Chapter 26 - A New Chapter

There are quite a few authors who have switched genres. They have done this either to broaden their audience, stretch their writing skills, or even just to try something new. I have often told young friends that they have an opportunity to reinvent themselves with every new encounter they have. So too do writers.

Historically there are writers like Louisa May Alcott (Little Women) and A.A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh) who jumped from pulp fiction and murder mysteries to young adult and children's fiction. Look at Dr. Seuss who became famous for his political cartoons before and during World War II and morphed his talent into children's books with rhymes and great illustrations. More recently is Ian Fleming who switched up his writing from James Bond books to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In reverse, Roald Dahl went from his well know children's books (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, for example) to adult erotic fiction.

Here are some contemporary authors who have switched up their writing to encompass more than one genre.

Catherine Coulter started her writing career by penning historical Regency Romance. From her very first book, The Rebel Bride, she evolved to writing The Cove, the start of her FBI series and The Final Cut, her first book in the Brit in the FBI series.

Sandra Brown is another author who started in the Romance genre. Her first books were the Breakfast in Bed series, followed by over 30 more romances. In around 1990 she moved her focus to Romantic Suspense books and has never looked back. The first in this type of book was Mirror Image.

Stephen King is often thought of of the "king" of the horror genre (Carrie and It) and he has done a good job of this. He has also dabbled in mystery (The Colorado Kid), gothic fantasy (The Green Mile) and alternative history (11/22/63). He almost reinvents himself every time he writes.

Best known for her Harry Potter series, JK Rowling writes under her own name and also as Robert Galbraith. As Galbraith, her protagonist is Cormoran Strike, a private detective, first introduced in The Cuckoo's Calling. The meticulous attention to detail Rowling showed in the Potter series is also evident in this series. Writing under her own name, Rowling has also continued the fantasy world as well as written The Casual Vacancy, the story of a town at war with itself.

Finally, Nora Roberts, a writer of Romance and Contemporary Fiction, also writes Science Fiction with her Eve Dallas series written under the name of J.D. Robb. In the series, Eve Dallas is a 2058 New York Police Detective. She is driven, anti-social, and focused only on her job. There are currently 51 books in the series starting with Naked In Death.

So this is just to say that people can reinvent themselves time and again and we never grow too old to do something new. Have you read any of these reinvented authors? What did you think?