WHEN BETA RELATIONSHIPS BECOME SERIOUS

or “How To Use a Catcher’s Mitt”

From ACN: When I go to my writing group and mention to friends of mine that I write with a collaborator, or as I call her, a co-author, I get odd looks. One even suggested that it couldn’t possibly be a collaboration and that really I must be doing all the work. But that really couldn’t be farther from the truth.

As in any good partnership, once synergy happens, one can’t tell where an idea began once it gets going. The whole really is greater than the sum of its parts. (And here you thought two and two only ever equaled four!) Rachel and I started working together several years ago as “beta readers” for each other. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a beta reader is a second pair of eyes who looks at your manuscript and helps to pinpoint areas of weakness. It is not, generally, a line editor. (In fact, many beta readers that I’ve known refuse to line edit.)

When Rachel first sent me a manuscript to look through, what struck me right off was the strength of the story. It did need help with some of the technical details, but the underpinnings were rock-solid. Contrary to what many writers have said in my hearing, it is my belief that STORY is everything. If you don’t have a good story, you just have well-constructed grammar exercises. After all, it’s not very interesting to read “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.”

From RW: I would say that several of the main benefits are input and a second opinion when world building. It also helps to have another pair of eyes when editing and another brain when creating, as well as a built in support system for the tough times. It’s fun to trade ideas and use each other as a sounding board.

Back to ACN: As we worked together, we started talking about how we might write a story together. I suggested a blog, and created Taurus and Taurus. That is how our serial novel NEW WORLD ORDER came to be. At first, Rachel took one character and I another, and we essentially role-played our way through the story. We have the first, second, and third books all plotted out as well as ideas for a couple spin offs.
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Gritty Historical Novels

by Denise A. Agnew

Romance novels have a happy ending, and that’s one of the reasons why I love them. That doesn’t mean that I don’t like a novel with grit. You know, the type of novel that really is heart-wrenching, makes you think something seriously bad is happening to the hero and heroine and that they will have to fight for their lives and their happiness.

While I love writing contemporary novels, I’ve found my true voice in historical romance. Here I feel like I can sink my teeth into everything dramatic, romantic.

Research isn’t something I shy from when I’m researching a historical novel. In fact, it’s one of the elements I find compelling. Not only do I discover what I need to accurately portray the people and times for that novel, I love learning about a new time period and place.

Historical novels are calling on me at all levels lately. In summer 2010, Samhain Publishing released a reprint of my Jack The Ripper novel (original title Midnight Rose) under the title Dark, Deadly Love. On January 4, 2011 Samhain released For A Roman’s Heart. Both novels have stunning covers! Thank you to the wonderful artist Kanaxa. In June of 2011 Samhain released Before The Dawn and it also has a beautiful cover. Each novel started with a kernel of an idea and blossomed into a story I loved writing.

And what about the future? I have six…count ‘em…six historical novels either in the works or in the idea stages. The six are broken into two separate trilogies but they all involve paranormal elements.

Here’s a tidbit of BEFORE THE DAWN to tantalize you.

A fallen woman must decide to stay down, or rise and fight…

Elijah McKinnon has been found innocent of a heinous murder, but it doesn’t erase the hellish years in prison he endured. He boards the train to Pittsburgh a changed man, certain he will never feel free until he’s wreaked revenge on the brother who ruined his life.

The passenger who catches his eye is intriguing, but he’s seen her kind before. The kind who puts on airs—and looks down on Irishmen. Still, he can’t seem to stop himself from stepping between her and a pack of ruthless cads.

Mary Jane Lawson is grateful for the handsome stranger’s help, but her journey has a higher purpose: to rise above her shattered reputation and declare her independence, come flood or famine. Propriety says she should refuse Elijah’s suggestion they pose as husband and wife—for her own protection, of course. Her practical side says it won’t hurt to pretend, just this once.

Come nightfall, though, their little charade must be carried all the way to shared sleeping quarters, where their vulnerabilities become painfully clear. And when danger past and present threatens, trusting each other becomes a matter of life and death.

Product Warnings: A hot Irish accent mixed with high adventure may cause combustion. Beware of falling for this hunk. The heroine says he’s hers.

She stumbled along in his wake, no energy to ask why they pushed onward into the woods where no one from the train could help them. Thinking that far ahead caused more trepidation, so she concentrated on planting one shoe in front of the other. After what seemed an endless time, a rocky outcropping and massive hill rose in front of them.

“Thank the saints.” He tugged her forward. “Here.” He released her hand long enough to shove aside shrubbery and reveal a tall opening. She saw his throat work as he swallowed hard. “Damnation. I don’t want to go in here, but we must. I’ll go first, you follow.”

His voice snapped like a general, and she flinched. His eyes went hard, unyielding.
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Thank you to Delilah for having me as a guest on her blog today.

July 18 is the release date of my next book, Falling Hard, and I was thinking about all of the writing I’ve done this year. I realized that I really need a break!

But it’s so hard to think about going on a vacation when I still have deadlines looming over my head and the laptop is just so darn portable. On the other hand, the weather is so beautiful and where I’m from we don’t get long enough summers. My brain wants to turn off for a while, and my body wants to soak in the sunshine, lay out on the dock with the lake lapping and sparkling in front of me. I would watch kiddo splashing around and have hubby to bring me something refreshing to drink…all right, let’s not get carried away. 🙂

But you get the idea. My writing is important to me and I enjoy it very much (sometimes more than other times, depending on how the words are flowing), but I think everyone needs time to recharge every once in a while, and I not only owe it to myself, but also to my family to spend some time with them without anything else to get in the way.

This is why, although I’m writing this blog post for Delilah BEFORE my holiday, by the time it’s posted here, I’ll have returned, and I’ll be all refreshed and ready to get to work on the next book!

How is your summer coming along? What have you done to relax, or what do you plan to do? Give me some ideas for next year!

J.K. Coi is a multi-published, award winning author of contemporary and paranormal romance and urban fantasy. She makes her home in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and son and a feisty black cat who is the uncontested head of the household. While she spends her days immersed in the litigious world of insurance law, she is very happy to spend her nights writing dark and sexy characters that leap off the page and into readers’ hearts.

FALLING HARD is available from Carina Press on July 18!
Check it out: Carina Press
JK Coi’s website: https://www.jkcoi.com

TAM LIN AND THE ORIGINS OF
THE SURRENDER OF LADY JANE

or “Where I Didn’t Get My Ideas From”

by Marissa Day

All things considered, traditional ballads and broadsheet songs are not a fertile source for good Romance. Seriously. If you are a hero or a heroine in, say, a Child ballad, your odds of successfully achieving the Happily Ever After are really, really small. You’re far more likely to be betrayed by your lady love over a very small misunderstanding, which will cause you to die of a broken heart (Barbara Allen). Better yet, she could kill you herself over a badly timed joke and have her servants throw you in the backyard well (Proud Lady Margaret). On the heroine’s side, you could be accidently shot because your lover turns out to have bad eyesight and you’ve got an unusually large apron (Polly Von), or the guy you thought was going to marry you could show up already married to another woman, after which she kills you, which causes him to kill her follows that up with his public suicide at the wedding feast (Fair Ellen). Alternately, you could elope with a guy who turns out to be a serial killer and have to chuck him in the ocean and then talk your parrot into not ratting you out (The Outlandish Knight).

Mothers are particularly hazardous to your Trad. Ballad couple. Your mother could leave your true love out in the cold (The Lass of Roch Royal), or you could get the double whammy where your mother curses you, and then the heroine’s mother leaves you out in the cold (The Drowned Lovers). Fathers aren’t any good either. They tend to do things like follow up the arrangement an advantageous marriage for you by trying to perform a public confirmation of your virginity, forcing you to either die of embarrassment or turn into a tree (The Arbutus). For an exciting variation, there’s the possibility that your husband will murder both your shapeshifting lover and your son (The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry), or you could just get murdered by your jealous brunette of a sister on general principles (The Twa Sisters).

Of course, this is not a problem limited to the Scottish and British ballads. Do not even get me started on the dope slap needed by all the players in the traditional Appalachian ballad “The Long, Black Veil.” I’m telling you, it is just not a grand ballroom of glamour and romance out there.

And yet, it was a traditional Ballad that furnished me with the basics for THE SURRENDER OF LADY JANE. The ballad was “Tam Lin.”
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Reader Gold – Series/Serials

I’ve been reading a lot lately and I love series/serials so I have been rereading my favs. I’ve written on my own blog about my love of series and serials. What they are and how I feel about them. Almost monthly there are so many books coming that are part of a series/serial.

First here are my definitions of them both:

Series ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that has a related story theme but each one is complete in and of itself.

Serial ~ Taige Crenshaw Definition:
Novels that feature/follows the same main character/s yet are still a fresh story each time.

No matter which way you slice it I find whether it is a serial or series I enjoy writing stories like this. It gives me room to stretch my mind, push my characters to give me more and wallow in there adventure even more. Although I enjoy these stories I don’t usually start writing with the intention of it being a series/serial sometimes it just happens to evolve that way.

I write what I love to read and I’m one of those readers that wondered what is next for such and such main character. Or what happened to this sub – character that I liked in this or that novel. I go hunting to find more and when I find it I feel like I’ve struck READER’S GOLD. I jump up and down and shout in glee. LOL.
I’ve been known to search for years to get that book to complete a series/serial I was reading. Hey I’m a dedicated reader and I want the complete set of my series/serial.

That is what I want my novels to be to my current and future readers ~ Reader’s Gold. No I don’t want you the reader to wait a long time for my books but I want you to be so drawn into the worlds that I create you can’t wait to see what happens next.

This is what Reader’s Gold is all about. As my thoughts of Reader’s Gold evolved I thought of all the author’s who have some wonderful series/serials that I feel are Reader’s Gold. They line my bookshelf’s (online and print) and I go looking for them when they are released.

I’m sure most of you have a little Reader’s Gold on your bookshelf so come on and share. Give me some new Reader’s Gold to find.

Taige Crenshaw is a multi-published author with books available at Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Liquid Silver Books, Loose Id, Total-E-Bound and Summerhouse Publishing. 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 heroine’s, and sexy hero’s.

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: https://www.taigecrenshaw.com or blog: https://www.taigecrenshaw.com/blog.

Silken Inferno – When the past comes calling it brings unexpected revelations that must be faced. Buy Here at Summerhouse Publishing.

One and Done? I can’t do it.

I keep telling myself that I’m done. When I started Small Town Siren, I knew it was going to be one book and then I was going to move on. I had a single story to tell, right? That what stories do. They end. In a romance, all stories end happily. Until those damn characters keep whispering to me.

I never meant to write more than one story set in Willow Fork, Texas. This week my fourth Texas Sirens book, Siren Beloved was released. Where did I go wrong? Well, I listened to those damn characters who kept telling me the story of this little family wasn’t finished. First, Sam Fleetwood had a few things to work out. Julian Lodge was only mentioned in the first book, but by the time I was done with Siren in the City, Julian simply had to settle down. And by the time I was finished with Siren Enslaved, I knew that Lucas and Lexi would need a story. Even as I was writing the second book of this series, I told myself that I would take a little break from Willow Fork and write a one off about a weird little Colorado town. Yeah – that worked out for me. Book four of that series comes out in August.

Why do I go back to the same well? I fall in love. I fall in love with the worlds I create and the people in my mind. Some of my readers might have noticed that I even cross over series characters. In Two to Love (a Bliss, CO book), Callie has a wild night in an unnamed Dallas BDSM club and Stef meets two of his old friends. Of course it’s The Club and Stef is having a drink with Jack and Sam. In Siren Beloved, I make it plain that my charming Dom Leo was raised close to a town called Bliss, and his mother is the girlfriend of Bliss’s notorious alien hunter. I can’t even leave my actual stand alone novellas out it. At the end of Siren Beloved, Dani is opening a spa in Willow Fork complete with a new manager who knows a thing or two about running a BDSM resort. Yep. If anyone’s read it, Gaby and Cal from Away From Me are back in Texas with two kids in tow.

I guess I do it because it’s my world. I see it so clearly in my brain. It’s vivid and alive to me. It’s a place I want to live in and people I want to know. I can’t leave them behind because each one is a piece of me.

But Texas Sirens is done. I’ve finished off that little family.

Except for Leo. And the Dawson twins. And maybe Bo…Damn it.

Sophie Oak writes erotic romance for Siren Publishing. You can read all the first chapters of her books at www.sophieoak.com.

Aural Sex

In my stories, sex is a vital component and sometimes tricky to pull off effectively. So many things go into writing a sex scene, and using all five senses is crucial. Touch, taste, sight, and smell are all important, but sometimes dialogue is overlooked. The physicality of the encounter might seem paramount, but without the emotion and intimacy of dialogue, it all becomes mechanical and the scene falls flat.

Good dialogue during lovemaking can make a sexy scene even hotter. If the characters are making love for the first time, their dialogue can reveal a turning point in their relationship, a time of new understanding or greater intimacy.

Whatever they say has to be consistent with their personalities. How would they express themselves in bed? Are they shy about talking dirty? How graphic would they be with each other? Would they use explicit language or sensual words?

How the words are spoken can be just as important as what is said. If a character is bilingual, he or she will often revert to their native tongue during sex. Using a few foreign phrases can bring a lot of emotion into a scene. In my short story, Love Bytes, Rhys, a Welshman, whispers to Ben in his mother tongue when they make love. Ben has no idea what Rhys is saying, but it sounds romantic and makes him feel sexy.

Sometimes less is more. Words aren’t always needed. A gasp, a moan, or a growl can be enough to show what the characters are feeling. And using inner dialogue can reveal feelings and emotions that a character can’t vocalize. In the end, it’s all about the characters, and making sure the reader will connect and care about them.

Thanks for reading and a big thanks to Delilah for having me today.

Gale

Erotic Romance Author, Gale Stanley writes for SirenBookstrand and Silver Publishing. She lives in the City of Brotherly Love, with hubby and two talkative Tonkinese cats, Buffy and Spike. Her kids are grown and the grandkids are waiting for a book they can read. Her latest book One Night in Bangkok was released June 4 from Silver Publishing.

The temperature in Bangkok is a humid ninety degrees but things are about to get a lot hotter. David Elliot is in Thailand on business but when he meets Kai, the younger man turns his world upside down. It was never meant to be anything more than a pleasant diversion but can he walk away when it’s over?

https://silverpublishing.info/index/book_authors_id/48/typefilter/book_authors
https://galestanley.net/
https://www.facebook.com/gale.stanley.author

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