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.

A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing

While I was still an unpublished author, but with two novels already completed and gathering dust under the bed, I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. I wanted to see if I could write under pressure, because although I knew I could write quickly I was looking ahead to when I may find myself under deadline. Pretty cheeky, for a woman who had only, to that point, received a drawer full of FOAD* letters from publishers, editors and agents. Yet, I wasn’t at all sure that if an agent said to me, “I love your premise and I want to see it. How soon can you get it to me?” I’d be able to produce.

I’d also done a lot of learning since I wrote the first two novels—taking courses, discovering just how much I didn’t know, figuring out what the market wanted, finding out all the stuff I was doing that shouldn’t ever be done. I felt ready to move on to the next level, to write a book I could actually have a chance of getting published with. So NaNoWriMo was my personal test, my big push toward success.

For anyone not familiar with National Novel Writing Month, you’re asked to commit to writing fifty thousand words during November. At the end you’re expected to have a first draft, not a book all polished and ready to be subbed. You’re also encouraged to have some kind of plan so you’re not stumbling around writing yourself into corners and wasting time.

Even as a pantser I knew my chances of writing a novel of that size without some kind of outline were slim, so I came up with everything I thought I needed—a plot, character outlines, research notes. I was ready!

I started on November 1^st and cranked out three thousand words the first night. The second night I cranked out a thousand, but it was hard going. You have to understand, I didn’t doubt I could get the word-count. I’d done almost one and a half that much in the past. I was aiming for a good first draft, something that didn’t need much work at the end, so I was paying attention to all those rules I’d learned, trying to follow my plan, pushing, forcing, biting and clawing toward the end.

I didn’t finish writing the book.

It bored the crap out of me.

Hatred isn’t a strong enough word for how I felt about my heroine, hero, the plot, my writing. I had a moment where I thought I was done for. I’d failed the test and had about ten thousand words of unadulterated effluvia to show for it.

I won’t bore you with the details of my depression, hair-tearing etc. I can tell you what I learned from that experience was invaluable. I can’t force a plot or ignore the direction my characters want to go in. I can produce quickly, but there has to be a certain level of freedom to the writing, so I can stay engaged and let my imagination really be in control. But most importantly I learned that slavishly following all the writing rules, trying to conform to every little thing people say you MUST or absolutely SHOULDN’T do is the fast road to boring, stagnant writing and an unfinished book. It’s like I learned in art class…the best abstract artists are those who know exactly how to draw and paint in a realistic fashion, but choose not to.

There was other good news too. On November 12^th I had an idea—a vague, “suppose” kind of idea—started writing it to get the bad taste of defeat out of my mouth, and got the entire 50K first draft finished in time to receive my NaNoWriMo certificate. I still had a lot of work to do to find my voice, to discover which rules I was able to break effectively, and I re-wrote that book a couple of times before it became Breaking Free, my first erotic historical novel.

I’ve had other unfinished books since then, but now I tend to know fairly early when to let go and not waste my time on a thread-bare plot or an untenable character. And I’m still learning when and how to break the rules… Sometimes we're better off not knowing them at all, I think!

*For anyone not familiar with FOADs, that’d be F*** Off And Die.

What's Happening in Bianca D'Arc's Worlds Lately...

So much has been going on over here since the last time I visited this blog... I'm sure I'll miss a few things, but the biggest recent thing has been the release of TALES OF THE WERE: ROCKY, which is still burning up the charts. Here's a little bit about it:

On the run from her husband's killers, there is only one man who can help her now... her Rock.

Maggie is on the run from those who killed her husband nine months ago. She knows the only one who can help her is Rocco, a grizzly shifter she knew in her youth. She arrives on his doorstep in labor with twins. Magical, shapeshifting, bear cub twins destined to lead the next generation of werecreatures in North America.

Rocky is devastated by the news of his Clan brother's death, but he cannot deny the attraction that has never waned for the small human woman who stole his heart a long time ago. Rocky absented himself from her life when she chose to marry his childhood friend, but the years haven't changed the way he feels for her.

And now there are two young lives to protect. Rocky will do everything in his power to end the threat to the small family and claim them for himself. He knows he is the perfect Alpha to teach the cubs as they grow into their power... if their mother will let him love her as he has always longed to do.

Buy it now from: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Smashwords - and other etailers.

How about we look at some upcoming releases? I actually have one next week that will mark a bit of a milestone for me...

On Tuesday, 1/29, the last of my old Dragon Knights novels is being re-released. DRAGON STORM was revised for the release a bit more than the other five books in the series and marks the end of the re-releases. From now on, we will be having all NEW books in the series. Three new stories are slated for 2013 - one new novel, KEEPER OF THE FLAME, releasing on 2/26 and two new novellas - THE DRAGON HEALER and MASTER AT ARMS - which will be out in July and August of 2013.

First a bit about DRAGON STORM, in case it's new to you:

Their love will span the ages... and two very different worlds.Caught in a magical storm and deposited in modern-day Oregon, twin dragon princes Darius and Connor are looking for a way home. Instead they find something most unexpected - their mate. The one woman who holds both their hearts in the palm of her healing hand - along with secrets about her origins that link their shared destinies.

When Josie patches up the injured man on her doorstep, her snowcat instincts tell her he’s much more than a man. And so is his brother. She also knows her dragon lovers cannot fly free in the modern world. The only way to return them to their rightful place is to face the failures of her past, and leave the safety of her forest cabin to seek her estranged grandfather’s counsel. There she learns the painful truth: returning Darius and Connor to where they belong could mean giving up everything. Even her only chance for true love.

But fate has other plans for the trio. Magic swirls all around them. Whether it is for good or ill, only time will tell...

Warning: Contains a fiery hot ménage a trois, a wild cat-woman and two hunky dragon studs in black leather. A little time travel makes everything more interesting, doesn’t it?

Available for pre-order from: Amazon - Samhain

And in a surprise move, THE DRAGON HEALER is already up for pre-order, so here's a little bit about it:

What’s better than a knight sweeping you off your feet? Two knights.

Silla is a healer riding circuit on the border, helping those in need. When she hears the pained cries of a dragon in distress, she comes to his aid, using most of her precious supplies to help the badly injured creature.

The dragon’s knight, Brodie, is fascinated by the woman—the miracle worker—who has come to help his friend. She is both beautiful and kind hearted and he quickly realizes she is his destined mate. And if she is Brodie’s mate, she is Geoff’s as well, for Brodie’s dragon was mated to Geoff’s dragon many years ago.

Geoff doesn’t believe in the tales of love at first sight among knights, but he knows that when either he or Brodie finds a wife, they will share her. Hearing about the dragon’s injury, Geoff and his dragon race to help, only to find the dragon on the mend and Brodie in bed with the most stunning woman Geoff has ever seen.

Love at first sight turns out to be real and it strikes them all as they come together and realize that no matter what the obstacles, they are meant to be together. Silla is the missing link that will join their lives and make them a true Lair family.

Warning: Knights like to get frisky and these two are no exception. Beware the passion, playfulness, a bit of bondage and a whole lot of three-way loving with a tiny bit of exhibitionism thrown in for good measure.

Pre-order it now from: Amazon

And if paranormal or epic fantasy menage isn't  your thing, I also had a recent short story release in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF FUTURISTIC ROMANCE, which is also available as a standalone ebook called END OF THE LINE. Here's a bit about that one:

Jit'suku Captain Fedroval - Val for short - shoots down a one-man fighter out near the Galactic Rim, but the pilot, much to his surprise and horror, is a woman named Lisbet Duncan. The alien jit'suku have a strict warrior code. In their culture, making war on females of any species is a shameful stain on one's honor. The captain doesn't quite know what to do with Lisbet, but he can't let her die alone in space. He orders his men to tow her life pod into his much larger battle ship.

Val is the last of his line - heir to a legacy that cannot be continued on his own world - because no respectable jit'suku woman will have him after the destruction of his family. He has put all his considerable resources into building his state of the art battleship and joining the fight to take the human galaxy, hoping to restore his honor in some small way. This is Val's first foray into human space and his first encounter with a human female. And wouldn't you know it? He falls for her, head over heels for her.

Lisbet is attracted to Val as well. When he puts the moves on her, she can't resist his masculine charm, but she doesn't like being a prisoner - even if she is being kept in a gilded cage, treated more like a guest. She doesn't know a lot about jit'suku culture and it's pretty clear they don't understand much about humans. It's going to be fun educating her captor about just how headstrong, fierce... and loving... a human woman can be.

Buy it now from: Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Smashwords - and other etailers...

I have hopes for a few more releases this year but no solid news except for the sequel to WOLF HILLS, which is called WOLF QUEST and is currently scheduled for release in December from Samhain Publishing.

So we're all caught up for now, I think. If I missed anything, you can always find information on my website: www.biancadarc.com or catch me on facebook. I'm on there as "biancadarc" if you want to find me. ;-)

Happy New Year!!!

Dragon Knights New Arrivals!

 

Great news! All of the novels in my award-winning Dragon Knights series are being reissued, one per month, with new covers and new (minimal) edits. They started with the first book, Maiden Flight, in August.

 

The second book, Border Lair, will be released later this month, on September 25th. The new editions have seriously sexy new covers, all done by the amazing artist, Angela Waters. She also did the amazing cover for my last book, Wolf Hills, and all the Brotherhood of Blood series.

 

So this month, from me, you're going to get a bit of a "commercial" - sorry. I'm just so excited about having these books reissued with new covers and, as I said, new edits. For those of you who might have already read this series, the edits aren't anything major, so you're still good, I think, with the original versions.

The big thing we're building up to is the release of the new Dragon Knights novel, Keeper of the Flame, scheduled for next February.

 

Here's a little bit about Maiden Flight, which is availalbe now, for your delectation...
 

War is coming for the dragon knights…but love may find them first.

Dragon Knights, Book 1

A chance meeting with a young male dragon seals the fate of one adventurous female poacher. The dragon’s partner, a ruggedly handsome knight named Gareth, takes one look at the shapely woman and decides to do a little poaching of his own.

Sir Gareth both seduces and falls deeply in love with the girl who is not only unafraid of dragons but also possesses a rare gift—she can hear the beasts’ silent speech. He wants her for his mate, but mating with a knight is no simple thing. To accept a knight, a woman must also accept the dragon, the dragon’s mate…and her knight, Lars, too.

She is at first shocked, then intrigued by the lusty life in the Lair. But war is in the making and only the knights and dragons have a chance at ending it before it destroys their land and their lives.

Warning: Contains dragons, their sexy knights and a damsel who is not quite in distress. Sizzling hot m/f/m scenes may leave you breathing fire.

You can buy Maiden Flight now from: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Samhain, and other fine ebook sellers. This book will be reissued in print next year. In the meantime, you can still find this story in the print volume called Ladies of the Lair, which contains the original editions of both Maiden Flight and Border Lair.

Bianca D'Arc
Come over to The D'Arc Side... www.biancadarc.com

New! KING OF CLUBS by Bianca D'Arc

 

Hey! What happened to June? It seemed I blinked, and it was gone. Wow.

I have this private theory that time is speeding up. I can't prove it - much like Einstein couldn't do the actual math to prove his greatest theory - but I think time is actually going faster and we can perceive it as moving faster, but since it's relative to everything else, we can't really prove it.

Okay, so I just lost half of you. Sorry. Toss it up to watching too many "The Big Bang Theory" re-runs. (I love that show!) Anyway... I have a new book out. It's the third in a series of space opera novellas where the heroines all have some kind of clairvoyant abilities and the heroes are retired soldiers-turned spies working to keep our galaxy free from various threats including an alien race called the Jit'Suku and even space pirates.

Here's a little bit about it:

King Of Clubs - Arcana, Book 3

Spymaster Chip is the King of Clubs - a professional bar manager and soldier - sent to run intel operatives out of a bar on Madhatter Station near the Galactic Rim. Lila has been managing the bar in her sister's absence for two weeks when, as she predicted using her deck of cards and her clairvoyant gift, Chip arrives. Sparks fly between them almost immediately, only spiking higher when they uncover a plot to take over the station. Can the new lovers and a handful of retired vets avert catastrophe and save the station?

Chip didn't expect to find the bar open for business when he arrived at The Rabbit Hole on Madhatter Station. Not only is it open, but a beautiful woman is running the joint. He's instantly attracted to her, but tragedy in his past has kept him from getting involved in any but the most superficial of relationships. This woman, though, she tempts him like no other.

Lila foresaw the coming of her own personal Charlemagne, the King of Clubs. She had no idea he would be so appealing though. A widow, Lila didn't expect to be so attracted to the ex-soldier. Her female senses stir to life for the first time in years and she wants to get to know him better. A lot better.

When pirates plot to take control of Madhatter Station, it's up to Chip and Lila to organize the resistance. With a handful of well placed vets and a handful of pilots, they mount a defense, but will it be enough? Or will it be too little, too late? And what of the lovers? Will their love and belief in each other be enough to see them through one of the greatest tests of the human mind?

The book is available now from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Get it while it's hot! :)

Brotherhood of Blood: Wolf Hills

For some odd reason, blogger has been acting weird about certain posts on this blog. One of them happens to be my blog from last month talking about my newest book - Brotherhood of Blood: Wolf Hills. So here's a bit about it, in case you missed it...

RT Book Reviews Magazine gave Wolf Hills a coveted TOP PICK and called it "A truly fantastic read! With a page-turning plot, dynamic characters and plenty of heat, readers will devour every last delicious page."

Sally Decker is a big city police detective vacationing in Wyoming to visit an old friend who is newlywed to a mysterious foreigner. When Sally arrives in Wyoming, she quickly learns that her friend's new husband is the Master Vampire of the region and there's a werewolf Pack living just up the road.

Jason Moore is an Alpha on a mission. When he sees Sally for the first time, he knows there's something special about her. He's drawn to her and makes it his business to be her tour guide. He invites her to take her meals at the Pack house, in his company, not realizing his favoritism is going to wreak havoc among the single females in his Pack. But Sally can handle just about anything, including any werewolf bitch stupid enough to challenge her.

When werewolf children are targeted by evil hunters in the area, Sally refuses to sit on the sidelines. She helps the Alpha hunt the perps and free a child they've kidnapped, facing bombs, bullets and a lusty Alpha along the way. Unexpected allies and devastating attraction turn the rescue mission into a mating dance between Jason and Sally, who learns she's not entirely human. His magic sparks against hers, creating something entirely new and totally hot between the two. Will fate help them bridge the chasm between their separate worlds?

Buy now from Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Samhain - and other ebook retailers. Enjoy!

Keeping Things Fresh

Most of you who've read my books know I like to dabble in different worlds and situations. I like to skip around from paranormal to sci fi to epic fantasy and back again. I hope that's a good thing as far as my readers go. It certainly helps me keep things fresh and fun for me as a writer.

But I guess I can undestand where it might confuse some readers. Those who first came to know me through my dragon books, might not be so turned on by vamps and weres and vice versa.

Next month, my post will most likely be all about my new werewolf novel, BROTHERHOOD OF BLOOD: WOLF HILLS, which is a brand new installment in my Brotherhood of Blood series. It comes out April 17th and I will no doubt be talking it up anywhere and everywhere, but today, I'd like to just mention some other books - in a different genre - that are very near and dear to my heart.

By now you might've heard about KING OF SWORDS, a novella that had been previously released in a somewhat limited fashion (as part of an anthology) by Phaze Books. Well, it's out now - on its own - and it has a sequel!

KING OF CUPS is the second book in what will be a four-part series of novellas based on the kings of the tarot and playing card decks. What most people don't realize today is that each of the tarot suits (swords, cups, staves and pentacles) corresponds to a suit in the deck of playing cards we all know and love. Also, each of the kings represents a real king from history.  I've used their names and suits for the heroes and titles of each of my books. And to tie it all together, in each story, one of the characters reads cards to tell fortunes. ;-)

Here are the blurbs, in case you want to know more:

King Of Swords - Arcana, Book 1

David is a newly retired special ops soldier, looking to find his way in the unfamiliar civilian world. His first step is to visit an old friend, the owner of a bar called The Rabbit Hole on a distant space station. While there, he meets an intriguing woman who holds the keys to his future.

Adele has a special ability, handed down through her mother's line. Adele can sometimes see the future. She doesn't know exactly why she's been drawn to the space station where her aunt deals cards in a bar that caters to station workers and ex-military. She only knows that she needs to be there. When she meets David, sparks of desire fly between them and she begins to suspect that he is part of the reason she traveled halfway across the galaxy.

Pirates gas the inhabitants of the station while Adele and David are safe inside a transport tube and it's up to them to repell the invaders. But what good can one retired soldier and a civilian do against a ship full of alien pirates? Both will discover there's more to each other than meets the eye as they do their best to overcome the alien threat and retake the station.

Buy now from: Amazon, B&N, Smashwords

King Of Cups - Arcana, Book 2

Alexander is the proprietor of a working class bar called The Rabbit Hole. One of its best features, in his opinion is the petite woman who deals cards and sometimes foresees the future.

Della is an undercover operative working for the same intelligence service as Alexander, though he's only just come to realize it. She follows her visions of the future, with her employers' encouragement, to put her in the right places at the right times to do good for the human race. Lately, the right place has been in Alex's bar and the right time is quickly approaching. It'll be a turning point, both for her personally and for the warring races of humanity and jit'suku.

When the heir to the jit'suku empire is attacked, Della and Alex race to save him. Taken aboard the alien ship, Della and Alex must deal with a series of unforeseen events which put their lives and millions of humans and jit'suku in dire jeopardy. Can they find solutions for not only their people, but for themselves and the forbidden love they discover between them?

Buy now from: Amazon, B&N, Smashwords

Both of these books are now available in ebook formats from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ARe, Smashwords (for all other formats), and several other ebook retailers. Enjoy!

Being able to mix it up genre-wise is what keeps me going. Just lately, I've been writing a contemporary novel that has no paranormal elements in it at all! I know, that's a shocker, right? But guess what? Trying different things, mixing it up - and stepping out of my comfort zone once in a while - really helps me keep things new and exciting for me - and hopefully for you too.
Bianca D'Arc
Come over to The D'Arc Side... www.biancadarc.com

Huh? What Did You Say You Write?

I’m asked this question many times. At first, I tried to give the questioner a true definition of my work. But then I learned to stop doing that when their eyes starting glazing over. You see, for a lot of authors, this is a loaded question. Instead, I tend to give the person a definition that is relatively close to what they know.

My answer? I write Twilight for adults. That way they know I write about vampires and werewolves. They also know that I write erotica by the clarification that my books are for adults. Trust me. It’s so much easier than trying to explain.

The problem is that most people, including many writers, have a difficult time defining what each genre is. What is paranormal romance? What is fantasy? What is urban fantasy? I have long since decided that the labels don’t really matter. I write, as many authors do, a combination of many genres. We blend, taking parts of one genre and adding it to another. It’s not uncommon for stories to be a mix of multiple genres.

For instance, most of my books are considered paranormal romances. However, I also have hints of urban fantasy when I write kick-a** heroines. Sometimes, I’ll blend the paranormal with fantasy with a supernatural being and then set the action in a fantasy world.

But my point is this. Does it really matter to the reader? When a reader walks into a bookstore or goes online to purchase a book, do they really ask themselves, “What do I want today? A fantasy? A paranormal?” Doubtful. For the most part, the reader simply wants a good book.

To learn about my books, please visit my website at www.beverlyrae.com.

Thanks,

Beverly Rae

From Cuddle to Climax: The Changing Face of Romance

Romance is one of those things that, for many of us, is a guilty pleasure. I didn’t read it much when I was younger, I read more in science fiction and fantasy. The stories that excited me, though, had fully-developed relationships in them. When I first read Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series I found a fully-realized fantasy novel with actual sex and romance. What an eye-opener. From there, I started re-examining my assumptions about romance.

I think many of us who are in the science fiction and fantasy genre look down on romance because of all the usual things: it’s a trite storyline, they don’t really do anything interesting, the writing is tawdry, there aren’t any good stories. All of those statements, though, are incorrect. Sure, there are romance novels that fit that profile, but there are also science fiction, fantasy, and mystery ones that do. From my perspective with a B.A. in Russian literature and Civilization, I can also add that there’s a sort of elitism associated with disliking romance novels. For American women, it’s like liking soap operas: everyone says they are too intellectual to watch them, yet you scratch such a person and they can tell you who Victor on the Young and the Restless is. Once I started reading good romance, though, the chip fell off my shoulder very quickly. These stories are good, and the writers are good. And wow – talk about titillating and enticing!

It comes down to the guilty pleasures we pursue but don’t admit in public. Authors such as Hamilton bring those pleasures into the mainstream, and the rest of romance has followed suit. I think it’s a reflection more of society than of genre writing in particular – twenty years ago we would never have gay romances out and open on television nor would we have soft core porn on cable, yet now we have Queer as Folk and True Blood as two wildly popular shows. I think my fellow author Xakara is much better qualified to talk about modern media offerings, but I will say that I think society’s changing views and openness, at least as far as my own culture here in the U.S. is concerned, is getting more open and our books are a reflection of that.

For myself, writing erotica isn’t a new pursuit, but sharing it publicly is. I remember the first time I posted a story with sex in it, one that is relatively tame compared to my other stories, and I felt nervous and giddy. Now, Burning Bright, our new release with Samhain Publishing, has full-blown sex and BDSM in it – two subjects I didn’t think I’d be able to write publicly.

Because of this, I think the reading consumer is growing more sophisticated about what they like to read. Readers know what they like and they ant ore of it, better quality, and fast. This is not to imply that the quality of what is there is bad, but that with the ebook revolution there are more outlets for authors to play in and more opportunity for us to provide content that brings us a paycheck. It’s no longer the days of secretive sharing of erotic material or Penthouse Forum letters; now it’s mainstream publishers looking for fully-imagined stories in which sex is a factor of the action just as much as story is.

I think this trend will only continue. To some extent, our collective fascination with sex in the novel will wane as other things grab our attention. But I see the trend of having it here to stay because of the sophistication of internet search engines and the many ways publishers can now classify works. Back in the days of only brick-and-mortar stores, you could only put a book in one location in the store – and thus, the idea of the genre was born. It led to silly things – such as when I couldn’t find Stephen King’s book On Writing in the “Writing Books” section but found it in “Horror” along with his prodigious fictional offerings. With the internet, we can classify it in a multitude of ways so that the Stephen King fan and the person interested in writing can find it easily, though each has very different desires.

I’m excited by this trend, to be honest. The idea of genre makes me impatient, both as a writer and as a person interested in literature. I believe a story should be considered exactly that: a story, not a mystery, a romance, or whatever else. Then it can be judged on its merits as a story alone and not as being representative of a type. I think readers will need to modify some opinions for that to happen; but, in the meantime, with the prevalence of internet searches and keywords, those of us who want good stories with particular elements in them don’t have to wonder where to find them. We can simply do a search on the elements we desire and voila.

Story.

Write on!

Anecdotes and Anthologies

Greetings, Kittens!


This was originally meant to be a lovely post on the changes that have happened in erotic romance and romance in general over my four short years in the business. That's not going to happen. I'm just not well enough. Instead, you get an anecdote and a lovely excerpt from my newest TherianWorld Valentine's Day release, ITS SWEETEST FORM, part of the LOVE NOTES Anthology at Musa Publishing.


First, the anecdote. Five years ago last Saturday, (February 4th) I heard back on the very first thing I ever submitted, the TherianWorld novella SHIFTING PASSIONS. It was just a word of encouragement that the editor had enjoyed it and was passing it up the chain. This was followed by a contract offer and release one year later on February 26th, 2008. 


This February 4th, I heard back on my first erotic urban fantasy BLOODSPRITE. Again encouraging words that were followed by a contract offer, and publication will be later this year. 


It's not just the dates that make this stand out. BloodSprite was written first. I finished it in January of 2007 and two weeks later, I saw the open call at Samhain Publishing. I wanted to clear my mind of the grit and gunshots of urban fantasy and dive into a short paranormal romance in the same Therian World. Shifting Passions was born.


I fell headlong into the world of paranormal romance and making the relationships the focus of a story. It even invaded BloodSprite when I begin edits and revision of it. But in the end, no matter how much I felt that BloodSprite was a paranormal romance at heart, it still read as more of an urban fantasy and I just didn't run in those circles. 


People wanted possessive alpha males, and more accommodating females than Dante projects. And for god's sake, give her a feminine name already! But I refused to believe that the story could only be told with gendernormative characters and a more monogamous leaning. I gave a lot, but there were simply things I wasn't ready to give up, things I believed in. 


Fast forward five years and my beta male, femdom, sexually fluid, mildly genderqueer, intimate poly network, erotic urban paranormal fantasy romance, (see what I did there), is signed and ready to meet the world. And it's the first in a series, so there's much more to come!


I dedicate this Valentine's Day to the love of perseverance. Regardless of how the market changes or remains the same, there is, and always has been, the right editor and audience for every story you have to tell or wish to hear told. So hold on and hold out and keep moving forward. It might mean two years between your first and second book as it did for me. But as in my case, that can quickly be followed by three more immediately and four upcoming--I call that worth it. 


But enough of my fevered, (literally), ramblings and onto the blurby and excerpty goodness. 


Enjoy. 


LOVE NOTES Blurb:
Sometimes words on paper are magical, especially when lovers meet again and again.

Love is never a lost cause, and sometimes all it takes is a few special words written down to make all the difference in the world. Wayward cupids, lonely vampires, long-lost loves, and mysterious strangers come together in this collection sure to warm to your heart and steam up your screen. Read our Love Notes--four Valentine's stories from four outstanding romance authors Sam Cheever, Helen Hardt, Sloane Taylor and Xakara and then maybe write a few letters of your own!



ITS SWEETEST FORM Excerpt:
Brahm tried to ignore the similarities. College buddies wasn’t the same as growing up next door to each other, and roommate intimacy wasn’t the same as four years of homoerotic ad campaigns that paid for college, but it all hit a little close to home, especially being discussed in bed with his best friend pressed up against him and their best friend curled up behind her. He tried to say something intelligent.


“I get what you’re saying and I see where you’re going with it, but it’s not that simple. I’m not paying attention to his hands or mine. Unless he pulls away or flinches every time our hands brush, I don’t really care where he is. He’s a prop, and like any good wingman, he knows that. And I know he’s thinking the same thing about me. In your scenario, the only thing I probably don’t do is directly reach for him, because I don’t know how he’ll take it. But the moment I’m inside you and it’s all moving forward, all bets are off. If I’m in a position that I have to use him to brace for leverage, I’m going to. I’m not going to diminish my pleasure trying to triple check that he’s neither heebeed nor jeebied. He shouldn’t have gotten in the bed if he’s that sensitive. And on my end of things, unless he directly fondles my balls, I’m oblivious to any action that doesn’t add or detract from my own pleasures. Hell, depending on his timing, I might not notice that. He’d have to get his welcome and do not enter signs mixed up to make my radar in any kind of pull-back way.” 


He felt Eaton staring at him. “What? It’s true.” He shrugged off the scrutiny.

“I didn’t say nothing.” Eaton laughed and buried his face in the curve of Tessa’s neck.

“Why are you laughing, then?” Brahm’s mouth went a little dry but he refused to look away. He needed Eaton’s answer more than he cared to admit.

“Because it’s funny.” He lifted his head. “The whole thing is. If someone had asked about my first night back, I couldn’t have begun to come up with this scenario. But it feels completely normal. This is my life and that’s joyously hilarious. Even more, I completely agree. Depending on the moment, anything short of mounting me is going to go pretty much unnoticed. And on the Vampire side of things, if I’m in the middle of a blood haze at the time, I might not notice he did that until the next day when I’m sober again. If he did it right, I might not even say anything because I honestly wouldn’t know whose idea it had been at the time.”



You can comment to win a copy of the anthology LOVE NOTES featuring the most recent TherianWorld release ITS SWEETEST FORM at the TRS Valentine's Day Party. Or click any of the buy links above.


And you can find a complete list of TherianWorld Stories at Xakara.com

Fevered Ramble ~ Done, Kittens!


~Xakara

What Are Your Worlds Like?

Worldbuilding. What an intriguing word. Just the sound of it makes me feel omniscient, all-powering, and well, a bit goddess-like. But oh, how wrong I am!

When I think of worldbuilding, I tend to think of faraway planets, lost galaxies and lands lost in a different time. But worldbuilding isn’t restricted to those places. In fact, worldbuilding can exist in the present. A world built within our own sometimes boring world.

For instance, I write paranormal erotic romance. Most of my books are set in the here and now, right under our noses and based in contemporary time with today’s verbiage and surroundings. But I’m still worldbuilding.

There’s a catch, you see. I take the world and flip it on its side. Is it still happening right now? Yes. But is it worldbuilding? You betcha.

Consider a world where shifters walk among us. Although they may bump shoulders with a normal human on the street, they are a part of a subculture, a hidden society all its own. Do they live in our world? Or do they inhabit a world I created for them? The answer is both.

But let me ask you. Don’t all of us build our own worlds, even sub-worlds for our lives? People join specific groups and, thus, form another world, another reality, within their “regular” world. My worlds include the world surrounding my life as a wife and a mother. Yet my other world is the one where my wife-mom world gets put on the backburner, sometimes even forgotten, as I step into the world of writer. The only difference between the worlds everyone creates and the worlds created by writers is that writers get to make all the rules. Of course, that’s the part I enjoy the most!

So, tell me. What are your worlds like?

Beverly - www.beverlyrae.com

Romance in Space - Same as On Earth, Only Way Cooler!

It's been a while since I checked in here. My apologies. I've been wreaking havoc all over the place, working on new projects and celebrating a couple of new releases. Finally! I know it's been a while since there's been new material from me out and about. I'm glad to finally end the long dry spell.

Just lately, I've had a number of romances in futuristic space-faring settings release. First, a new novel that starts a brand new trilogy from Samhain Publishing, called HIDDEN TALENT. It released in ebook on October 25th and will be in print sometime next year. The second book in the series is titled TALENT FOR TROUBLE and the third will be called SHY TALENT. I anticipate those being released sometime next year, but will have more on exact dates when I get them.

HIDDEN TALENT is based on the premise that in the future, humans have developed and utilized certain kinds of psychic Talents. In some parts of the galaxy, gifted people share their strengths on a Council of those with Talent who rule over a group of planets. In other parts, people with Talent are hunted for their power. Jeri, the heroine of this story is on the run from one such planet and she crosses paths with a StarLord, Micah, who is on a covert mission for the Council. He recognizes her abilities and takes her with him aboard his starship.

What happens then is an education for the shy woman who grew up very repressed by Council standards. Aboard the good ship Circe, pleasure is shared freely in pairs or multiples as a way to enhance and recharge Talent. Micah teaches her all about her abilities and how to harness them. He never bargained on falling in love with the innocent Jeri, but there it is. They race to help an agricultural world under attack from space and together, they learn that they are more powerful than either one is alone.

KING OF SWORDS has also been rereleased in ebook formats. It is the first story in the Arcana series of novellas that ties into my Jit'suku Chronicles. Other books in the series include the Sons of Amber: Ezekiel & Michael. This story had been previously released as part of an anthology called FORTUNE'S FOOL, a couple of years ago from Phaze. That anthology is out of print now, so I'm reissuing this story in preparation for releasing the other stories in the series.

KING OF SWORDS is set in the Jit'suku universe, a few hundred years before the Sons of Amber stories. I anticipate having a number of related books set in this world, creating a generational saga that follows the consequences of human tinkering with soldiers' DNA, making them Enhanced, better than they were before and more dangerous to both races.

This particular story introduces a little bar on a space station called The Rabbit Hole, where information is passed back and forth to a network of spies working for the good of humanity. When aliens attack and try to subdue the station, it's up to a couple of retired soldiers turned spies and a clairvoyant civilian woman to repell the invaders. She teams up with one Enhanced soldier in particular. Together can they retake the station and find a love that will last for all time?

The second Arcana story is called KING OF CUPS and will be out in December. It follows the proprietor of The Rabbit Hole and his clairvoyant card dealer on an adventure into Jit'suku space. Few who have gone there have ever returned. They find themselves on an adventure of epic proportions simply by tryinig to help someone out of a jam. Trapped aboard an alien spaceship, they can no longer deny the attraction that has raged between them for months. Can they overcome their differences and find a solution to an intergalactic problem at the same time?

That takes me to the end of the year, but I have a lot more planned for 2012, so stay tuned! :)

Ideas: Concepts and Generation

(or:- What would happen if the buttered toast landed edgewise down?)


Welcome to the literary crucible.

Today we consider one of the most basic elements of fiction writing—The Idea. The other basic elements being, The Plot, and The Writing.


First off let’s start with two definitions of Idea

Idea:- Conception, plan of thing to be aimed at, discovered.
Oxford English Dictionary

Idea:- That concept which, after indeterminable hours; gallons of coffee and
sleepless; sore-eyed; computer staring nights; still evades the probing
mind of the frustrated author.
Author unknown

The frustration of an elusive idea is intense. The need to create and produce a specific piece of work is tantamount to an author’s psyche. Plus it has been known in certain circumstances to provide the check to pay the bills. It is at these moments that the true nature of an author is refined, the literary crucible that will either forge a true all weather author or break the writer down into a motionless, staring mass of idealess jelly.

So how, as authors, can we keep up an almost endless supply of ideas to feed into our clicking keyboards. There are as many answers to this as there are authors on full time pay roll at Greasy Joe’s Sludge Bucket Café, and no one way is particularly right. As part of the nice, helpful guy that I am I’ve gathered together and expounded below a system that I developed over roughly forty years of writing. This system is guaranteed to, with a dose of tremendous luck (and an even healthier dose of stealing other people’s ideas,) to generate your own ideas for any given fictional situation.

Of course what it doesn’t guarantee is getting the ideas in time for that elusive contract…

I’ve concentrated my examples here for fantasy work, fantasy being my main love and my fascination. But the system is transmutable and can be adapted for practically any form of writing you choose. Even Non-Fiction—the system was used in the production of this article itself.

Also, although I tend to discuss the issue in terms of a new idea for a fresh story, the system can be equally applied to sections in the middle, and or end of novels and other long pieces.

I hope you find this process as useful, and as enjoyable, as I have over the years. And use of the system is entirely free provided you deposit in my bank roughly a million dollars per hour usage…


Spend some time in the mad cafe

Regardless of who you are the creative human brain works best when alert but relaxed. Music often helps as some people find it tunes in the creative nature of the brain, though this is indeed a personal thing. It is possible to find many authors who will listen to music as they write for just this reason.

A similar kind of tuning needs to be done for finding and creating ideas. It is very important to find somewhere where you feel relaxed. I've always found that being uptight and fighting through piles of words and papers and forcing myself to find an idea for a particular piece is the most counter-productive thing I can do. By focusing on the fact that I can't find an idea, the solution appears to rapidly become more and more distant.

Where to relax is a personal thing. An armchair in a small room is common, maybe in bed if you can resist the urge to watch TV or sleep. My personal favorite is to go to a local cafe or bar and amidst the bustle of people find a small corner table and sit. Armed with a hot brew or pint of beer, and a cheese Danish I sit and face the throngs. With a pad and paper ready I just let the atmosphere of the others around me draw out the tensions and open my mind to any incoming thoughts.

There are writers I know, who will sit with friends and chat freely about their ideas and plots. This kind of chatter can help tremendously but do take a pad and write the ideas down frequently. Otherwise the majority of the stuff spoken about will be forgotten by the time you've left the bar, kitchen or whatever. Be judicious though, one friend of mine was animatedly discussing various ways to kill off the husband in her companion’s novel whilst treating themselves to a pizza at the local restaurant. Half way through the exercise where they'd been through the list of poisons and found them boring, tried arranging an accident and found it too risky and were working on murdering him in his sleep when an elderly lady from a nearby table stood up and began speaking very loudly and angrily.

"You cold hearted bi...."

The object lesson is, if you will discuss techniques of murder in public it pays to either let your eavesdroppers know it is fictional now and then, or keep a loaded gun in a clearly visible place.

Wherever it is or whatever you do the universal factor seems to be the need to break away from the computer/typewriter and to let your mind clear from the physical act of writing. This spring clean of the mind allows new ideas to form where the old cobwebs used to grow.

To see or not to see

This may have given you the impression that I'm advocating you do nothing to generate ideas. This is not true. I do believe though that ideas are all around us and what we need to do is to train ourselves to see them. Terry Pratchett, famous for his Discworld, was sitting in the airport lounge one day and saw what many of us would see. A tired and haggard tourist pulling one of those suitcases on wheels. This suitcase, like so many, kept going off in the wrong direction as if it had a life of its own.

On the strength of that observation the inimitable Luggage was born. That living travel chest known to eat wizards for breakfast…

So ideas surround us and we need to observe more. How many potential story ideas have we passed today but failed to see because we haven't actually looked to see if they were there.

For one poignant fantasy I remember driving the coast road close to my home. I drove this particular road every day to work and generally thought nothing of it. Yet on this unusual day they'd been an accident and I was forced with all the other drivers to slow the car to a walking pace. It was one of those particularly dreary cloud covered days which gave the sea a kind of grey hue. It occurred to me then that the sea looked lonely. Developing that idea led to my short story The Lonely Sea.

I am embarrassed to admit it took five years and an accident to make me observe, for the first time, the sea in that condition and to recognize that it had an emotion that could be used in a fiction tale. (The Lonely Sea was published years ago in a small press publication in England that I am now far too old to remember the name of.)

The thing is, we see so many things each day that are fuel for a writer’s imagination. And that is why taking a notebook with you and making copious notes is a godsend. Looking at my notes today, I saw the young couple having a tiff in the town mall with girl leaving rapidly, the young man following. There was a lost children's balloon scooting along in the wind under the eaves of town buildings. The strange, dragon shaped incense burner in a local store and the almost worshipful way that customers admired it.

Each of these have potentials for story ideas embedded in them. For example. The young man could chase his lover to apologize and they find themselves stepping through a portal to different parts of another world where they struggle to become reunited. The balloon is blown into the presence of evil and glares on the people below. The incense burner when wielded by the hand of the “faithful” becomes a creature of power and beauty, but little trust.
These germs of ideas would easily become short stories and possibly even novels.

Meet the media men

The media men can be the fantasy writer's greatest friends. Nine times out of ten if you are stuck for an idea for a fantasy story you need turn no further than your daily newspapers, news report or magazine.

Although any newspaper will do I tend to go for the ones which are less up-market. Tabloids would be wonderful if they didn’t appear to be mainly fiction from the get go. The newspapers I love are the ones which contain little paragraphs with snippets of information. These I regularly cut and stick into a scrapbook. Short pieces like:

'Police were baffled today when the missing housewife, XXXXX, was found drowned in her car on a bend off the A45, she had apparently driven through a hedge and trees into the river beyond. The reason that the search took so long [three days] to find the body was that the car had apparently passed through the hedges and trees without harming or breaking even a twig.'
—Now this is definitely fantasy stuff.


Then there's the not quite so obvious news item:

'Police today were praising the bravery of a young stranger who prevented the abduction of a child from the local play park. The assailant, described as in his late thirties, wearing a blue duffel coat and dark green trousers was scared off when the young man accosted him and refused to let him put the child in his car. Police are anxious to find the reluctant hero who disappeared soon after the assailant had driven off in a white....' Bingo! Ideas come tumbling down. Where did the young man come from? Where did he go? Why on earth did he confront the man who could have been the child's father?

I always look closely at everything, even the adverts can spark the odd crazy idea. Take this advert for example (the first one I found in a woman's magazine):

Advanced skincare with the Johnson's Touch.
Thanks to Johnson's you can now boost your skin's natural renewal
with new pH5.5 Healthy difference Cream.....

Advanced skincare? Skin renewal? Possibly a good starting place for a fantasy story and or science fiction. Perhaps even envisage a scifi/fantasy where the space ship is a huge intergalactic creature and a young energetic wizard-scientist discovers a cream which seals, heals and renews the flesh of the huge creatures. An aid to keep them alive in battles and sustain them in adverse space conditions.

Well, it's just a thought....


The question's not in how to try but more in who, how, what and why?

Seeing things and making notes isn't the end of the exercise. I can collect and collate observations until they fill books and books fill boxes. Which they do until I throw them all out, then start again. That doesn't make them a fully fledged idea though. Once the basics have been collected they have to go through a kind of inquisition which will make them burgeon into an idea.

So what if you have a cream that will renew flesh, a balloon which reflects the image of some evil entity it temporarily meets. The next process which these observations undergo will mould them into a basic fantasy plot. The technique is very simple and one that any parent of young children will tell you they recognize with frustrating clarity. I simply ask myself the W questions. (Note How is a W question, it just happens to be written backwards!)

Take the balloon. How does that become a true story?

I’ve already undergone a few questions and answers to get to the image idea any way. So add a few more to flesh out the story idea. Straight forward questions like. What could make the balloon special to be noticed? Would it be the balloon or something else? Would it be something in the building it was clinging to? What could be in that building? Where did it come from? How does it live, feed, contact with humans? This obsrvation became the basis on my wip Red Dragon, Blue. It is a horror tale where a father sacrifices everything in order to summon five revengeful spirits to destroy those who have murdered his daughter.

And this wasn’t the only tale I could fabricate from one observation. As I sat with my handy lil’ notebook and asked myself all of these things. I wrote down all the following answers to my constant interrogation. (Always remember to work within your created, or real world, limitations as you do this)

The balloon is a child's toy. The 'spirit of evil' was attracted to the balloon because it was a child. The spirit is evil because it is in torment. It is in torment because the child it was, was beaten and tortured to death. It feeds off the fear and souls of the living. It seeks revenge. When the story ends it will be avenged. It uses what tools it is familiar with (e.g.. balloons and toys) to create fear and death (balloon taking horrific face. Skateboard placed at top of stairs for someone to step on and kill themselves.) The house it inhabits is a block of apartments and everyone within it lives in a kind of fear without knowing why. No one can move out because they trapped by something indefinable. The child spirit must be appeased and 'destroyed/removed' from this plane of existence. Use the 'Love conquers all' ploy. Who would love the child spirit. A child. How would that child meet him. Originally in his/her dreams....

I won't go any further as I hope this gives a full enough description of how the questioning process works. In fact it is essential to know when to stop the questioning. For a short story it is unnecessary to go into the detail that would be required for a novel. For something the length of this article I used about two 8” by 4” sides of sparsely handwritten notes taken from this process.

I find also that the questioning process helps to weed out story inconsistencies. For example, assume I'm writing a story where the unsung hero suddenly rises from herding his father's pigs to kingship and glorious victory as a famous warrior. The questions would remind me that a pig farmer wouldn't know how to use a sword. In fact all he would know is pig farming. The questions then teach me how to create a character from him that influences those he needs around him, and together they achieve the goals which the plot has set for him.

See the stranger with the glazed stare

This is the process I generally follow:

1. Allow steam from coffee cup to fog up my glasses.
2. Allow sighing waitress to remove yet another untouched coffee mug
3. Wonder if my butt’s been glued to the seat.
4. Is my pen frozen immovably to my hand?
5. Allow thoughts, observations and ideas to mix and meld.
6. Write them down!

Maybe it's a personal thing, perhaps observation/question method is one that only I can use. If that was the case I wonder what would have happened that day in the airport lounge if Terry Pratchett had said,

“Oh, another one of those hard to control suitcases...."

I believe it is the nature of an author to learn to ask questions. In the belief that eventually we’ll ask the right one which will produce that gem of an idea.

Whether you have trouble generating ideas or not, I hope that in the long, dark idea-blanked night of your soul this small monologue has been of some assistance to help speed you on your way.



S.J.'s Third novel Dante I, third in the PIACT undercover agent series will be out sometime in the summer.

Now isn't that exciting news! More details later.

S.J.

Growing up with Fantasy

I grew up with Fantasy. Even before I read my first romance (thank you Louisville Public Library for not stifling the curiousity of a 12 year old when she first found the clench cover) I had fallen in love with Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony and Tolkein.

Anne McCaffrey had the most wonderful dragon stories, and opened a world to me I never knew existed. When I first laid eyes on "The White Dragon", I was a goner. I quickly searched out Dragonsong and Dragonsinger, and went looking for more tales of fantasy.

 

I'm not sure how I got from McCaffrey to Anthony, but when I read Piers Anthony's tales of Xanth they took my breath away. I spent many long hours happily lost in a very non-Mundane world.

Less than a year later I finally moved on to Tolkein. I thought myself more than a little in love with Frodo, and dreamed great dreams of going on his adventures. Before we had Orlando Bloom in pointy ears and tights, Frodo was my hero.

It was pretty soon after that I found those clench covers on the library racks. For a while, my love for fantasy was forgotten, and I moved on to more romantic reading. Through middle school and most of high school, I was very happy with my romance novels and "required" literature reading.

Then one day at Books-A-Million during my junior year of high school, I came across this :

I still remember standing there in the bookstore reading the first two chapters.  Buying it, then racing home and staying up until late into the night reading about Tanis and Sturm, Caramon and Raistlin.  It was love from first sight, and the Dragonlance Chronicles became some of my favorite reads as I left high school and went to college.

I’ve read a lot of good fantasy, and more than a little great fantasy, in the years since.  But these 4 series have been some of my most passionate book loves for many years now.  Even today I can reread them and be amazed by the stories these authors could weave, the worlds they could bring to vibrant, captivating life

Every book we love should leave a bit of itself behind after you close the cover.  So it isn’t surprising that I’ve written my first fantasy.  And if you’ve read my previous Samhain release, you won’t be shocked to find that my fantasy world is a bit more sensual – ok, much much more sensual – than the worlds of the authors I read as a preteen and teen. 

Do you still reread the books that you loved when all books were new to you?  And how did they shape the books you love today?

Look for Flawed, by Ember Case, coming June 30th from Samhain Publishing

One Book, 9 Endings!

Remember those pick the next scene books that were popular in the 80's? Well now you can direct the course of a romance novella in the same way! Thanks to a cooperative publisher (Red Sage) and hyperlinks in my ebook novella, MEGAN'S CHOICE, you, the reader, get to orchestrate the flow of the narrative. The book came out the first of January 2009, and boy am I excited about it!

Here is the blurb:

Megan Malone, the quadrant's fastest zip ship pilot, is overworked, overtired and craves the surf, sun and sex of a paradise planet vacation. When her employer receives an urgent commission from the government requesting Megan's services on a diplomatic mission, she's all set to refuse--especially when she finds out her domineering ex-lover Yusef Gunnen will be part of that mission.

But what Megan doesn't know is that she's no longer calling her own shots. You, the reader, must choose what she does next. And what you decide Megan will do at the end of each episode will change her life forever.

My publisher tells me that independent retail outlets don't support the clickable links inside documents yet, so fully interactive versions are available only at http://www.eredsage.com/


To try before you buy, I've got a hefty portion of the first scene up at my site here, and a portion of a later scene here. I'm also about to start a contest where the prize will be a download of the book and some extra goodies!


If you like to try new things...turn to page 1 :)


Jody W. w/a Ellie Marvel
Megan's Choice -- Choose Your Adventure!
http://www.elliemarvel.com/ * http://blog.jodywallace.com/

Erotic ROMANCE defined by Melissa Lopez

Something caught my interest at the recent Romantic Times convention in Pittsburg. An NY editor (who shall remain nameless) didn’t have a firm grasp on what exactly erotic ROMANCE is. The terms erotica and erotic ROMANCE kept being interchanged from their lips.

Strange how even today, some have trouble defining erotic ROMANCE. Erotic ROMANCE is a heat level in which an author tells a happy-ever-after story.

First, the most important factor in erotic ROMANCE is a ROMANCE that has two basic plot elements:

1. A central LOVE story.

2. An emotionally, satisfying, and optimistic ending.

In other words, the main emotionally engaged characters (however many there may be or whatever they might be) must have a happy-ever-after or a happy-for-now ending.

On to the deciding factor that earns an erotic ROMANCE that smoking hot heat level.

There are a few heat levels in ROMANCE genres:

Sweet romance is a chaste romance story. There may be some romantic tension but the couples do not go beyond a kiss or two. This heat level is very popular in Young Adult and Inspirational genres.

Sensuous romance is comfortable in its sexuality and open to new experiences.

Spicy romance has an edge, takes risks, and can be a little naughtier.

Are you feeling the flame of the heat level going up?

Erotic ROMANCE contains long, hot, in your face, explicit love scenes.

Like with the chaste kiss in the sweet romances and the love scenes in the sensual and spicy tales…Erotic ROMANCE is not just a story where sex has been inserted. Nor is erotic ROMANCE a story containing a string of sex scenes. The love scenes, like the characters and drama, must drive the plot forward.

There’s room for different definitions of erotic ROMANCE and I don’t think anything is set in stone as to what it is and not. But erotic ROMANCE is explicit enough and hot enough to excite a reader. The erotic heat level is meant to arouse. The ROMANCE is meant to satisfy.

Melissa Lopez
melissa-lopez.com
JOURNEYS OF LOVE every woman needs to take.