we interrupt this halloween blog hop for a special announcement...

A friend turned me on to this last night, and I wanted to share. I figured a blog-hop was a great way for other authors to find it, if they don't already have Scrivener:

http://literatureandlatte.com/nanowrimo.php

They're having a special... instead of the normal 30 day trial, since this is NaNo, they're letting us use the trial version (which includes a special template just for NaNo) until December 7th. If you complete the 50K words, you will be able to buy the full version of Scrivener for half price!!!!

I downloaded the trial last night and played with it using an existing manuscript and so far I am loving it!!!! The corkboards are awesome, the character sheets are great, and I love that I can work on just one scene, separate each 'part' into chapters and further separate the chapter into scenes. That makes it so much easier to find what I need to work on! :)

I'm in love so far!

And now, back to the blog-hop! If you're here for that, keep scrolling! :)

Wicked Blog Hop!

Welcome to my stop on the Wicked After Dark Blog Hop! 

Thank you to Nikki of Close Encounters and author Natasha Blackthorne for hosting this hop.

So the theme for this is something Halloween related or Wicked. I hope this counts... :) 

How Wicked is wicked??

I've always been asked why in the world I would want to write erotica/romance. Even twenty years ago, when I first tried to get serious about my writing, it was always something that a lot of authors seemed to feel obligated to do. I kept my mouth shut back then, not wanting to seem like I was the odd-ball (though of course I was), but they all blushed and said how hard it was to write the sex. I wanted to jump up and ask them how they managed to keep from writing the fun parts??


I guess it's wicked of me to admit that I've always been fascinated by reading and writing about sex. I'm a romantic at heart, so I love the sex mixed with a good love story. No, I don't like smut. I don't like the nasty stuff in a lot of adult magazines or anything like that. I LIKE the cheesy names for genitalia, like a little bit of dirty talk here and there, but I don't like the smut that is often printed.

And even more wicked? I've always had a fascination with multiple partners at once, males specifically. I don't write about males having sex, and I doubt I ever will. I don't know what that would be like, being firmly of the female persuasion, and there are plenty of people who write about that. But I do know about having sex with men, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I quite like it!

So my answer to folks who ask why I write what I write? No, I'm not trying to follow in the footsteps of recent erotica *cough* shades of what? *cough cough*, and no, I'm not jumping on a bandwagon. Some of the things I'm working on are from stories I've been writing for the past nearly 20 years, when that kind of thing wasn't published by any 'reputable' publishing house and such books were kept out of the reach of children, in hard-to-find areas of the bookstores. It's only been in recent years where erotica has been allowed to creep into romance, sci-fi, etc, in the mainstream customer base. And I'm so very glad!!! I can finally, FINALLY write the kinds of stories I've always wanted to write.

The simple truth is, I LIKE writing about sex. I love it when emotion and physical sensation swirl together into an incredibly intimate experience for the people involved. Very rarely will you see me write about sex without a relationship already in place, and almost never on casual sex or one-time 'hook ups'.

When sex is done right, it's awesome. When it's between people who genuinely like and respect each other, who love each other for all the right reasons, it's amazing. And in a story, when you throw in an extra heart or two... well, the more, the merrier!

Here's a sample, from my first book, Hearts of Ishira:

Shocked, she gasped and leaned back, looking at the two of them. Hunter stared at his brother for a moment, then grinned and nodded. As one, they rose. Hunter carried her back to their quarters and straight into his bedroom, her legs locked around his waist. She giggled all the way home. Jace stripped his clothes off as he went through the living area, then took over kissing her breathless as Hunter dumped her on the bed and took off his boots and pants. When the men were naked, they went to work on Arianna, leaving her gasping in constant surprise when one of them nipped a piece of flesh or kissed something he’d just bared to his view. Within minutes, they were all naked and she had a man on either side of her, looking down at her with twin expressions of desire.

“Oh, wow,” she whispered, looking up at both of them, her heart pounding in anticipation.

“If you do not wish this, little one,” Hunter breathed, his big, warm hand on her stomach. Jace was nibbling on her shoulder where it joined her neck, “Now is the time to say so.”

             She couldn’t speak, so how could she possibly say no? 

*   *   *   *

And a little bit later in the book:

Ri bit back a nervous giggle at their playacting, then choked on it when she felt Hunter’s long finger slide down her spine, not stopping at the bottom, but moving into the crack of her ass, dragging her gown down her hips as he did so. She sucked in a shivering cry as the finger continued right down until it slid neatly into her already wet core. Her head fell back as he sank his long finger into her depths and expertly dragged his fingertip over her G-spot, making her shudder in reaction with each firm pass. Her hips shivered and jerked involuntarily.

“What have you found there, brother?” Jace asked, his voice overly curious.

“I believe I have found an internal mechanism for making her wiggle,” Hunter said with delight. “Look, if I do this,” and he added another finger, using both of them to tickle her inner spot, “Her thighs shiver and her hips jerk.”

“Well, what if I were to do … this?” Jace asked, adding his finger to her core with no warning. She cried out, feeling so full, then again when Jace made another exaggerated sound of discovery, his thumb brushing over her clit. “I have found my own little mechanism! I wonder what happens if I push this little button right here...”

Her body bucked as he brushed his thumb over her clit again, and she cried out softly. He did it again and again, just for his own amusement. Her hips moved of their own accord and her channel pulsed around their fingers.

“I wonder what would happen if you work the inner one and I work the outer one?” Jace asked curiously.

“We should find out,” Hunter said decisively.

“For science, of course.” Jace affirmed. “We are dealing with an unknown species, after all. We must discover everything about the workings of her body, I think.”

“I think you’re right,” Hunter agreed. “On three?”

“Yes. One, two… three.”

The assault on her senses was devastating. Jace’s thumb circled her clit, then pressed, as both of their fingers slid back then delved into her, brushing firmly against her G-spot. Ri sobbed their names and trembled between their wonderful hands.

“Well, that was quite a reaction,” Jace said with satisfaction. “I wonder what else would make her twitch like that? She has an amazing nervous system. Everything seems to be connected in a very intriguing way.”

“I can see that,” Hunter said, playing along. “I wish to try something new that I read about in one of her books.”

Ri sucked in a ragged breath as his fingers left her, slowly moving to the tight little rosebud of her ass. He spread her juices around the little pucker. Ri’s heart threatened to leap from her chest when he dove two fingers back into her channel, moistening them and gathering more of her natural lubrication, then spreading it liberally on her anus. Her eyes met Jace’s, hers a bit apprehensive.

But Jace merely met her gaze and, when she would have jerked her hips away from Hunter’s  intrusion, he held them tight, leaning down to take her nipple between his sheathed teeth and bite down on the turgid peak. She let her head fall back as electric shock speared from her nipple straight to her groin, bringing her to a new level of throbbing awareness. Hunter used that moment of distraction to gently press his finger into her virgin ass, giving her a moment to adjust to the feeling.

He breathed softly into her ear. “Do you trust me, little one?”

Arianna hesitated, then nodded. She was anxious. She’d never done anal before, but she’d read about it and had been intrigued. Hunter moved his other hand around to splay on her tummy, holding her steady as his long finger delved further into her, loosening her. The pressure was… strange. She didn’t quite know what to make of it, but she wasn’t given much of a chance to think about it. Jace, seeing her distraction, began lavishing her breasts with attention, biting, sucking, and licking at her until she was a mass of throbbing need. While his mouth played with her nipples, his hand was working her below, two long fingers inside her, his thumb still torturing her sensitive clit. She reached her peak quickly, both orifices filled with their fingers, and felt the sensations of her walls gripping both of them tightly in orgasm. Her eyes flew open.

If it felt like that with just their fingers…

“Brother,” Jace said, watching her face with growing delight and hunger, “I believe she liked that.”

“I think you’re right,” Hunter groaned behind her, having sensed her intrigue and her curiosity.

She knew when he gave up the game, when need overtook play, and she found herself breathing faster with anticipation. 

*******************************

  

(A reader review from Barnes and Noble)

I might have to change my ID to AanReader. This was a terrific

I might have to change my ID to AanReader. This was a terrific read. Good storyline and great characters who make you care about what happens to them. Although...I may have to "adjust" my views on marriage. Still, if it works for the Thorsani.... OK, whens the next book? Write faster.
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www.bethanyaan.com

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*My blog-hop give-away will be for a free kindle or nook e-gift of my book, Hearts of Ishira!

*Prize will be chosen randomly from comments left on my blog. You have to do more than just say hi in order to qualify!

Just answer this question:
If you were the heroine of a sci-fi/fantasy romance/erotica, what would your 'super-power' be, and how many mates would you have? 

Remember... it's another world, with different rules and none of them involving who can mate with who, so be imaginative! :)

*Give-away ends at midnight on Halloween, so get your comments in by then!
*Prize will be sent out the week following contact with the winner.
*Winner will be announced on my blog and on my Facebook author's page, so be sure to check back!
*The winner will have two weeks to contact me after Halloween, or I'll select someone else!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

And thanks once more to Natasha Blackthorne, author, for hosting this wonderful hop!

http://natashablackthorneblog.blogspot.com/?zx=c976a588b4093e68

And now, for a wee bit of a teaser...

An excerpt from Brothers in Arms, book two of the Hearts of Ishira series...

             Arianna’s mouth began to water. She didn’t realize that she was radiating sexual tension until Aleah leaned down to murmur in her ear.

            “Unless you want them all completely distracted, dear, you should put that desire in a bubble for now,” the older woman chuckled.

            Ri stared at her, heat flooding her face, then looked back at the men. Her men.

            She tried to shield, she really did, but lord, they were so gorgeous. Their bare chests gleamed with exertion. Sean’s hair was freed from the leather thongs, whipping behind him, loose and riding on the wind of his movements like war banners. The snarl on his lips was primitive and feral, his eyes locked to Hunter and Jace, watching them like a cat on the hunt.

Hunter was crouched on top of a stack of crates, growling down at Sean, but his slick black hair hung loose over his shoulder and half of his face. He looked like a warrior of the deep jungle, part cat, part man, and all hers. He felt her thoughts and fully approved of her fierce possessiveness. As she stared at him, Hunter looked up through that curtain of hair without moving, his brilliant green eyes latching to hers from under straight, dark brows. It was just for a moment, as he was catching his breath. He caught her hot look and sent her a wild mental image of his sweaty, glistening body impaling hers with the triumphant passion raised in battle, his mouth latched to her breast as he held her up and pounded into her body. She stifled a longing cry as her knees weakened. 

From his position atop the compound’s wall, Jace also sent her a mental image… of his head buried between her legs, his mouth taking her to glorious heights, then his body taking hers, swift and strong, dominating her. Her fingernails bit into the fence railing, her mouth dry, her eyes wide and dilated with the double onslaught of passion.

Finally, as though realizing what the others had done, Sean stood up straight, stared right at her, and sent her his own image… of him beneath her, his big beautiful body hers to explore, her thighs open and accepting him to the root as she rode him to their combined fulfillment. At the point in the vision where his body arched to hilt into hers with his climax, he gave an incredible, feral roar and went for Hunter and Jace with deadly intent. 

Distractions...

The greatest danger to anyone trying to accomplish something is distraction. If you're an Oooh Shiny! person like me, it's even worse!

Recently, I moved my writing area upstairs, where I would be less distracted by the TV, my husband's homework, the in-laws and animals that we share a home with, the lovely views outside our windows, etc.

What I didn't count on was the fact that all my toys are upstairs! Now, get your mind out of the gutter... I don't have any of those toys... okay, maybe one, but I hardly ever... never mind. *blush* Anyhow, all of my craft stuff is upstairs, out of the way. But the only place to put my writing station is between one set of supplies and another.

It's no wonder that my heroine in Hearts of Ishira is a crafter! Sheesh! :)

But there are other distractions, too, most of them in my head. Ishira isn't the only world in there and Hunter, Ri, Jace, and Sean aren't the only characters vying for attention. It's kinda crowded in there! And while that's perfectly fine, because it gives me a ton of stories to work on later, they do kinda try to work themselves into the current story.

I haven't managed to get a lot of writing done on book two of the Ishira series, but that's mostly because of all the off-shoots caused by the first story. I have a bunch of little novellas that want to come out, shorter side-stories showing the point of view of other folks on Ishira, or even the point of view of folks still searching for it. All of that is just with Ishira and doesn't count the further adventures of my current characters. I mean, these people live a long time... I could, conceivably, write just about Ri and her guys for the rest of my career and probably make it awesome. They keep coming up with the most amazing things, in my opinion. I wish I could write as quickly and accurately as I see the 'movies' in my head!

Ah well... I'm currently distracted by Panthers football. I don't care how they're doing... they're my team and I will support them to the end! :) Love my boys in sky blue! (If you've never seen the autumn sky in North Carolina, against the backdrop of changing leaves, you are truly missing out!)

I guess I'll go knit for the rest of the game, then relocate upstairs to write so my husband can actually do all the homework he didn't do over his Fall Break. LOL College students! Sheesh! You'd think, since we're old enough to be the parents of the kids he's going to school with, he'd be more disciplined, but... not so much. It's okay. He still gets it done and he's still the inspiration for all my heroes. :)

My first time... be gentle!

I'm actually planning on participating in a 'blog hop'. My first one! Squeee!




I need to figure out something to give away, but I'm not sure what. Any suggestions? I'd say a beaded bookmark, but so many people have e-readers now. Hmmm... maybe some sexy fingerless mitts/arm warmers? Black that lace up the sides with red? I think I have a winner!

Be sure to check back! As I get more details, I'll post them. The authors that are in so far are some fantastic writers, so this should be fun!

And then there's that...

So tonight I'm logging into facebook under my real name, and I get IMed by my cousin, who says her dad's going to read my book.

My first reaction is EEEEEPPPPPP!!!!!!!! OMGOMGOMG!!!!!

The second reaction was pretty much the same, only with a LOT of color in my cheeks.

See, the thing about writing a book you'd want to read is that you're more than likely going to write a book that members of your family will also want to read. 1) Because you wrote it, and 2) Because they probably had a great deal of influence on what kind of reading material you were steered toward as a child and grew to love as an adult. Maybe with your own spin on things, yes, but still...

Our family is a huge reading family. We're as likely to have spirited debates over book series we've all read as over movies we've all seen... and the books are probably the more popular of the two. So while we can ALL agree that the Avengers was a great movie and Thor is uber-yumminess incarnate, we will debate, at length, the best wood to use for a magic wand, as presented in Harry Potter, versus other books with magic wands. (teehee, I almost wrote 'magic wangs'. That's another category altogether, but one I will possibly explore someday! LOL)

I fully expected my mom to read my book. She's my biggest fan and always has been. I do have to warn her about the naughty bits, but she's okay... she just skims past them and goes on with the story.

My cousin has promised to warn my uncle about the same thing!

I guess writing romance and/or erotica is kind of like being topless in a movie. You can do it, but just remember that your family is probably going to want to watch the movie at some point. You need to warn them when the naughty bits are cropping up, so they can skip 'em if they want.

Hmmm... maybe I should write a version without any naughtiness at all?

Nah... that wouldn't be any fun, now would it??? :)

Hope you enjoy it, Uncle Sam! :)

Smart Heroes Annoy Me...

Okay, really, they don't. I'm kind of a geek-lover. Smart men fascinate me. I married one. I have them as friends. Smart women, as well. I don't like dumb-but-lucky heroines... I like them to have skills. I like them to have brains, and to be able to use those brains in a pressure situation to make things all right.

It's just hard writing about headlong rushes into the wilderness to find a lost or kidnapped heroine, when your hero is an intelligent, well-trained military strategist. None of this hopping on a horse and growling at everyone else to 'stay here... this is my battle'. A) he's not an idiot and he knows that more people means a better chance of finding said lost heroine and B) his men are too well-trained and loyal to allow him to do so without their protection.

All the stories and movies where the hero goes on a heroic rampage all by his lonesome... they're sweet, but they show a decided lack of intelligence and wisdom (which are NOT the same thing and do not necessarily reside in the same brain together), by going it alone. I mean, if the love of MY life is out there, either lost or captured by some nefarious evil overlord, I want as many people at my back as possible, so that BOTH of us are alive, intact, and fully functional (bow-chicka wow wow!) for the happy ending.

Or is that just me?

But from a writer's perspective, intelligent heroes are really hard to write around. Because you DON'T get the emotional ride-off-all-alone-to-save-the-day. You get characters that look at you funny when you even suggest such a thing. And they watch you, patiently waiting for you to remember that you WROTE THEM THAT WAY! 

Argh! What was I thinking???

So now, in order to have a hero/heroine (let's not be sexist... sometimes it's the hero that needs saving) go out all alone, there has to be a darn good reason, and not a contrived one, but one that makes sense within the established storyline. Everyone else being stricken with a horrible bout of food-poisoning isn't enough. You need a plague. You need a massive infection that keeps everyone else down for a week or three. You need a damn good reason for the hero to open the huge gates and ride out into the blizzard without any back-up at all.

Or you need less intelligent characters.

Unfortunately, my characters are intelligent, responsible, exemplary leaders, so they can't do the things that heroes often do. But my heroine... she's a head-strong Earth girl that has always allowed her emotions to do her thinking for her. She can be easily led. But then what happens when she becomes a responsible parent? Ahhhh... see? Now she's intelligent and has more to think about than just her heart.

It's a dilemma. It requires a lot more thought. It requires more back-story to set up for the eventual necessity of the heroes and heroine to run off, pell-mell, to save each other. Or someone else. Who knows? These crazy cats are up to something all the time.

I guess my biggest problem is that I don't want folks reading my books telling the hero/ine "Dummy! You know better than that!" I mean, my Earth girls have seen horror movies. They DO know better than to explore the unknown alone, in their nighties, after they've heard horrific screams. Just sayin'...

Ah well... time to go figure out the next completely logical and believable (within the concept of 'suspension of disbelief' that is an imaginary world) situation that my folks are going to get into. :) I hope they do so intelligently!

Sorry so quiet...

Sunday was my birthday, which was a WONDERFUL day! My Mommy *grin* sent me the first printed copy of my book!!!! She inscribed it, even. I cried. I didn't have a hard-copy myself yet, but I was given the very first one. :) I haz a happy!

Monday was spent on the road with my cousin, adopted cousin, and the AC's incredibly cute/beautiful baby. (insert baby SQUEEEE here), then a surprise visit to another cousin, his wife, and their little girl, who, it turns out, is my mini-me. :D (my second mini-me. I have another, which is, ironically, this one's first cousin. *grin*) Spent the night with them, then rode home through rainy, cloudy, color-changing mountains this morning... and came home sick as a dog. Ugh!

If this is the same illness that's been running through my household, I will be down for the count for several days. So don't send out a search party QUITE yet. :P

Send well-wishes, energy, healing thoughts, prayers... whatever you like. Just don't come over. We haz Da Plague. :P