A Promise to My Readers

As a romance reader, I don’t have a favorite genre. I grew up reading M/F, but these days I mostly read M/M. I like male submissives, whether the top is male or female, but I’ve read and enjoyed plenty of M/f too. I can get equally into a tender romance or a kinky BDSM story. What gets me going is interesting characters, hot sex, and good writing.

The genres I write in match the genres I read in. In other words, it might be anything. The advice usually given to authors who write in multiple genres is to separate them by pen name. That way you, the reader, would know that Amy writes contemporary M/F feel-good stories or that Barbara writes hardcore M/M BDSM, and your expectations in buying a book would be met.

If I only wrote in two sub-genres, I’d do that, but I’m all over the place. And it’s only going to get worse. I don’t even know what else might come out. So when someone picks up a Tanya Chris book, what can they expect?

These are my promises to you, the reader:

• My books will be feminist-friendly. Women will not be objectified or hurt. They will occupy positions of power and trust at least as often as men do. They will be free to enjoy sex, however they enjoy it, without judgement, and they’ll be treated respectfully by their partners
• I will not propagate hate towards any group. My books will encourage diversity and tolerance. They will be sex positive for all consensual sex acts
• My characters won’t abandon each other over misunderstandings or overblown jealousy. They’ll discuss what needs to be discussed and will be respectful of each other’s positions. I won’t ask my characters to fall in love with people who abuse them
• Most importantly, I will be clear in my descriptions, particularly with respect to story length and gender pairings.  I’ll give content warnings for triggers that might not be obvious from the plot. I will choose transparency over cheap surprise or increased sales

Whether a book takes place today, two hundreds years ago, or two hundred years in the future, whether it deals with humans or shapeshifters or aliens or I-have-this-one-idea-that-involves-Satan, whether it’s M/F or M/M, or non-binary, monogamous or menage, I’ll stick to my principals, and I’ll give you enough information to decide whether to buy or to pass.

It’s OK to pass. We all have our preferences, and those are OK.

Happy reading!
Tanya

Bonus promise: There will be hot sex scenes. Because I love those.

Graphic courtesy of Freepik