Romance And Horror; Can You Really Write Both?

Today I’m going to talk about a young adult writer from my time; Caroline B. Cooney. She’s written over 90 books for young adults such as the face on the Milk Carton, the Fog, and the Vampires Promise.

As you can tell, they’re young adult horror. She was one of the writers that helped originate the genre back in the early 1990’s (back when Point Horror was the biggest name in YA publishing.)

But the reason I’m mentioning her today isn’t because of her horror work. (of which I am still a fan.)

It’s because only about half of her books are horror.

Do you know what the other half are?

Romance.

Yes.

You read that right.

Someone who writes young adult horror also writes young adult romance.

It’s a pretty big genre switch.

Or is it?

After all, they use a lot of the same lines (you’re not alone, I’ll be with you forever, ect) but most importantly, they both deal with extremes of emotions; fear on one end, and love on the other.

That’s why she didn’t feel the need to create a second pen name for her romances the way many authors are urged to do today.

Now, if you write about something completely at odds, like fine dining and backyard chickens, or children’s books and extreme horror, then yes, you might want to use a pen name. But if you’re writing fiction and nonfiction, or two different but somewhat related genres to the people who like to read them, then keep the name you used for your first book.