I love February!! I love the promise of new love, and rekindling love. Appreciating loved ones and straight up delicious sex and smutty reads sure to set the mood!

In honor of the awesomeness that is Valentine’s Day, three releases this month and one of my best friends’ birthday I’m going to have three giveaways! Yea for giveaways!!

1^st is a signed copy of this month’s Penthouse Magazine that I have a story in!! OMFG so excited!! The story is called “Discipline and Desire” and is an MFF ménage and SUPER dirty!!!

2^nd is an e-book copy of Zeke’s Pitstop which is Book Two in the Fantasies A-Z Series! A kinky story that released on 2/9/2016!!

And 3^rd is an e-book copy of Broken Silence – my contribution to the Black Hills Wolves shared world published by Decadent Publishing! This publishes on 2/26/2016 when I’m in San Antonio at the WWW convention!!!

How do you enter all of these awesome contests?!?!?! Tell me in the comments section what you love about well…love!! Someone you love! A holiday you love! A cookie you’d marry if it was legal in the lower 48!! Fill me on what creams your twinkie and don’t forget to put your email address in the comment so I can get a hold of you if you win!!

Hope you love them all and there’s more where that came from!!

Decadently Yours,
Jennifer Kacey

About the Author

Jennifer Kacey is a writer, mother, and business owner living with her miniman in Texas. She sings in the shower, plays piano in her dreams, and has to have a different color of nail polish every week. The best advice she’s ever been given? Find the real you and never settle for anything less.

Website – Newsletter – The Decadent Divas – Amazon Page

Facebook – Facebook Author Page – Twitter – Goodreads – Pinterest

A hurricane is not exactly romantic, but being hunkered down with the one (or ones) you love can certainly create the opportunity for some hot and steamy situations. Set during early September 1995 when Hurricane Fran was menacing the eastern coast of the United States, Rock you like a Hurricane is what I call a retro romance. Anyone who lived in the Carolinas during Hurricane Fran’s rampage can tell you, she was no pushover. When all was said and done, she had caused millions of dollars’ worth of damage and substantial loss of life along the Atlantic coast. My heroes, Tommy and Ken, and heroine, Trisha, decided the best way to wait out Fran was with plenty of snacks and lots of booze. They opted for beer, but I’m going to share Liquor.com’s Hurricane Cocktail Recipe:

Ingredients:

2 oz White Rum (omit if under 21)
2 oz Dark Rum (omit if under 21)
1 oz Lime juice
1 oz Orange juice
2 oz Passion fruit juice
.5 oz Simple syrup
.5 oz Grenadine

First make the simple syrup by heating .5cp of water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in .5 cp of white sugar until dissolved. Strain into a jar and seal tightly with a lid. Simple syrup will keep refrigerated for about a month.

Add all Hurricane cocktail ingredients to a shaker and fill with ice. Shake and strain into a large Hurricane glass. Garnish with an orange half-wheel and a cherry.

Lifelong best friends, Tommy Marks and Ken Davidson prepare to ride out the storm with Trisha Harper, the woman both men adore. Determine to preserve their friendship, the men cling to a gentleman’s agreement, promising neither will make a move on her but can such a pact be upheld in the eye of the storm? With both men teetering between desire and the fear of rejection and loss, Trisha has no wish to break up the dynamic duo. For her it’s all or nothing and she’s determined to have Tommy and devour Ken too.

Available at Amazon on February 22^nd or preorder now at Liquid Silver Books.

About the Author

Sierra Brave is a southern girl with a love for fantasy fiction and well-written yarns that celebrate the humor in everyday life. Her love of erotic fiction started in her last year of high school when she first read the sensual classic, Fanny Hill. She felt so naughty yet liberated with her copy tucked away in her book bag and hopes her work will have the same delicious effect on her readers.

Connect with Sierra:

Website/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest

Did you ever wonder how an author takes an idea and develops it into a story? Me too, and I’m fascinated by the different approaches authors take. You have your pansters who write by the seat of their pants, the plotters, and those who combine the two. There is no right or wrong way to pen a novel, but I’m happy to say I’m a plotter who embraces epiphany when it strikes.

This method works for me for two reasons. One, I don’t write full-time. If I want to write, edit, and polish four or more 100K books a year and still have time for my family, I need to be organized and focused when its “writing time”. I just don’t have time to deal with plot holes or the dreaded writer’s block. And two, I can’t jump from project to project. I get too caught up in one world to be able to switch back and forth. Each series—Wild Hunt, Royal Pride, Kagan Wolves, and Sander’s Valley—has its own set of rules and a unique “feel” that I lose by jumping around. If I do, everything takes on the same tone and characters start to merge. Other authors thrive by doing this. Not me. I can’t do it.

After my idea sparks, I let it play out in my head, working the kinks out of it and fitting it into the series arc. This can take days or weeks, and this usually happens while I’m editing another book. When I reach the professional editing stage, my current story is usually solid and only needs to be tightened and proofed.

Plotting often involves working on profile sheets for characters, looking for inspirational pictures for scenes to give me a visual nudge, and sketching out the book, chapter by chapter. I even go so far as to write a loose synopsis before I type a single paragraph of the book.

Once all that’s done, it’s time to write. Since I work full-time, the bulk of that is done on the weekend, and I use my lunchbreaks during the week to read over what I wrote and do a first pass edit. Then it’s off to one of my wonderful editors.

The culmination is release day, and I celebrated one yesterday! Hunter Forsaken is the newest installment in the Wild Hunt series. Check it out below and if you haven’t read the free prequel, Hunter Sacrificed, you should. It’s available everywhere.

Hunter Forsaken
Wild Hunt, book 2

A vow to the dead…the mark of the Hunt…a love with one chance to survive.

In the slice of a moment, Ian Callahan lost everything he cared about—a deed done by his own hand. He awakens on the edge of sanity, chained in his own personal hell. He is to be the newest rider in the Wild Hunt, if he can learn to control the rage and guilt that consume him.

Then…a whiff of vanilla. The face of a lover he’s seen only in his dreams. He doesn’t know her name, only that she stirs the hungry beast within him.

For a millennium, Tegan and her sibling riders of the Wild Hunt were imprisoned, suffering under a curse meant for the Unseelie Court. Though her body is free, she carries the curse with her—and the additional burden of finally knowing the name of her destined mate. A human named Ian Callahan.

He’s her Trojan horse, the only one who can heal her heart. Just one last challenge stands in the way of claiming each other, once and for all. Failure means facing eternity the incomplete halves of a whole.

Warning: Contains a hero who’s more than just the total…package. And a daughter of the Underworld who thought she knew what Hell was…until she fell in love. Boundaries of monogamy pushed, pulled, stretched—but never broken.

Praise for the Wild Hunt series…

RT Book Reviews on Hunter Forsaken—“With underworld intrigue, a daring rescue of innocents from the fairy realm and a demon-fueled plot twist, there’s a lot of action, but at its heart, this is a story about the redemptive power of love.”

The Library Journal on the Wild Hunt series— “…intriguing and original… Recommended for those whose traditional sexual values just need a little boost.”

Excerpt

“You’re Calan’s sister?”

She slid her fingers to the column of his neck. “Half sister, yes. All the riders of the Hunt were fathered by Arawn.” She grinned, showing off straight white teeth. “Besides you, of course.”

He swallowed hard. The mention of the Lord of the Underworld put a whole new spin on Tegan’s heritage. “You’re a demigod.”

Not just any lesser god either. She’d been fathered by the black-skinned, winged creature he’d seen when he joined the Hunt. Arawn’s image had appeared inside his head, much like Tegan’s had over the years they’d visited each other. The sight of him hadn’t bothered Ian. Knowing his dream lover carried Arawn’s genes did.

“Yes, I—”

“You knew me before I joined the Hunt, didn’t you?” He had to be sure she’d participated in his dreams, that it wasn’t only his imagination.

Her nostrils flared. “I don’t—”

“Yes or no, Tegan. Have you invaded my dreams for the past three years?” Making me yearn for you? Read the rest of this entry »

So it’s Valentine’s Day, allegedly the most romantic day of the year. More money is spent on flowers, candy—especially chocolate—and gifts for that special someone than at any other time of the year. I guess that’s because Valentine’s day allows us to focus on a single person. The special someone who makes our heart beat just a little faster, brings the roses to our cheeks, and causes …   never mind. TMI.

The best part of writing Romance Novels is the opportunity to remember the ways in which my special Valentine makes all the things in my life better. And because my Darling Husband is my own personal hero, I can remember with vivid detail the first kiss.

Kissing is an art form, and few people get it right. In the movies, on the silver screen, we often see the most handsome men lunging in for the first kiss by practically attacking the heroine. Make no mistake, if you are an avid reader of romance, you know better. Even in the heat of passion, the hero is serious about his kissing, and will make sure he gets it right and the heroine will never forget him—or that first kiss.

Kissing is more than a prelude to intimacy. It is, in fact, an act of healing. Kissing releases endorphins. You know what they are: those funny little things that melt the tension, restore our enthusiasm and restore energy. Kissing cultivates the closeness in a relationship which promotes feelings of romantic fulfillment.

Sadly, most of us get it wrong. In today’s fast-paced society, we all, at one time or another, deliver quick pecks that send the message “this is all I can afford right now” or our minds wander to other things even during longer kisses. This is self-defeating behavior, if you are kissing and wondering whether or not the kiss will lead to more intimate behavior, such as lovemaking.

Most of the time, we just have poor role models for kissing. In TV and the movies, kissing is usually an aggressive advance with lips roughly mashing together. Overt puckering, the quick smooch, or mashing of the lips suggests that kissers have a set notion of how a kiss is going to be, rather than letting it evolve, an exchange if you will, between two consenting adults.

So, here are some guidelines for Kissing!

1. Take your time. Surprise someone special with a slow, sensual kiss. Put your hands on the sides of their face and turn them gently toward you. Look into their eyes—be sure to take your time—and take some slow deep breaths. Pretend your are never going to see them again as you are at this moment. Keep the eye contact as you draw closer. Make sure you value the connection, not just of lips to lips, but a whole body event.
2. Spend this time experiencing the kiss. Be aware of all the sensations the kissing stirs in both body and soul.
3. Make sure you say it when your lover gets it right. “When you kissed me first thing this morning, I carried it with me all day long. It soothed the ache of a stressful day and energized me to come home to you”.
4. Don’t ignore the urge to sigh with pleasure or murmur approval. If it gives you pleasure, moan. Just be sure to express your feelings.
5. Mirror the breathing of your partner. This small act creates a profound connection between lovers.
6. While you’re in his arms, exercise some spontaneity. Dance with joy, let your partner take the lead in every other kiss, and just see where kissing leads you.
7. Don’t forget to use your tongue. Remember, the swirl of a tongue across the seam of the lips is an invitation for your partner to play. Teeth can also add to the moment by delivering nips, and nibbling makes an even greater connection.

Don’t forget the other ways to make your Valentine feel special. My DH is a lover of all things chocolate, and I like to make him special treats for every special occasion. The following recipe is quick and easy. I’ll bet you have everything you need in the pantry.

Peanut Butter Pretzel Treats.

½ cup crunchy peanut butter
¼ cup crushed salted pretzels
½ cup chocolate chips

Mix the peanut butter with the crushed pretzels in a small bowl. Chill in the freezer at least 15 minutes. Roll a teaspoon of the mixture into a ball, place on wax paper lined sheet and return to the freezer for about 1 hour. Make sure the balls are firm. Melt the chocolate in the microwave, (this takes about one minute) and coat the frozen balls with the melted chocolate.  Return the balls to the wax papered tray and refrigerate for one hour. I place them in mini muffin liners to serve.

Enjoy!

Ane Ryan Walker
HerStoryCalled.com

My parents divorced before I can claim any memories and both remarried quickly thereafter.  In both remarriages, I remained an only child, hated it every single day, and wished for siblings my entire childhood.  And even for some of my adulthood!

I used to day dream what having older brothers who would protect me from school bullies, and older sisters who would share the secrets of the sisterhood with me, would be like. My imagination ran rampant with how we would play, and learn from one another. How we would take care of each other, no matter what. How we would never allow anyone to hurt us, and would always be protective of one another, no matter what, or who, tried to come between us. I envisioned us all as adults, still emotionally and geographically close to one another, and with our own spouses and children as close as close could be.

As a child I wrote stories about families where the siblings were supportive, loving and protective – just what I wanted. When I grew to a writing adult, I wrote families exactly the same way, but began to add layers to the dynamics of the family structure. Now, as a writer of romantic fiction, the families I construct are part of the framework I feel make for the best storylines: loud, loyal, and hilarious. Their individual personalities feed off of, and nourish, one another.

The San Valentino family in my new release 3 WISHES ( A Candy Hearts Romance) has all of those characteristics, plus several more. This is a large, raucous, fighting and loving Italian family whom, my main character Chloe, describes this way: “Drama sticks to my family like fleas to feral cats.”

Truth.

Three generations live under the same roof, from 93-year-old matriarch Nonna Constanza, to her daughter Francesa and husband Joey, and their youngest child, who is one of 6. Weekly family dinners with all six children, their spouses and their own children are the norm in the San Valentino household. The dinner conversation is boisterous and opinionated, the food home cooked and delicious. Even though they all argue with one another, each member of this family would gladly and willingly lay down their life for another member. And they all know it.

If I could have wished a family for myself growing up, it would be this one. The San Valentino’s fight hard, work even harder, and love unconditionally. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a family such as this?

3 Wishes

Valentine’s Day is chocolatier Chloe San Valentino’s favorite day of the year. Not only is it the busiest day in her candy shop, Caramelle de Chloe, but it’s also her birthday. Chloe’s got a birthday wish list for the perfect man she pulls out every year: he’d fall in love with her in a heartbeat, he’d be someone who cares about people, and he’d have one blue eye and one green eye, just like her. So far, Chloe’s fantasy man hasn’t materialized, despite the matchmaking efforts of her big, close-knit Italian family. But this year for her big 3-0 birthday, she just might get her three wishes.

Buy links: Amazon | The Wild Rose Press

Excerpt from 3 Wishes…

At about five minutes of ten I was almost ready to turn the Closed sign on the door when it opened. I heard Janie’s breath hitch and turned from where I was sweeping up. Staying open late is always a risk, with the thought thieves will invade at the end of the day.

If the guy standing at the door glancing around the shop was a thief, then Dio mio, I wanted to be robbed.

About six foot, his hair was the color of a deer’s pelt, with autumnal golds and browns shot together in a glorious patchwork that grazed the collar of his jacket and curled a little at the ends. He wore a faded brown bomber jacket over a shirt I couldn’t see, but he had shoulders almost as wide as my doorway. A pair of well-worn jeans covered his mile long legs, and the fabric on the stress points at his knees was practically white.

“We’re about to close,” I heard myself say. “Can I help you?”

It was at that moment he looked over at me.

His face could have been sculpted by Da Vinci or Michelangelo. A broad, smooth, forehead housed naturally arched eyebrows I knew some of my gay guy friends would have paid a fortune to have on their own faces. His cheeks were carved from marble, high, smooth and deep. And his mouth, mother-of-God, his mouth. Full, thick beautiful lips sat perfectly over a chin with a dent you could shove a button into and have it stay put.

“Sorry,” he said, those fabulous lips pulling up a little shyly at the corners. “I got stuck at work and couldn’t get here until now. I’ll be quick. Promise.”

So here’s the thing: the guy was gorgeous. But even if he’d looked like a frog with raw antipasto smothering his face, I would have dropped to my knees when he opened his mouth. Warm honey, a shot of raw whiskey, and a little hot puff of smoke wafted from his mouth like a fine and rare brandy being decanted.

About the Author

Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance author who writes about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them.

Her current titles, available now, include SKATER’S WALTZ, THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME, FIRST IMPRESSIONS, and THE VOICES OF ANGELS books 1 through 4 in her 6-book The MacQuire Women Series, published by The Wild Rose Press.

Peggy holds a master’s degree in Nursing Administration and first found publication with several articles she authored on Alzheimer’s Disease during her time running an Alzheimer’s in-patient care unit during the 1990s.

A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, she is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.

Website/Blog: https://peggyjaeger.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/peggy_jaeger
Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00T8E5LN0
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Peggy-Jaeger-Author/825914814095072?ref=bookmarks
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/peggyjaeger/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13478796.Peggy_Jaeger
Instagram: https://instagram.com/mmj122687/

I’m what the French tactfully call a woman of a certain age. I like to think of it as old enough to know better, but devil-may-care enough to do it anyway, while wearing a little black dress too sophisticated for twenty-somethings. (Realistically my life is more “wearing pajamas and petting a cat as I write about women who have adventures that involve little black dresses and sexy lapses of common sense.” Occupational hazard of being a writer. But you get the idea.)

In my real life, the same one in which I rock those fur-covered fleece PJs, I’m married to a wonderful man a few years my senior. We’re happy, romantic, and still passionate after all these years. I wouldn’t trade my silver fox for the world.

But I read a lot of books with heroes young enough to be my son, and I’m not ashamed of it. Younger men are pretty.

This is what the hero of Drive looks like. See what I mean?

Our favorite romance heroes have broad shoulders, abs of steel and a full head of hair, unless a particular hero’s head is shaved in a sexy tough-guy way because he’s a mercenary or an MMA fighter. We want a hero who’s young enough to have all the passion and erotic energy of youth, but mature enough to know what to do with it. A hero who can still get away with being wild. One who can sweep us off our feet, not just metaphorically but literally. (Full disclosure: my husband can still do this. I am a lucky, lucky romance writer.)

The only problem with these hunky young heroes, in my opinion, is they’re almost always paired up with women their age or even younger. Is this fair for some of us who’d enjoy a good cougar fantasy? Obviously not!

You could argue this is a touch of realism. It’s easier to find common ground with someone close to your age. You share experiences, pop culture references, in-jokes that someone much younger or older might not catch. It’s more likely you’ll agree on whether special occasions should be spent out dancing until dawn or having a lovely gourmet dinner, whether Friday drinks means savoring a high-end cocktail or splitting a couple of sixes of inexpensive beer, whether your winter vacation is back-country skiing or a resort on St. Thomas.

That’s all true, but the common romance trope of the slightly or even much older hero owes more to the societal rule that says it’s all right for men to date much younger women, but a little suspect for middle-aged women to go for younger guys. Older guys have power. Older women just have wrinkles. Right? (Insert disgusted snort here.) Luckily, women are slowly grasping more power and more control over their own destinies—and expanding their dating options as a result. If this meme is to be believed (I didn’t fact-check it), some well-known female stars are cougars, involved with significantly younger men.

It’s easier to be unconventional when you’re rich, famous, powerful in your field and not worried if the PTA, your boss or the ex-husband with whom you share custody is going to freak out. But if Madonna can do it, the rest of us can at least enjoy the fantasy of a hot younger hero to rock our worlds and shake us out of our middle-aged ruts.

That’s why I wrote Drive, the start of the Cougars, Cars and Kink series: to acknowledge that while we may savor powerful billionaires and worldly dukes as book boyfriends, we also enjoy delicious boy-toys who turn out to be something more. In my rich fantasy world, younger men are eager to learn what turns you on and what fun you can have together. They’re not so set in their ways they can’t adjust to yours with grace. Even a Dominant younger man may admit you know more than he does … outside the bedroom, where it’s a kick to let his gorgeous young body and dirty mind take charge. And if you fancy the submissive sort in the bedroom, think what fun you’ll have showing him the benefit of your greater experience and wisdom!

If you’re forty-five and just reentering the dating world, like my heroine Suzanne, you might want someone adventurous, someone who’ll help you make up for lost time, someone who doesn’t have quite as many emotional scars as a single guy your own age is likely to sport. And if you’re just starting to explore your own long-stifled kinky fantasies, you might want someone who came of age in a time when information and BDSM groups were just a few clicks away on the Internet, someone who knows what they’re doing and looks good in the leather pants. Neil, Suzanne’s hero, is thirty to her forty-five. He’s a Boston cop, not a naïve man-boy, but someone who knows just how rough the world can be. Still he has a young man’s energy, idealism and willingness to go for what he wants.

And what he wants is a woman who’s not sure she should be quite this interested in a younger man.

He’s a kinky dream come true—and her only protection from danger.

Eight months after her (cheating, almost-ex) husband’s death, Suzanne Mayhew has a plan to move on with her life. First step: sell off Frank’s classic cars, starting with the red vintage Mustang convertible he never let her drive. Second step: get her unexplored kink on with a delicious younger man.

Preferably the one an old friend sends around, ostensibly to check out the Mustang. Neil Callahan—Boston cop, Dom, fifteen years her junior.

Neil feels the mutual sizzle, but if the blush staining her cheeks is any indication, her flirting skills are a little rusty. Though his instinct tells him to take things slow with the recent widow, he can’t resist inviting her along for a test drive—for the whole weekend.

Throwing caution to the wind, Suzanne takes him up on it. But they’re barely out of the driveway when Neil’s cop instincts kick in. They’ve got a tail…and it looks dangerously like her ex’s secrets looming large—and deadly—in their rear-view mirror.

Warning: Spies, lies and vile bad guys. A meddling BFF. Inappropriate use of kitchen tools. Completely appropriate use of rope and floggers. Your mileage may vary, depending on battery life.

Samhain / Amazon US / Amazon UK / Barnes & Noble /Kobo / iTunes/iBooks /Google Play /All Romance Ebooks

Read the rest of this entry »

Does anyone have a penis?

I don’t. And, as I wrote one particular book, not owning a penis was, well, sort of a problem. Owning is, of course, the operative word here. I have a husband, ergo, I “own” a penis, so it’s safe to say that I had a place to start, but it wasn’t the same thing.

But first, an explanation.

The book, untitled at the time, was a body swapping romance, aka, “Freaky Friday,” but instead of a mom and daughter swapping, it was two roommates, Keira and Dillan.

With a few caveats, I felt somewhat qualified to describe Dillan’s actions as he woke up in Keira’s body, because, after all, I wake up 100% of every morning in a woman’s body. The opposite, however, was less certain. What might go through Keira’s mind when she discovered her new anatomy?

And this was when the penis-owning men of my acquaintance got to know me a lot better.

And I got to know them a hell of a lot more than I ever anticipated.

Let’s do a roll call

My confession is this: I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to be a man. Even for just one day — maybe one week, tops. Sure, for the most part, I’m curious about the sexual aspect of it all, and in this fantasy-filled wish of mine, I’d naturally swap into the body of a super hot guy who dripped sexual charisma. You know the type — that guy who doesn’t have to work too hard to get a girl.

I mean, let’s face it, I have zero illusions I could actually seduce a woman in the 24 hours allotted for my wish. Granted, I’ve never tried, so I don’t want to sell myself short. But still.

So, for the sake of research (for the novel, of course), the next best thing I could do was ask a lot of uncomfortable questions. And by uncomfortable, I mean where the respondent has to pause and replay the question in their head to ensure they heard you correctly. If you’re married, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.

To get started, I didn’t even have to leave the house.

My first resource was Mark, my husband. It was a Saturday morning, I’m brewing coffee and getting ready to write The Scene, when I ambush him.

“Do you always wake up with a hard-on?” I asked as I poured cream into my cup. I’ll swear to you right now that I did not have an evil grin. I played this one with a straight face.

He dropped his empty cup, a guilty look on his face. “This is for the book, isn’t it?”

On any given weekend, I’m writing something, so with most of my questions, his response is generally that one, or something close.

“That, and I’ve been looking up plastic surgeons in the area. Also, just how thin is the skin of your testicles?”

He nearly choked on his tongue, muttering a, “You’re killing me, Kelly. Most mornings, yes.”

But he struggled to describe the skin of his testicles as he searched for a new coffee cup, which, ironically ended up being a Mother’s Day mug, with the word Momnicient on the side. I thought about pointing this out, but I didn’t want to push my luck.

“I’m gonna write, ‘Paper thin’ for the time being. Now, let’s discuss the roll call.”

His face was a blank stare. “The roll call?”

“Yeah, where you scratch the hell out of your genitals. It must hurt like hell, the way you get all up in there. That’s the roll call. You’re double-checking to make sure you still own all your parts.”

“Like maybe I accidentally left them at work?” he asked, a weird smirk tugging at his lips. “You just made that up, didn’t you?”

“You’re married to an author. I make up stuff all day long.” At this point, Mark left the kitchen and went into the bathroom. “You can’t duck out of this conversation,” I told him through the closed door, laughing.

“I can’t hear you. I’m too busy conducting roll call.”

Cashing in favors

I have a lot of guy friends. Growing up with brothers, and dealing with their friends, and then joining the military right out of high school, I was always a tom girl and, incidentally, felt more comfortable around men.

Sarcasm is a source of pride, and I’m rarely thinking clean thoughts, so it was a natural progression to ask a few of my closest male friends similar questions.

At work, I approached my friend Chris, who happens to be a Navy Lieutenant Commander with a wicked sense of humor.

“Wanna get coffee today?” I asked. This in itself wasn’t odd, but I wanted to use the time to ask questions. I already wrote Dillan’s scene waking up as a woman, but I wanted more authenticity with Keira waking up as a man.

It was nagging me like something fierce.

“I’ve had, like, four cups,” he said, lifting the coffee from behind his monitor to prove his point.

“Darn. I wanted to ask you about sex.”

Chris looked up sharply, one eyebrow arched suspiciously. “I’m free at two.”

At the appointed time, and with coffee between us, I spilled the beans about The Scene, and he was rather amused by this “problem” of mine.

“Okay, this is not how I imagined our conversation,” Chris said, laughing, but looking around to see if we were being overheard. “Yeah, I usually wake up with an erection, but for the most part, I have to piss like a horse, and sometimes it takes a long time.”

“Why?”

“Can’t pee with a hard-on.” For some reason, he said this like he was a sensei imparting wisdom. “What else you got?”

“What about running? Can you feel your bits jangling?”

Not everything was about the wake-up part, but I’ve always wondered about it, and in the book, Keira is an active runner. She’d instantly feel the difference if she ran while in Dillan’s body.

“Bits? You make it sound like computer parts. Maybe if I was naked,” he said with a gleam in his eye. “There’s this thing called a jock strap, Kelly. Look it up.”

Not at work, I wasn’t, but I laughed.

“Let me ask you this,” I said before we had to go back to the office, “if you woke up one morning as a woman, what’s the first thing you might notice?”

Chris seemed to think seriously about this, which worried me, but sometimes he can surprise me.

He looked between us, like maybe he was comparing our figures to help visualize his answer, and said, “I’d probably notice I was shorter and weighed less. Like, getting out of bed would look and feel different.”

That night, after work, I modified Dillan’s scene. Chris’ observation was spot on.

But it also helped me with the reverse. If Dillan felt lighter, then Keira might feel heavier and clumsy.

Confident that I had what I needed, I wrote The Scene a week later, which you will get to read in the excerpt below.

In the heat of the moment

My husband was happy to know I was reserving all sexy-time questions for him. As a woman, there are a few things, well, maybe many things, that I take for granted during sex.

One of which is thrusting.

“Doesn’t it hurt your hips?” I asked Mark as I neared the end of the book, when Keira and Dillan finally do The Deed. “I feel like my entire body might cramp up.” Of course, I’m thinking like a woman who’s given birth to a ten-pound baby. My hips have never stopped hurting.

By this point, Mark had grown used to these sort of questions. He didn’t even bat an eye.

“It’s not the hips, but my lower back, but I know better than to stop.”

He winked.

It was my turn to choke. I think I might have been brushing my teeth during this particular conversation. I won’t go as far as saying that these questions made me smarter, but it certainly opened my eyes to things I didn’t regularly think about before writing a gender swap romance.

“Good to know,” I replied.

I’ve always found it difficult to imagine what men felt during sex. The physical act of it, aka, penetration, but when I asked my husband, he didn’t have a simple answer. But I found his response to be pithy, and romantic.

“If I could give it one word, I’d call it heat. I feel the heat all over. The pelvic region radiates with it.” He looked up and noticed I was taking notes.

“Heat, got it. Pelvic region radiation. I like it. Go on, babe.”

“But it’s more than that for me. It’s because I’m with you.” He kissed me on the nose. “That’s what makes it wonderful.”

As I finished the novel and sent it to my editor, I felt that Keira’s scenes navigating as a man ended up as authentic as I could make them with the knowledge I’d gained. That, and an active imagination.

Collide Into You is, arguably, one of my favorite books and I think back fondly during the time of its writing. But, more than anything, I had a grand time asking questions. Mark and I had additional conversations, but I can’t reveal those (sorry!).

My confession still stands: I want to know what it really feels like to be a man, but I think I’ll have to save the imagination for the characters in future novels.

So now that you know my confession, what’s yours?

Kelly Washington
kellywashwrites@gmail.com
Kellywashington.com

Collide Into You

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