by Dirk Hooper
Copyright 20260816
I Write in Multiple Genres and I Won’t Apologize for That.
When I was six years old, I was a voracious illustrator. I consumed comic books, movies, and television shows and let those different universes roll around in my head. I wanted Spider-Man and Luke Skywalker to exist in the same world and I drew them together. Spider-Man took on that science fantasy look and Luke Skywalker used his powers to become a superhero.
What’s funny is many decades later “Infinity War” put Spider-Man in space and he essentially joined the Star Wars universe. He was surrounded by wizards, aliens, gods, robots, spaceships, and a talking racoon. What they did in that movie was exactly what I was doing with pencils, pen and markers at six years old.
I never grew out of smashing worlds together. And I’m never going to.
Genre Is Not a Set of Handcuffs
I’ve always liked different genres. Again, back when I was a kid, I loved Alien and Blade Runner, right along with Dungeons & Dragons, the A-Team, Thundaar the Barbarian, old Star Trek episodes, and Cheers. That’s all over the map, genre-wise, but I suspect that most people have similarly broad interests, especially now. Streaming and binging have absolutely ripped the lid off genre silos.
I get why writers are told to stay in their lane. I really do. There are some well-established conventions including marketing and finding specific readers and feeding them what they want, over and over again. Those conventions are real and established because they work.
It’s important that you understand the genre tropes, what people are looking for and need out of a work of fiction, when you promise a certain genre. If you’re writing horror and it’s not scary you have a problem. Romance without the first kiss, and getting to know each other’s secrets, and falling in love, is a bust. Science fiction and fantasy without speculation is a broken promise. I understand.
But, meshing disparate genres is exciting to me and I use it as a tool for finding new stories or new twists on established genres. I refuse to let the rules shackle my creativity.
My Imagination Doesn’t Organize by Bookstore Shelves
When I’m writing a story I want to have fun.
The clash of characters, images, conflicts, emotions, situations and worlds, demand that I give you the most I can possibly squeeze out of my prose.
Maybe I want a fallen angel to ride into an 1880s frontier town.
Maybe I want a female vampire motorcycle club.
Maybe I want a dark romance thriller with mixed martial arts, BDSM and assassins.
Whatever I come up with, the story must come first, and I’ll figure out the labels and marketing later.
Exhibits A Through C: Look at What I’m Writing Now
The Rider Who Fell from Heaven is a dark romance, western, horror, with vigilante justice thrown in for good measure. Why? Because this was originally created to introduce a character who will be in a story set 150 years in the future. By going back, I get to isolate him in the old west and challenge him in unique ways. And I get to smash a bunch of things together that I love. It allows me to keep every chapter as tantalizing as possible. Keep up! There’s a lot going on.
Love, Whiskey & The Eternal War is a modern urban fantasy, all-female vampire motorcycle club, dark romance story, with a large cast, that potentially sets up a series of novels set in the same world. All those elements make the story thrilling to me and open up so many possibilities.
The Submission Specialist is a dark romance, with a billionaire bad boy, who is a MMA champion, a master at BDSM, and fighting a league of assassins. That hits a lot of my personal interests and it’s going to be spicy! I could break that up into multiple stories to feed people who just like one thing, but that’s not the story I have in my head.
I’m not randomly mixing and matching genres. Each of these genre-benders happened because it’s integral to the story I want to tell and because I think it would be fun and interesting and challenging in a whole new way.
Yes, I Know This Is a Marketing Nightmare
Did you know that for the last ten years my day job has been marketing? I’ve been doing marketing, branding, and social media for Sexy Networking. That means that I’m a marketing professional, that I know the deep water I’m getting into, and I’m doing it anyway.
I have two reasons why I’m leaning so heavily into meshing multiple genres. The first reason is that this is the way my mind works. It’s baked in. I’m a multi-genre author and I have been for as long as I’ve put pen to paper. Sure, I could fight my urges and ratchet down my creative instincts to fit within a nice little box.
But fuck that.
No, seriously. I have stories I want to tell, and those stories are genre-benders. It fires up my imagination. It inspires me to sit down in front of my computer and write these stories. And it makes me excited to share them with you.
There’s another—more important reason—why I’m leaning in though.
Genre-Smashing Is My Brand
I follow the trials and tribulations of many authors on social media and platforms like YouTube. I hear their wails. BookTok and Bookstagram are dead. No one is reading anymore. Amazon can ruin you with the click of button. Ads are not working anymore. Readers hate us. And the biggest boogieman of all… AI is choking new releases and everyone suspects writers of using AI.
Of course, there’s some truth to all of that. It’s not as easy to be an independent writer (or really any writer) as it used to be. Things have changed.
Which means that right damn now it’s never been more important to find your weirdness and cram that pedal to the floor with all the fucking weirdness you’ve got in you. Your ability to put something on the page that’s not out there is what separates you from the crowd. It proves your humanity. And it will excite your readers (I hope).
For me, that’s creating new genres. Mixing and matching, smushing those damn things together and making you love it. I’m very comfortable delivering some weirdness to your plate and letting you eat it all up!
And I’m not suggesting that writing multiple genres are right for you. It probably isn’t. I am suggesting that you find your own little fiefdom of weirdness and work that over until YOUR READERS FIND YOU. Because frankly, that’s the only advantage you truly have right now.
Let your freak flag fly. High and loud.
For me, that’s being unapologetically a multi-genre author.
Come Visit My Strange Little Universes
This is my official shot across the bow. I’m going to be throwing some crazy stuff at you. I totally get that you only like cozy mysteries and I’m not writing in that lane, so if that’s the case then my stuff isn’t for you. But there are 8.3 billion people out there and I just need a super miniscule fraction of those souls to dig what I’m shoveling out, and I’m going to work hard to find them…
My readers.
It’s a gamble. I know. It’s against everything I’ve been told by the gurus over the past 20 years: find a niche genre, stick to it, write in series, rapid release, focus on Kindle Unlimited, run ads on Amazon, Facebook and Instagram. Rinse and Repeat.
I’m betting different. Maybe I’m an idiot. We’ll see.
I’m betting on myself. And I’m betting that I can find my readers. People who don’t just read in their lanes. I’m looking for readers who get thrilled to read what I write, no matter what the genre is. I’m looking for readers who are like me and want something different, but also high-quality, and something that come straight from the heart to your eyeballs (or, I guess, your ears).
I’ve been combining things that weren’t supposed to go together since I was six years old. I’ve discovered the way I write is not something I need to fix. It’s my voice. And my voice is what makes my work unique.