Oh, but, Elle, you're never stuck! I mean, I hear what you're saying. Fantasy has become your preferred genre. But if you ever did want to branch out, of course you know about pseudonyms and how people use them to write in different genres.
Which reminds me. I've been curious to request an article from you, or at least your informal thoughts on psuedonyms. It seems that authors don't use them as much anymore unless we're talking about authors writing in different genres like Nora Roberts writing her SF/mystery series under J.D. Robb or Charles DeLint writing his detective books under whatever psuedonym he picked out.
I'd like to write fiction and nonfiction, and I've considered using a psuedonym for the fiction. One reason is that I've already established a (slight) internet presence under my real name here at BellaOnline writing nonfiction (book reviews). So, like you were saying with you and the fantasy genre, my real name has become associated with my nonfiction writing.
The other reason for the psuedonym in fiction is that fiction is just so incredibly personal! I mean, imagine your mother reading a sex scene in your fiction.
Many self-confidant writers would never be bothered by that, but when you're just getting started ... I'd find it a bit inhibiting!
Sometimes I wonder, though, if there are pitfalls I haven't considered in writing under a psuedonym. Like perhaps having to prove who I am someday if someone else tries to steal my identity? I think that in the area of writing for the internet, the use of psuedonyms has boomed, as has plagiarism.
Anyway, off the subject of psuedonyms for a moment, what do you think of the type of fantasy that Tim Powers writes (for example,
Last Call,
Declare,
Three Days to Never)? That type of fantasy (that mixes realistic elements with supernatural elements) might be where you could rework your entire crime novel, if you felt like it.
) Using a pseudonym (maybe even more than one) is definitely an option - I'll see where I'm at when I get to that point.