Greetings

Know thy genre.

It's one of (if not the) first rules of becoming an author. If you don't know what it is you're writing, you can't know your audience, and if you don't know your audience, how ever are you going to effectively market your work?

That was a rhetorical question, by the way.

Jumping into this writing business, I thought it was simple. All I had to do was write, right? Yeah...not so much. Writing doesn't even begin to cover it. Especially when, like me, you're not sure what exactly it is you're putting into words.

For example, I know that things happen and/or exist in my writing that don't in the real world. Things like magic. Beasts like dragons. Mythical beings like gods and demons. But what is the difference between a dragon and a drake, or a wyrm and a wyvern? What makes a dwarf a dwarf? Are there rules to magic?  What are the typical characteristics of deities? Can vampires exist strictly within the world of paranormality? Or can they exist within the realm of fantasy as well?

That's what I'm on my way to finding out.

I never considered myself a nerd before. But six years ago I married one, and since then I've been slowing sinking into this world of nerdom--of tabletop gaming and fandoms and character creation. I must admit, I'm loving about 96.3% of it. (I just haven't been able to jump on the Doctor Who train yet--I'm working on it.)

And as I explore these worlds of fantasy, science fiction, paranormality, and all the overlaps among them, I'm exploring myself, too. The words I want to say. The characters I want to create. The stories I want to tell. The genres I want to dwell in and the audience I want to speak to.

I'm an up-and-coming nerd. I'm an up-and-coming author. And these are my words.