Note: This post first appeared in the Roswell Daily Record…

Many science fiction romance authors also write in some unexpected genres, as palate cleansers, as a way to take a break or simply to explore alternatives to SFR and find new readers. There is a challenge in the latter goal because the audience for one genre may not necessarily have any desire to read in a different one, even if they enjoy the author. So there may not be any crossover and the author has to be content with that.

I thought today I’d mention a few examples of SFR authors who do this (without giving away any ‘secret’ pen names of course) under their own author name.

I’ll go first! I write a paranormal romance series set in ancient Egypt in 1550 BCE. I’ve always been fascinated by the world along the Nile in the time of the pharaohs and I do huge amounts of research so I can bring a more authentic feel to my characters and their lives. Of course, since these books are paranormal in nature, with the gods becoming involved, I’m not writing historical fiction and I do have a few deliberate anachronisms. I strive for the same blend of action, adventure and romance I mix in my SFR and it does my Muse and me good to put ourselves in such a different place and time. My most recent was Danger on the Nile, with various people caught up in a surprise invasion along the southern border, trying to escape and sound a warning for Pharoah.

Pauline Baird Jones is a well respected SFR author who also ‘escapes’ to a completely other place and time, and a much different genre with her blush-free mysteries set in modern day New Orleans. She knows the city well and captures the feel of being there, and her plots are fun to unravel as the main characters fall in love and deal with the crime in front of them. Her latest was Soc Au’Lait Stiff: The Big Easy 9. Mardi gras is happening in the background, thorny family issues are being worked and there’s a murder going down. And romance!

Anna Hackett has several highly successful SFR series under her belt, including Eon Warriors, Galactic Gladiators (a huge favorite of mine), and Galactic Kings. She also writes a number of modern day romantic suspense series, with sexy ex-Special Forces soldiers rescuing women from obsessed stalkers, brutish exes and other tropes of the genre while falling in love with the ladies they’re trying to protect. The female main characters have interesting occupations ranging from ballerina to museum curator and the action is always intense, as are the spicy scenes. The Norcross Security series is probably the most well known of these romantic suspense stories but she also has The Fury Brothers, Sentinel Security and Unbroken Heroes series going. The author still releases an SFR novel from time to time as well.

Rachel Ford’s Black Flag series is F/F science fiction with romantic elements and has many devoted readers. The adventures center around the crew of a privateer spaceship and their adventures all over the galaxy. The author also writes the Sellswords and Spell Weavers F/F fantasy series, which leans on Norse and Viking mythology for some of the word building.

Anna Carven writes the Dark Planet Warriors series, which is one of my personal favorites and the Darkstar Mercenaries series, which was a spinoff. These alien warriors are astonishing fighters with powers and abilities beyond any human’s ability to match. Of course when it comes to human women, the story is different and each of these indomitable warriors loses his heart to an Earth female as the stories unfold. The world building and explanations of how these men came to be are well done. The author also writes fantasy romance including Embers in the Snow and Warlord and Huntress.

Michelle Diener also writes both SFR and Fantasy. Her novel Dark Horse, the first book in the Class Five series, is still one of my all time favorites and I reread it and recommend it to people who want to sample SFR. While not particularly spicy, it’s very well done. She also writes the Verdant String series, which is set in and around a system of planets with many political and social problems – the world building is strong and grabs the reader’s attention and the romances are subtle and satisfying. Her fantasy series The Rising Wave is also very well done and I was hooked after The Turncoat King, which was the first in the series. The series currently stands at three books, with a fourth anticipated in 2025.

Ruby Dixon of the Ice Planet Barbarians fame, along with the spinoff Ice Home and Ice Planet Clones series, also writes several other SFR series such as Corsairs and The Risdaverse.  I’m a huge fan of anything Ice Planet and always excited to see a new book set in that world or connected to it. She also has the Bedlam Butchers motorcycle club romance series, which are short reads and date back to the 2014-2015 time frame, and the “post apocalyptic dragon romance” series Fireblood Dragon. The latter series stands at nine books currently.

Skye MacKinnon has one of the best author bios: “Scottish romance author who was raised by elves in the mystical Highlands and calls the Loch Ness monster her friend.” She writes scorching M/F scifi romance, as in Starlight Highlanders, co-writes a popular F/F SFR series with Arizona Tape entitled Aliens and Animals (five books so far) and also gives us the really fun Catnip Assassins series. This urban fantasy is a slow burn, why choose romance in which as the series blurb says: “To survive, Kat will have to polish her claws and trust the three guys willing to do everything for her. And not eat too much catnip, obviously…” Quite different from the SFR.

So there are my examples of authors branching out for this column. I’m sure there are many others I’ve missed, or who write totally different genres under pen names I’m not aware of or can’t disclose, but this list should give any reader a good place to start exploring what else their favorite SFR authors may have written.

Happy reading!

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VS: Just for fun, here’s one of Ruby’s MC series!

DOUBLE DARE YOU (BEDLAM BUTCHERS MC ROMANCE by Ruby Dixon

Becka isn’t the daring sort. She’s a chemistry nerd on vacation from college. She certainly wasn’t supposed to be stolen by a rival MC and sold as a plaything. Now, she needs a hero…or two.

Locke and Epic might be ride partners, but they’re not yet friends. Epic is freshly patched and Locke’s carrying a lot of baggage from the betrayal of his last partner. But when they’re given a new task – find Becka and bring her home – the men have to work as a team to protect her.

And, as the threesome spend time alone, they realize that not only are they better together, but that a few teasing dares just might bring them closer…in a lot of sexy ways.

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