A few of my favorite themes: an IWSG post

 

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Welcome to the first Wednesday of the month. You know what that means! It's time to let our insecurities hang out. Yep, it's the Insecure Writer's Support Group blog hop. If you're a writer at any stage of career, I highly recommend this blog hop as a way to connect with other writers for support, sympathy, ideas, and networking. If you're a reader, it's a great way to peek behind the curtain of a writing life.

Our Twitter handle is @TheIWSG and hashtag is #IWSG. The awesome co-hosts for the November 4 posting of the IWSG are Kalpana, Kim Lajevardi, Rebecca Douglass, Jennifer Lane, and Cathrina Constantine!

November 4 question - As a writer, do you have favorite themes that you like to explore in your stories? If so, what are they?

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In general, I'm always writing about what I'm worried about--the thing that I'm trying to solve, cope with, or understand. Writing has first and foremost always been about processing the world for me, and trying to turn my fears and insecurities into art. So, there's a lot of variety in that. 

Sometimes I know going in what I'm noodling over, sometimes that is revealed to me after my subconscious is done hashing it out.  

 

My Menopausal Superheroes series began in my worries about aging and how my body and health might change in this new phase of life. 

There's a lot across the series about different types of relationships in women's lives: mothers, daughters, sisters, children, colleagues, friends, enemies.   

And the bit about doubting the health care industry and managing that feeling of being underestimated and overlooked.  

 

My GenX romances, at some level, are about holding onto the possibility of love and romance later in life, rather than letting it go as a young person's game. They have some themes in common with my superheroes, especially centering the experience of people over 50 with main character energy, but the focus on love changes things.  

 Most of my horror takes places in ordinary, domestic settings: houses, neighborhoods, offices, the woods, in the car, etc. (Though I am writing a Gothic right now that will take us into a haunted mansion with a storied history and some excellent Gothic architecture). 

In a way, it's the flip side of my romances--the same thing that opens you up for love can also open you up for pain or suffering. 

I mean, couldn't most romances become horror stories and vice versa? It's all in how it goes after the characters take that first risk…

So, in general, I think my most common themes are aging, womanhood, and the nature of love. Alongside all that, you get some of my special interests and obsessions: plants, ghosts, superpowers, music, baking, monsters.  Sometimes it's a celebration of all the thing I love, and sometimes it's catharsis (better out than in!), but it's always a joy. Writing is still one of the best things on the planet to do with my time!