En Avant!

  “En Avant!” was Tennessee Williams’ personal mantra, meaning “Onward!” So I’ll apply it to myself. I’ve been whining about having my book rejected by Ellora’s Cave.  My first inclination was to put it away and sulk, but everybody (even Dh) is telling me to submit it to other online houses. So I guess I need to do that.

I’ve recently realized I need to toe a fine line in the future — if I can. Here’s the question: Is it possible to enjoy writing, while not torturing oneself about the outcome? Do you know? Anybody? Bueller?

Because I keep coming back to something the wise Melissa said in her blog: she’s just happier when she’s writing. I have to admit — so am I.

I can’t remember who said it, but here’s a good thought about it all:

“One can put oneself in the posture to be struck by lightning, but lightning may never strike. Meanwhile, eagerly and without bitterness, one goes on working.”

Plot Bunny

  Hooray! Today’s mail just arrived, and I’m now the proud new owner of a purple Plot Bunny.

I’m a regular visitor at the Erotic Romance Blog, where author Emily Veinglory held a contest. The first four to post how they got a book idea won a Plot Bunny. Of course, I couldn’t resist. Here’s the answer I posted:

When I was a little girl, we traveled from Nebraska to visit the “Deep South.” At a mansion, I saw a photo of a beautiful young girl with wavy hair rippling down to her waist. The caption said she had died young by accidently setting her hair on fire with an oil-heated curling wand.

I never forgot that girl. Thirty years later, she appeared in my first novel, setting the scene for a mystery. “Who held the door shut while she burned to death?”

Sometimes, ideas can percolate for years.

That was where the idea began for my published historical romance, Gilded Splendor. 

Blogs are sure fun, and these little contests brighten a day. I placed the critter by my laptop. *rubbing his nose*  I can already feel the magic working.

Do you have a story of how you came up with a book idea? 

Love Scenes

  I found something today that should help with my rewrite. The editor told me to add “more and varied” sex scenes in the book, since it’s for a publisher of erotic romance. But it just didn’t feel right to gratuitously add sex scenes to plump up the word count. It’s also hard to keep these scenes fresh and different. What to do?

Then I found Angela Knight’s blog, Knight Errant. She’s a very successful writer, and here’s her advice:

Love scenes need to grow out of the characters themselves. Every time the hero and heroine go to bed together, it should reflect where they are in their relationship. In fact, ideally you should be able to read through the sex scenes alone and track the progress of the romance through the book.

In that first scene, maybe they’re uncertain or cautious or exploring — or maybe they just go nuts from pent-up sexual tension. In the next scene, maybe they’ve had an argument right before going to bed, and that anger bubbles under the surface so that the love scene becomes another expression for the conflict.

Thank you, Angela! Wise words of advice indeed. Writing this way focuses on the romance, which is always the most important part anyway.

This is one of the wonderful things about Romance Writers of America. Authors are willing to freely and unselfishly share what they know, what they’ve learned “in the trenches,” their words of advice. What a great group!

February Progress

  I’m so scared, my stomach hurts! I had submitted a novella to Ellora’s Cave, and just got their letter back. They want me to revise and resubmit. The letter was very positive, giving specific suggestions on what to revise.

So, why am I scared? Well, to be this close — what if I don’t revise it right?

*sigh*

But I ALWAYS counsel writers to never ignore positive letters like this — to just knuckle down and do the work they suggest. It is very foolish to not follow through after you’ve come so far. So I will take my own advice and do the work. I do have critique partners to help and cheer me on, thank goodness.

February Progress:  I mailed out no new submissions, but I did lose another 1.8 pounds, for a grand total of 4.8 pounds lost. Next week, I should get my Weight Watchers “5-lb-loss silver star”! 

All this reminds me of something Napoleon Bonaparte once said:  “I’ve discovered a very strange thing — men are willing to die for a piece of ribbon.”

Yes, and diet for a silver star. Hehe.

You’re Not the Boss of Me!

AOL had an interesting article today on “Why Men Ignore Their Wives.” It could just as easily be called “Why Women Ignore Their Husbands.” According to the article, people have ”Reactance — the inclination to do the exact opposite of what’s asked of them by a boss or loved one — simply because they are trying to resist someone else’s encroachment on their freedom.” It has long been accepted as common behavior by psychologists.

“My husband, while very charming in many ways, has an annoying tendency of doing exactly the opposite of what I would like him to do in many situations,” one woman said. (Of course, this applies to real life, not online behavior, where lovely fantasies reside!)

The most recent study shows that the resistance happens subconsciously. ”Reactance to others is so automatic that you can’t possibly be expected to control it — if you don’t even know it’s happening.”

Might this be the answer to why men sometimes refuse to be loving and romantic, when they know it’s what their women crave? Or why women sometimes frustrate their men by withholding sex? Or why you can’t get good service from some “clerk jerks,” no matter how patiently you try?  It’s not personal — it’s “reactance”!

Character Torture

  “Readers read to experience tension.”

“Readers read to experience tension.”

“Readers read to experience tension.”

That’s the message of the first lesson in Linnea Sinclair’s new online class, ”Character Torture 101.” As Linnea says,

“What you do to your characters, you are doing to your readers. And your readers WANT to be tortured. They want to experience life to the fullest, with all stops pulled out, without a net, and with their respective patooties swinging in the breeze.

Because in their real lives, they cannot.

See, they want to live life to the fullest, guns blazing, tumbling down a cliff, sunk in passion, enraptured beyond recognition—and do it from the safe and comfortable vantage point of their easy chair.”

Makes sense, doesn’t it? Linnea got that first sentence above from Swain’s Techniques of the Selling Writer. Now I’ve read Swain and that sentence many times, but I never stopped to think about what it really means. I’m about to find out!

The workshop is completely free to anyone who signs up at  http://romancedivas.com. This is a great writing site I found through Robin L. Rotham’s blog. Lots of information and forums where you can post and comment about romance writing. In fact, I just saw Robin’s comment about Lesson 1. The Romance Divas site is also where Robin posted her free story, Seniorella. It’s hawwwwwt!

I really recommend the Romance Divas site to all romance writers. It’s a fun site with lots going on. See you there!

Different Loving

Oh, the joys of BDSM and D/s. Robin posted about these today, and I started to answer her post with a comment. My comment got so long, I decided to post about it here instead. So at the risk of eliciting some readers’ “ick factor,” I’ll get into this fascinating subject.

For those who didn’t read Robin’s post, D/s means “Dominant/submissive” and BDSM means “bondage, discipline, sado-masochism.” They’re not as scary as they sound.

Of course, nothing will ever take the place of good ol’ vanilla sex. But BDSM and D/s can add real spice and fun to a relationship. There are many reasons why they’re such a turn-on for so many. 

First, I agree with Robin that relationships like these are built on trust (or at least they should be). This seems to deepen a relationship, by making couples address trust issues that most couples never talk about or just take for granted.

Secondly, this kind of play is about consensual power exchange. Many people (both female and male) find it liberating to give up control – you can forget all society’s restrictions and lose the guilt, because someone is making you do it!

However, people who think it’s not feminist or PC don’t understand – the submissive has real power, because he/she can withdraw consent at any time. It’s the submissive who sets the limits on what she’ll allow and she has the “safe word” to halt play at any moment. The “Master” who forgets this does so at his peril, because he’ll soon lose his playmate.

It’s amazing how the romance novel industry has embraced these concepts lately, especially online publishers like Ellora’s Cave and Liquid Silver. In their writer’s guidelines, EC says that BDSM and D/s are two of their top-selling themes.

Lots of things to think about with these subjects. That’s why D/s and BDSM have been called the “intellectual approach to sex” — something we eggheads delight in. 

Sexual Tension Between Scenes

Here’s a hot tip for you romance writers out there! I’ve been reading Karen Wiesner’s book First Draft in 30 Days, and she has a good idea on building sexual tension between love scenes. It sounds like a good one, so I’m passing it on. Karen says:  

          “A trick to making sexual tension prominent between scenes is to focus on a certain aspect that intrigues the opposite character. For instance, in one of my novels, an erotic obsession began early in the book with the heroine watching the hero drink from a bottle of beer. This common act is palpably exciting to her. As soon as he leaves the room, she picks up that bottle and puts her own mouth on it. The hero comes back to find her drinking his beer. This increases the sexual tension between them until the fantasy becomes reality. In another book, the heroine loves the way the hero smells, so much so that the first time she enters his apartment, she ducks into his bathroom and snoops for his cologne. . . and ends up spilling it on herself, so the hero knows she was snooping when she comes out. This sensual awareness increased the tension considerably.”

          I like this idea! It certainly opens up a way to work with details in a meaningful way – building sexual tension on the page.

The Guys’ Rules

A friend sent this to me. No, I didn’t write it — I am not a guy — but I just had to pass it on.  Besides being funny, these rules could come in handy to  romance writers out there trying to create those recalcitrant modern heroes!   

The Guys’ Rules­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

We always hear “the rules” from the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side. These are our rules! Please note.. these are all numbered “1″ ON PURPOSE!

1. Men are NOT mind readers.

1. Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down.
We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1. Sunday sports. It’s like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1. Shopping is NOT a sport. And no, we are never going to think of it that way.

1. Crying is blackmail.

1. Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1. Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1. Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That’s what
we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1. A headache that lasts for 17 months is a Problem. See a doctor.

1. Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 Days.

1. If you won’t dress like the Victoria ’s Secret girls, don’t expect us to
act like soap opera guys.

1. If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us.

1. If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways
makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1. You can either ask us to do something. Or tell us how you want it done.
Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1. Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during
commercials.

1. Christopher Columbus did NOT need directions and neither do we.

1. ALL men see in only 16 colors, like Windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1. If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1. If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing,” we will act like nothing’s
wrong. We know you are lying, but it’s just not worth the hassle.

1. If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, expect an answer you
don’t want to hear.

1. When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine…Really.

1. Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to
discuss such topics as baseball, the shotgun formation, or golf.

1. You have enough clothes.

1. You have too many shoes.

1. I am in shape. Round IS a shape!

1. Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; but did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping.

Pass this to as many men as you can – to give them a laugh.

Pass this to as many women as you can – to give them a bigger laugh.

Walk the Line

One of my favorite movies lately is Walk the Line. HBO has been repeating it, and I keep watching over and over. Sometimes for the wonderful music. Sometimes for the fine acting. But mostly for the love story.

It’s the old Nora Roberts fantasy, come to life. The heroine, in this case June Carter, might have perfectly good reasons for saying no. And she does. She can be mean, sometimes even rude. But the hero, in this case Johnny Cash, is not deterred. He just keeps on comin’, pressing his suit, until he wins her. Nora Roberts has made a career of writing this fantasy in her romance novels; and this movie shows it come true in real life. After he won her, Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash were happily married for over 32 years, raising their children and touring the world together, making music. When June passed in 2003, Johnny followed her four months later.  

Awwww, doesn’t it just make you melt into a puddle of goo?