Last year at about this time, my publisher gave me a
challenge. “We want to try some women’s 
fiction for the Rapid Reads line,” she said. "So I need a book from you by August."
Huh? Me, the scribe
of mob comedy, write Chicklit?
Romance? Okay, can I make it
funny, I asked? Luckily they went thumbs
up. And so WORST DATE EVER comes out in
September this year.
More on that later.
This column is about something else.
Point being, all this writing-out-of-genre got me
thinking. Crime has always been my
thing. I write about a mob goddaughter
who doesn’t want to be one. Her inept
mob family never gets it right.
What
would happen if Gina Gallo, the original mob goddaughter, were to be dragged
kicking and screaming out of crime, and plunked right down into another
genre. Or three. So here goes.
Western:
(on a stage coach near you)
Gina: “Please move
over. You’re taking up two seats.”
Bad guy Cowboy: “Hey little lady. You can sit right here on my lap. What’s a pretty little thing like you doing
with that mighty big revolver, anyway?”
Gina (demonstrating):
<BLAM>
Cowboy drops to the floor.
Gothic Romance:
(in a seriously spooky old manor)
Fiendish male character, rubbing hands together: “You’ll never escape me, my pretty. Never!”
Gina (looking around): “Are you sure this isn’t a set for The
Rocky Horror Picture Show?”
Fiend: “Enough! You’ll be my wife with or without the
church.”
Gina (extracting knife beneath skirt): <THWOCK>
Fiend drops to the floor.
Literary:
(at a slam poetry evening)
Male Poet:
“Stop.Cry.Laugh.Love not war.Peace not profit.Climate
change.Capitalists.Love crimes.War crimes.Killing oceans.Killing whales.Every
other cliché you can think of.Pain.I’m in pain.A pain so great.
Gina: <BLAM>
Poet is out of pain, and so is everyone else.
To be continued…(or not, if someone takes out the writer
first)
Just released! THE
BOOTLEGGER’S GODDAUGHTER, book 5 in The Goddaughter series
“…the work of an author at the absolute top of
her game” Don Graves, Canadian Mystery Reviews
On Amazon
