Some writers write in more than one genre, for example, a writer might dally in detective stories, romances, YA, and other types of fiction. Others, like me, seldom step outside our comfort zone. All my stories are set in the same world, with a science fiction feel. I don’t understand how writers can write stories across multiple genres. To help me understand, I asked some friends to share their thoughts on this topic.

Here’s what Diane Morrison told me: “You might not think that Western and sci-fi/fantasy blend well, but they really do. Both genres depend upon ancient mythological tropes of heroism; the Hero’s Journey, as it were; especially if you’re going to draw from spaghetti western movies, which I do. They were, in and of themselves, a blended genre; they exist because Italian directors wanted to make westernized samurai movies. To me, this only demonstrates how some themes, like…