FINISHED!
May 29, 2005 by Melissa · 1 Comment
Okay, so I still have to edit Cowboy Up, but it is done and my wonderful editor, Linda has it. It is a load off my mind. This manuscript was really hard to finish up thanks to allergies, RT, and various other things going on in my life. And that I simply would NOT let my characters be. Oh, and I wanted to make sure I gave Linda a good book since she is the heroine. But I am done, and I am celebrating with a book reading binge, while I wait edits. And I will try not to be nervous that Linda is now reading it. Have a great Memorial Day everyone!
CELEBRATE! 
Working Hard!
May 28, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
So, I have been bad about posting this week because I have been working hard. I swear. And I’m not even the Preznit! I am putting the finishing touches on Cowboy Up, and it seems to turned a tad raunchier than I expected. I am hoping that you all like it. But Nicodemus likes to play. And his thoughts are, well, they made ME blush.
I have found that many times I have to let those characters go. I was trying to stick Nick and Linda in a hole and it just wasn’t working. But I did insist on a scene with fudge and I am reworking one where he is wearing nothing but chaps. The man is just a woman’s wet dream come true. I never seem to learn though. I try this with all my books and every time I have to tell myself that the characters know who they are, what they want, let them lead you. When I do, it all turns out for the best.
How about that cowboy??
Inspiration for Cowboy Up!
A weekend of creativity!
May 22, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
I spent a weekend at the lake with five amazing friends and writers. We brainstormed, shared stories and marketing ideas, ate some fantastic pizza, and drank. I hated to take the time away from my family, because I have been so busy lately, but it really helped. I worked out an idea for a single title, my FIRST single title in a long time and my first attempt at a single title in this genre. I am pretty excited about it.
I think it was just what I needed. For writers, and I am not being condescending to you non writers, but we work alone. Our interaction online is sometimes the only time we can find someone who understands our driving need to create. And, many times conferences are the only time we get together. This was a fantastic experience. It has my juices going, my creativity flowing and I am ready to get back to work. I am still drugged, but I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders:)
Allergies, depression and the erotic romance writer
May 19, 2005 by Melissa · Leave a Comment
Does that sound like an after school special gone bad or what? Well, it is my life, which resembles an after school special gone bad. I live in Texas, for the time being(12 months to go but who is counting) and I really do have horrible allergies here. I haven’t gone through this for five years and it is getting to me. See, I have to take medication, and it tends to put me in a funk. And in some cases, the depression it causes can really kill my creativity. But, for the first time in years, I have deadlines and work to do to meet those deadlines. I’m not complaining about my work, or the abundance of it. Far from it. I love to write. It is like breathing to me. I just need to learn to pace myself. The stress of work, edits, trying to promote, and basically not leaving my family out of my life to make those commitments, all while trying to battle allergies and the funk the medication puts me in, has left me wrung dry some days.
So, if I am not on the loops so much, or chatting with my readers and fellow authors, it isn’t anything other than needing a break. If I don’t I might just breakdown.
This weekend I am running away. I am going to spend a weekend with some other writer friends and just get to gab about ideas, discuss writing, drink (you know that was coming didn’t you), and not worry about deadlines, laundry, or dinner. I am hoping to come back refreshed, ready for battle, with new plot lines, cool new stories running in my head and able to get back to where I was before Spring visited Texas.
Oh, and the pic is for Steph Vaughan. She wanted naked men. I aim to please:)
MEL
wall guy
Myths of Erotic Romance
May 18, 2005 by Melissa · 5 Comments
Ahhh, my first Spring back in Texas. I can hear the birds chirping and smell ….NOTHING. Once again, I’ve proven my theory I am allergic to the whole state of Texas by spending on Spring in San Antonio. And I pretty much stay drugged to survive. It has eaten into my writing time unfortunately. But I am trudging along, writing when I can, and then sitting on the couch and staring off into space when I am drugged. But I continue to write because I have deadlines and because these damn people keep talking in my head. And well, Linda, my Loose Id editor, would beat me up. She’s mean, she’d do it.
This week though I’ve become disturbed by the shift in the RWA, and recently one of my publishers also, about sex and writing. I can’t rant as lovely as the talented Angela Knight but here is her blog www.angelasknights.blogspot.com. She has a wonderful rant she posted this week and I wholeheartedly agree. But it also reminding me of the many myths and misconceptions of erotic romance.
First, erotic romance and erotica are two different genres. I am not saying one is better than the other, but they are different. There is different criteria for each and I am sure some erotica authors would rather not be called romance writers.
Second, it isn’t an easy job. The research is great, ask my husband, but truthfully, it isn’t easy. If you think it is, try writing a love scene with toddler songs playing the background.
Third, if you take out the sex, you still have a story. Hate to tell ya but there it is. In fact, I had one person tell me there was too much story in my book. And another thing is erotic romance is breaking boundaries. Not just the boundaries of sexual behavoir, but they are giving readers fresh plots with dashes of paranormal twists.
and fourth, I am a dirty worthless human being because I write explicit scenes. Listen, I’m not Mother Theresa but I’m definitely not Imelda Marcos either.
But this all brings to mind a workshop I went to where a writer, who shall remain nameless, had all the secrets to writing erotic romance. See, she writes mainstream. But, she says, she wanted to cash in. So, she swallowed her pride and wrote an erotic romance. Well, after sitting in her workshop, I say she should stop. Everything she talked about made me cringe. She actually told the group that you don’t have to worry about sexual tension. HUH? No sexual tension in erotic romance? Damn, I’m doing it wrong. Angela Knight is doing it wrong. Steph Vaughan is doing it wrong. And, she had a really hard time saying the word cock. She choked on it each time and seemed to apologize to the audience for writing it. If you can’t say it out loud, don’t write it. She read her scenes, NO EMOTION. Tab D inserted into slot P and she was done.
I think my main problem is most of these people haven’t read erotic romance. I had authors at one of my companies accuse me of causing teenage pregnancy and Maury Povich. They likened my writing to porn. Of course, not one of them had read my stuff, but hey, they knew because people were having sex in my books. Unlike a lot of theirs though, my contemporaries always practice safe sex. No secret babies.
Love scenes in erotic romance are no different than any other scene. They should part of the plot, esp the emotional connection between the two protaganists. Do I write explicit? You betcha. But that is the way I write. I don’t do it specifically for money. In the long run, I’m damn happy erotic romance is one of the hottest things going, and seems to be growing every day. But the myth is that it is easy. It’s not and if you hate writing it, it will show. I don’t do it for the money. Do I like getting paid, DAMN STRAIGHT. But I’ll go toe to toe with anyone who tells me that erotic romance is all about sex. It is about the journey, the goals, motivations, and conflicts of my protaganists, and it is about LOVE. I like the Happily Ever After endings, whatever that may be. There’s a lot of sex in my books, no doubt. But there are also spies, aliens, bounty hunters and more plot twists you could shake a hat at. The sex is just another device to show my hero and heroine’s conflicts, vulnerabilities, and emotions. Whether it brings my hero and heroine together or tears them apart, the love scene is part of the book, but not the only part.
BH Inc: For Love or Honor, my latest LI release had a futuristic bounty hunter, a government agent and a plot to kill the bounty hunter, who you will note was a woman, and a kick ass one at that . I’m told it is doing well in sales.
And I didn’t even have a secret baby between a princess and a long lost cowboy who used to be a Navy Seal who had been her body guard at one time to help sell the book. Go figure.
Hello out there
May 13, 2005 by Melissa · 3 Comments
Well, several of my author friends have been after me to start this. Really, the scary thing is that they think someone might actually show up and read it without having to be threatened with a rubber chicken (SL Carpenter reference there for you all). So, as I am in deep writing mode right now, I will post when I can, and be warned. I tend to rant.
