Cora Carmack goes against the flow

Cora Carmack explains how she faced down a challenge with the hero in her new New Adult romance, Faking It …

Cora: Long before I was a writer, I was a reader. I read insatiably. I was that kid in high school, who the librarian saved new books for because I'd read everything else (thank you, Mrs. Land).

When you read that much, you become accustomed to the same plotlines and character archetypes popping up repeatedly. That doesn't mean I didn't love those books, because the good ones always brought something new and fresh to the table. Romance readers, especially, are used to seeing certain tropes pop up in books. Readers know what they like and stick with it.

I've had two books published so far — Losing It and Faking It — both New Adult books. You don't have to read too many books in this college-age category to see a theme popping up: characters broken by tragedy and tattooed bad boys.

With Losing It, I concentrated on writing a book that went against that first trait. I wrote something light-hearted and funny where the main character's issues had nothing to do with any sort of trauma.

In Faking It, I tackle that second commonality — the tattooed bad boy. Don't get me wrong. I love a tattooed bad boy. But I wanted to see what would happen if I transferred those tattoos and the alpha attitude to the heroine and made the hero a squeaky clean, boy-next-door beta hero.

The first thing that happened? It was really hard. I spent about a month cursing beta heroes, reading blog posts on the subject, and eating lots of chocolate. Seriously. Lots. Of. Chocolate. Then after gaining probably 10 pounds, I began to find my way. The truth is — humans are complex and we like to read about complexity. We all love a bad boy who shows us an ounce of softness. Once I remembered that — that every character has shades of light and dark — everything began to fall into place. In my bold (often abrasive) heroine, I found vulnerability. And my squeaky clean boy next door? Not so squeaky clean after all! I searched for the unexpected aspects in those characters the same way that I went for the unexpected elements in my plot.

Now, that's not to say I'm the first author to turn these particular plot aspects on their heads. But I think one of the most fun things about being an author is being able to look at the market at that moment and find the gaps. I try to find the thing that's missing on shelves and write that. And, really, that's what the whole category of New Adult has been — the missing piece. That's a big part of why I was compelled to write it.

So what plot elements have you been seeing a lot of? What haven't you seen? What gaps in the market do you want to see filled? *pulls out notepad* :) (To comment, click on the gray comment balloon on the left side of your browser window.)

To find out more about Cora and her books, visit coracarmack.blogspot.com.