One of my favorite writers of late is an author by the name of E.M. Foner. I first became aware of his books on an Amazon search, the cover art was intriguing looking almost like the cover of a graphic novel. He was offering the first three books of his Union Station series. By the time I was through with the first book in the series, I was hooked. He has now written 20 books in that series, as well as at least seven other books in spin-off series’ and I have read them all. The books were so different. They were sci-fi books but with a difference, rather that laser battles and space ship wars, the books deal with the interplay between various species of aliens as they learn to work with humanity, who are kind of the new kids on the galactic block. The books are really well written, clean, humorous and interesting and I really love to read them.
The other day I was browsing through Amazon to see if any new books came out and I saw one called Game Ship by Morris Foner. The cover art is almost certainly by the same artist who created the Union Station series, and the same last name made me realize it was probably the same guy. I looked it up and sure enough Game Ship showed up on E.M. Foner’s Facebook page. It turns out the book is very different from the author’s other work, a little darker and more dystopian, and so rather than confusing his readers, he wrote the book under a (slightly) different name. I just finished reading it and it was another very well written book. It was very different stylistically and yet, the work “felt” like Mr. Foner’s work. It was like even though the book was very different, I could still tell it was his work. I think that’s important. If you have developed a style, it will likely carry through to your other work, especially if you are trying to do something innovative or original, Developing a style takes time and effort. It is the kind of thing that comes from long periods of self discovery by way of creating. I see this in most of my work. I feel like across a large body of work, a style is emerging and even if I work in a different medium or genre, my work still feels like me. I think this is really important. Does your work feel like you. If you’re not sure, keep working. And by the way if you are sure, the same rules apply.
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