What Do You Mean You’re Changing Genre?

Being a 3rd generation writer means a family of beta readers! (For good or ill) 😊

Or… collaborators! Whichever way one chooses to see it.

What does that have to do with a genre change? What makes a writer change genre?

There are risks to changing genre and I'm well aware of that. And, I know it might seem a bit counterintuitive but I have thought about what to do for a while now because my genre changes is as diverse as writing erotica and then writing children's stories. At least in most people's minds. 

So, let me tell you a story...

It's hard keeping up with one pen name. Adding another seemed like so much work. But here's a novel idea (he-he... see what I did there? Novel?) I could share the responsibility of a pen name with another author. That way, I could stick to one genre per pen name.

It's my hot pen name, I can do what I want.

The lure or trying something new, something different, tasted sweet. But I also, wanted to have my mom involved. See, she's a writer too. Hence the whole 3rd generation comment...

But there were other things involved with my picking one genre and sticking to it. You'll see why. Give me a moment.

​​The truth really is that I’ve been struggling with what genre to focus on like a squirrel with a… oh shiny!

Yeah. Kinna like that.
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But I got into reading M/M romance. It’s not where I started and there was a long road between here and there. Interests changed and grew. I found the M/M genre more and more intriguing. And as I read M/M romance, I found more interest in writing in the genre. But this does not mean that I want to leave the wonderful M/F romance stories behind. I simply was at odds at doing both under the same pen name. The reason should be obvious, but if it isn't the simple rule is... not many straight people are interested in gay fiction. So how do I fix this? How do I let readers know this is M/F and this other book is M/M. That's a tricky one. 

Enter the idea of working with my mom, Carol McKibben.

It was after we decided to collaborate and create a new pen name that made me go… oh, I can totally do m/m romance as S.N.McKibben and Unexpected Paranormal Romance as the other pen name!

Because, as I said, my mom is one of those straight people that's not all that interested in reading M/M romance, we'll be doing M/F. 

What's the other pen name so you can go over there and check it out? I so glad you asked!
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We decided to call ourselves Penn Scripter.

Because… pen… and writing… and because nom deplume was already taken. Yes, we did seriously consider first name Nom, last name DePlume, but I also convinced mom Penn Scripter was the name!

So before ya'll are thinking, Why are you doing this to me? ... Consider it not as losing a writer to another genre, think of it as getting two phenomenal writers for the price of one!​

And if you're more like BRING IT! Then awesome! I'm so glad to have you! Stay here at S.N.McKibben for M/M romance! 

On the other side of the spectrum, as Penn Scripter, we strive to give you Unexpected Paranormal Romance! 

Penn Scripter will explicitly be traditional relationships. One brave hero. One kick-ass heroine.

Go down the rabbit hole with us at www.pennscripter.com.

I promise there are fun things already there for your viewing pleasure, such as the book trailer for TRIAD: The Demon of Reginhart, our first endeavor together into our Unexpected Paranormal Romance adventure! It’s cinematic and not like any other book trailer we’ve ever done before! Just look at some of the reactions!

“WOW! You wrote that???”
~ DocSun (Game master for Desperate Measures)

“That’s the coolest sh*t I’ve ever seen!” ~ vo_john (voice narrator)

*Blank stare* “Is that a movie?” ~ Daeglan (my life partner)

​“Cool.” ~ Mark McKibben (my dad)

​Please join us at www.pennscripter.com! We look forward to seeing you there!

In the coming months I’ll be sliding S.N.McKibben over to m/m romance and dedicating my m/m passion projects here. But you’ll still have wonderful stories in the m/f romance genre with Penn Scripter. Plus you’ll get to see the rise of the mother/daughter dream team!

Come take a look around! We plan on a myriad of cool things that involve our readership like voting on covers, our brand logo and stories in the works! See you there!

​~ S.N.McKibben