My Calling Cards

Every author has those little elements or quirks that they love to include in their stories. Their calling cards, so to speak. For Stephen King, he often sets his story in Maine, his heroes are often writers or law enforcement types, there’s usually a number of rednecks, drunks and bullies who have horrible things happen to them at some point in their story, and there’s a twenty-five percent chance one character will end up being psychic or otherwise paranormally gifted. You put these elements in a story, and you’re either King himself or you’re doing a pastiche of him.

Authors love their calling cards; they make the story more fun to write. Readers love them too; they spend time trying to find each one as the story unfolds, trying to see how the author uses them this time around in the story. In a way, the author is like a crook leaving a crime scene with tell-tale signs of their modus operandi, and the reader is a detective looking for those signs.

I have my own cards, though my body of work is not very large. My protagonists tend to be teenage or young women who don’t fit into the protagonist mold and must be forced to be heroes. If you ask me, those sorts of characters are perfect for leads in the horror genre. When I use male protagonists, they are often teenagers and have some quirk or talent that makes them unique—great driver, overly quiet, able to learn advanced skills like getting away with crimes or doing amateur surgery just from reading or watching a movie about it—and have a girl interested in them (if they’re straight).

My stories also lean into the supernatural more often than not, with a dash of weird for extra fun. What is this element of weird? Well, in my novel Rose, the protagonist turns into a plant-woman in the first chapter. That’s what I mean by weird.

Oh, and I like to add ballet to my stories when I can. I’ve become a huge fan of ballet in the past few years, and naturally it’s crept into my writing. Characters could be dancers and ballerinas, or I’ll find some way to reference ballet in the course of the story.

Those are my calling cards. I’m still early in my career, so there’s still plenty to incorporate in future years. Still, if any of the above interests you, you and I might get along fine. Or should I say, you and my stories should get along fine.