The Flip of the Coin

Yeah, I know it's the holiday season, but at the moment I'm trying to ignore it, so I'm going with the theme!

Aren't all good attributes only the flip-side of something darker? Ambition is only a hair away from greedy, charm just a word away from manipulation, benevolence just a step from martyrdom, self-assurance a sneeze removed from assholery. Many strive for self-reliance and end up self-contained and lonely. Others look for an outlet for their love and affection and end up being used. Don't we always have to self-check to make sure the pendulum doesn't swing too far and we let our best characteristics turn into the thing that makes everyone run when they see us coming, or turns us into the person who's always taken advantage of? And, as writers, isn't it just plain old fun to push our characters into choppy, ugly waters before we let them redeem themselves or find the upside to being what they are?

Even when it's something a character can't help, a place or situation they've been born into and can't escape, there has to be a downside to being... well... them. There has to be. Otherwise, what's the point?

In my latest release, Jaguar in the Sun, the hero Xbal is a jaguar god. Wouldn't being one be just freakin' awesome? He can shift into jaguar form, do magic (including a particularly intense form of sex magic that takes eons to perfect) and is immortal. What could be better than that?

Ahhh... well, that last one is the bugbear. Immortality. In a world where very few other beings live forever like he does. Love, which he's experienced in the past, is something to be avoided when you know there's no doubt you'll outlive your mate...and have eternity to mourn him or her. As Queen sang, "Who wants to live forever, when love must die?" Xbal isn't against love, he just wants no part of it because it hurts too damn much. There's nothing he can do about the immortality, but he can control his heart.

Or so he thinks.

Have a great holiday everyone, and see you all in the New Year!

Book four in the Unveiled Seductions series.

Cassandra Solinar has a bucket list and jaguar god Xbal Montegro is on it. About to undergo an essential rite she won’t survive, she wants to wring every ounce of pleasure out of the time left. Including discovering if Xbal’s sex magic technique is as good as rumored.

It’s no hardship for Xbal to accept Cassandra’s invitation for one erotic encounter, but far more difficult to let her go once he gets a taste of the explosive passion between them. Now he’s determined to hold on to her, no matter what.

Cassie can’t tell Xbal the truth about what she’s about to do. It’s illegal, but without her death the entire world will perish. It’s a job she’s been preparing for from birth, but the loss will be greater now. For in Xbal she finds a soul-deep connection she doesn’t want to lose, and the one thing she made a point of not putting on her bucket list—love.

Holiday Madness

This is the first year in many that I'm not working in retail, so I'm actually looking forward to the holidays. It was bad enough when I sold jewelry, and we fought for the chance to work on Christmas Eve, hoping to be the one helping those men who bought last minute and often impulsively. Worse yet when I worked part time at a craft store, because although by Christmas Eve the store was quiet, by then we had already moved on to the spring stock and it felt as though I'd had enough of Christmas already... in fact I'd felt that way since some time in October!

So I plan to "do" Christmas this year, rather than just throw the tree up a couple of days before-hand and pretend it was enough. And where does that leave my writing? I'm not 100% sure. I'm not used to being able to produce at this time of the year, so it'll be a novel experience (pun intended, hopefully) to actually have a bit more time to devote to it. With the kids grown and all having their own things to do, and most of our families far away, I think it'll be fairly quiet around here. Not ideal perhaps, since this is the time for families, but until I have a grandchild or two (looks innocent) I think this is how things will go.

Now just to entice my old witch of a muse to get her butt off whatever beach she's hanging out on and come home for the holidays! I have the next book in the Unveiled Seductions series to write. In the mean time, here's a sneak peek of my next release.

Coming soon from Ellora's Cave: Jaguar in the Sun Available December 4, 2013

Jaguar in the Sun

Anya Richards

Book four in the Unveiled Seductions series.

Cassandra Solinar has a bucket list and jaguar god Xbal Montegro is on it. About to undergo an essential rite she won’t survive, she wants to wring every ounce of pleasure out of the time left. Including discovering if Xbal’s sex magic technique is as good as rumored.

It’s no hardship for Xbal to accept Cassandra’s invitation for one erotic encounter, but far more difficult to let her go once he gets a taste of the explosive passion between them. Now he’s determined to hold on to her, no matter what.

Cassie can’t tell Xbal the truth about what she’s about to do. It’s illegal, but without her death the entire world will perish. It’s a job she’s been preparing for from birth, but the loss will be greater now. For in Xbal she finds a soul-deep connection she doesn’t want to lose, and the one thing she made a point of not putting on her bucket list—love.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

What Price Freedom? Invaluable!

Freedom is one of those human conditions we all strive for and yet can often be elusive, since there is a fine line between personal freedom and selfishness, the need to do your own thing balanced by the needs of others. The urge to follow our dreams versus the need to make ends meet. For most of us, these are the issues we battle with as we seek liberty—freedom to create what we want, be it a life, art, relationships, careers—but we should never forget we are the lucky ones. As a descendent of slaves I try to keep perspective by reminding myself that while I search for freedom to write what I want, to live as I like, it’s nothing in comparison to what my ancestors faced, and unfortunately what millions of people around the world still face.

Of course the search for freedom makes a wonderful plot point too, because it’s such a fundamental urge. In “Dragon’s Claim” my hero Talathion, an elf, has never known true freedom. Since the moment he was born his path has been set, the needs of his clan having to take precedent over whatever dreams he had for his own life. When his task is interrupted by an encounter with the dragon-shifter Hervé, Tala is left struggling to control his growing love for the other man, knowing there is no future for them. Too many others will suffer if he puts his personal freedom ahead of the task he’s been assigned.

And while Hervé can’t truly understand his lover’s need to do what the elf considers to be the right thing, he has to accept that the impulse to give, to elevate his clan through sacrifice, is an integral part of Tala’s character. He can’t love the man without accepting this facet of him, without accepting his freedom to be who he is at that most basic level.

And I think that is the ultimate freedom, being able to choose how we live, where and how much we sacrifice to build not only a good life for ourselves but for others. Without giving, without sacrificing for others and acknowledging those who have less, I don’t think we can truly appreciate what we have. So many people are bound in by expectations, traditions, the desperate need just to survive or the implacable control of others. If you are not one of these people, if you have the ability to choose where and how you live, what you present to others, how much of yourself you give, then enjoy that freedom. Enjoy it, and give thanks for it.

Once More, with Feeling

For me, love scenes are tough to write (gasp!) and sometimes tough to read. It seems there is, in some quarters, the feeling that erotic romance is basically stringing a succession of sex-scenes together. Yet it is, like any other genre, subject to rules. Yes, there is a heightened sexuality and frank language, but just as in any other kind of book there has to be a cohesive plot. Without one, you might as well be reading a bunch of those “true confession” letters in a men’s magazine.

And also each scene must serve a purpose—including the sex/love scenes. For me, when the love scenes are really hot you can almost bet your sweet bippy there is a new and thrilling shift in the relationship going along with it. Yes, the characters are having sex, slots and tabs as per usual, acrobatics, dominance etc. not essential (although sometimes welcome and even necessary, depending on the characters), but they’re also discovering something about themselves or their partner at the same time. While they’re doing that, the reader is learning about them too, and the heat is ramped up.

For me there has to be emotion, whether acknowledged or fought against, and relevance, or it’s just sex.

It could be the thrill of finally realizing the dream of having an encounter with the man the heroine’s been lusting after forever. Or perhaps the moment when a man looks at the person he’s having sex with and thinks, ‘Mine.’ Even the second when, scared spitless, one of the characters recognizes the very thing they didn’t want—love—has entered the equation. There are a bunch of different scenarios, instant attraction, resurgence of floundering love, angry sex, make-up sex, etc. that we use as plot devices, but the bottom line is if you don’t have emotion behind it and a reason for the sex, it just isn’t hot to me.

And let’s not forget there are scenes in books where the characters never even get undressed, much less get to actual sex, that can be hotter than the desert on a mid-summer day! The slow seduction scene that gets interrupted or is curtailed because one character knows the other isn’t ready is an example that comes to mind. Again I bet it's the heap of emotion behind it that makes the temperature rise.

So up the stakes, up the feelings behind the action, up the revelations and discoveries through the lovemaking and, in my estimation, the heat quotient rises too!

Anya

Journeys Through Seduction

Anya Richards/Anya Delvay books available from Samhain Publishing, Ellora's Cave, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Chapters Indigo.

Pretty, pretty

I know this month's theme is when good ideas go bad, but since meeting deadline at the end of April I'm afraid my brain is a useless pile of goo.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to pull SO many all nighters and early mornings.

I'm so distracted. Easily distracted lately as my brain re-gels into whatever state it was in prior to meeting the Harlequin deadline, so I thought I'd share this pretty, pretty with you! Another bear shifter book!

Oh, so very pretty.

It's the sequel to Mounted Release and it's coming out June 7, 2013. YAY!

Here's a blurb:


Jared Stevens hasn’t been the same since he was shot. His duty is to marry a
Mukswa woman and be a strong leader. He lets the elders of his clan choose his bride,
because the woman he wants is only in his fantasies, the only woman who brings him to
exquisite release.

Adele Banks loved being a Mountie, but one shot ended her career and altered
her world forever. Adele is determined to make a life for herself. She’s hired to recover
Beare Enterprises embezzled funds, but what she didn’t count on is being extremely
attracted to her client when meeting him for the first time as he’s naked in his shower.

Adele is Jared’s mystery woman, but she’s taboo. He bonds to her, but has to keep
his society secret, as much as he wants to mark her as his own.

As Jared fights his own inner beast, remnants of the prior chief’s wrath is affecting
the clan and Adele. To save Adele’s life, Jared may just have to betray his clan’s secret
and risk his heart.

A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Enjoying, but Maybe Over-analyzing?

So, this has been a banner month for me in many respects. Today marks the release of my second book this month, Stone-Hard Passion, book two in the Unveiled Seductions series. Book one, Fleeing Fate, came out at the beginning of July, and I’m really stoked!

It was also a banner month for me in relation to movies…I watched TWO! Yeah, okay, all the movie buffs that just read that probably fainted in horror, but for someone like me, who rarely watches movies, it’s a lot!

My husband finally got me to sit down with him and watch The Avengers. I enjoyed it thoroughly, all except the preamble, which consisted of my husband feeling that he had to explain every character to me. I shut him up by reminding him I grew up with an older brother, who was a fan of comics. I also reminded him that although I don’t watch a bunch of movies, I like to keep up-to-date on pop culture…who the heck doesn’t know who Iron Man, Thor, Nick Fury and the like are? And being a mythology buff, I probably had a better handle than most people on Loki’s possible character and issues.

One of the things that struck me when I was watching The Avengers was just how far special effects have come. Not that the effects overshadowed the movie. Instead they made the movie possible. Without them it would have been a cheesy rehash of one of the old comics rather than a believable altered-reality experience.

The other movie I saw was Magic Mike and, again, I enjoyed it thoroughly and more than just for that glimpse of Channing Tatum’s backside *blink, blink*. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that it actually had a plot, the hero had a well-defined arc and the heroine stuck to her guns until the end. That last point, in particular, was a pleasant surprise. She disapproves of Mike’s lifestyle and the road he’s put her brother on, and she doesn’t allow the attraction she feels to make her lose sight of those facts.

To me the movie was truly made by the contrasts in the characters. Matthew McConaughey’s Dallas is the wheeler-dealer who never got out, and doesn’t want to. He knows this world, loves it, and believes it will make him rich. Channing Tatum’s character dreams of getting out. The stripping world has been good to him but it’s ultimately unfulfilling and he knows it can’t last. He also realizes it pigeon-holes him in the eyes of the world, and is smart enough to know that won’t change with time. Alex Pettyfer’s character is just getting in and he’s dazzled by the money, sex and drugs. The Kid gives us an all-too-familiar look at a life derailed by selfishness and a sense of entitlement. By the end I wanted to smack/throttle him, which was probably the writer’s intent.

There’s one thing I noticed, didn’t care for and was left wondering if anyone else did. While we all know the world depicted in the movie isn’t all bunnies and roses but a gritty, often dangerous place, there was, to me, a sly almost snide indictment of stripping and those who strip. I thought that aspect of it was overdone, but perhaps I’m being over-sensitive. I’ve never been a stripper (and I’m sure the public is suitably grateful for that fact!) but I know all kinds of people do all kinds of jobs to get by in life. As a slice-of-life vignette Magic Mike was unbalanced in favor of society’s often hypocritical condemnation of those involved in anything remotely sexual in nature. As an erotic romance writer, I find it rather offensive but maybe I’m over-analyzing. It would be interesting to hear if anyone else felt the same way!

New Release

I know this month is about Steampunk and I adore that subgenre and I KNOW that shape shifters theme has passed, but I had a new release involving shape shifters.

Also I've been away during March Break and couldn't think of anything to say on Steampunk other than I love it! I love, love, love it. Pathetic I know.

Anyways, the bear one I hinted back when we were all talking about beasties.

Mounted Release was released on March 9 from Ellora's Cave.

I hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It's my first shapeshifter and probably won't be my last.

Here's a little excerpt:

Sheridan tumbled out of the cruiser holding her head as if in pain and his heart skipped a beat. He hoped there wasn’t something seriously wrong with her internally, like a hemorrhage or concussion, that was causing her to be a bit clumsy.

“Are you all right, Miss Stevens?” He rushed to her side and held her steady. Even through the thick snow that clung to them he could smell the heady scent of lavender and sun-baked hay, it reminded him of summers down on Rice Lake. Summers he spent swimming and fishing, it seemed like ages ago. A pang of homesickness engulfed him. He hadn’t thought of home in so long.

Sheridan froze and pushed his hands away. “I’m fine.” She began to shiver and he slipped his parka over her shoulders. “Don’t you need this, Constable Thomas?”

“I can handle the cold, besides you were the one in the accident.”

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Gordon nodded and slung his rucksack and his rifle over his shoulder. “Come on, it’s this way.” He held out his hand and she took it, letting out a gasp of surprise when they touched.

“You’re hot, I mean…oh lord.” She blushed. “Forget what I mean.”

Gordon chuckled. “I understood what you meant. It’s okay. I’m used to the cold.”

She sent him an inscrutable look as she tried to keep up with his pace through the high drifts.

“No one is that used to this kind of cold.”

“It would be colder if it wasn’t snowing. If it were a clear night I would be setting up camp in the patrol car instead of hiking out to the cabin. However, I don’t see this storm ending any time soon.” He waited for her to catch up. He tried to make his steps even and deep so she wouldn’t have to break the snow, but where he stood at six foot three she was a hell of a lot shorter. If he had to guess she was about five foot six. Tiny compared to him.

She stumbled and he reached out, catching her before she went face first into a snowbank.

“Dammit I hate the snow,” she cursed.

“Then you’re living in the wrong place, Miss Stevens.”

“Just call me Sheridan, and I’m beginning to question my judgment on coming up here.”

“Where are you from?” He didn’t get an answer immediately.

“Don’t I have a right to remain silent?”

Gordon cocked an eyebrow. Now he really knew something was fishy. “You don’t have to tell me, I was just making conversation.”

“Thanks, but I’m not in a conversing mood. I just want to get to somewhere warm where I can defrost.”

Gordon laughed again. “Totally understandable.”

They continued on in silence. He stopped every once in a while to let her catch up, but all too soon he could see the exertion of walking through the snow was too much for her. Sheridan had been through a lot tonight and if they kept up at this rate it was going to take them hours to get to the cabin. He scooped her up, causing her to cry out.

“What are you doing?”

“Carrying you, you’re exhausted.”

“You can’t be that strong, to carry me.”

Gordon grinned at her and fought the urge to place a kiss at the end of her little pixie nose. “It’s nothing to me. We’re almost there.”

Sheridan shook her head. “You can see your way in the dark, you’re not affected by the cold and you’re as strong as a…” She trailed off, her body stiffened in his arms. “Don’t mind me. Just tired.”

“You’ll be able to rest soon.” Gordon was pretty sure she was going to say bear. How right she would be, but he also got the sense that she knew what he was but was denying it.

A shiver ran down his spine and it wasn’t from the cold. Was she Mukswa too? Females of the clan couldn’t shift, only the males could. If she was female, what the hell was she doing out here alone? Female Mukswa were revered and protected by their clan. Especially during the years they were able to have children.

If she was a Mukswa it would explain the reason why he was reacting to her like an untried youth and it also probably meant she was in heat. Gordon inhaled deeply and recognized the cloying perfume smell. Yes, she was in heat.

Where was her mate?

The thought of an enraged male encroaching on his territory up here made him sick to his stomach.

Whether Sheridan Stevens liked it or not he was going to get some answers from her and he’d find the mate mark on her body. He didn’t want an angry male up here.
The last thing he needed was a fight on his hands.

The cabin was a welcome sight. He set her down and opened the door. She followed him inside cautiously, clinging tightly to the parka as if her life depended on it.

The cabin was adequate shelter. It was a large, square room with a small kitchen tucked into one corner, a fireplace against the wall and a wooden bunk in the other corner. He strode over to the opposite side of the cabin and opened the door to another small room, which had a stock of firewood, some canned goods and a composting toilet.

When he entered the main room Sheridan Stevens was still huddled by the front door, shaking in his oversized parka. He walked past her and locked the front door.

“I’ll get a fire started.” He dropped his rucksack on the roughhewn table but took the gun with him. Female Mukswa or not, he didn’t know her and he damn well couldn’t trust a female on the run. He knelt down by the fireplace, on alert now, waiting for a male to show up.

“What should I do?” Sheridan asked nervously.

He didn’t even look back at her. He was angry she was here. He had left Ontario to escape the clan. He didn’t want to be near another one. For ten years he had managed to bury that part of his life and yet here he was, locked in a cabin with a female. In heat. This was going to test his willpower, more than he cared to try.

“Constable Thomas, what should I do?”

“Once I get this fire started you can get undressed and show me your mate mark so I know who you belong to.”

Changing face of Romance

I've been wracking my brain trying to think of something insightful to say on this subject, which hasn't already been said by the other awesome members of this blog.

When I first sold, first started in this industry it was to Ellora's Cave. An e-publisher and for so long I wasn't recognized as a "real" author. I wasn't published in what the RWA calls, New York.

It was disheartening to say the least, but I loved writing for Ellora's Cave. I love writing erotic romance.

Still, I had many people look down their nose at me. I wasn't a real author. Wasn't it cute I was just dabbling in a hobby. Wasn't it sweet that I thought I was a "real" author.

Now it seems the literary worlds is EXPLODING with e-publishing. I see e-readers wherever I go and now those same naysayers are scrambling to get a piece or a foothold in this fast-paced industry.

I started in this industry in 2006, being published in 2007. It's been interesting to watch the changes and exciting too.

I can't wait to see where we'll be in another five years. Heck, with the way things are changing so fast, I can't wait to see where we'll be tomorrow.

Happy Holidays

It's very cool to be blogging on Christmas Day.

Talk about your cool luck of the draws! :)

Christmas is pretty magical time anyways. I mean a jolly fat man who can squeeze down a chimney and a reindeer whose nose glows, or in the words of Yukon Corneilius "His beak blinks like a blinking beacon."

I'm really looking forward to the New Year. I have a paranormal book releasing sometime in the New Year under my alter ego Amy Ruttan. Remember when we were talking about shifters? I have a bear shifter coming up with EC in 2012, and my bear is a member of the Mounties. *grin* So look for Mounted Release in the new year.

I hope to have some more too.

This year was a great year, even greater given the fact I got to meet up with these lovely authors from Beyond the Veil. They let me join this fantastic group and it's been amazing.

I hope you and yours have a very happy holidays and a wonderful New Year.

Lots of love,

Amy