I mentioned to a few people (and raised eyebrows), that the novel I’ve been working on is a political thriller. I think this was inevitably because of what I do, what I’ve written, and because most people tend to expect writers to stay in their lane and practice the proverbial, “write what you know”. Stephen King doesn’t write Romantic Comedy (although I think he’d be pretty good at it), John Grisham isn’t likely to be penning any fantasy, and try as she might, and as good a writer as she is (even with pen name Robert Galbraith), JK Rowling hasn’t become a household name in hard-boiled detective fiction. It’s odd to me, because as readers most of us tend to like to read more than one type of book. Why should we not as writers want to author more than one type of story?.. I know some of this is in part because fans of what you do tend to want more of what they’re fans of, and so it makes sense for those who’ve got either the pressure of a rabid fan-base, or to pay their mortgages with their pens (and names) to stick to what’s paying the bills. For those of us like myself, who at this point count their Amazon reviews in the hundreds, instead of thousands, and for whom plunking away at a keyboard at 5:00 am daily is a labor of love, my instinct is to say write whatever the hell makes you happy, because the collective happiness of no great number of the unwashed masses is hinging upon your every keystroke. And let’s be real, if your life’s ambition it is to have even one person consider you a polymath, or better yet, a Renaissance Man (or woman), how can you get there if you never expand your horizons?… In truth, I think I’ve got something to say and a story to tell in this arena, even if those who ultimately hear it are counted in the hundreds instead of thousands, and if I don’t get it out of me I’ll regret not having done so. I also like to challenge myself, just to see if I’m up to it, and I love creating new characters, both complex and conflicted, and I think this setting will allow me to create some that would not just be out of place, but lack credibility in writing what I usually do. That doesn’t mean there won’t be some crumbs of golf sprinkled throughout, at least in some small way because hey, I probably can’t help myself at some point. At this point, though, those crumbs are few and far between, but it’s early in the game, and there’s still time to for me to find a way to weave them in. Because as those of us in the business know, the foursome in front of me is forever at least two holes behind. Stay tuned…