Chat With Jayne Ann Krentz, aka Amanda Quick

I got an email this afternoon telling me that one of my favorite writers, Jayne Ann Krentz would be having a chat at nine pm. When I first started online I went to chats with great enthusiasm but over time I became disillusioned because the questions were always prescreened and mine were never chosen. I mean really, not once was my question chosen in something like three years. But this one said one person would win a book so I thought what the hell, I would give it a try.

This chat was moderated but the questions weren't prescreened and were taken in the order in which they were asked, to a degree, the moderator didn't notice I had a question at first but it was a very busy room, maxed out for about forty minutes, so I don't blame her and she did notice the second time around.

My question was about genre and I did get permission to blog the answer, which I quite liked.

First, thanks so much for fifteen years of fabulous reading. I have a question about genre because I see the lines blur more and more. Since your books have wonderful mysteries also, who decides that they are romances and not mysteries or suspense? Or does it not matter to you so long as your readers are finding your work and happy with it?

Jayne/Amanda - backgroundgrrl: It's all about the marketing. There is no place in the bookstores for romantic-suspense (which is what I write). So, they usually end up in the romance section, which is fine with me since so many romance readers are happy to read romantic-suspense. Hey, we all grew up on Nancy Drew, right?

backgroundgrrl - Yes and Trixie Belden! Thanks so much,

One of the reasons I asked this question is because so much of the romance that I read has a mystery in it. I can go for a couple of months and not read any romance that is a pure romance, so to speak. But so far I don't have any interest in writing a romantic mystery myself. My romances are romances and are about people who are healing from some trauma, either emotional or physical, or both.

Although in Carnal Fear there is a stalker and some suspense from that. And I think that there is going to be a character who is trying to manipulate Sutter in a Gaslight/Angel Street sort of way so maybe I'm a big fat liar when I say I don't write anything that could be called a mystery. Maybe I just don't write murder mysteries. Beyond say the little story about the alien that bloomed up out of the desert ground when the blood of the hitchhiker sank into the sand. That was pretty mysterious.

I was also quite surprised to hear that it took Jayne six years to sell her first book, although I suspect I already knew that and my faulty memory made me think I didn't. Six years and she's done so well and been so popular since. Astounding.