Who Influenced You?

Thea Devine posting today.  So tell me if this isn’t a bookaholic’s dream.  You’re buying a house and strewn all over the living room floor are books, a hundred or more of them.  You’re buying the house from the estate of a recently deceased widow, and you know it had been broken into, but the important things were not taken: the fireplace surrounds, the sliding doors, the books.

Among them was a uniformly bound set of novels by Augusta Evans Wilson –

– who, I came to find out, was a best selling author of her time with her novel, St. Elmo.  St. Elmo has to have been the original bad boy hero who had to redeem himself to win his orphaned heroine love.  The book sold hundreds of thousands of copies just after the Civil War and allegedly was so popular that people named children, homes, streets and towns after it. and it was also said that Rhett Butler was supposedly modeled on the character.

There were a half dozen of Wilson’s novels, of which I’ve read 3 — St. Elmo, At the Mercy of Tiberius , and Inez, a Tale of the Alamo.

Which led me to think about the other best selling romance authors of their day, some of whom are long-time favorites of mine:  Faith Baldwin — who wrote career girl (usually nurses or secretaries) romance;  Kathleen Norris (rags to riches, usually set in the Mission section of San Francisco, vividly portrayed);  Emilie Loring (hometown girls in New England, richly evoked in a very distinctive voice).

I know there are some I’m forgetting, but I’m so glad I read those long ago authors long before  the idea of becoming an author myself was ever remotely possible.

Because of them, I found what I liked to read, and what I wanted to write.  From Wilson, and latterly, Catherine Clinton’s The Plantation Mistress,I discovered the pre-civil war south through the women’s eyes, so I’ve been collecting women’s civil war diaries for some time now, just out of my fascination with the time period.

Because of them, I came to love stories of heroines returning to their small town roots.  If they’re going down south, I’m there.  If there’s a plantation, I’m up all night reading it.  I love married-to-the-wrong-guy-but-maybe-not stories;  stories especially of wounded heroes and heroines overcoming their pasts and finding each other;  heroines caught in circumstances manipulated by someone else for nefarious purposes;  ghost stories; stories with conspiracies simmering under the surface that are just hinted at as the solution to the overt problems of the heroine (read gothics).

I just love old books. Love reading the “commercial fiction” from before the turn of the century, even having to plow through the dense Victorian prose and quotations from obscure poets and philosophers.  Love finding old books, as I’ve posted elsewhere.  Love it all, as witness my bookshelves and desk room floor.

But who’s on my current TBR pile then, you might ask.  Well, Gone Girl, Tatiana de Rosnay, Kate Morton, Agatha Christie’s Secret Notebooks, Karen Rose,  A Victorian Household, Carla Neggers, Georgette Heyer’s Regency World, and  Macaria (another of Wilson’s novels written during the Civil War), among a dozen other books.   What about you?

So who were your influences, who’s on your To Be Read pile?  Do you like old books?  Have you read Norris, Baldwin or Loring?   Do you have other favorites, old or new?

Thea Devine is working on a new erotic contemporary romance and will be putting five backlist titles on-line soon.

The Selkie – Rosanna Leo

Happy Friday everyone. Casey here with a special guest. One day while I was scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I encountered this awesome cover.

That’s all it took for me to stop what I was doing and proceed to Amazon to check this book out. Two seconds into reading the first page, I was clicking the buy button. Shortly thereafter I read the entire book and loved it. This is a great story and a must read for paranormal fans or anyone who enjoys thrilling romances with mythical twists!

Rosanna and I connected through Goodreads where I immediately asked her to do a guest post for the Scribes. As you can tell from her words below, we have something in common – our love for mythological characters and paranormal romance.

Read on and don’t miss the excerpt!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks so much, Casey, for having me here today! What a thrill!

In deciding what to talk about today, I just knew it had to be mythology because Casey and I are both such mythology buffs. I have been since I’ve been able to read. Even as a small child, I gravitated to tales of vengeful gods, fantastic monsters and ancient curses. What’s not to love? Especially since most of those gods are rather dishy, in my opinion!

Of course, any myth lover will know the stories of ancient Greece and its pantheon of sexy gods. These were the tales that first inspired me to put pen to paper. My first 2 paranormal romances For the Love of a God and Sweet Hell are reinterpretations of the gods of love and wine, respectively.

However, I don’t draw the line at the Greeks. I love the mythology of ancient Britain too. My new release The Selkie draws upon one of these myths. They say in parts of Scotland that if a mortal woman is unsatisfied with her love life, she need only cry seven tears into the sea to call an immortal selkie man. He will love her as no mortal man can. Selkies are seal shape shifters who have the ability to shed their seal skins and walk as humans for great lengths of time on land. They are love genies, in a sense. If you manage to find and hide a selkie skin, that selkie is obliged to be your love slave! Not a bad deal, huh? This is the myth that forms the basis of my novel The Selkie. I hope you will get a chance to take a peek at it and explore this evocative mythology for yourself.

Blurb:

This was supposed to be her year. However, after losing her job and discovering her fiancé cheating, Maggie Collins has her doubts. When her grandmother dies, she hits rock bottom. Maggie travels to her grandmother’s home in Orkney, Scotland to sort through her gran’s things, only to discover the old woman has left her a seal pelt as her inheritance. She also learns that others are after the pelt.

To add to her frustration, Maggie’s dreams are filled with luscious images of a long-haired man, images that draw her to the magical beaches in Orkney. Although she’s lost her trust in men, this dream man inspires her with a lust she’s never known before.

Calan Kirk has also been dreaming. Dreaming of Maggie, the mortal woman who arouses him as no other woman ever has. Meeting her in the flesh when she arrives in Orkney is nothing short of spontaneous sexual combustion. But she is a human, and not to be trusted. He needs the seal pelt, not a red-haired temptress.

As a thief ransacks Maggie’s grandmother’s house, Maggie and Calan are thrust together. They must search for the animal skin, a mythical relic which once found, will either bring them together or rip them apart forever.

Excerpt: The Selkie

She continued to meander down the beach, taking the odd swig from a flask of brandy she’d pilfered from Nora’s stocked liquor cabinet. However, Maggie soon realized the real seal was following her. With each step she took, he glided through the water as if in step with her.

She nodded toward it. “You’re sweet, but I’m probably not the best playmate for you right now.”

She’d seen seals on the beach before with her gran. The locals were always pointing out spots where one could glimpse the sleek animals, or “selkies” as they called them. But this one seemed persistent. He seemed to stare back at her, with intensity. As a human would. As if he knew her.

As if he knew every inch of her skin, as well as its feel.

Maggie swallowed. Had she turned against men so definitively that she was turning to the animal kingdom?

And then she laughed at the ludicrous thought. She was grieving. For a lot of things. No wonder her brains felt just as scrambled as Liz’s breakfast eggs and just as dark as the black pudding she’d plopped on the plate next to them.

“Okay.” She relented, smiling at the seal. “Maybe some company might be nice.”

The animal bobbed in the water, as if in agreement. Maggie stared out at the beast, and was lost for a second in his brown eyes. She felt comforted, protected, by his vigilant presence.

For some reason, she felt she knew him, and that she was meant to be in this exact spot at this precise time. For a quick moment, she had the impression she was standing on the edge of a huge cliff, destined to tumble from its heights into the welcoming waves below.

For the first time in her life, Maggie experienced a peculiar sense of destiny.

Buy Links:

http://www.lsbooks.com/the-selkie-p698.php

http://www.amazon.com/The-Selkie-ebook/dp/B0095M6R7O/ref=la_B007X5P4I8_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347123491&sr=1-1

https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-theselkie-930496-140.html

 About Rosanna:

Rosanna Leo is a multi-published author with Liquid Silver Books. She loves it when the geeky girl ends up with the hot guy and has made it her mission to see this happen as much as possible in her books. Her favorite things are her family, dusty libraries and Nutella. She is the author of For the Love of a God, Up In Flames, Sweet Hell, The Selkie and the upcoming Sunburn.

www.facebook.com/rleoauthor1

www.twitter.com/LeoRosanna

www.goodreads.com/author/show/5826852.Rosanna_Leo

Thanks for being our guest today Rosanna! Scribes fans if you have questions or comments for Rosanna -Fire away!

Also, what is your favorite tale from mythology?

Sex in Science Fiction by Tam Linsey

Happy Friday everyone! Casey here. Today my guest is science fiction romance author Tam Linsey. Tam and I met in a class to learn how to create a WordPress Blog and we’ve been buddies ever since!

Sex in Science Fiction

By Tam Linsey

In an interview by Scott Westerfield, Samuel Delany says, “The [science fiction] hero, though he may be a renegade, is a guy who doesn’t feel. Anything. Ever.” (Think Spock from Star Trek.) And according to Wikipedia, other than exploring alien methods of reproduction, “Sex is often linked to disgust in SF and horror, and plots based on sexual relationships have mainly been avoided in genre fantasy narratives.”

In the 60′s and 70′s, more science fiction authors broke into exploration of sexual themes, but it seems to me that most of these books dwell on the concept of sexuality (or, in many cases, homosexuality) rather than on relationships. Exploring a relationship requires delving deeply into a character’s point of view, and hardcore science fiction fans would rather read about the intricate physics involved in a starship warp-drive than get into a character’s head. Some readers insist characters in real science fiction only exist to further an idea or concept.

Anyone who has read a science fiction romance knows that’s no longer true.

Women are reading science fiction, and while we are drawn to science fiction theories, we also want characters who feel. We want characters who love. We want characters who experience the fullness of life, including sex. However, I will qualify my statement by saying sex scenes should belong in the story, not be thrown in for sensationalism.

There were multiple reasons I chose to include sex scenes in Botanicaust. First of all, the hero, Levi, comes from a repressed, fundamentalist society, where sex must only occur within the bounds of marriage. He struggles with his own carnal desires (he fathered his child out of wedlock, albeit with a woman he loved, and married after the fact.) And he struggles with other aspects of his religion. What better way to test his character than to pair him with a heroine from not only a more promiscuous society, but a society his people consider an abomination?

And the heroine, Tula, who is genetically engineered to have photosynthetic skin, is deeply affected by sunlight which creates alkaloids (drugs) in her body. Let’s just say these drugs tend to make her frisky. She’s confused about her first sexual encounter with Levi because she doesn’t know if it might be love, or merely the drugs. Of course, she must have sex again to find out.

Botanicaust is a science fiction romance. Although purists in either genre might complain, I attempted to satisfy readers in both camps, and that includes sex scenes. How do you define a successful blend of science fiction and romance? Can science fiction include sex?

The only crop left … is human

After genetically altered weeds devastate Earth’s croplands, much of humanity turns to cannibalism to survive. Dr. Tula Macoby believes photosynthetic skin can save the human race, and her people single-mindedly embark on a mission to convert the cannibals roaming what’s left of Earth. But when Levi, a peaceful stranger, refuses alteration, Tula doesn’t think the only options should be conversion or death.

Levi Kraybill, a devout member of the Old Order, left his Holdout farmland to seek a cure for his terminally ill son. Genetic manipulation is a sin, but Levi will do almost anything for the life of his child. When he’s captured, he’s sure he’s damned, and his only escape will be death.

Tula’s superiors schedule Levi’s euthanization, and she risks everything to set the innocent man free. Now she and Levi are outlaws with her people, and she’s an abomination with his. Can they find sanctuary in a cannibal wasteland?

Buy now at Amazon, Kobo, Smashwords, iTunes, All Romance Ebooks, or in paperback at Createspace

Tam Linsey lives in Alaska with her husband and two children. In spite of the rigors of the High North, she grows, hunts, or fishes for much of her family’s food. During the long Alaskan winters she writes speculative fiction.

Excerpt:

Tula sat on the desert floor clutching her knees against her chest, face slack and eyes glazed. She babbled the whole time he worked. He assumed she was offering directions, but since he couldn’t understand, he didn’t pay attention. He draped the blanket over himself like a cape and held out the robe toward her, leaves and branches rattling in the stiff breeze. Her eyes widened and she skittered backward. “No, no.”

“Tula, we have to hide.”

She shook her head vehemently. The duster sped closer. Had he and Tula been spotted?

“Tula. Hide!” He tried to put the robe over her. She cried out and scurried away, moaning.

What was wrong with her? The flyer was nearly upon them. He pounced on her and dragged her to a beat-up stand of amarantox. Pushing her backward to the ground, he settled on top of her to hold her still. Her struggles didn’t make covering them with the blanket and robe easy. “Tula, stay still,” he said against her cheek.

She sobbed and relaxed her limbs, but her whole body trembled violently. Panting against his shoulder, she moaned his name.

“Shhhh. Tula.”

They waited. How long until the search party came their way? Beneath the blanket the air grew stuffy. The smell of evergreen filled the space, and he became embarrassingly aware of how close they were. Pressed against her skin so intimately, they might as well be making love, he couldn’t help his arousal.

Save me from temptation…

The drone of the duster drew nearer.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. His hips ached to press tighter against her. Her hands crept up his sides, gripping the small of his back. Lips against his shoulder.

Stiffening, he said, “God, Tula, no.”

The fabric over them rustled in a breeze, halting his protest. The humming flyer passed directly over their position.

Seemingly unconcerned, her tongue caressed the skin at the edge of his collarbone in lazy circles. What was wrong with her?

“Tula, we mustn’t.” The same words he’d spoken to Sarah so many times.

The whirr of the craft faded, but he resisted the urge to move. They could still be nearby.

She pulled his head toward her, lips against lips. The hint of wintergreen filled his mouth.

A shiver raced to his toes as the world spun out from under him, like after drinking too much apple wine. The soft warmth of a woman seemed like a dream, smooth skin beneath his fingertips, a subtle sigh of sweet air against his cheek. His body took over, and suddenly the duster didn’t matter. The hard, dry earth beneath them didn’t matter. The only thing in his world right now was the willing woman beneath him.

Her legs parted, encouraging his hips between them. He could hardly breathe beneath the blanket. Tasting her lips again, his head spun with drunken desire.

Her fingers bit into the flesh of his buttocks, pulling him deeper, closer, as her heels locked his thighs in place above her.

No turning back. Waves of mind-numbing pleasure crashed around him and he let go, primal need claiming him. The release was exquisite, lasting forever and over too soon. Palms planted against the baked earth, he lifted, allowing a cool rush of air to flutter beneath the blanket. She was so beautiful, the light turning her skin green. Green?

His head swam as he raised his face to the horizon. What had just happened, here? She was Blattvolk. A temptress of the devil. And they were supposed to be hiding from the search party. “What have you done to me?”

She didn’t speak, just traced his lips with her index finger. His vision wavered again. Drugs. She’d drugged him. This must be a trap.

Wow! <fanning face> Thanks for being our guest today Tam. So romance fans, who’s read a sci-fi romance? And sci-fans, do you enjoy romance with your science fiction?

Real Virtue

Hidey-Ho Scribblers!  J Monkeys here.  I want to take a few minutes to review a book I read recently, Real Virtue by our very own Katy Lee. 

In the interests of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that (of course) I know Katy personally and count her a friend.  Unfortunately for her (and my other writing friends) I’m a particularly tough critic when it comes to their writing. I’m not really sure why that is.  Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I’m enough of a newbie for the mystique of the author to linger in my mind.  I’m having a hard time imagining that all these people I know who are getting published these days (go CTRWA!) are real authors.  Maybe I just haven’t met enough of my author idols to realize that they are real people, although it’s beginning to dawn on me.  Clearly, this is a maturity issue for me. 

Maybe like so many other folks out there, I hurt the ones I love the most.  Or maybe I’m afraid that they might not like my review and since I know them I don’t want to hurt their feelings.  With that in mind, let me say, friends, if I haven’t reviewed your book please don’t read anything into it one way or the other.  Seriously!

So, now that that’s out of the way, let me get to the heart of today’s post.  I really, really liked Real Virtue.  Now this is an Inspirational Romantic Thriller.  Yes, that’s a stew of genres, but in this book, it works.  The main characters are nicely conflicted, complex folks full of angst.  The plot is twisty and unpredictable.  And the text is informative about schizophrenia, addiction and woodworking, all without being preachy.  And the writing is very good.

I like romances and I like thrillers (the genre, not necessarily the song.  Click the link and watch the video – I haven’t seen it all the way through in several decades and the beginning is really weird!  What is he, some kind of were-zombie?  I didn’t have MTV as a kid, sorry.  OK, I’m 4 minutes in now…maybe I’ve never seen the whole thing…) but I honestly don’t read Inspirational romance.  Other people’s religions make me a little uncomfortable.  I mentioned my immaturity, right?  My hubby and I happen to both be lapsed Episcopalians and we plan to raise our kids in that faith just as soon as I manage to get up early enough on a Sunday morning to get to an as-yet-to-be-selected church.  We once went to a Lutheran church to see Hubby’s friend play in a touring Lutheran rock band.  I swear I was just waiting for them to roll a golden idol down the aisle, to guarantee our eternity burning in hell.  In case you don’t know, Episcopal and Lutheran are about as close as two religions can be and still warrant separate buildings.  Anyway, I have my beliefs and I’m perfectly happy with you having very different beliefs, just don’t try to convert me. 

So I don’t read Inspirational Romances.  But I must say, I really liked Real Virtue.  Katy did a fabulous job of instilling some of her characters with deeply held, Christian beliefs at their core, but she still made them completely accessible to crazy folks like me.  I honestly can’t wait to read her next book.

Today’s secret: This one should be shouted from the rooftops – READ Real Virtue by Katy Lee!

Today’s question: Have you ever read anything that changed your perspective on an aspect of your life?

What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Happy Friday! Casey Wyatt here!

Quick! Romance writers – how would you finish this sentence:

My hero or heroine’s goal is to_____________ ?

Anyone?

If you said, “To fall in love”. <buzz>. No gold star! At least not yet.

I’m not a big fan of saying you should do this or that, but I’m going to make an exception. Your hero/heroine’s goal should not be to fall in love. No worries, I’ll explain.

A goal, by its nature, is selfish. It’s something the protagonist wants more than anything else. It’s their hearts deepest desire, the thing they want more than anything in the world.

But it’s a romance novel. Isn’t that what the reader wants? For them to fall in love?

Absolutely. But falling in love is the outcome of other events – a by-product.

The hero or heroine should have their own unique inner life – their own, goal, motivation and conflict. And to add to that, they should have an inner and external version of each!

The inner goal is that selfish heart’s desire I mentioned earlier. The external goal is the more tangible, save the world type stuff.

Before I begin each book, I determine the GMC for my heroine, hero, and depending on the story, the antagonist.

I ask myself the following questions:

• What does she/he want? (Goal)
• What’s driving her/him to achieve said goal? (Motivation)
• What’s holding her/him back? (Conflict)

For example, my worksheet from The Undead Space Initiative:

Character: Cherry Cordial

External Goal: stay alive while proving she didn’t kill the Queen and establishing a Martian colony.

External Motivation: being framed for a murder she didn’t commit and survival

External Conflict: every vampire on earth is out to get her/Martian environment

Internal Goal: Do something right for a change/figure out what she really wants in her life.

Internal Motivation: Wants to prove to herself that she’s more than a stripper

Internal Conflict: past failures/mistakes are holding her back – fear she’s not good enough.

I did the same thing for Ian, (the hero) and Thalia (the antagonist). Notice, there is no mention of falling in love anywhere in here. Does this mean there will be no romance? That Cherry and Ian won’t fall in love?

Of course it doesn’t mean that. But what it does mean is that you must use the GMC to guide their thoughts, actions, and desires throughout the story. How they handle a given situation depends on their personality and what they want out of life (GMC). The obstacles you throw their way should, in the end ,ultimately grow them as a person so they can finally get that brass ring.

 And non-romance writers – a clear GMC is a must for you too!

If you find you’ve hit a wall with your story, it could be because you don’t have a handle on what their true desires are. If you aren’t clear, then the reader won’t be either.

What’s love got to do with a romance novel? Everything. Just remember, to know your goal, be clear, and help your character’s achieve them through thoughtful plotting.

Scribes fans – here’s my challenge to you - go back to your story and see if you can answer the questions above. Share your results with us, then give yourself a gold star!

And if you have time, stop by my blog where I discuss - When Good Cookies Go Bad

How I Got My Agent….

I finally got an agent! Hip hip hooray, YES!, YAY! and every other happy word I can think of. But let me tell you this process was not an easy one. It took years.

Me jumping for joy!

I started writing in 2007, my senior year of college. From the beginning I wrote romance. I blame Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ THIS HEART of MINE, which was the first contemporary romance I had ever read. (Till this day I still have a soft spot for Kevin and Molly.) And Jennifer Crusie whose BET ME introduced me to Minerva and Cal and was the only book I’ve ever read twice in a row. You know when a book is good when you still remember the characters names years after putting it down.

As a writer I knew I wanted to accomplish that. I had to accomplish that. I’m the kind of person that once she decides she is going to be good at something doesn’t stop till she gets there. So I wrote BY HAND, (gasp) for years. Full novels in notebooks while I read every romance novel I could get my hands on. This was my training period. I had no clue what the RWA was or that local writing groups existed. All I knew was that I wanted to write. And so I did, like a job, I wrote everyday, getting a little better.

In 2008 I completed( typed) my first novel and sent it out to about a dozen agents. In the back of my mind I knew it wasn’t ready. It was too long. The plot was a little all over the place and the genre wasn’t clearly defined. I didn’t know that then though. I didn’t know much except that I wanted to be a writer.

A few more embarrassingly bad hand written manuscripts and one semi decent one later I decided to enter a contest. I really wanted feedback. I knew I could write but I didn’t know much about the art of writing. It was then the writing Gods interfered and introduced me to my Fairy Writing Godmother Kristan Higgins who suggested I join a local writers group. From these people I learned about community and what it really feels like to have people truly want the best for you.

I also learned practical things like… I suck at commas.( Thank you, Jane.) And sometimes I am far too wordy. I make my heroes say stuff that most self-respecting men would never say. (Thank you, Christine.) I tend to over complicate my plots. And I use You’re when I mean Your.

They helped me learn from my mistakes, showed me it was okay to have practice manuscripts.(Thank you PJ Sharon.) So when I sat down to write the book that got me my agent I was determined to write a good one.

I know I didn’t write the next great American novel but I wrote a book I could be proud of.  (I promise I’m getting to the good part now. Damn writers and their back story!)

So I sent it out into the world and ended up getting 6 full requests. 3 partial requests and a hell of a lot of rejections. I queried 51 agents since December 16, 2011. I was getting frustrated by the whole process. The funny thing was I never received a rejection on a full manuscript. I actually wanted one of those, just for the feedback alone. Three of those agents had my book for months and each day of silence was making me more and more discouraged.

But then it all happened so quickly. I got a request for a full. Then the next day I got a call from that agent offering me representation. As soon as I hung up with her one of my dream agents requested a full, when I told her I had just been offered representation she asked me not to sign anything until she got the chance to read it. By that time I was ready to barf. Two agents! And if that wasn’t enough my fairy god writing mother was bragging (as all good fairy writing god mother’s should) that I had just received an offer to yet another agent.  That agent asked that I email her. So I sent off my manuscript and the day after that I got another call.

I really and truly fell in agent love with Emmanuelle Morgen. Love LOVE LURVE! The other agents were nice but Emmanuelle rang every bell, told me exactly what I could expect from her and what she would expect from me. She didn’t make me huge promises and was up front with everything. Explaining the history of the agency, who her clients were, what advances were like, what houses were the best for authors. We talked about the future, and long-term goals and that was before she ever offered me representation. I hung up the phone after our forty minute conversation and felt like this woman will do her best to get the best for me.

I’m not the type of person who can have laid back agent. I need someone who is going to be on my tail to help me create the best book I can. And so when Emmanuelle said I needed to get on those edits and cut down my word count by 5- 10k and get it back to her by Friday morning. I busted my ass to do so. By Friday afternoon I had my work with five houses. All of this happened in the span of two weeks.

People who see me wonder why I’m not shaking with excitement.(Well, I barely gotten any sleep these past two weeks) But I am excited and grateful and happy, but I’m also a realist. I know that crap happens, and despite the best of intentions books don’t always make it to publishing. And until I see my book on a shelf I’m going to keep my optimism cautious. And I’ll never stop learning how to be the best writer I can be.

Sooo thank you to all my CTRWA members who have cheered me on. And to my fellow scribes, especially Casey who has seen my book at it’s worst and still encouraged me to finish it. And to Kristan Higgins who has been the best Fairy Writing God Mother a girl could ask for.

Dialogue That Made Me Swoon

 DIALOGUE THAT MADE ME SWOON

 Hi everyone.  Thea Devine here. It probably won’t come as a surprise to anyone who knows me that GWTW is among my favorite books.  I first read it when I was sixteen, and you can probably guess my teenaged reaction to the love story.  But, as I subsequently discovered, it’s wholly different book when you reread it when you‘re older (say, oh — thirty and forty), and as I did recently with my sister-in-law.  However there’s one thing in GWTW that never changes and that, for me, was always the whole key to anything about romance.

It’s the moment at Twelve Oaks before the picnic, when Scarlett — in the book — has just encountered Charles Hamilton on the staircase, and turns to see Rhett staring up her, and indignantly thinks, “he looks as if — as if he knows what I look like without my shimmy.” (sic — my edition).

I love that moment. I always thought it went beyond prurience, that he was not envisioning her naked, he was not thinking sex; rather he was seeing her whole, her beauty, her vanity, her greed, her flaws and phony flirtatiousness, and everything about her right there that made her “her” — and he decided in that moment, he wanted her, that he loved her.  Not just the body, but the whole person, just as she was.

Don’t we all?  Want the  guy who wants us just as we are?  Without lists, demands, requirements must-haves, guarantees?.  Don’t we want to say to him, “I love you,” and have him respond, as does Han Solo in a critical moment to Princess Leia in The Empire Strikes Back, “I know.”

Oh, be still my heart.  That he knew in his deepest core that she loved him.  That acknowledgement was more than him saying “I love you.”  It said that he’d always known and everything he’d ever done was colored by that, in spite of the bickering, the clashes, in spite of everything.

I love that.  Who wouldn’t love that?  But even better — a moment on House:  you can quibble about whether House and Cuddy belonged together (and I will, because I didn’t think they did), but when he said to her in a last year’s episode, “I always want to kiss you,” –   I melted into a puddle of swoon.  Always .. Are you imagining that?  Always … God, I wish I’d written that line.  Think what means. Always …

But then, I’m hopeless romantic. I love love.  I love being in love.  I think love is forever, in spite of all the recent public and humiliating break-ups in the news. I think those moments above expressed in dialogue are at the heart of romance — and that we all yearn for that deep visceral knowledge of the other person that transcends everything but the need and desire to be together because …

Because we love – and they know.   Always …

Do you have a favorite line of dialogue?  Or something amazing your husband ever said to you?  Or something else that made you swoon …?

Thea Devine is the author of twenty-five historical and contemporary novels and a dozen novellas.  She was honored as a Romance Pioneer by Romantic Times. She’s currently working on a sequel to her June 2011 release, The Darkest Heart.

Kung-Fu Ya!

Happy Friday everyone! Casey Wyatt here!

I’m briefly poking my head out of the writing and editing cave to share a few thoughts with you.Let’s talk guilty pleasures! Also, I want you to imagine the song – “Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting” playing in the background.

Got that song stuck in your head?

Good. Consider it my gift to you today!

One of my favorite things is martial arts movies. They are bold, fast and action packed. Kind of what I strive for in my books.

Kung Fu movies don’t spend a lot of time on back story or beat around the bush when it comes to plotting. Most of them get right to the point. Hero or Heroine versus the world!

That doesn’t mean the movies don’t tell a story. The drama is there in between the flying fists and swinging swords. Modern martial arts movies tend to be more fantastic than their predecessors with amazing high-flying wire work action.

I also love Jackie Chan movies. He combines a sense of danger (he’s famous for his own stunts) along with humor (his Buster Keaton style of Kung Fu).Chan, raised in Chinese opera (check out his biography for a riveting tale) balances a compelling every man hero thrown into extraordinary circumstances. In his movies, sometimes there’s a love interest. Or the world to save. And if a few bad guys get their butts kicked in the process, even better.

Like the romance genre, I think there is a tendency for martial arts movies to be looked down upon (oh, you watch those movies). The badly dubbed versions don’t help. But still, like a romance novel (oh, you read those novels), I find them to be fun, satisfying and a worthy way to spend my free time.

Remember – to the tune of “Kung-Fu Fighting” - tell me your guilty pleasure! (Bonus points if you mention – chocolate, Downton Abbey or Zombies!)

Heroes We Love To Love

Thea Devine here, ruminating this week about heroes we love to love, the ones who drive us nuts, but we know we can’t have a fabulous story without them.   This is my list, in no particular order:

 The Good Guy: 

Everyone loves the good guy. He’s the renaissance man who’s just been waiting for the woman of his dreams.  Healthy childhood, no wounds, handsome, successful, willing to cook, change diapers, the best best friend when you need someone to listen.  He’s the one you lean on when your life is turned upside down;  he’s steady, gives fantastic advice, is decisive, funny, and loves his mother (always a prime point for a mother of sons).   And he’ll always fall for the woman who is in critical chaos because he’s the problem solver, the rock, the calm center, and he’ll always be the thing a woman wants most:  an anchor.

 The Bad Boy

He’s experienced, and knowing.  He’s that guy in high school that had that gleam in his eye.  He’d take one look at you, and he knew everything:  who you were, how far you’d go,  and where he’d like to take you.  He’s magnetic, a little rough, a little rakish, a leader without really wanting to lead;  strong, decisive, probably doesn’t like to talk much, especially about his feelings — but oh, man, does he ever have them.    He loves women, but no woman is ever going to tame him.  And when he falls, he takes a nosedive to eternity.

 The Wounded Hero

He’s the guy who suffers  There’s some great trauma in his past, or something in his present, something with his parents, another woman, his best friend, the war:  he is psychically damaged and  he’s not going to let any woman into his life because he can’t give her what she needs.  He’s too busy tending that crippled inner self to give anything of himself to anyone.   He doesn’t want to feel,  and he habitually picks fights, so he can chase everyone away.  He can’t share his life, can’t allow the heroine to assume his stain, his burden, his guilt.  She, of course, won’t rest till she does, so while he just wants to be off on some island, alone, nursing that part of himself that needs to be made whole, guess who’s right in the rowboat behind him?

 The Unobtainable Man

This guy seems not to like women at all.  No one gets to him.  It’s like battering at a wall.   He’s cool, logical, seemingly without emotions.  He never lets you see him sweat. He’s an island unto himself.  He’s got all the answers.  And he always reveals them first so he can cover his behind.   He doesn’t need anyone, which he won’t hesitate to tell you..  But of course, he’s the one who needs someone most of all. The heroine must storm the fortress, and if she can find his tender spot, he is hers forever.

Mr. Unflappable

Nothing rattles this guy.  He can be in the  middle of a war and crack a joke.  Nothing scares him; there’s no problem he can’t solve, no situation he can’t get out of.  He’s walking the line, but he’s got such a sense of humor and irony, nothing jolts him. He doesn’t take anything seriously, and he takes love too lightly. Forget about prising up his past. Some days the heroine can’t even get him to commit to saying hello.   He’s a pretty happy guy, probably real successful, and not in a button down kind of job;   but somewhere along the line, someone probably hurt him, so his deal is, don’t get too close too soon.  And of course, the heroine can’t get too close soon enough.

The Scoundrel

He was badly hurt by a woman sometime in his murky past.  So he loves ‘em and leaves ‘em, uses ‘em and loses ‘em.  Takes out his anger on all womenkind, especially the heroine, and particularly because she gets to him and he doesn’t want to be gotten to.  But she’s under his skin and before you know it, he’s protecting, defending and loving her, protesting his misogynist nature to the very end.

 The Outlaw

He’s been convicted of murder or some other heinous crime that he didn’t really commit.  But they’re after him.  He’s a loner.  He may be on the run. but he’s always got a reason, and it’s always plausible as hell.   He’s going to protect the woman he loves by NOT letting her into his life, and by reappearing in hers often enough to drive them both crazy.  And she can’t stay away.  Truth to tell, he doesn’t want her to, but he’ll never tell her that either.  It’s always her choice, and she believes in him in spite of all evidence to the contrary.  She’s so loyal, she’ll go on run with him, or be the first one to ferret out the clues that will vindicate him.   She knows what she’s letting herself in for — and she always believes he is worth the effort, because in the end, she will make him vulnerable — and hers.

And, isn’t that the ending we strive for, in fiction, and in life?

 

So who’s the hero you love to love? Any of these guys sound like your husband/boyfriend/significant other?  (My theory is all romance authors are married to the same man — and he’s usually an engineer or should be one.)  Any of them sound like anyone you know?

Thea Devine’s latest book, The Darkest Heart, was a June 2011 release from Gallery Books.  She’s currently at work on a sequel.

Will the Real Mrs. Jeter Please Stand Up? Interview with Avery Flynn

How’s your first week of 2012 going, Scribe friends?  We’ve got a special treat for you today.  Please welcome AVERY FLYNN, author of UP A DRY CREEK and the just-released A DRY CREEK BED. 

A Dry Creek Bed

First, let’s get this Derek Jeter thing out of the way.  Who is the real Mrs. Jeter — you or Kristan Higgins?  Can you prove it?

First, thanks so much for having me! The scribes are my morning tea tradition so it’s really exciting to be a part of it. Yeah! OK, now on to me and my sweetie pie, Derek.

Well, I hate to break Kristan’s heart, but yeah it’s pretty much Avery and Derek forever. We’ve had to keep our marriage a secret for years, hiring actresses to act as a cover. Recently, I finally relented to Derek’s begging that we come out in the open. Do I have proof? Of course. Here’s one of my favorite shots (see attached).

What a stunning couple!!!

P.S. Don’t tell my husband. He’s a good Catholic boy and the bigamy would send him straight to the confessional.

How do you battle the Doubt Monster–the nagging feeling that your prose is terrible, your plot is silly, your characters are insipid, and no one would read your drivel, let alone buy it?  What are your secrets for conquering Doubty, or have you ground him to dust under your stilettos?

The Doubt Monster blows, he’s sort of like the mother from Everybody Loves Raymond sitting on your shoulder criticizing your chicken parm. However, I try to look at Doubty as a motivator pushing me to get my butt back in the chair, stop deleting every other word, to work on craft and – most importantly – suck it up and write.

Have you thought about writing something that is completely different for you?  Perhaps writing in a new genre or just taking a story someplace that you haven’t done before?

All the time! I have a story rolling around the old noggin right now that has a paranormal twist and no sex. Ha! Just kidding. My stories will always have sex, I’m kind of obnoxious that way.

What is the most surprising thing that has happened in your writing career?

Getting published. No really. Every time I hit send on a submission my heart is in my throat, I worry it was all a fluke and they’re going to say, “Thanks, but this sucks.” It’s the author version of stage fright, but the upside is that the acceptance is always that much sweeter.

A DRY CREEK BED is your latest release. Can you tell us a little bit about it, as well as the first book in the series, UP A DRY CREEK?

Sure! The Dry Creek series is a steamy romantic suspense series set in fictional Dry Creek, Nebraska.

In A DRY CREEK BED, readers discover Beth Martinez still mourning the deaths of the grandparents who raised her after her parents died in a car accident. Beth has seen her share of tragedy, including having the dream of starting her own family ripped away from her. Though quietly in love with Hank for years, she knows they’ll never be together. Hank, now the Sheriff of Dry Creek County and divorced from his first wife who lied to him about her desire to have children, wants a family, something Beth can never have and can’t give him. Despite their mutual desire for each other and Hank’s determination to pursue her, she manages to keep him at a distance.

All Beth has left of her family is the home built by her grandfather. So when a mysterious developer makes an offer on the property, she refuses. Soon she’s receiving threats and can no longer hide what’s happening from Hank. Forced together by circumstances, it becomes harder and harder for them to rein in their passion. Suddenly, the stakes go higher. Coercion turns into murder and it’s up to Beth and Hank to uncover who wants the land and why—before they both end up dead.

In UP A DRY CREEK, Claire Layton expects the usual busy Saturday night at Harvest Bistro to be killer on her stiletto shod feet. She never imagines there’d be an actual murderer on the loose at her restaurant in rural Dry Creek, Nebraska. But when she discovers a customer dead in a dumpster, the killer demands she find the victim’s phone and flash drive or face fatal consequences.

Jake Warrick, a cocky and mind-numbingly hot private investigator, becomes Claire’s unlikely ally in the search. Jake just wants to solve the case and get out of this hick town, but the diminutive and curvaceous Claire turns his plan upside down as they uncover a more complex crime than they ever imagined. The two bicker and banter like Tracy and Hepburn caught in a whirlwind of intense sexual attraction as they try to find the killer before it’s too late.

I just finished UP A DRY CREEK and loved it!  What’s next for you? Can you give us a hint about your next novel? The Scribes love secrets!

I’m hard at work on High and Dry Creek (are you noticing a pattern here?), which is Sam Layton’s story. And let me tell you, he’s really met his match in Josie Winarsky, a tall, platinum blonde, tattooed painter who is hell bent on finding a long-buried treasure. With Sam at her side and a Las Vegas loan shark’s muscle hot on her trail, the treasure she finds turns out to be much more valuable than emeralds and rubies.

They say that every author has a partially completed, quite-possibly-terrible half a story shoved in a drawer somewhere.  What is yours?  What is it about?  What makes it terrible?  Would you ever consider picking it up and finishing it?

Well now I feel like a freak because I don’t. UP A DRY CREEK was the first book I sat down to write and I was lucky enough to have it published. Now are there a lot of crazy pants ideas rolling around in my head. Oh yeah. I’m still working out the details for a story about a superhero who had a brain transplant and is battling steampunk pirates.

I would totally buy that one!  Be sure to let us know when it’s ready.  Do you have a word or grammar-related pet peeve?

Yes! Those (&%^&*&^%$% people who are so in love with alliteration they misspell words. I’m looking at you Karl’s Krazy Kars.

What is your junk food of choice?

Oreo cookies – I can eat an entire bag myself in an evening and have done so many, many times, which is why I don’t let them in my house.

What’s the most dangerous or risky thing that you’ve done?

Getting out of bed. OK, I’ll be serious for a moment. I have to say falling in love. I grew up the child of several divorces. My dad died when I was in first grade. To say I didn’t have strong male role models or healthy examples of relationships in my formative years is putting it mildly. So, when I met my dashing fellow it was not a pretty transition to admitting I was in love. There was a lot of ugly crying freak outs on the phone with my friends. Right around this time I got fired from my first post-college job and I had to move across the country for a new one. The day I moved, I left behind a letter to my honey letting him know that even though we weren’t going to be together any more that he had changed my life for the better. I’d barely crossed the state line before I got the call from him declaring his love. We’ve been together for 15 years and married for 12. We have three crazy kids, two ancient dogs and an entire lifetime still to spend together. Have to say falling in love was a risk that paid off big time.

Awww!  I love that story!  So romantic!  What is your guilty pleasure? {Remember: this is a PG-rated blog! }

Watching TMZ – yes, I am deeply ashamed about this. Also, pretending to sleep on Saturday mornings while my three kids reenact Star Wars battle scenes in the living room.

Avery Flynn

Thanks for being here today, Avery.  Scribe Peeps, you can follow Avery here:

Avery Flynn

www.averyflynn.com

avery@averyflynn.com

Twitter: @averyflynn

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Avery-Flynn/177161972329973

And you can buy Avery’s books here:

http://www.evernightpublishing.com/products/Up-a-Dry-Creek-by-Avery-Flynn.html and here: http://www.evernightpublishing.com/products/Up-a-Dry-Creek-by-Avery-Flynn.html

Questions for Avery?  Ask away!