Making Characters Real
By Vivian Arend

Hello all, I’m Vivian Arend taking over the blog for Delilah today, and I wanted to chat about what makes characters real—but don’t worry. This isn’t a “how to” for writers; it’s maybe more of a rant from the reader side of my brain.

There are the clichés about different kinds of heroes and heroines found in romance novels. You know the ones I’m talking about—the rich millionaire who’s just gotta have his innocent virgin secretary. Right now, on the desk, because he’s so domineering and so masculine he makes your eyebrows ache. She’s beautiful and sweet, and even though she’s not supposed to be, she’s secretly in love with him and somehow will find the backbone to a) seduce him b) want to raise his secret baby alone without any $$ support c) clandestinely save his business/ family estate/ camel sales empire from within using her super sekrit secretary skills.

Okay, honestly? I’ve read a few of those, and enjoyed them, but after a while it’s like eating Pringles potato chips. There’s no flavor and the only thing you’re waiting for is the crunch. I have no problems with stories about any kind of people and any kind of background, but there’s something that appeals to me even more about a character I can relate to and would want to be friends with.

So yes, a school teacher, or a sheriff. An accountant, a baker, a chef, a dishwasher. I could go through the alphabet for ordinary, everyday professions and find the kind of people I want to read about—and yet that’s still not enough.

What makes them real? Especially if they are partially imaginary—i.e., shifters or a part of a paranormal story? I can’t personally turn into a wolf (I’ve tried—nothing happens) but I can totally relate to some characters who can. And the difference is—what they do, how they react to situations is real. They make mistakes, but the mistakes aren’t the “if we’d sit down and chat over a coffee this would be fixed” kind. They apologize when they’re wrong. Sometimes they are goofy, and sometimes they cry, but when it comes down to it, they act a little like I would if I were thrust into their situation.

Why would I want to read about people who are like me? Isn’t reading a way to escape life and fade into a fantasy world for a bit? Yes, and no. Reading, to me, is also a way to learn, and if I’m connecting with a character, for whatever reason, I can also learn from their mistakes. I can see their strengths and maybe, just maybe, there will moments that the thing they do that isn’t my normal response—maybe I’ll learn a new reaction that will make my life better.

All from reading a book? Maybe not always—there’s time for sheer Pringles reading—but most of the time I like my romance with a hearty dollop of real. Makes me cheer for the characters, and makes me happy inside.

So what about you? Where do you stand on the reality level for your characters? Do you like them to be someone who you could be friends with, or the more ‘fantasy-out there-makes me dream’ type?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Vivian Arend writes lighthearted paranormal, contemporary red-hot cowboys, and everything in between, all with characters that she’d usually like to go and have a coffee with. Her latest book is out today: Whirlpool—with sexy merfolk shifters who live in a quiet little seaside town, and an ordinary archeologist who falls in love with them.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Soft shoulders and dangerous curves…

Braden can’t deny he’s always wanted Chelsea, but getting involved wouldn’t be fair. She has college and big dreams ahead of her—he has no desire to leave Jaffrey’s Cove. Plus, there’s the fact merfolk women often take more than one lover. Share her? Not in this lifetime.

When Chelsea’s plans for the future fall apart, the only bright spot remaining is Sheriff Braden Marley. She’s been angling for a shot at the gentle giant’s heart—and the rest of him—for a long time. Except he not only holds her at a maddening arm’s length, he somehow manages to keep other men away, too.

Enter Jamie Powell, a human marine archeologist who’s in town for a cataloging project. His instant chemistry with Chelsea inspires her to try a sexy new tactic: make Braden jealous enough to stop dragging his feet and start leaving his shoes under her bed.

The ensuing storm generates a boatload of complications none of them saw coming. A forbidden attraction no amount of merfolk magic can erase. And the danger that their secrets could be exposed to the outside world…

Warning: Seductive shimmering lights, a sexy interlude on the strip club floor, mysterious Spanish lovers, and a trio caught in an eddy of intense sexual attraction. Swim at your own risk.
Read an excerpt

Caught In The Act
By Adele Dubois

I grew up in a household filled with drama—and I mean that in the most literal sense. Ours was a family steeped in theatre, art, and creative writing. We were voracious readers, too, and curled up in the family room with our books in the evenings. I was one of those kids who read with a flashlight under the covers when bedtime came too early.

You might think a family of artists would be disorganized and untidy, but our house was as neat as a pin. Every night my mother would remind us to put our things away, saying, “The elves and fairies won’t clean our house for us.” That bit of training stayed with me the rest of my life.

The last time I warned my own kids, “The elves and fairies won’t clean for us,” the story concept for DO ME GOOD popped into my head. What if the elves really did help? What if they completed chores in the middle of the night? And what if they were handsome and sexy and…available?

And what if one accidentally got caught?

To my surprise, with a little research, I discovered that such immortals existed in Norse mythology. These pre-Christian celestials, called Nordic Light Elves, “came from the place between heaven and earth” under the rule of a fertility god. They were “fairer to look upon than the sun” and interacted with both gods and mortals. Their sole purpose was to work for the benefit of humankind.

Though I’m still waiting for the elves and fairies to clean my house, I thought it would be fun to offer the fantasy of capturing a handsome immortal who does chores to romance readers. I hope you enjoy DO ME GOOD.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Penny throws her hot, but worthless mooch of a boyfriend out on her front lawn with his clothes, and vows never again to be a bum magnet. Exhausted by overwork and mountainous debt, Penny pleads for divine intervention.

Gunnar, a rebellious Nordic warrior cast into servitude by an angry god to learn humility, answers. While Penny sleeps, the celestial arrives to complete her chores, but she awakens and finds him. The handsome immortal kisses her, sparking a passionate, forbidden sexual encounter.

Dark forces seeking vengeance for Gunnar’s past misdeeds mark Penny as a target. To protect his lover, Gunnar tests immortality in a death battle using a god’s magical sword. But the strength of Penny’s love and passion might be what saves them both.

Adele’s Website
Adele’s Blog

Distractions
By Air Thatcher

Why is life so full of distractions? Or is it not as full as I think, the problem being mine alone?

I think I set myself up for distractions. When I’m not writing or reading, I am at the sewing machine. I’m a quilter, and I tend to work on quilts as I do on my stories. A pattern or a line of fabric appeals to me (read: screams “buy me!”) so I buy it and tell myself I need to finish what I’m working on before I can start it.

Then someone will issue a challenge or a swap and I’ll set everything aside to work on that one. I’m great at finishing in the nick of time, which really isn’t something to be proud of. An organized person would finish well ahead. For example, I’m working on the wedding quilt for my daughter who married last August. My goal is to finish it by her anniversary. This week. It looks like I’ll get there, and the quilt is coming along beautifully, but I wish it were done already!

My writing follows the same pattern. I have a vampire menage I have been working on for most of the year. It’s a novella, not a novel, and should be finished three times over. But as I work on it, a zombie YA and a quirky vampire tale, heat level unknown at this point, keep sticking their faces and voices into my head. And a group of EC authors suggested a series that I dove into with a BDSM menage.

I’m way beyond the age where I can get away with the scattered blonde personality! I do hope to get control over this. Perhaps the BDSM will rub off on me and I’ll whip these characters into submission, at least long enough to stand quietly in line. And I suppose I should be grateful to always have another idea in the works. At this point in the year, I’d prefer another manuscript sent off to an editor.

My summer reads played nicely, thank goodness! You can download MAUI HEAT for free at Ellora’s Cave or on Amazon for Kindle. It’s the prequel to MAUI REKINDLED, a novella available at Ellora’s Cave. Here are the blurbs for both:

MAUI HEAT

It’s the final night of her summer job on Maui. Her last chance to see him alone. Maggie plans to make it a night she’ll never forget—one of amazingly hot sex with her coworker Gabe.

Gabe wishes he’d said something sooner, taken their friendship to the next level. He’s more than willing to slip away with Maggie for a private farewell. But he’s the one all the other summer workers turn to when the party gets too wild, and this is definitely the wildest party of the summer. Is the island big enough for them to escape their meddling friends and release the passion burning inside them?

MAUI REKINDLED

“I’ll call you.” That’s the last thing Gabe said fifteen years ago as Maggie prepared to fly home from a summer in paradise. When he didn’t call, she packed away the memories of their sexual romp and relegated him to vacation fling status.

Now, as the ink on her divorce papers dries, Maggie returns to that Maui resort hoping to find the carefree woman she once was. When Gabe walks out of the waves on her first afternoon at the beach, she isn’t sure whether to laugh or run away. Hot, crazy vacation sex with no strings attached would be the perfect remedy for her bloody divorce.

Gabe thinks of Maggie as the one that got away, and he’s not about to let it happen again. The passion between them is as fiery as ever, but is it hot enough to rekindle the romance he knows they could share? He’s got one week to prove to her it is.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

You can read excerpts for these two and all my other books at my website.

Or follow my quilting and sewing progress on my alter ego’s blog. I’ll have photos of the wedding quilt up as soon as it’s done!

The Spice of Life
By Nina Pierce

“Wow, Nina, you’re a writer? What do you write?”

“Romance.”

“I love romance. Boy meets girl. Girl plays hard to get. Sunset moment when everyone finds true love.” *sigh* “I’d like to read yours.”

“Just a caveat…mine are spicy romances.”

“Of course they are. All romances are a little naughty.”

“Weeellll, it’s more than a little. Mine are true romances with the bedroom door wide open. There is no fade to black when it comes to the sex scenes.”

Heavy pause. Whispered response, “Erotica? Why didn’t you say in the first place? What’s your website addie?”

I can’t tell you that’s how all the conversations go when I reunite with old friends and tell them about my new career. But it amazes me how many women of all ages are enjoying erotic romance. This genre that began in the back rooms of small internet publishing companies a decade ago has exploded in the digital age and has now gone mainstream with Berkley, Harlequin, and Kensington, just a few of the NY publishing companies that are jumping into bed with this genre.

But what’s the allure? What fascinates women enough to seek out erotic romance books?

Well, for one it’s the quality of the storyline and the writing. Erotic romance is not pornography. Let me repeat that lest you become confused. Erotic romance isn’t about writing a story around one gratuitous sex scene after another (that’s pornography). In erotic romance, the character’s love story, as in all romances, is the primary push of the plot. The conflict of emotion and the tension between the central characters is high even if the relationship is consummated. It’s the journey of the characters to find—if not their happily-ever-after—at least their happy-for-now ending. The plot may be central to the character’s sexual awareness, but having lots of sex is not what’s driving the main characters.

Also, the length of erotic romances varies immensely. Harlequin’s Spice Briefs and EC’s Naughty Nooners can be as short as 5,000 words and all publishers accept erotic romance stories up to a full novel length of 90k and everything in between. This means there is something for every reader from the “quickie” to the satisfying “take-it-slow-lounge-in-bed-for-the-whole-weekend” story.

Secondly, I think women are more in touch with their own sexuality. We know what we like and what gets our juices flowing and we’re not ashamed to seek it out. Our fantasy lives are as diverse as the authors and their stories. Want a vampire to seduce you? That’s out there. How about a little public sex? Oh, yeah available by the truckload. A little seduction with leather bindings and a ball gag? Bondage/Dominance/Submission/Masochism (BDSM) is one of the highest grossing erotic romance genres. Perhaps the idea of two men finding love through a vigorous sexual experience is what you’re looking for. The m/m erotic romance abounds. And of course the fantasy of multiple men intently focused on satisfying one female is growing exponentially. (That’s my personal favorite—both to read and to write.)

So what is it about erotic romance that draws you or makes you shy away? What component keeps you coming back to the genre as an author and/or a reader?

I want to thank Delilah for letting me hang out on her blog today. If you want to find out more about my erotic romantic suspense stories you can visit:
my website
my blog
Or follow me on:
Facebook
Twitter

Nina’s newest release A Touch of Lilly, a futuristic ménage, is available from Ellora’s Cave.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Ex-Chicago detective Lilly D’Angelo is part of a secret alien race living on earth. With a gentle caress she can elevate the sexual energy of any male. Apprehending criminals lost in an erotic fugue is almost too easy—until she uses her gift on the wrong alien. Kidnapped and shipped into deep space, Lilly barely escapes with her life. Now she travels the galaxy alone working as a bounty hunter and hoping to find a soul mate unaffected by her touch.

Agent Dallas Sawyer works for QAL—deep space’s version of the FBI. After a disastrous mission that left a president murdered, his team member executed, and Dallas near death, he’s determined to take down the assassin targeting government officials. When a sexy human female gets between him and his goal, Dallas and his alien partner find themselves on the receiving end of some wild sex and a proposition that may very well blow up in their faces.

Because in deep space…true love can happen with just a touch.

Fantasy ~ What is it really?
By Taige Crenshaw

I looked up the meaning of fantasy and there were so many meanings and variations to this it was eye opening. I’m going to start with my least favorite then go on to my most favorite.

My least Favorite:
Fantasy~ An unrealistic or improbable supposition.

Now where do I even begin on this one? This is such a cold, analytical way to look at fantasy. From time we are born we are taught to believe in many things that would from this meaning be considered “unrealistic” or “improbable”. The tooth fairy, Santa clause, Easter bunny, and sandman are but a few of the things we grew up with. It is a part of life that we believe at least until such things as this meaning makes us realize different. As a writer this meaning is totally out of my scope. I create living fantasy for readers and enjoy the hell out of doing it {grin}.

Now my most favorites are more like my way of thinking.

My most favorites:
Fantasy~ Imagery that is more or less coherent, as in dreams and daydreams, yet unrestricted by reality.
Or
Fantasy~ An imagined event or sequence of mental images, such as a daydream, usually fulfilling a wish or psychological need.

All Hail the Fantasy brigade.

Ahhh. Now this is more like it. I create novels that are unrestrained by reality. Heck I build worlds that defy definition and enjoy each and every improbable part of it. I love fulfilling a wish. Wishes of a great story with lots of sex, fantasy and escape. Yes escape from the norm. I enjoy the forays of an alpha male hero type, kick butt heroine whether they be human, vampire, shapeshifter, witch or anything else. Becoming free of the restrictions of the imagination is what I strive to achieve. Take a risk. Become a daredevil. Love, fight and live with all those characters of fantasy. Isn’t this really what it is all about.

I tap into the fantasy I enjoy and bring it into reality at least for the time you read my stories and then after when it is remembered by you. Here is my definition of fantasy.

Taige definition of fantasy:
Escaping the constrains of reality and making a reality of your own. A reality where your deepest desires, needs, wants and all things your imagination can think of is real as long as you believe.

Novels are always an adventure and isn’t that why you read. To be drawn into a fantasy. At least for a time before real life issue take over. Fantasy is all about imagination and using it to escape. I enjoy bring a little escape to you.

So tell me what does fantasy mean to you….

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, and Total-E-Bound. Taige has been enthralled with the written word from time she picked up her first book. It wasn’t long before she started to make up her own tales of romance. With novels set in today, in alternate dimensions, or in the future she writes with adventure, fun sassy heroines, and sexy heroes. Always hard at work creating new and exciting places Taige can be found curled up with a hot novel with exciting characters when she is not creating her own.

Join her in the fun, frolic, interesting people and far reaches of the world in her novels. You can find out more about Taige at her website or blog

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

What happens when a woman who doesn’t know how to relax meets a man whose lust for life will change her and make all her deepest desires come to life?
Buy here at Total-E-Bound.

Those who follow this blog know that I’m traveling today to Canada to vacation with a close friend of mine, Sasha White. It’s a mixture of business and pleasure. We’re billing it as a writer’s retreat and expect to get quite a lot of work done, but we won’t forget to have fun too. When I come back, I’ll share tons of pictures and no doubt have some funny tales to tell!

While I’m gone, I have a line-up of guest bloggers who are some of the brightest talents out there. Here’s the schedule of their appearances. Please stop by to read their posts and leave a comment. I’d love for you to welcome them as warmly as you have me over the years. Who knows? You might find a new obsession!

8/6 — Taige Crenshaw
8/7 — Nina Pierce
8/8 — Ari Thatcher
8/9 — Adele Dubois
8/10 — Vivian Arend
8/11 — Lissa Matthews
8/12 — Cris Anson
8/13 — Tibby Armstrong
8/14 — Meg Benjamin
8/15 — Ella Drake
8/16 — Naima Simone
8/17 — Cathryn Cade
8/18 — Mardi Ballou

Enjoy! And I’ll see you in two weeks! ~DD

This is the finalized Call for Submissions! Please copy and paste to your friends!

Girls Who Bite (Lesbian Vampire Erotica)
Editor: Delilah Devlin
Publisher: Cleis Press in Fall 2011
Deadline: November 1, 2010 (earlier submissions preferred)

Girls With Bite is open to all authors.

Editor Delilah Devlin is looking for lesbian vampire stories for a romantic erotica anthology entitled Girls Who Bite.

“Dark hungers, shocking thirsts… For blood, for connection… A sharing of nourishment and comfort… Infliction and acceptance of pain…”

A vampire is the ultimate bad girl. The word invokes images of dark, shadowy liaisons, forbidden desires, and sensual blood lust. Whether the story depicts a traditional blood-drinker seducing a meal, a psychic vampire stealing life-force from an unknowing host, or a real-life sanguinarian seeking a partner to share a ritual bloodletting to cement a bond, the stories should be varied and unexpected. Writers are encouraged to investigate vampire myths from around the world, looking for something fresh to add to the pantheon. Published authors with an established vampire world may use that setting for their original short story.

The stories may be as kinky or vanilla as the writer wants—but a deep sensuality should linger in every word. Exotic locations and scenarios are welcome. Keep in mind there must be a romantic element with a happy-for-now or happy-ever-after ending. Strong plots, engaging characters and unique twists are the ultimate goal. Please no reprints. We are seeking original stories.

How to submit: Prepare your 2,000 to 4,500 words story in a double-spaced, Times or Times New Roman, 12 point, black font Word document with pages numbered (.doc, NOT.docx) OR rich text format. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) is required. Include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 word or less bio in the third person to girlswhobite@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you’d like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. Delilah will respond to you in November 2010. The publisher has final approval over the manuscript.

Payment will be $50.00 USD and two copies of the published book upon publication.

About the editor: Ms. Devlin has published over sixty erotic stories in multiple genres and lengths. Her published print titles include Into the Darkness, Seduced by Darkness, Darkness Captured, Down in Texas and Texas Men. Her short stories are features in Zane’s Purple Panties, and Cleis Press’s Lesbian Cowboys, Girl Crush, Fairy Tale Lust, Lesbian Lust, and will be featured in Carnal Machines and Passion. She is published by Avon, Kensington, Atria/Strebor, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, and in 2011, Berkley.

Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to Delilah at girlswhobite@gmail.com.