I’m at Fierce Romance today, talking about where to find inspiration and sharing my process for coming up with the premise for COMING UNBOUND.
As a writer, I get asked this question more than any other: “Where do you get your ideas?” (My second most often asked question, by the way, is “When are you going to get a real job?” – but that’s a topic for a different post.)…
Come join me!
 It doesn’t matter how many book releases I’ve been through, every single one is still turns me into an excited, nervous wreck. COMING UNBOUND is available today from Ellora’s Cave, and I’m hoping you’ll like it just as much as I loved writing it.
Here’s the blurb and a brief excerpt to tease you a little.
Ginny and Cole have struggled to connect intimately since before their marriage. When Cole suggests they surprise each other with the most sexually daring things they can dream up for their anniversary, Ginny reluctantly musters every ounce of courage she possesses to get nipple piercings.
Cole’s surprise?
He’s turned their suburban basement into a dungeon—and hired a sexy Dom to teach them the art of BDSM.
Desperately in love with his wife, Cole’s aware of sensitive sexual demons in Ginny’s past, and will try anything to beat them. Whips, toys, ménage play with the Dom…all these and more could help Ginny find pleasure, break through her issues.
Or, if they’re not careful, possibly just break Ginny.
I bit my lower lip. All day, I’d been flashing back to the shower I’d shared with Cole. Instead of paying attention to the information I was supposed to be gleaning from this illustrious conference, I’d spent the entire first day racking my brain in an effort to figure out how I could possibly spice things up for my husband.
I hated to admit it, but I was way out of my league here. My comfort zone was firmly in the realm of cotton panties and full-support bras. I knew next to nothing about flimsy lingerie or toys, and even less about the fine arts of dirty talk and role-play.
I set my glass down on a mahogany end table to my right. Crossing my arms over my chest, I leaned my head back and sighed. Since I didn’t want to see the look in Donna’s eyes when I admitted what came next, I closed mine. “What do men want? In the bedroom, I mean. What do they want?”
“Well…” Donna began, then hesitated. “Is this about Cole?”
My eyelids snapped open. “Of course it’s about Cole. Why would you even ask that?”
She shrugged and bent her head, looking a little sheepish. “Sorry. I guess after finding Paul with Lilian, my faith in marriage has dropped a few more notches. Not that I ever had much to begin with.”
“I’m not Paul or Lilian,” I growled, feeling my anger rise. “How could you even think I’d consider—” I bit off the rest of the words, unable to utter them aloud. “I love my husband. He’s the only man I will ever make love to. You got that?”
She flinched away from the venom in my voice and brought a hand to her throat. “Okay, geez, I’m sorry.”
I groped for my cocktail glass then drained it. “Now, are you going to answer my question or not?”
She pursed her lips for a moment before replying. “Men want whores.”
My stomach bottomed out. That wasn’t at all the answer I’d expected. It went against everything I believed.
I motioned for her to go on with a flick of my trembling hand.
“They also want a woman who’s confident in her own skin. Someone secure enough in her sexuality to tease them, taunt them, play with them.”
The blood drained from my face. That wasn’t me at all. I liked sex well enough, but Cole was the one who initiated our romantic encounters almost all the time.
“What they don’t want,” Donna continued, “is someone who just lies there and takes it.” She sipped her martini and furrowed her brows. “Why are you asking me this?”
I sucked in a breath and considered lying or changing the subject. But my heart pounded hard against my breastbone, and I needed to know more. “Cole wants us to spice things up for our anniversary,” I blurted. “And I have no idea what to do.”
“Is that all?” Donna laughed, the humor crinkling her eyes. “Geez, girl, you scared me. You were so serious. I thought you were getting a divorce or something.”
I swallowed hard but said nothing. A divorce might not be too far off. Cole had married a woman with little sexual experience and no interest in learning anything beyond the particulars of inserting Tab A into Slot B, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he had a Lilian of his own. Cole worked as a technician at a medical laboratory. Had someone there already offered to hop on a photocopy machine and spread her legs for him?
The thought soured my stomach. I set my empty glass aside and gripped Donna’s hands. “Help me.”
Her eyes widened. She squeezed my fingers in a supportive gesture, and I was insanely grateful she wasn’t laughing.
“Okay, well, you must have some idea. Think about a fantasy of yours… Something you haven’t gotten to act out but would like to.” I must have looked completely blank, because Donna sighed. She signaled a waiter who was passing by. “We’re going to need more alcohol.”
* * * * *
By the time our third round of drinks arrived, we’d determined that I had no imagination of my own, which probably explained why I had chosen technical writing as a career.
We had also established that I’d never thought about dressing up as a naughty nurse or a strict schoolteacher or a sexy maid. I didn’t fantasize about being blindfolded or tickled with a feather or covered in chocolate sauce. I’d also never wanted to have sex in public or watch porn or pose for nude photos.
“Wow.” Donna twirled the stem of her martini glass between her fingers. “So what do you fantasize about?”
An image of a woman tied to a tree in a dark forest flashed through my head. It was brief and sudden, jolting me so I sat ramrod straight in my chair. “Nothing.”
She tilted her head at an angle and looked at me as if I’d just sprouted a third eyeball in the middle of my forehead. “Come on. You can’t be serious.”
I couldn’t hold her gaze anymore, so I looked past her right shoulder into the crowd. I used to have fantasies. Filthy ones that involved whips and pain and reddened flesh. But Ben had cured me of those long ago.
“There’s something wrong with me, isn’t there?” I was feeling more and more miserable with each passing second, and the cocktails weren’t helping. I huffed out a breath. “Listen, I like sex. It’s pleasurable and pleasant and nice.”
Donna’s laugh startled me. It went on and on. “Nice?” She gasped when she could finally catch her breath and dabbed a tear from the corner of her eye. “Sex is nice? No, no, no. A foot rub is nice. A perfect creme brûlée is nice. The sight of a sleeping kitten is nice. Sex is… It’s toe-curling, incredible, mind-blowing.”
I lifted an eyebrow. “Mind-blowing?”
She nodded. “If you’re doing it right.”
Clearly I’d been doing it wrong for a very long time. Was that my fault or Cole’s? I still had so many questions, and I was no closer to figuring out how to surprise my husband for our anniversary.
I stared down into my empty glass. “There aren’t enough drinks in the world for this.”
I don’t know how other authors feel about this (although I suspect we all feel the same way), but I get insanely excited when a new cover lands in my in-box. My heart pounds as I open the email, and then I hold my breath while I take in the awesome art for the first time. And I must say, it’s always been awesome art. I’m blessed to work with some incredible publishers, and their cover artists never fail to knock my socks off.
Today, I received the cover art for my upcoming BDSM erotic romance, Coming Unbound. It releases April 3rd from Ellora’s Cave.
I’m including the blurb below the gorgeous cover so you can tell me what you think… Do you think the cover artist nail the concept described in the blurb?
Ginny and Cole have struggled to connect intimately since before their marriage. When Cole suggests they surprise each other with the most sexually daring things they can dream up for their anniversary, Ginny reluctantly musters every ounce of courage she possesses to get nipple piercings.
Cole’s surprise?
He’s turned their suburban basement into a dungeon—and hired a sexy Dom to teach them the art of BDSM.
Desperately in love with his wife, Cole’s aware of sensitive sexual demons in Ginny’s past, and will try anything to beat them. Whips, toys, ménage play with the Dom…all these and more could help Ginny find pleasure, break through her issues.
Or, if they’re not careful, possibly just break Ginny.
I don’t have kids, so decorating the house for Halloween never made much sense to me. Sure, I’ve always welcomed adorable trick-or-treaters with bowls filled with candy, but that was as far as it went.
And then, this year, everything changed. I still don’t have kids (that hasn’t changed), but I’ve gotten into crafting and home decor in a big way. I’ve discovered a passion for visual art, and I’m starting to develop this deep desire to decorate my surroundings in ways I’d never even thought about before.
When I mentioned to my husband that I was interested in decorating for Halloween this year, he was surprisingly supportive. So much so that he even offered to carve a pumpkin. Which, of course, meant we had to buy a pumpkin — another first for our family.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Decorating started with a trip to Pier One Imports.
I’ve always liked the store, but now that I’ve discovered my new fondness for pretty home decorating stuff, I adore the place. I picked out some adorable Halloween items, like a glittery black tree and some ornaments that are so darn adorable, I could squeal each time I walk past them (and often do; don’t judge).
As promised, my husband carved the pumpkin. Unfortunately, since we know nothing about pumpkins, we didn’t realize that once carved, they only last a few days. Ooops! So here’s this lovely little fella — named Tobias Pumpkin The First, in anticipation of more to come — who didn’t quite make it to Halloween.
But that’s okay. We’ve got photos, and his memory will live on.
This year, we’re having friends over for a Halloween party, and I’ve got the menu already figured out. I don’t mind telling you that I’m really looking forward to making little hot dog mummies wrapped in crescent roll strips.
I’m also hoping to convince hubby to carve another pumpkin before Halloween. Tobias Pumpkin The Second needs to make up for his brother’s embarrassing early arrival.
So, what about you? How do you prepare for Halloween?
Roni Loren had a great post this week on the reasons she stops reading a book. She calls herself a “Chronic Finisher”, but now that she has less time to read, she’s learning to set books aside unfinished.
I have to admit, I’ve never had this problem. I don’t have any qualms about setting down a book I’m not enjoying. If it’s boring, if I dislike the characters, or if the writing doesn’t grab me, I’ll put it down and move on to the next book on my massive TBR list.
I do, however, get bogged down in mediocre books. You know the ones… They’re perfectly okay books. The writing’s good, the premise has potential, the characters are just flawed enough to keep me turning pages. And yet I find myself putting down the book after reading a chapter, and when I think about picking it up again, I come up with a million other chores that need doing. I wash dishes, or fold laundry, or aimlessly flip channels on my TV. In the meantime, the book sits there, unloved and unread. This wouldn’t be such a huge problem, except I’m not reading anything else during this time. Or rather, I’m not reading fiction. I might pick up a book on jewellery making, or a diet book by a nutriton guru, but I won’t grab another novel until I’ve either finished the one I’ve got on the go, or I’ve decided to set it down for good.
Unfortunately, this state of limbo can sometimes last weeks, and it wasn’t until very recently that I discovered this was the reason my book consumption has decreased dramatically in the last year. It’s not the bad books that are the problem, it’s the perfectly okay ones that fail to grab me.
Roni describes it this way:
I’ve started to read books that were…fine. The writing was good, the characters were interesting enough, there wasn’t anything I could point to that was bad. BUT at the same time, when I put these books down, I didn’t find myself thinking about the book or that desperate to get back to it. I didn’t feel passionate about anything in the book. It’s kind of a “I could take it or leave it” feeling. Like, if I had nothing better to do, I’d read it. In the past, these would’ve been books I’d make myself finish. Now I’m at the point that I just move on. The TBR pile is too big to waste time on something I’m ambivalent about.
Unfortunately for me, I actually feel guilty when I set aside these ‘meh’ books. Someone out there slaved over this novel. She poured her heart and soul into writing this book, and did a decent job of it to boot. Shouldn’t I be able to get through it?
I’d love to hear your take on this. Do you have any trouble finishing perfectly okay books that just aren’t doing it for you? Or do you push through if you don’t have a solid reason to set the book down?
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but this past summer, Fifty Shades of Grey took the book world by storm. Why? Because it introduced new sexual ideas into the bedrooms of so many women — and subsequently raised the sales of rope and zip ties in hardware stores across the nation. Some publications have even gone as far as saying that Fifty Shades of Grey has changed the libido of American women. How can one book have such an impact? How does erotica move an entire nation?
It unites us.
Reading erotica appeals to everyone; whether you’re single, in a relationship, hetero or homosexual–there’s a book out there for you.
If you’re single, literary erotica and erotic romance can help you stay mentally and physically stimulated. You may not currently have a man who whisks you away and does you right, but that doesn’t mean you can’t transcend into a world where you do… and then get the job done yourself.
Erotica is great for relationships, because it can help you feel in tune to your relationship again. Maybe you’ve lost your connection to each other or you feel like things are dwindling. Reading sexy novels can help you refocus your energy on your own relationship. It’ll make you want to improve it and get it back to what it used to be. The books may also make you realize that you shouldn’t be in your relationship anymore. Maybe you’ve been holding on for all the wrong reasons? While the characters can be unrealistic and I don’t recommend comparing your partner to anyone in a book, it may open your mind to problems and faults that you hadn’t previously seen. And sometimes, that’s a good thing.
Erotica is also great for recharging a dying libido. If you’ve found yourself preferring the company of your TV and pajamas over the steamy sack sessions your partner provides, it may be time to read a book or two. Just as Fifty Shades of Grey proved, reading erotica can help you become interested in sex again.
And then there’s the added benefit of learning new things, from new sexual positions, to toys and role playing. You may have never thought you were into firemen before, but afterwards, you just might be begging your partner to dress the part. Maybe you were initially put off by bondage, but reading about it might open your mind. Literary erotica is a great way to experience sexual themes that you haven’t already and/or know little about, all without having to jump into something blindly or feel ashamed.
And finally, well, literary erotica is great for the LBGT community. Many novels contain m/m and f/f topics. No matter your preference, you can find a story that speaks to you.
Erotica is great for everyone and comes in all forms, from downright dirty to soft core–you can pick your level. And once you’ve graduated from that and you’re looking to move past the written word and recreate one of the scenes in your favorite book, I recommend heading over to Adam and Eve, where they have plenty of adult films and all the sex toys you could dream of.
And as far as publishers go, check out Ellora’s Cave for some of the best erotic romance and erotica stories anywhere! (Okay, I might be a little biased… but they put out awesome books!)
I read a lot of fabulous blog posts during any given week. Many of them have wonderful advice, insights, and information. I thought it would be fun to start a weekly link love post, where I mention a few of my favorites and offer an interesting quote from each. If you’ve got time this weekend, surf through and explore some of these links. They’re all worthwhile!
For those who fear failing as a writer, here’s something to think about - The Writing Life. Simplified.
…let’s face it: how many people do we know who are doing what they really want to be doing for a living?
How many people do we know who would be willing to go through the potential suffering necessary for the sake of what they love?
Not many.
We resist because we let their fears become our own.
16 Tips on How to Survive and Thrive as a Writer - Live Write Thrive
Wipe the slate clean–and often. Sometimes you just need a fresh start. Each day can bring new opportunity. You are not living one long day for life—we experience life in increments and your goal is to keep coming out on top, one day at a time.
Zen and the Art of GoodReads: Author Priscilla Warner - Blurb is a Verb
There are so many people on goodreads, and so many genres of writing, that I find it easier to let go of negative reviews there. Because people on goodreads love books, and spend the time to read and review them, I respect their eagerness to engage with the written word, no matter how I might be personally affected by the words they use in their reviews. I find the community enormously engaged and respectful of a wide range of opinions and interests.
Creative Contagion: Setting Sparks, Catching Fire – Creative Juicer
Who and what you surround yourself with can hugely impact your thoughts. You are what you consume. So surround yourself with voices and ideas that will keep you inspired. Pay attention to the people who embody what you want to be. Catch their spark.
When Should You Admit Defeat, Give It Up, And Go Eat Worms? - Warrior Poet
So if you and your writing (or any other endeavor) aren’t where you want to be, consider:
Maybe you haven’t spent enough time at it yet. And how long should that be? This brings us back to the 10,000-hour mark that comes up repeatedly: To become pro-grade good at something takes about 10,000 hours of focused effort, which is roughly equal to 3 hours/day for 10 years.
Or maybe you haven’t been getting the right kind of feedback.
Or maybe you haven’t been continually pushing yourself past your comfort zone.
That’s it for this week! Have you read an excellent post recently? Leave a link in the comments. I’d love to check it out!
The cover for my upcoming Carina book just landed in my in-box.  This is a paranormal romance featuring a blind hero, a jaded journalist, and a murderous ghost. (Check out the blurb below the cover.)
I absolutely love what the art department did with this one. The woman in the background, in particular, is an awesome touch!
BLURB
Daniel Van Doren was once a renowned writer, until he was blinded in the car accident that killed his lover. Now, all he sees are ghosts in need of help. They follow him everywhere, and the only way to be rid of his ethereal visitors is to help them resolve their unfinished business here on earth so their spirits can find peace.
Ghostwriter Logan Riley is assigned to pen Daniel’s biography. He plans to reveal him as a fraud, but when they meet he’s struck by Danny’s quiet sincerity—and a growing attraction. Which makes sticking close to Danny to find out the truth more than a little distracting.
When they are attacked by a violent poltergeist, Logan begins to believe Danny’s not just telling the truth, he’s in grave danger. A spirit has learned how to harness the energy of the living to break through the barrier between worlds to harm Danny. And Logan may be the one to blame…
SIGHT UNSEEN releases on July 23rd.
I was thrilled to see so many of you come out in support of this hop! I think it was a huge success, and I’m thrilled to have had an opportunity to participate.
So without further ado, the winner of an electronic copy of PARADISE FOUND is…
Yvette
Congratulations, Yvette! I’ll send your prize tonight.
Have a great week, folks!
Hi everyone!
I’m thrilled to be participating in the wonderful Hop Against Homophobia taking place between now and May 20th. We’ve got 220 authors participating, and each one of them is donating a prize. That’s an awful lot of chances to win!
May 17 is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Some days, I like to fool myself into thinking that as a species we’re advanced enough now to put prejudice behind us. (Yeah, I can hear you snickering over there, from half-way across the world.) It’s not that I’m naive. I’m just a dreamer. I think that, as a species, we have the potential to put prejudice behind us. But does that mean that we’re doing it? Clearly not. Or at least, not all of us.
You must be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mahatma Gandhi
Indian political and spiritual leader (1869 – 1948)
I’ve come across the quote above a lot lately, and I’m willing to bet that you have, too. Every time I see it, I pause for a moment and think about what it really means. Every one of us can change the world. Seriously. Maybe not all at once, but slowly, by doing what comes naturally to so many of us: treat others the way we’d want to be treated, think before speaking, reach out to a stranger with compassion and kindness. Think about it — if everyone you knew did those same things, how far would we come toward fighting prejudice? And if you lead by example, and do just one of those things each day, how much of an impact do you think you’ll have on the world around you?
A heck of a big one, I’m willing to bet.
If you spoke up against injustice every time you saw it happen, how many people do you think you’d inspire to do the same? Stepping up and saying something, especially to someone in a position of authority, isn’t always easy. But that’s the first step toward challenging the behaviors and attitudes that lead to homophobic discrimination. Unfortunately, it’s happening all around us, even now. In schools, at work, even at parties. So go out there and “be the change”. Use the empathy and compassion you have inside you to speak up when you see an act of injustice, and do your part to fight homophobia. I’m going to do the same.
So tell me, how are you living up to Gandhi’s quote? When was the last time you spoke up against injustice, especially when it would have been easier to keep your mouth shut?
Leave a comment on this post and you’ll be entered to win an electronic copy of PARADISE FOUND, my debut M/M/M BDSM romance from Carina Press. Be sure to leave your email address as well, so I can contact you on May 21st when I draw the winner’s name. Winners will be chosen at random.
Enjoy the hop!
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