Monica Murphy on writing something familiar yet different
Monica Murphy, whose Fair Game is out now, changes it up for her new series, The Rules. First up, Fair Game. Here, Monica shares how Fair Game came about.
Monica: I love my job. In fact, I don't even think of it as a job. More like it's my dream. I remember being a teen and reading — excuse me, make that devouring — stacks and stacks of romance books I found in the hall closet that belonged to my mom. Wonderful historical and contemporary romance books by Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, LaVyrle Spencer, etc. Every time I'd finish one I'd think, I want to do this. I want to write romance books! I want to be a romance author!
Cue real life interrupting and putting that particular plan on hold for many years. It always lingered in the back of my mind, though. How much I wanted that dream career of being a romance writer. Anyone remember the movie She-Devil? With Roseanne Barr playing a woman married to an accountant who promptly leaves her for his new client — the over-the-top, lover of pink, ultra rich romance author played by Meryl Streep? I wasn't under the illusion that once I published a romance novel I'd live in a grand mansion and have a pool boy (yes, Meryl's character had a pool boy — more like sexy pool man, ha).
But I did think it would be fun. An absolute dream job. I'd sit happily at my laptop and type away, creating dreamy heroes and the women who would burst into their lives and tame them.
It is like that … somewhat. I do get to create dreamy heroes (well, I hope they're dreamy) who meet incredible women who blow their minds. There's so much more to this romance writer career, though. There's promotion and marketing and answering e-mail (my inbox is such a nightmare) and staying on top of social media and strategizing and plotting —What's that? asks the pantster in me — and staring at photos of hot dudes (so tough!) and … staying on top of the market.
Staying on top of the market, you ask? What exactly does that mean?
It means we writers need to pay attention to what's happening out there in romance land. Yesterday's sexy billionaire is today's ultra sexy trillionaire (I saw a title with the word trillionaire in it just this morning go flying by me on Twitter. It's finally happened), and yesterday's Fifty Shades becomes today's … I don't know what, but it's out there. Just waiting to happen. Can't you feel it?
I can. It's that unnamed big new book/idea/author/genre/subgenre that's just waiting to explode. No one can predict it. Many probably won't realize it's happening in the beginning stages. It'll just appear out of nowhere, seemingly overnight and it will be the next. Big. THING.
This is why it's so important for authors to be fluid in this current, ever-changing, wild and crazy publishing market. Yes, we count on those certain favorite authors to deliver a certain type of story every time we read them — that sexy contemporary, breathtaking historical, heart-pounding thriller, out-of-this-world paranormal — and I love those authors for delivering that quality read every single time. I know you all do, too.
Sometimes, though, we authors have to change it up a bit. Make it a little different. In fact, a term I recently used when talking about a new idea I had was: familiar yet different.
I think that's what we're searching for as readers. When something becomes extremely popular (like New Adult, the subgenre I got my start in with One Week Girlfriend), it can eventually start to have a sameness to it. And the reader tends to burn out. All of it is too familiar, like you've read it before and that's when the reader tends to give up on that subgenre.
But what if it was familiar yet … different? With my One Week Girlfriend series, each book was chock full of angst. Oh, the angst. I tortured my characters. That's a running theme for most New Adult books out there — angst. I sort of got burned out writing the angst, truth be told. I wanted to write something funny. A little silly. I wanted to change it up without reinventing the wheel. Stay in my New Adult play land but write a series that was sexy and fun.
This is how Fair Game came about. My hero, Shep Prescott (such a ridiculous name!), came at me fully formed. I knew he was arrogant, rich, gorgeous and … bored. Until he met his heroine, Jade Frost, who keeps him on his toes. She despises him. Worse? She's attracted to him, which makes her despise him more. Of course, Shep will do whatever it takes to make Jade his, despite her seeming dislike of him …
I had so much fun writing this book (first in my new series The Rules). Losing the angst was downright liberating, I must admit. Not that I don't love a good, heart-twisting, angsty story, but … sometimes it's fun to be silly. To change it up.
To create the familiar but hopefully different.
About Fair Game:
When your boyfriend bets YOU in a poker game, you better know when to run…
Bad enough Jade Frost's boyfriend drags her to a boring poker game. Even worse that he actually threw her into the betting pot during an intense round…and lost. Talk about the perfect excuse for Jade to make him her ex-boyfriend.
Now she supposedly belongs to the ultra rich, extremely gorgeous Shep Prescott. He could have anything he wants yet he seems to be in hot pursuit of her. No matter how rude, how snarky, how impossible she acts, it doesn't stop him. More like her horrible behavior seems to make him want her more.
When she finds herself starting to fall for him, Jade's confused. There's more to Shep than the carefree rich charmer he portrays. No way could he want a serious relationship with her…or could he?
Find out more about Monica and her books at monicamurphyauthor.com.