Vixenwriter

The baby is walking. Which means she doesn’t want to sleep lest she miss something.

In any case, I got 2,000 words written in Dark Justice last night. Something snuck in on the alley confrontation scene and it moves the story into a different direction, just a bit, but that’s okay, because it actually creates a nice lead in to the vampire series I want to do. The next vamp book will be with Aidan’s brother and Minx, a member of Kael’s crew.

You know, I love the Postal Service but it distresses me that their songs are selling everything from nailguns to M&Ms on tv these days.

Don’t mind me, I’m just wandering around, not making sense. Have a good Sunday.

Dark Justice

14,000 / 65,000 (18.0%)

I didn’t get one bit of writing done yesterday. Or, rather, I didn’t work on Dark Justice nor did I do any editing. Instead, I sat in front of my TV starting at 7 and watched Firefly through Battlestar Galactica. Four hours of fun, well made shows with really gorgeous people (Oh that Mal, I’m fairly sure I’m actually married to Mal). The husband unit and I actually had popcorn and hung out, uninterrupted by children waking up for Battlestar Galactica!

I need to get back to work today though. Gotta finish my stuff to do my author page at FAR, gotta update my website (and keep an eye out, my clever web designer is really putting something fabulous together, I can’t wait to put it up!).

It’s hot and my kids are all cranky.

I read some books, most of them were nothing I’d talk about here. But one stands out, Richard Paul Russo’s, Carlucci. I must gush over this book. It’s how I wish I could write. Amazing stuff. Someone must have bought Triad at Amazon because I’m ranked now. Ranked inthe depths of hell, but still, darn! I sold a book (hopefully more than one) at Amazon, how freaking cool is that?

Next – uh, hey Congress? Let me get this straight, Grand Theft Auto, a video game where men beat women up and prostitute them is fine, but have a super secret sex hack in it and suddenly it’s time to have an investigation and hearings? Come on! There’s nothing more important you could be doing right now? And is sex so awful that it’s worse than assault? Where are our priorities? (and I don’t think violent video games are bad, btw, I just actually parent my children and make sure they aren’t exposed to things that I think they’re too young to understand, far better and more effective than a rating on the outside of the box)

Sigh. It gets old, having to defend what I do. I get attacked on one side from other romance authors who accuse me of being a pornographer, of dragging the genre down with my very presence, of writing women who, “want to be men” and “men who want to be women.” Somehow though, the worst thing is when friends accuse me of being less feminist because I write romance and smut.

And the bottom line is that I’m sick of it. Look, I’ve never claimed to write monumental pieces of literature. My books are fun and lighthearted and I hope they are entertaining and provide people with a few hours of escape. When I do so, I do not betray who I am as a person. My characters, good and bad, male and female, all carry a seed of me within them somewhere.

For the record, there is nothing demeaning to women in my books or in the books of authors in the genre that I read. Yes, there are books in the genre that are, IMO, demeaning to women, shallow, stupid and perpetuating negative sterotypes of men and women. Of course, these books exist across genre lines.

I do not create pornography. I write erotica that is romantic and romance that is erotic. Pornography has no real connection, no depth of emotion. I have no real issues with porn, but it’s not what I write.

The presence of erotic romance in the genre is not “dragging” romance down. It is simply another sub genre for readers to enjoy should they wish to. And they do wish to, by the way. In the tune of hundreds of thousands of purchases made yearly both in ebook and print. Readers want their romance spicy, they want it naughty and they like their sex spelled out. Great. They like what I write. For those who don’t there are books for them. Asserting that erotic romance is dirty and bad simply asserts that the readers who love it are dirty and bad – and it seems to me a mistake of gigantic proportions to insult romance readers who happen to be VERY loyal. They buy our books and talk about them online and in their daily lives, without them we’d be talking to an emtpy room.

So, to the people attacking on both flanks – knock it off. I’m happy with what I’m doing, my readers like it, I’m creating strong women heroines – these are plusses. How about you all turn and deal with your own stuff instead of being so consumed with what I do?

I’m going to talk about threesome scenes. Scandalized yet? No? Good, I knew I liked you.

So anyway, I like writing menage books. And my readers like to read them. Still, I try to inject realism in my menages, if it’s going to be more than a one time thing, my characters are going to deal with jealousy and time issues, it’s not all sunshine and lollipops (heh, no pun intended here) in any relationship, add another person and it’s bound to be more complicated.

But I’m trying to challenge myself and my readers too. The formerly titled Witches Knot is an MMF book and I had a great time writing those scenes. Now as I write Dark Justice, I’ve just written a MMF scene between Alex, Aidan and Lee that should make you all quite satisfied when you’re done. This is just a glimpse though, Simone’s story is just between her and Kael. I will revisit Lee, Aidan and Alex when I give them a book of their own at the end of the Witches Knot series.

So I think I’m going to try my hand at some FFM for the next book in the queue. I’ve asked readers and most of them say they like it if it’s written right.

And really, this gets at something that I’m convinced of more and more, which is that it’s not so much about the reader’s personal buttons (although it’s certainly a part of it) but how it’s written that’s the point. I’m thorougly convinced that a reader can be affected by a scene that includes something they may not be into depending on how the author presents it.

And so yes, obviously, the menage is there to titilate and arouse, but it should have meaning as well. It should have connection because the best sex is sex for a reason.

Back to that FFM thing – I’m thinking of doing this in a poly storyline so it may actually turn out to be a FMFM story. I need to flesh it out.

But tell me folks, what do you think? Would you want to read a book with FFM in it?

Hee! I got the “start thinking about your blurb and excerpt” email from my editor at EC late last night. While I hate writing blurbs, I do like this end of the edit cycle that signals that the book is nearly final and ready to be turned in.

Of course, I need to work on Second Chances now and do those edits now. This is good, each time I go through an edit, it makes me a better writer. I just hate editing. Not as much as I hated filing or answering phones or having the cops have to escort me to my car because some crazy abusive ex of one of my clients had threatened to hurt me – but it’s hard to come back to a book once you finish it, especially when you’re writing something else in another subgenre. It just takes a bit of time to get back in the right headspace, to learn your characters again.

Just as soon as I’d sent those in, I checked my email and my edits for Second Chances were in my inbox, LOL. It’s pouring! This is good though, I’ve been thinking about Second Chances a lot lately and I’m eager to get into it again.

Shaiha at loveromances gives Triad 4 1/2 hearts and says in part:

Lauren Dane’s debut novel TRIAD is a fabulous tale of good and evil! It has it all: a few dangerous villains, a close family, hunky heroes, love and more then a dab of hot sex. TRIAD has a plot that flows like a fine wine and is quick enough to keep the reader glued to the pages. The main characters Lee, Aiden and Alex are such wonderfully portrayed characters that readers that not emphasizing with them impossible. And the heat between them is something this reviewer can only dream about! The reader should be warned though to make sure that they have the time to read Triad in one sitting. This is one book that won’t stand being set down for any reason.

Ms. Dane has burst onto the ebook scene with a real winner! She has definitely acquired one reader who will be waiting impatiently for her next installment about the Charvez clan. This reviewer’s recommendation is that any lover of paranormal with some incredible heat rush over and pick up TRIAD!

The series title for my Charvez books has been approved at last – Witches Knot! Yes, this was the title for a book but I can change that and a witches knot is about taking different magics and energies and binding them together and really the whole series is about binding and being bound – to family and with family, to the Compact, to protect the innocent, to your mate, binding witch, wizard and other magical energies together, etc.

I’m quite pleased and as my husband said last night, it was meant to take you so long so you could end up with this title.

Marina at Cupid’s Library gave it a 4 1/2 out of five on plot and pleasure and has this to say about Triad:

This is a very intense book with a tremendous love story. Amelia is basically thrown into a situation that puts her family and life in great danger, while also having to accept two different lovers who have a shared history. Aidan and Alex are two men that any woman would love to have. They are different in mood and demeanor but when they love, they love fierce. I loved how Ms Dane allowed each relationship to develop at different times during the course of the story. Aidan and Amelia’s relationship developed quite nicely and then Alex was introduced into their relationship. For me this was a nice change and brought into play Aidan’s jealousy as an issue which I was intrigued how the author would deal with. She did a fabulous job in developing the bond and love between the three that it was not the two men sharing Amelia, but rather the three sharing themselves with each other. This was a nice way to make the bond between the three that much stronger and quite believable. I am generally hesitant with ménages that involve a romantic ending because they do not generally end with the three continuing their relationship, but this story dealt quite well with this to where I felt a marriage of the three truly could work with no one feeling insecure. There are many wonderful erotic scenes between Alex, Aidan, and Amelia; some are with the three and others are with just Amelia and one of her men. It is hinted that a sexual attraction is simmering between Aidan and Alex but nothing explicit happened. This erotic story in addition to the love story also has a great story dealing with the dark magic trying to take over New Orleans and shows great forethought by the author to bring to light Alex’s family and his past. I look forward to possibly reading another story that will follow this one about Amelia’s bookworm sister, Em. Triad is truly a wonderful ménage book that shows how three people can be equal parts in a loving and nurturing relationship.

Thank you so much for such a great review, Marina!

Rather than give attention to those who are so desparate for it they waste their time attacking others in the genre, I think I’ll talk about why erotic romance IS romance and why I think readers respond to it so well.

1. Sex is romantic. I know! Shocking isn’t it? But it is and readers of erotic romance know it and that’s why they buy it. They realize that there’s nothing dirty, shameful or distasteful about sex between people who share a connection. In fact, far from it. Romantic sex is hot!

2. The sex in my books has a point. Sex in porn doesn’t have a point. Aside from being boring and plastic, it has no value other than the visual of fucking or whatever they’re doing. Sex in my books has value. It deepens connection, it expresses fear, yearning, desire, sadness, anger, love, lust, frustration – it’s about the people involved and who they are to each other.

3. People like to be aroused, they like to be turned on and titilated and they like for it to be for a reason. Not a lot to ask I think. Whereas porn just makes you laugh and is generally produced for men, erotic romance is written by and large, for a female audience. Maybe I’m spoiled, but my readers are smart people. They want to be entertained but they want it done well. If they wanted porn, they’d buy it, but they want context with their sex. (and this is not saying that people who like door closed sex scenes don’t have brains – I’m talking about my readers)

4. Erotic romances may have a lot of sex in them but they also are about a romantic relationship between people. Oh I know, we shouldn’t include anything more than dyads of a male and a female (according to the purists) but that’s just stupid and bigoted. Love is love. And your imagination is fun! Use it. Vampires and shapeshifters and menages – all things that don’t happen in real life (the menages may from time to time), but they’re fun to read about. But no mistake, just because they have sex together, they still have a romance.

5. Calm down. Seriously. It’s really quite simple. There are enough readers out there for all of us to write for. Stop insulting them by telling them they are consuming porn or that they are all crackheads for sex. Just let them read what they want. Oh, and stop hating on everyone else, it makes you look petty and jealous.