Category Archives: Uncategorized
Bad News, Good News, and a Request
The bad news — after returning from our absolutely delightful 20th anniversary cruise at the beginning of the month, Ramón and I were felled (almost as soon as we exited the airport) with bronchitis, which has lingered ever so delightfully for the past two weeks. Feh. I’ve done my best to get some work done during this time, but to be honest trying to write when all you want to do is cough up your lungs (non-medicated) or stare at the wall (medicated) is a bit of a challenge. That being said, the Muse seems to be poking at me again, so I should get back on the horse by tomorrow or so.
The good news and the request — I just found out that A Boon by Moonlight is a finalist in the First Annual Evernight Reader’s Choice Award for Best of Category: Erotic. Woohoo! My deepest thanks go out to everyone who nominated it — y’all are the best! Now you want it to win, just head over here and vote. No registration or other flummery is required.
And with that, I shall return to my WriterCave and see what I can come up with next.
The Evernight Birthday Blog Hop contest is over!
I’ve selected my personal winner and contacted her about her prizes — thanks to everyone who participated, and I wish you the best of luck in winning the grand prize!
Well, the writing is obviously on the wall
While I’ve been wasting my time writing smouldering man-on-man (-on-man) stories with fantasy or SF twists, I obviously should have been following Andrew Shaffer’s advice to search for something that no one is having relations with (although I object to his inclusion of a centaur in Step One, especially since Chiron will be getting it on in Olympic Cove Book Six — but I digress), then write erotica about it.
But Christie Sims and Alara Branwen have beaten me to the dinosaur erotica, damn their eyes. So after much thought, I have decided to write igneous rock erotica. My first masterpiece is entitled “Basalt Desires,” and I have included the opening lines below for your enjoyment. No, don’t thank me — I live to serve.
Geologist Aurora Bates threw her long brunette hair over her shapely shoulders as she stomped away from the hotel where the American Geological Union’s annual shindig was being thrown. Her ass ached from all the improper pinching she’d received from her male “colleagues,” and the fact that she was marching furiously into twilit rocky desert in naught but a fetching wraparound dress and four inch Louboutins didn’t dawn on her until one slender stiletto heel caught in a rock crack and snapped loudly, pitching her forward.
“Oh, crickets!” she shouted as she fell, fully expecting to go curvacious ass over lush breasts into one of the rock-choked gullies. But suddenly she stopped, as if two arms had suddenly burst from the ground and halted her fall.
She looked down, and flushed. Two arms had suddenly burst from the ground and halted her fall. Hello, carbon based lifeform, a deep, rough voice rumbled in her head. The voice sounded remarkably like a certain actor she had a crush on, and she could feel her womanly cleft grow moist at the sound. We don’t get many of your type out here at night. It’s not really safe for soft things like you.
“Oh, really?” Aurora sniffed, unwilling to be dissed by what appeared to be a pair of disembodied basalt limbs. “Well, I’ll have you know that I’m an independent woman and a geologist, and I can go wherever I like, Mister…”
Call me Ignis. Or Master, if you prefer. The arms suddenly wrapped around her, tugging her down. She tried to scream but choked as the ground crumbled beneath her, tumbling her into a pitch-black hole in the earth…
Fabulous Friday Reads: Dark Hunter
Welcome to the weekend, and let’s kick it off with the new paranormal erotic romance Dark Hunter from Shannan Albright, now available from Evernight Publishing and other purveyors of fine erotic romance.
Vampire Mari Ankamunan struggles to pick up the pieces of her life after her bar The Asp becomes a war zone between the Enforcers and members of the Preservation Society, who want all dark breeds wiped out. The sudden appearance of the only man she ever loved brings her world to a crashing halt, for she witnessed his brutal murder two thousand years ago.
Navar’s spoken oaths to his Sire cost him Mari. Torn from her side by the sidhe queen, he is her Hunter, delivering justice for crimes against the breeds. Now freed he returns to his lovers side only to be caught in a dark plot where Mari is targeted for death.
The stakes are high, can they uncover a deadly plot against the Enforcers or will Navar lose Mari, forever by an assassin’s hand?
Story Excerpt
“I will do everything in my power to protect her, even lay down my life if it comes to that.” Navar’s words rang in the still air, spoken as an oath.
“Marcus will be relieved to find out Mari is well protected. I know after the incident with the Preservation Society, he has been concerned for her safety. Someday you must tell me how you secured your release.”
Mari blinked at the two men, feeling left out of the loop in the XY-chromosome chat. Males. Can’t live without them and can’t kill them. Irritation spiked into the red zone, her patience threadbare for the bullshit. Placing her diminutive self between the two towering males, she gave them both a fearless glare and fisted her hands on her hips.
All conversation stopped as they stared down at her with surprise. Good, now she had their attention. “I’ve been alive since the time of Cleopatra. I didn’t survive all those centuries by being a fucking weak female. I can fight, strategize, and I damn well have enough intellect in this ‘girly’ brain to figure out what I need to do to save my own hide, thank you very much. Now, if you don’t mind talking to me, not about me, it would be appreciated and might save your ball sacs from relocating somewhere north on your body. Are we clear, boys?”
Adrian threw his head back and roared a large rolling laugh that reverberated throughout the room. She blinked in surprise. She’d never once seen any enforcer laugh. Sure, they smiled, chuckled, and even smirked, but never laughed. She found it…disconcerting.
“Point taken. You will have your hands full with this little hellion, hunter. I don’t envy you.”
“Little hellion indeed. Yet well worth the extra trouble,” Navar agreed, his pale eyes darkening with hunger.
Where to Buy
Evrnight Publishing
Amazon
All Romance Ebooks
Bookstrand
About Shannan Albright
Growing up I was called the dreamer of the family, something not always thought of as a positive thing. As a child, I would draw and build stories around my pictures, so writing was a natural extension for me. Recently a family member told me that from now on she would encourage those dreamers she knew. Stating “with hard work and focus dreams can come true. Shannan Albright is proof that dreaming can be a positive thing.”
When not writing I spend my time between oil painting and reading. I love writing paranormal, urban fantasy, historical and fantasy romances because of the world building and rich characters I feel a connection to. I’m drawn to dark, edgy heroes and heroines overcoming impossible odds internal and external.
I’m a “hopeful” Romantic who believes a healthy relationship built on respect and a strong partnership is the key to a happy ever after.
Where to Find Shannan Albright
Beautiful Yet Cruel: Reasons To Make Your Villains Attractive
Originally written as a guest post for Buffy’s Ramblings.
So I was cleaning my pool the other day and thinking of Mads Mikkelsen, as you do. Tall, Dark and Danish was on my mind because I’d just read a rather cogent post on Tumblr about fans who were gushing over the newest incarnation of Hannibal Lecter in a big way and kind of forgetting that, you know, Dr. Lecter kills people. And eats them. And serves them to other unsuspecting diners. And zestfully screws with Will Graham’s mind and health as a hobby. And is what we in the writing dodge like to call a Really Bad Guy.
The original poster was rather concerned that a lot of fans seem to be thinking with their ovaries and not their heads, as they are insisting that Dr. Lecter had Reasons™ for doing all those bad things, and that he’s just this mixed-up, misunderstood guy, instead of a vicious, psychopathic, cannibalistic monster. Whereas I agree with the original poster — Hannibal Lecter IS a vicious, psychopathic, cannibalistic monster. And the only reason why these fans aren’t recoiling from their widescreens in horror is that he is currently played by a very hot Danish actor who wears beautiful clothes, has perfect hair (when it’s not perfectly mussed), an insanely masculine bone structure, a lovely growly accent, just the right amount of chest hair, and is so damned graceful it’s not even funny–
Ahem. Sorry, needed to cool off for a minute there. Anyway, back to my topic, which makes me cackle with glee as a writer. These fans are looking at a complete and utter whackjob of a character, and even though they know full well he’s a whackjob, they become utterly infatuated with him because he’s attractive. I mean, really, the mental gymnastics necessary to resolve Dr. Lecter’s gruesome culinary habits with the deeply seated wish to see him naked must be absolutely astounding.
And damn, that’s clever. That is just so clever. Why is that clever? Because it means these fans tend to give Hannibal the benefit of a doubt about his actions even though they know better. And that allows the series writers to completely mess with their heads when Hannibal fillets another rude phlebotomist or serves up Kidney ala Dental Assistant to Jack Crawford and the gang.
Which is fantastic if you think about it, and kudos to Bryan Fuller, Mads and the Hannibal team for pulling it off. Because creating a really good (and by good I mean captivating) villain is damned difficult, even harder to do than creating a good hero. After all, the hero has it easy — he’s the hero, the personification of everything that is right and good, and usually the default stand-in for the reader. Assuming that a story is well written, readers are predisposed to like and care for the hero.
But the villain, ah, that’s where you get into murkier and more challenging creative waters. Make your bad guy too much of a monster, and nobody gives a rat’s ass for his motivations — they just want him dead. Make your evil queen too simplistic, and people don’t care about her plans to roast her stepdaughter over a slow fire and snack on her heart — she comes off as a cartoon character. Writers need to walk a fine line, giving the villain enough emotional hooks so that the reader comes to care about him whether they like it or not. Granted, the only thing the reader may care about is seeing the baddie on a gibbet, but they still care.
And a very interesting way of generating that level of care is by utilizing the human fascination with physical beauty. As a species we’re hardwired to like and follow people we find attractive, even though they may be utter scum on the inside; CEOs, politicians, and high school mean girl cliques are real-life examples of how this works. And since we do tend to sympathize with attractive people, that adds a tasty little psychological twist when an attractive character takes out a room full of Starfleet brass, or blows up a hospital, or turns a human being into cold cuts. Sometimes, we even justify the villain’s behavior simply on the basis that he or she is pretty, and, well, pretty = good so there must be a really important reason for why they did what they did, right? Right?
Talk about a powerful writing tool. Making your bad guy appealing is a simple but incredibly effective way to captivate your readers, sucking them into the damaged amusement park full of red delights that is your villain’s psyche and spitting them out, blinking and stunned, at the end of the story. Think of Patrick Bateman, the White Witch, Mrs. Coulter, Tom Ripley, the Marquise de Merteuil, Randall Flagg, and the sexiest baddie of all, Dracula. Think of how skillfully they used their own attractiveness to entice both their victims and the reader at the same time. Would they have had the same impact if they had acne or male pattern baldness or a bad dress sense? I don’t think so. They know what they have, and they work it like a Las Vegas showgirl to get what they want.
Of course, they are villains. And we’ll cheer for the hero to come out on top at the end because hey, that’s what we’re supposed to do. We’re civilized creatures, after all (and for those of us who aren’t, we can fake it beautifully). But still, there’s that perverse little urge that battles logic and makes people feel just a bit wistful when some seductive devil works their evil magic, even if it means the walls are dripping red afterwards. So the next time you need to come up with a villain, think about what could make him or her attractive to your readers, then use it ruthlessly. If you can lure your readers so far over to the dark side that they start sympathizing with the devil, you’ve done your job as a writer.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, my pool is clean and I have a couple of Hannibal episodes on the DVD to enjoy. Bon appétit.
I really, really, really need minions
In the last ten days or so I wrote two short stories (well, I say short — each story was about 10,000 words) for Evernight (yes, I’m submitting to their MF antho, and that bloody story fought me all the way down the pike. But dammit, I did the final edit this afternoon and sent “Grading the Curve” off, so that’s all good), did due diligence on PR and ran a blog tour for Storm Season, created a print version of my speculative fiction short story collection through CreateSpace (which included creating a print-acceptable interior, tweaking the cover so that it wouldn’t look muddy in print, and basically swearing to myself for a good six hours), shoveled nine bags of mulch onto my front flowerbeds, planted two Roses of Sharon on either end of the beds, planted impatiens and caladiums in the bed around the live oak out front, finished two pieces of jewelry for the Etsy store, made and sent off a bunch of Etsy sales, and kept the house surprisingly clean.
I still have to finish a short story (steampunk adventure for a change) for an editor who is patiently waiting for it, hammer up another Etsy sale, work on three websites for friends, edit and release two podcast episodes, snake out my pool cleaner pipe because it’s not sucking properly (hur hur), finish weeding my side flower bed, pull out these grassy plants that I hate and transplant the rose bushes currently there to a bed at the back of my house where they won’t get hammered with Texas sun all day long, transplant some lantana from THAT bed to the one along my garage, put drought-resistant plants in the side bed, clean my master bath so that I can paint the cabinets and finally be able to use the room properly five years after Ramón and I bought this place, finish Two to Tango and Iron Cross, and then I can finally start Breaker Zone.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Which is why I need minions. I’m starting to see the point of having children; sure, they require a lot of looking after when they’re little, but once they’re big enough to hold a paintbrush or run a vacuum, you’re golden. If my cats had opposable thumbs, I swear I’d teach them how to use social media.
And the blog tour begins
I got a chance to meet the delightful Sidney Bristol a couple of weeks ago, and we started talking about book promotion and cost-effective ways to get our words out to potential readers. She recommended the services of Book Monster Promotions, and boy, these people know what they’re doing.
So I signed up for a two week blog tour for Storm Season, and my first stop today was at The Book Connoisseur, run by a dedicated and absolutely delightful book lover named Shawnie. As well as promoting Storm Season, Shawnie surprised me by giving the book a spectacular review, saying that it was “a remarkable story filled with emotional depth…with more twists and turns than a New York City block,” and awarding Storm Season five black roses. And I feel good about this because BMP goes with reviewers who will leave an honest review. All I’m paying for is promotion — whether or not they like the book and are willing to say so is up to them.
So, yeah, that’s a great way to kick off the week. More importantly, my June sales on Amazon have already shown a nice jump. I’ll be doing interviews and guest posts at other blogs for the next two weeks, so make sure you stay tuned for links.
- June 3 – Book Connisseur
http://delicatesimplicity.blogspot.com/ - June 4 – Book Lovin Mamas
http://booklovinmamas.blogspot.com/ - June 5 – Books-N-Kisses
http://www.books-n-kisses.com/ - June 6 – Buffy’s Ramblings
http://buffy-kennedy.blogspot.com/ - June 9 – The Jeep Diva
http://thejeepdiva.com/ - June 11 – Books, Books & More Books
http://booksbooksmorebooks.blogspot.com/ - June 12 – United by Books
http://unitedbybooks.blogspot.com/ - June 13 – Book Monster Reviews
http://www.bookmonsterreviews.com/ - June 14 – LITERAL ADDICTION
http://www.literaladdiction.com/ - June 15 – Literal Hotties Naughty Book Reviews
http://literalhottiesnaughtybookreviews.blogspot.com/ - June 16 – You Gotta Read Reviews
http://yougottaread.com/
So, Nic, why DO you write M/M romance?
I’m in a bit of a weird situation when it comes to writing same-gender erotic romance. While I count myself as primarily straight, my best friend of some thirty plus years is gay, I do a podcast with him and another friend that is considered part of a gay podcasting community, and a number of good friends are also GLBT. I understand that human sexuality is a spectrum and hetero/homo/bi/a are expected points spread along it. In other words, it’s all normal and good (and frankly I’m flattered when lesbians hit on me, especially the cute ones).
But still, primarily straight. And primarily straight women who write M/M erotic romance can run into problems from people accusing them of taking a M/F relationship dynamic and giving the “female” character a penis in order to cash in on the market for M/M romance. Worse, we get accused of fetishizing M/M sex and turning it into a masturbation tool for hetero women (much the same as “lesbian” porn, and I use that term loosely, is used by hetero men to get off). Unfortunately, both of these things do occur, the latter particularly in yaoi manga and anime. If it helps at all, M/M fetishization makes me just as uncomfortable as it does its detractors (gay and bi men are people, not sex toys. Same goes for lesbians and bi women), and badly written M/M erotic romance where the smaller/weaker/beta partner is obviously a woman in disguise drives me nuts. If you’re going to write sex scenes with two guys, they should be two guys, with all the characteristics of their gender. Also, why is the smaller partner always the beta/weaker/femme in disguise? Many of the guys I know on the shorter end of the scale are often quite dominant. But I digress.
The reason why I like writing M/M erotic romance is very simple — it’s more of what I like to look at. Oh, dear sweet mother of God, but I love men’s bodies — the way they’re shaped, the jut of a stubbly jaw, the curve of a bubble butt, the broadness of muscular shoulders. And yeah, I love penises — there, I’ve said it. I fell in love with them the moment I saw my first in-person erection and thought, “God, that’s a beautiful thing.” I know some women think that they look a bit odd, but I’m a proud aficionado of the phallus.
And when I write erotic romance, it’s got to be something that turns me on. Because of what I like, that’s usually the thought of two attractive men almost blind with need for each other, falling into bed or the nearest flat surface/wall/whatever as they get hard and writhe and moan and caress and lick and suck and happily fuck each other into ecstasy…er, excuse me for a moment. Need to cool off.
There, that’s better. Anyway, I like watching two attractive men who are genuinely into each other have sex. And “into each other” is important — I’ve seen my share of gay-for-pay porn with two guys who are obviously thinking of the paycheck instead of who they’re with, and frankly I’d rather watch paint dry. That being said, I am very aware of the tendency to fetishize this sort of sex, which is why I do my absolute best to stay as far away from that slant as possible. I want my characters to be as real as I can make them, not just literary blow-up dolls. Yes, they have smoking hot sex — I am writing erotic romance, after all. But they also have problems and bad habits, and have to struggle to get what they want, and are nowhere near perfect. I don’t know about you, but for me reading about perfect Ken dolls is boring as shit. I want my readers to get hooked into the story and cheering for my guys, so characterization is what I spend the bulk of my time working on when I write a story. As much as I enjoy writing the sex scenes, all that pyroclastic fucking is really just the cherry on the sundae.
By the way, all of this doesn’t mean I dislike MF erotic romance. I enjoy it very much, and plan on writing it in the near future (hell, the last book in the Olympic Cove series will be an MF book). But in the meantime, I’ll keep on writing what appeals to me both as a writer and a woman, and that usually means two hot guys happily humping away. Bless their hearts.
Nicola’s Sunday Shoutout: C.R. Moss
Today’s Sunday Shoutout goes to C.R. Moss, whose new novel Double D Ranch Tales: Wild West Hauntings is available from Evernight Publishing and other purveyors of fine erotic romance. The second book in the Double D Ranch Tales series, Wild West Hauntings is a marvelous blend of Western romance and the paranormal, and is guaranteed to keep you on the edge of your seat. And now, here’s C.R.!
Hi everyone, my name is Chris, and I write under the names C.R. Moss for erotic and mainstream romance and Casey Moss for mainstream dark fiction (horror, suspense, urban fantasy). My professional bio for C.R.: An eccentric and eclectic writer, C.R. Moss pens stories for the mainstream and erotic romance markets, giving readers Worlds of Possibilities when it comes to love. The bio for my other persona: Casey Moss delves into the darker aspects of life in her writing, sometimes basing the stories on reality, sometimes on myth. No matter the path, her stories will take you on a journey from the light-hearted paranormal to dark things unspeakable. What waits around the corner? Come explore!
I’m here today to talk about mine and my writing partner’s latest segment from the Double D Ranch Tales: Wild West Hauntings.
The germ of an idea for the Double D Ranch Tales series started when I took a vacation at a working ranch and was around the cowboys, campfires, cattle, horses, eating outdoors — well, you get the picture. So, my muse started asking, “What if?” What if there were a couple of friends who went to a ranch to get away from their lives for a bit? What if they hooked up with a couple of sexy cowboys? My writing partner and I had already worked on one project together, and when I got home, I called her up and said, “Guess what we’re writing next.” We work well together, and when we get together to brainstorm, the ideas and words just flow. Wild West Hauntings (book 2) came about from one of our sessions where we tossed around concepts for the follow up story to Wild West Weekend (book 1). Then as we worked on Wild West Hauntings, the series morphed into something great. We even started notes on story number four, which was going to be story three until we were hanging out downtown one afternoon and came up with a honeymoon story that took the third spot in the series and bumped the other story to the next slot. And we have inklings of ideas for book five!
About the Novel
Wild West Hauntings ~ Double D Ranch Tales, 2. An Editor’s Pick!
In life and the afterlife, on the Double D Ranch one belief holds true — the power of love changes lives.
With cowboys, ghosts, modern day women, hot dreams, pre-wedding relations and a bit of sexy time travel, life promises to be one wild time on the ranch again.
Rachel Star has met the man of her dreams — literally. Too bad he’s a ghost. When true love crosses boundaries from dreams to reality and across time, the Double D ranch is the place it happens. It takes the love of a man from the past, Dalton Dougan, to bring love full circle in the present for Rachel.
Bristol Ashcombe, soon to be Dougan, is ready to have her baby — and so is a poltergeist. Can the love of a woman for her man and child sustain her during the most horrible of terrors? Can the love between family and friends really dispel the evil haunting them?
***Be Warned: sex toys***
*** An Erotic Paranormal Contemporary Western ***
Story Excerpt
“You guys look like you’ve seen a ghost. What gives?”
Marianne gulped. “I think we did. And when did you learn to play the piano?”
Rachel’s gaze flitted around the room. Bristol, who still sat in the rocker, had gone white again. Even the men seemed out of sorts, staring at her like she’d grown two heads.
“Excuse me? I was just sitting by the fire.” She went to point down at the hearth, which wasn’t there, but several feet away. Spinning to look behind her to gain her bearings, she almost whacked her knee on the piano bench. A chill scuttled through her body. She turned back to the women. How?
“Yeah.” Cassie bobbed her head as if agreeing with her thought. “You were totally zoned out. Didn’t hear us at all. When you got up and went to the piano, I thought Marianne was going to totally lose it. At first there was a haze to the left of you.” Cassie held up her smartphone. “See? We caught pictures. Then after you stopped playing.” Cassie moved her finger around on the device then showed it. “The orb at your lower back is particularly interesting.”
Rachel snatched the phone away from her, quickly flipped through the pictures on the small screen. Fingering the photos back and forth, her heart rate beat a frantic staccato. They were right. In the images, she looked zoned out, like the flickering of the fire had put her in a state of self-hypnosis. Just as Cassie had said, a translucent, milky white shimmer floated in the air near her in most of the photos, while a red haze clung to her form. A few toward the end showed bright fluffy looking spheres amassing next to the piano. Then a huge one drifted toward her back in the last picture.
The same area Dalton touched me. She swallowed hard. Tamping down the rush of panic zooming through her brain and the flux of bile rising in her throat, she put on a brave, hopefully unruffled, face. “These are–” Hating the way her voice and hand shook as she handed back the phone, she took a deep breath, then continued, “Quite interesting. Sure your lens isn’t dirty?”
Cassie shrugged. “It could be, but then why didn’t the smudges stay in one place? The haze moved around. Don’t you think it’s a bit freaky?”
Where To Buy
Evernight Publishing
Amazon
ARe
Bookstrand
Barnes & Noble
Where to find C.R. Moss
Website
Blog
Double D Ranch Tales
Evernight Publishing – C.R. Moss
Amazon
All Romance Ebooks
Bookstrand
Nicola Cameron Writes 