Out of My Comfort Zone and Loving It

I don't know exactly what counts as a non-standard genre for me. I guess I could say Kitsune does.

1. While it's a love story like pretty much everything else I've written, Kitsu sort of has a relationship with many different guys (but she's still only with one guy at a time).

2. It's sci fi. And while I've written sci fi before, this one has pretty much nothing to do with Earth. So while some sci fi writers can say "such and such technology works like such and such technology from Earth, only more sci fi-y, I can't do that. Needless to say, my descriptions a bit lacking since I don't know how to describe it in non-Earth terms.

3. Kitsu's also a spy. This is what makes her story the most outside of my genre. I've never read a spy novel and I've only seen a few spy movies other than James Bond. I wouldn't have made Kitsu a spy if I didn't think it'd be fun, but it is by far the most challenging thing to work with.

Actually, I used to think the sci fi part was the most challenging thing, and then last weekend I started watching Alias, and that's generated a whole bunch of questions from me and my husband about the inner workings of her world that I just hadn't considered before, but would make sense. So now, not only do I have to change things about the plot in book 1, but I have change parts of the world. Hopefully, by the time I get through with all the new world building and it gets fully integrated into the plot, I'll have a really, really good story.

Also because of Kitsune, I'm breaking away from the genre I normally read, which is mostly I read urban fantasy. The book I'm currently reading is a thriller. And next up will be a couple sci fi and spy novels.

I guess though, because Kitsune is so far out of what I normally write, and because I want to make it as good as I can, I'm exploring things that I wouldn't have before working on Kitsune, like reading thrillers and finding out that I like them.