Guest post written by Ghosted author Amy Hutton
Amy Hutton is an award-winning television producer and writer of contemporary romance, living on Sydney’s Northern Beaches with a rescue dog named Buffy. When not plotting delicious romantic trials for her characters, Amy is an enthusiastic traveller, an animal advocate, a Disneyland aficionado, and a lover of tattoos. You can find Amy on Twitter and Instagram @AmyHuttonAuthor, on Facebook at Amy Hutton Writes, and online at AmyHuttonAuthor.com.
About Ghosted (out September 30): Banishing vengeful spirits from the mortal realm is Holly’s day job, but she’s never had to ghost anyone before – until Callum breaks her heart, making her wish she could exorcise her ex from her life.
When I set out to write Ghosted, I didn’t mean to write a paranormal romance, I just wanted to write something scary. But somewhere in amongst the thrills, a different kind of adrenalin started pumping for my characters and they began to fall in love.
‘Well, that’s because you made them fall in love,’ I hear you say, and yes, intellectually I’d agree with you. I’m writing the story, so I’m calling the shots, right? But here’s the weird thing about writing, sometimes your characters do something you’re not expecting.
I remember one night in the early stages of the Ghosted story. I was awake into the witching hours wanting to get a chapter finished. My idea was that my character, Holly, would go for a drive around the local area of this small town called East Mill, getting a feel for the history of the place. But instead of turning left, let’s say, she turned right and ended up alone at the haunted house at the centre of the spooky mystery that weaves through the plot of Ghosted. She didn’t know she was going to do that, and the baffling part was, neither did I. What followed was a scene that frightened me so much, I couldn’t sleep afterwards. Yes, even though I wrote it. I toned that scene right down when it came to the next draft, because it was violent and jarring and very out of place in a story that was now quite obviously a romance, albeit a paranormal one. The scene is still tense and unsettling, but it’s not going to keep anyone awake at night. I don’t think. But it’s hard for me to tell. Because along with romance stories, I absolutely adore horror.
I’m often heard pronouncing to raised brows and wide eyes, that there are a lot of similarities between romance and horror. They are both a regularly-maligned genre, greatly under respected, yet hugely popular. But there’s more to it than that. So why is it that romance and horror go so well together? Why do we love stories about thousand-year-old vampires falling head-over-heels for very human women, and serial killer rom-coms with romantically entangled murderers. Monster romances with literal monsters steaming up the pages in ways that defy imagination, and ghost busting heroes, fighting their scariest nightmares while trying desperately not to fall in love (and falling in love all the same.) Why does the thrill of the scare gel so perfectly with the thrill of romance?
I see the commonality between romance and horror as rooted in the continually rising tension that fills the pages of both genres. The will they won’t they catch feelings/survive. The uncertain outcomes and high emotional stakes that these stories exploit and examine. Whether running towards love or running for their lives (or a little of both,) in both romance and horror we see our protagonists in their most vulnerable moments encountering the gamut of their emotions.
Romance is primarily written for women by women, exploring the spectrum of the female experience. But horror is also often female led. Horror stories routinely feature the Final Girl trope. The one female character that survives the machete wielding maniac, or demonic presence, often bloodied but always kickass. Both romance and horror expect a level of bravery from their central characters. The ability to embrace vulnerability, emotionally or physically, and chase an outcome, or put themselves in a situation, that may not end up the way they hope but is worth risking everything for all the same. They must fight for what they want and overcome odds that initially seem insurmountable. Whether that’s sworn enemies becoming lovers or being alone in a house with a terrifying something that must be conquered before escape can be achieved. Often it’s past trauma that must be conquered before real progress towards the end goal can be realised, and it’s that very personal fight, that evolution of character, that sympathetic journey that still connects the story to the reader no matter how fantastical the world around that journey is, or whether the character we are getting behind is human or otherworldly.
I’m no expert in all of this, I’m just an author who loves reading and writing romance and happens to also love all things spooky and adores how these two seemingly very different vibes can make beautiful, heart wrenching, uplifting, gripping, hope filled stories together. It’s that moment where you go, ‘There’s a werewolf in the next room but now you’re kissing,’ and worship every second of that grin-inducing bad decision. There’s nothing like a little terrifying, life-threatening moment to make your characters realise they really do love the person standing alongside them. And that particular rush of survival energy, can sure add a little something extra to the spice later on.
I’m so glad my characters decided to fall in love and my story turned from simply scary to swoony and spooky. Love and fear are a flip of the same coin. They both make our hearts pound, our palms sweat and our stomachs somersault. They go hand in taloned paw, and paranormal romance gleefully celebrates this unlikely convergence of genres. It really doesn’t matter if the hero is human, vampire or shifter, as long as their journey towards happily ever after is relatable, we’ll be right there with them. It’s what keeps us turning the page — whether for the spark of love, or the thrill of fear, or the delicious merging of both.
