Sometimes you might have difficulty following my logic, because some of my sentences don’t seem to follow the ones before them. In Australia, Spaghetti and meat sauce is called “spag bol” (short for spaghetti Bolognese). The defense rests.

Actually, though that is a good example of a non-sequitur, it’s not what I am talking about. I’m referring instead to authors who build a career on writing one type of book, and then suddenly come out of the blue with something new and unexpected. The same kind of thing can happen to actors.

Die Hard was a very successful movie that elevated Bruce Willis to heights of action-stardom he had never before reached. After making Die Hard, Willis then starred in a movie called Hudson Hawk. This is a brilliantly funny movie that pokes fun at the action-movie genre. It never attempted to take itself seriously. However, in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Die Hard, the marketing department created movie trailers that tried to sell Hudson Hawk as an action flick, insuring that it would be a dismal failure at the box office. As a satire, it was an inspired film that I can’t recommend highly enough. What you think of the film has a lot to do with what you expected from it when you walked into the theater.

The same can be said for writers. Writing the same type of book over and over again can guarantee you sales. Writing something new and different, particularly if you’re the kind of author who writes the same thing over and over again, can cost you readers. That’s why a lot of authors who write in divergent genres have separate pseudonyms.

This came to mind because I’m reading Clive Barker’s book, The Abarat. Having read both Weave World and Imajica before (I particularly love Imajica), I had certain expectations of what a Clive Barker book should be. Unfortunately, The Abarat, while Barkerish in many ways, is more of a young adult book, which I wasn’t at all prepared for. It’s well written. It’s entertaining enough, but it doesn’t have the hard edge I’ve come to expect from a Barker offering. As a result, I’m not in love with the book, which isn’t the author’s fault. I shouldn’t have entered the book with preconceptions.

I’m sure I don’t need to provide examples of people who write the same book over and over. The publishing industry is rife with them. So is Hollywood (Friday the 13th Part 111 is coming soon, I understand). The danger comes when an author who writes in one genre, changes his or her stripes without warning. Unless they were writing all over the map in the first place, some fans will be dissatisfied.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for new and improved. Yet sometimes, I want to spend time with an old friend, and if that friend has changed substantially without me noticing, my planned reunion might not be as satisfying as it might have been. Author non-sequiturs will do that.

Even if India did beat Australia in the 20/20 Cricket World Cup this year.