Vixenwriter

The winner of the first round of contests is Marlene!

Email me with your title choice and format for your download and get me your mailing address for your cards and the calendar!

I’ll post tomorrow about the next round of contests!

A REMINDER: ALL CONTEST WINNERS HAVE TWO WEEKS TO CLAIM THEIR PRIZE, AFTER THAT, I’LL DO ANOTHER DRAWING.

Menages. I love them. I’ve written six of them and I love the depth of emotion created by a threesome (I haven’t done four or more, too unwieldy for my tastes although I don’t mind reading them!). For me, when I write, there are several keys I try to always keep in mind:

1. Believability – as in give the reader a reason to believe this would work. I’ve read a lot of menages and thought, “why? I’m supposed to just accept a threesome with these two alpha males and one woman would work without any jealousy, negotiation, hurt feelings, anger or emotion?” If it’s just for fucking, write a menage scene in the book but keep the story line focused on a couple as the romance. If you expect me as a reader to believe a menage, give me a reason to. (It can be a whole host of things. In Tri Mates, it’s metaphysical for instance. In Battlefront, the partial I just finished, it’s due to the circumstances of the three people and the intensity of attraction between them all)

2. Each character needs to be individual and strong in their own right. A lot of menages tend to make one male really strong and the other is just a cock in waiting, or worse, carbon copies of each other. It’s hard enough in a book with a couple to write strong, memorable characters but in a menage, you’ve got to create two heroes who are compelling for different reasons.

3. Don’t forget the story. As in, unless it’s straight erotica or porn, it has to be more than just sex scenes. A menage book still needs actual plot.

Anyway, these are my guideposts – I’m sure every author and every reader has their own preferences.

Which leads me to another thing – boytouching! – I’ve just finished a partial for Battlefront – this is an MFM menage but the men in the story are also together. Together together. Heh. When I write menages, I generally have contact between the men. Sometimes it’s more of a, “hmm, what is this like?” such as I wrote in Tri Mates and it grows into a natural progression of the relationship. Other times, I write it as independent attraction like in Battlefront when the two men have a deep friendship (and occasional sex) before she enters the picture. Generally, when I write MM, I do it through a woman’s eyes. I like that, it’s why I write it that way. There are some scenes she doesn’t see in Battlefront in the beginning of the story, but after that, she’s part of every one. I like the woman as the bridge between the two men. There are times when it just doesn’t work out, like in something my agent is reading now – a menage of two straight, non-bi curious men and one woman. I just write each story as it comes to me and try and stay true to who my characters are.

Anyway, I try to approach each story differently. There are many stories and many characters in them and they all need to be told differently. I don’t use a formula (three DP scenes, two oral, etc), I just write what makes sense to me. Sometimes the book will have a lot of individual scenes between two of the three characters with just a few threesome scenes, other times, the balance goes the other way.

So, I’m asking you all – what are the things you like in menages? Don’t like? Do you likey the boykissing or no?

BTW, speaking of menages – my dear friend and wonderful author, Anya Bast has one out today from Ellora’s Cave! Whisper of the Blade and it’s really wonderful (and also has some connection to my Torrid Tarot story, Sword and Crown). Oh and it has really yummy boytouching too!

So um yeah, blah blah blah. I feel sort of numb these days. I’ve been rushing and writing and revising and editing pretty much nonstop, even through a particularly horrible cold and now everything is off my plate and where it needs to be. I don’t quite know what to do next. My agent has multiple things in play, I’ve got stuff waiting to be heard back on at Samhain – it’s all just wait and see.

I have a contracted book to finish up for Samhain, I have an idea for a quickie for EC – shrug, both deadlines are a bit of time from now so there’s no hurry. I could actually take some time off, I rarely do that, but I’m feeling creatively awake just now. I hate not knowing!

Ascension and Making Chase will both be out in less than a month, whee! I’ve got excerpts up at my yahoo and messageboard should anyone want to check them out.

Speaking of releases, Anya Bast’s Whisper of the Blade is out tomorrow from EC! This is her novella that connects to the universe in Sword and Crown and it’s sooo good!

This is more short erotica than poetry and it is MOST DEFINITELY meant for adults only. I’m putting it behind a cut so be forwarned….

Read the rest of this entry ?

I always knew I wanted to be a mother. Even when I was very young I knew I wanted children. When I met my husband I was very young, eighteen. We had our whole lives ahead of us but he wasn’t as excited as I was in the beginning. It was a “when we’re older” thing for him.

And then suddenly, when we were in law school and thirty began to make an appearance on the horizon, it felt right and we decided to try. Silly us, we thought it might take a while but lo and behold, it happened the first month we tried and suddenly I was pregant in my second and into my third year of law school.

Mothering was so much more than I could have imagined. And I have a great imagination. It was more of everything. Overwhelming at times, my first child was a high needs baby, he had colic for six months. He cried a lot. He needed a lot. I lost most of my time for myself and between him and school, didn’t have much left for my husband. Today he’s sweet, very emotional, my snuggler, a boy with his heart on his sleeve who will not shut up about Pokemon.

But things eased after a time and some years later, we thought an addition to our family would be nice and along came my youngest son. As different from my oldest as could be. My youngest son was the sweetest baby! He slept so easily, played independently and was generally a joy. Until he started walking and turned into the holy terror he remains today. He is mischevious to the extreme. A sweetie pie with a gleam of trouble in his eye, he loves to dig and run and make giant, wet messes in the bathroom sink with his cars.

And we thought we were done. Or I wanted to be and my husband, knowing I’d be the one to bear the majority of the labor of parenting as I was home with the kids, agreed two was enough. So imagine my surprise when I was late. I mean, really late. And surprise, along came my daughter. Who was a sweet and gentle baby for like four months and is as wild as her next older sibling and as emotional and loving as her oldest brother.

My kids are exhausting creatures. They are inquisitive and rarely stop moving from dawn to far into the night. They chatter endlessly and fight all too often. I did not get the brand of children who play nicely and keep clean when they are in dress up clothes. They break things and throw chairs at each other and their legs are always covered in bruises and scrapes. The boys can’t seem to get the pee in the damned toilet at least 40% of the time and they often smell like wet dog by the end of the day and my daughter takes her father calling her princess seriously and is an utter tyrant.

Still, they are the unrelenting light of my life and I can’t quite imagine what I’d be doing if I wasn’t picking up Barbie shoes and stepping on legos in the middle of the night.

I don’t believe motherhood isn’t a path necessary to being a woman, it’s not a path a woman needs to be fulfiled or to find purpose. It’s not what we have to do and sometimes, sadly, it’s something we want but can’t achieve for one reason or another.

I chose it and it chose me and the universe was kind in bestowing these beautiful, horrible creatures on me. My life isn’t complete because of them and they don’t own every part of me. I am a person, whole and true, apart from my being a mother. But my being a mother is part of who I am as much as being a wife, a daughter, a writer. It brings me challenges and joy like nothing else ever has and I am so blessed to have it.

I find it a most beautiful thing that it was my being on bedrest with my third, surprise baby when I started to write seriously. In many ways, my being a writer now is due in part to my being at home with my kids and that fated, surprise and very emotional third pregnancy. Mothering is as exhausting as it is creatively inspiring and on this Mother’s Day, I send my thanks out into the universe for my children, for my husband who created them with me and to my own mother and grandmothers for doing the often thankless work of mothering. But when we’re rewarded, with half a chocolate bar and those precious hand made cards, it makes the vomit, the crying, the “you’re not fair” and the looks the teacher gives me on those afternoons I come to pick my sons up from school all worth it.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mommas out there. I wish you chocolate, a quiet morning to sleep in and lots of love.

I forgot to mention this yesterday (I’m dealing with several deadlines and I’m still slightly crispy from this cold) but Shelley Munro’s, Sex, Spies and Sapphires is out now from Ellora’s Cave

Here’s a blurb: An heirloom sapphire. That’s where Sarah Walsh’s troubles began. Oh and sex. That came into the equation when she met Flynn Wangford. Now he has her sapphire and she wants it back.

Bad boy Flynn is causing trouble again. Sarah and fellow spy, sometimes lover Thomas MacIntyre are assigned to protect the British prime minister and royal guest Princess Leila from Mundavia while keeping an eye on Flynn. For Sarah it’s a chance to retrieve her sapphire. Somehow, she’ll juggle official duties and best the cocky Australian. But before she knows it, Sarah is alone with Flynn and they end up horizontal. The sex is explosive and hot, hot, hot, but she can’t stop thinking about Thomas. Two men. They’re so different yet both are delectable and very distracting for a woman with a mission.

Sarah must concentrate on recovering her sapphire but it seems she and Flynn aren’t the only players in the quest to secure the gemstone. Thomas wants the sapphire as well.

Now, I love me some Shelley Munro. She’s one of my “go to” authors and I’ve got my copy of Sex, Spies and Sapphires in my hard drive and I can’t wait to read it!

Next month I’ve got two new releases – Ascension from EC (paranormal romantic suspense) and the last Chase Brothers book, Making Chase – I’m pretty excited about both these books and I’m still pretty darned happy about my RT experience and the release of Sword and Crown…

SO – I’m going to be running a series of contests. From today through Wednesday I’ll have one for a chance to win a deck of EC cards (moulin rouge deck), a fab EC calendar (yes it’s may but have you seen this calendar?) and the download of your choice from all my available titles.

All you need to do is post. Easy peasy! Let’s see – tell me what genre you like to read most. Good luck!

So I’ve been tagged several times for the 8 Things Meme – thing is, if it’s unknown, I most likely want it to stay that way, LOL!!

1. I didn’t start reading romance in earnest until I was in my 30’s. It all started with Emma Holly…

2. But it was Jenny Crusie who made me think, “if I could write this well, I’d be proud to write romance”

3. But Emma remains the reason why I love to write menages and BDSM (and I hope, half was well as she can)

4. My first romance novel ever was when I was like 13 or 14 and it was Judy Blume’s, Forever.

5. I’ve always lived in large cities but I love to write about the kind of small town my mom grew up in

6. When I was a kid, my mom would drop me off at the local library and I’d spend literally hours there and still be sorry to leave

7. There’s a local sex toy store here in Seattle, Babeland (with stores in several other cities and they’re fab!) Anyway, I go there from time to time and I even did a reading there in March. But the first time I ever went there, when I was in college, I was totally freaked out.

8. I love Prague and if there was any other city I could live in anywhere in the world, I’d most definitely pack my kids and dude up and head there.

There are rules about tagging and all that stuff, but another not so unknown fact about me is that I hate rules. If you want to do this meme, consider yourself tagged.

I’ve been really sick and pushing a few deadlines since I returned from RT so my normal reading pace has slowed to just about nothing. I do want to talk about Chris Green’s Night Rising though! I started the book on my way to Houston and finished it up on my way back and I have to say I enjoyed it.

The nits to pick? I wanted more fleshed out. I don’t think I was 100% convinced that a woman as savvy as Dawn would engage in such an intimate relationship as she did with Limpet without knowing what he was. She asked but I felt like, horny or not, she would have demanded. Now I understand Green is drawing it out, it is a series after all, but I felt off balance. Not because I personally didn’t know but because Dawn didn’t know.

Generally though, Night Rising was an entertaing read. I thought the characters, especially Dawn, were vivid and interesting and kept me reading. I liked the different elements to the story, I liked the darkness in both the story and the characters. I did not expect this to be a romance, I didn’t expect it to be pure fantasy or mystery either so I wasn’t disappointed that it straddled a few genres – in fact I loved that.

Her mythology of vampires is very unique – again I wanted to know more but this is a three book series and I realize she’ll draw more out as we continue on so I can wait.

I’ll be back for book two which Chris/Crystal says will be out in February of 2008 – Midnight Reign.

1. Whatthefuckever

2. Get your hands off your _______

3. Keep Your Shit Together In Public!

4. Um…no

5. Are you listening to me?

6. What is that?

7. Nevermind, don’t tell me!

8. Just wash your hands!

9. With soap and water!

10. Have you heard back? (this one and some variation thereof is a favorite with my agent and editors, I’ll tell you what!)

11. Oh the tragedy. Now go to bed (eat your food, get dressed, etc)

12. Fuckadooodle doo!

13. Cripes! (I’m trying to say fuck less)

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