL the time who some of my favorite authors are, and when I tell them--King, Koontz, Saul--they usually just look at me with a blank stare for a moment before saying…"but, don’t you write romance?"

So just how does someone go from being a full-out horror loving enthusiast to an author who writes hard-core romance?

I swear I grew up with a book in my hand. I devoured every scary book I could find, and I revered those horror authors I thought to be the true masters. Not to mention, that I really wanted to be the next Stephen King.

I’m not ashamed to admit, that I even gave my sixth-grade teacher a bit of a shock when I proudly handed in a book report on “Suffer the Children” by John Saul. She learned fairly quickly not to let me pick my own books after that! And, I’m actually pretty surprised she didn’t tell my mother to have me tested!

It’s funny that I would finally achieve my life-long dream of becoming an author. Just not as the next master of the macabre.

Instead, I became a romance author.

Who would have thought? Certainly not my family. They always knew that I would write, but they figured it would be something along the lines of my favorites and I’d be killing off people left and right. How wrong they were!

I started writing my first romance novel not long after I read The Gamble by LaVryle Spencer. We had gone to my Aunt's house for a visit and there it was, just sitting there on her coffee table, and me, being without a book, decided to start reading it with the full intention of just passing some time. I figured I’d hate it, but at least it was something to do besides listening to the adults talk.

Needless to say, I was wrong.

I could not put that blasted book down. It had me on the edge of my seat, and my heart in my throat, just as The Shining had done to me not so many weeks before.

Again, in a slightly different way, but I remember thinking, Wow! Romance is crazy!

I think in order to write romance, you need to be able to get your readers to experience that exhilarating rush of adrenaline that can be scary as hell to the characters experiencing it. Whether they are trying to escape from an evil descending upon them, or they are experiencing that first intense explosion of passion between them when they finally come together.

Either way, it’s a rush that needs to be felt straight in the gut of the reader.

In both horror and romance, someone is usually being pursued by someone or something! The end result is just a little different. One can lose their head…the other their heart. Both genres take the reader on a wild ride of emotions that will make the heart pound and the pulse race, albeit in somewhat different ways.

If you really think about it, horror has ribbons of romance slithering through it at times. Take Dracula, for instance. He left the safety and solitude of his castle to go after the love of his life–Mina.

Nothing could separate them.

Eternal love.

Is there anything better?

Okay, so he may have caused a bit of trouble here and there along the way, but what’s love without a little heartache?

courtesy of tuposter.com

Then, of course, there’s Anne Rice. Her Vampire Chronicles are pure poetry, horror, and sexiness all wrapped into one. But, would you consider them romance? Or horror, with a romantic feel?

The answers are boundless.

After I finished The Gamble, my mind just went a bit romancey – if you will.

I found myself writing down bits of stories here and there, never quite finishing one before another popped into my head, and they were ALL romances! I still loved reading horror, but writing was a completely different story for me now.

I like being able to have the big bad villain threatening the demise of our star-crossed lovers. And, with also writing paranormal romance, I get to weave tales with versions of the monsters and things that go bump in the night that I love - yet having that happily ever after, if I so chose.

I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for those.

And, that is where horror and romance differ most of the time. It’s hard to have a true, all around HEA (Happily Ever After) ending in a horror novel, what with so much death, dismemberment, and terror. Although, I will say, Dean Koontz is an absolute master at writing horror with a strong thread of love and happy endings. I never really gave it much thought as I devoured his books until I began writing romance myself.

In closing, I guess my point is, never pigeon-hole yourself into strictly one genre. Expand and give yourself the opportunity to explore different worlds, because in the end, they aren’t that different, really. And, who knows, I may just decide one day to dabble in a pure horror story. So, make sure you don’t tick me off, or you may just show up in it!! LOL

Thanks for taking the time to know a bit of what makes me tick!

Keep reading!

Darlene