Being a romance author entails so much more than just writing a book. It’s an entire lifestyle. So before you put fingers to keyboard, here are some essential things you will need in order to be a proper romance author.

Have a Harem of Gorgeous Men

(This should be you)

This is absolutely the most important one. We all know that the only reason anyone buys romance is for the sex. In order to create the most believable, passionate and erotic chick porn out there, you need to do your research. Therefore, you need a harem.

Travel to Exotic Locations

(Here looks good)

Romance simply cannot flourish in a banal setting. The backdrop to your epic tale must be as intriguing and dazzling and jet-setting as your characters and their whirlwind love affair.

Have a Tragic Love Affair

(There cannot be happiness without sorrow)

You can’t know (and hence write about) the beauty and power of true love without having thought you were in love in the past only to either lose that love or realize it wasn’t love at all. This could be because you were blinded by lust and infatuation or maybe you picked the wrong man who wasn’t worthy of you or you might have even had a nice man that wasn’t very good in bed. Whatever the reason, a tragic – and preferably tormented – romantic past is a must.

Know How to Kick Some Ass

(He could TOTALLY teach me a thing or three)

It doesn’t matter if you are writing historical, paranormal, erotic or scifi, your hero needs to be a total ass-kicking stud even if he doesn’t actually kick any ass at all. Find yourself a weapons expert, a personal trainer and/or a hand-hand combat specialist and convince them to tell you all their secrets. And then add them to the harem.

And remember to always, always have fun!

Blog — Twitter — Facebook — Sculpting a Demon at Ellora’s Cave

Welcome….I’m Lyncee and this is my first time blogging at Flirty Bitch Authors. In the months to come I have some topics I’m excited to blog about but I thought start with my view on writing…and with the heart of what I write – romance. Be it a suspense or paranormal romance is at the center of my writing. So let me ask what is……romantic?

Flowers?

Candy?

Candlelight?

A bubble bath?

Some would say all of the above while others would have their own ideas. In writing romance, there are many definitions that a writer must deal with. So – what is….romantic?

Often, the same scene can have a double meaning. For example….
The shrill buzz of the doorbell shattered the silence. Darla glanced at her watch as she sat her book down. Twenty after nine. Who could it be? She stood and walked to the front room. The low rumble of distant thunder echoed in the night air as she opened the door. Michael stood in the pale yellow porch light.
“I thought you were still stuck in Colorado.” Darla’s pulse raced as she tripped over the words. “They said all flights were still ground.”
He held out his hand, offering a rectangular box with a green silk bow decorating the top. “It’s your birthday. I couldn’t miss it. So I rented a car and drove. Here, your favorite chocolates.”
“Oh, Michael,” she stepped outside and into his embrace.
OR – same scene and props but totally different outcome -
The shrill buzz of the doorbell shattered the silence. Darla glanced at her watch as she sat her book down. Twenty after nine. Who could it be? She stood and walked to the front room. The low rumble of distant thunder echoed in the night air as she opened the door. Michael stood in the pale yellow porch light.
Darla’s heart skipped a beat, panic surging through her. “What are you doing here?”
He held out his hand, offering a rectangular box with a green silk bow decorating the top. “It’s your birthday. I couldn’t miss it. Here, your favorite chocolates.”
“No, Michael,” she stepped inside and tried to shut the door, but his fingers stopped it.
While these examples are very basic, they show how the same thing – a box of candy – can mean two entirely different things. One scary the other a sweet gesture.

As a romance writer, I realize it’s more than a simple prop that makes romance. It’s the characters, their relationship and the setting and I have to use all three if I’m going to create a romance that will pull the reader in. I’ve read great romantic scenes set in places I’d never have thought of as a romantic place yet through skilled writing they were.
So tell me, what are some of the more ‘off-beat’ romantic settings you’ve read? Glad you stopped by.

Why? Because some day you might be able to use them. Now bear with me, people. We’ve all written a sentence, a paragraph, a page, etc., and then decided it wasn’t what we really wanted to write. It didn’t work. So we hit delete and moved on. Right? Wrong. Make sure you keep a file for all those words. You never know when you might be able to use them.

I was talking to an author a few weeks back and she happily announced to me that she’d cleared her files of all those books she’d started where she’d only gotten down a chapter or a couple of hundred words on, and then abandoned. I almost cried.

I keep everything. And everything I keep also sits in my brain and as I’m writing, suddenly I’ll remember something I’d written somewhere else and filed away and pull it up. Voila. It fits beautifully with the new work when it hadn’t with the old work.

Not only that, but just because an idea for a story you had last month, last year, a decade ago didn’t work out then, doesn’t mean you can’t look at it now and find something of value there. I’ve got shorts, novellas, and books a plenty sitting in my files. A major stockpile. LOL

A stockpile that’s paying off it seems. I received an offer of contract on one from Ellora’s Cave. And I was very happy about that. It started out as a freebie read, but the characters wanted something bigger and they got it! Such a sweet little Valentine’s Day tale, so it won’t be available until 2011.

In the meantime, I’ve dusted off a couple of more in my files, tweaked and fiddled with them a bit and off they went. One of those books came about as a result of an exercise on the Avoid Writer’s Hell Workshop group. I asked writers to work up a five-hundred-word excerpt in which they described a character’s job without actually naming the job. The purpose was, of course, to make sure the writing was clear and concise. We had a lot of fun guessing. That five-hundred-word excerpt of mine turned into a fifty-thousand-word novel. But more about those lost books on a later blog and what happens to them. *wink*

So don’t throw away your words. Keep them safe. You never know what publisher might just think they’re worthy of publishing. And those little snippets you save always come in handy when you’re blocked!

I hope everyone is happily writing!

I have a weird brain that memorizes song lyrics without me even knowing it.  And they pop up at the strangest times.  Did you get this one? Here’s a video with sound and lyrics.

This song was apt, though, because I write of otherworldly things.  So, please allow me to introduce myself and my world of kick-ass women and sexy Alpha males–vampires and werewolves and who knows what else?  But let’s start with the vampires …

Several years ago, I decided I didn’t like what was happening to vampires in the current genre literature, both paranormal romance and urban fantasy. They were being turned into sensitive guys who drove Volvos (a Volvo? Really?), who hated what they were and only drank blood (ewww) because they had to. They were full of angst and torment and wanted only to do good.  Ick.

So I decided to write about the real vampires, creatures who had ascended to the top of the food chain through blood and violence and who reveled in what they’d become, building empires that spanned human generations and living according to their own rules and no one else’s. My vampires are lethal predators–deadly, aggressive, territorial and, of course, sexy as hell.

In my world, the vampire hierarchy centers around the Vampire Lords. These very few and all-powerful vampires hold the lives of every vampire within their domain. No vampire exists but that he (or she) is beholden to one of the Lords or is powerful enough to be a Lord in his own right. In all of North America, there are only eight Vampire Lords, each controlling a separate territory with rigidly maintained boundaries. The Vampire Lords are fiercely competitive with one another and tolerate no trespassing.

Each of the books in my series, Vampires in America, focuses on one of the territories and its Lord. The first book, RAPHAEL, introduces the Lord of the Western Territory. Raphael is almost 500 years old and controls the largest of the eight North American territories. He is scarily powerful, possibly the most powerful vampire alive. When someone near and dear to him is kidnapped, Raphael hires a human investigator Cynthia Leighton, to track down the human kidnappers.

And the rest as they say, is history.

Book Two continues the story of Raphael and Cyn, but with the introduction of JABRIL Karim, a vampire who values no life but his own, who enslaves those he desires, steals whatever he covets and destroys anyone who stands in his way. When he sets his sights on Cyn, he crosses a line which can only end in someone’s death.

And my newest book is RAJMUND, Book Three of the Vampires in America series. Due out from ImaJinn Books on July 30th, it introduces Rajmund (RYE-mund) Gregor. Rajmund is a younger and more modern vampire as compared to Raphael. He is the Master of Manhattan, New York, which he controls on behalf of his Sire, Krystof Sapieha, who is Lord of the Northeastern Territory. Krystof is very old. Too old. He is going slowly mad and the territory is crumbling around him. Power in the vampire world rarely passes without violence.  Of all Krystof’s vampire children, only Rajmund is powerful enough to destroy his Sire and seize the territory for himself.  But first, there is the matter of some missing women and the human police who suspect their disappearances are the work of a vampire.

And that leaves my werewolves. This is a new series for me. Just released from Siren Publishing, HEART OF THE WOLF introduces the universe of my wolves with the story of Renjiro Roesner and Kathryn Avinger.

Kathryn is the daughter of the North American Alpha. Young, beautiful and obedient, Kathryn was married off at the age of eighteen to a much older and wealthy human, finding herself neatly trapped in an abusive prison of money and privilege.

Renjiro is a powerful and charismatic wolf, an enforcer for Kathryn’s father and, once upon a time, Kathryn’s promised husband. Returning from a mission to find Kathryn married and gone, Ren left the country, bitter and betrayed. But when someone tries to murder Kathryn at her husband’s funeral, Ren comes home to protect the only woman he ever loved.

What’s next in my world? I don’t know for sure.

But I’m thinking . . . demons.

Visit me at http://dbreynolds.wordpress.com for free Vampire Vignettes, contests and more.

See you in August!

DBR

Hi all! I’m excited to join this group of talented  authors …love and romance rule the world!

My passion for reading romance started with my first  Barbara Cartland novel. I was hooked on HEAs,   regencies/historicals, and devoured them like a  thirsty traveler wandering in a desert.

I moved on to contemporary romances and then my  interest spread to paranormals.

I decided to try writing a romance book in 1994…and reality slammed me in  the face almost immediately. My submitted book got rejected, and one kind agent suggested I put dialogue in my story. Seems I’d written most of it as narrative.

I had much to learn! So, I joined writing groups, critique groups, went to conferences/conventions, and eventually learned the ins and outs of the romance industry and how to write!

I’ve published four sensual mainstream romances under the pen name of Marianne Stephens, and I’ve also published two erotic romances as April Ash.
Those who know and love me will testify to the fact that they always knew I had a split personality…and it helps define the genres I write!

Love, passion, lust, sex, heat, hunks, romance…the list of what goes into a romance books is full of hot adjectives and nouns…and some naughty verbs, too! The words make our stories “come to life”, invading your usual routine as we try to transport you into a fantasy world where you fall in love with our heroes and heroines.

Please visit my websites and learn more about me and my books! Go to: http://www.mariannestephens.net and http://www.aprilash.net !

Photos: Flickr:  le vente le cri and toephoto photostreams.

Being a writer can be a tricky thing.  Time and time again, we work to craft something new, unique, and creative.  There are times when the words flow from us as if we’re in a trance, times where we feel like we’re forcefully ripping each word from our mind.  But why is it sometimes the words come to us like magic, and other times not at all?   The answer; it’s the muses.

Yep.  Muses.  Most authors have them, or at least acknowledge their existence, though who and what they are is different for everyone.  A muse can be anything from an attractive person in real life, to an idea or expression, or even viewed as an actual spiritual entity.  However an author looks at their muse, one thing is certain, we praise them when we write well and fault them when the words won’t come.  They’re the eternal scapegoat when we struggle with writing.

Leonardo Corredor

For me, with how my story ideas pop out of nowhere with seemingly no rhyme or reason, it seems perfectly logical that these ideas are coming from a source outside myself.  Or maybe it’s more mental than logical.  One or the other.  I’ll let you decided.  With my muse, he has a name, and yeah, by me saying “he” I do think of him as a male.  I know other authors who have named their muses, who think of them as male or female, some even have more than one.  But you know, the thing with muses is you have to take care of them, and some can be very high maintenance.  How do you take care of a muse?  Well, I can’t speak for all of them, but I mine has a very specific diet; music and….well, please see the visual examples ;-)

While music is always one of my favorite topics to talk about, today my muse is more interested in discussing the other part of his diet.  And really, he can’t be blamed for that.  It’s hard not to be inspired by sensual, steamy, or loving images.  Love, passion, and romance are the themes my muse wants to work in, and I’m more than happy to oblige him. 

Really though, when I first started writing eons ago, long before any ambitions to be published came, I wrote fantasy.  I had a trilogy I was working on, and I felt that’s where my passion would lie.  The strange thing was, even though I enjoyed fantasy writing, there was still something lacking for me.  It was missing, and forgive the pun, that certain magic.  But I wasn’t sure what to do, what to write, so I continued on with it.  My muse was with me, but he wasn’t very outspoken at the time, or it’s more accurate to say I wasn’t ready to listen to him.  I wasn’t ready for what he wanted me to do.  Yet with every draft of the fantasy story, it changed.  It became more erotic, and the male characters grew stronger and stronger.  Slowly but surely, my muse was preparing me for the kind of author he wanted me to be.

When the main character for my novels Conquest and No Fear, Jesse Alexander, came to me, I was admittedly surprised.  Not only by the story he was telling me, a contemporary m/m erotic romance, but by how clearly he told it.  He spoke of things I believed in, love and equality, and I knew then the path I wanted to take as a writer.  I could almost see my muse glowing with the realization, but since that day when I fully opened my mind to him, he’s never let me down when I need to tell a story. 

Sure, there are things my muse doesn’t always enjoy working on.  When I first started writing blogs and I’d call for him, he’d come grudgingly and would be cranky.  I won’t ever complain, though, because what he’s gifted me with has brought me more happiness than what I ever thought to achieve with my writing. 

So it’s true, sometimes the path your muse takes you on is an unexpected one, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned about muses, it’s they should always be listened to with an open mind.  If you follow them, whether your work is published or not, gets good reviews or bad, at least you know you were honest to your writing and what you wanted to do.  No author, or muse, can ask for more than that.  Well, except for a little food once in a while

S.J. Frost

My local Oxfam charity bookshop is a great source of gems. The latest one I picked up was Rotten Reviews, a Literary Companion, edited by Bill Henderson.  What a hoot! Scathing reviews are nothing new and even those writers we’d recognise as literary giants or works we’d count as classics don’t escape.

Saturday Review on Charles Dickens “We do not believe in the permanence of his reputation”.

North British Review on ‘Wuthering Heights’ “The only consolation which we have in reflecting upon it is that it will never be generally read.”

Those two reviewers certainly knew what they were talking about, didn’t they?

When reviewers criticise your prose, consider the San Francisco Examiner’s opinion of Rudyard Kipling “I’m sorry, Mr Kipling, but you just don’t know how to use the English language”.

If you receive a kindly rejection letter, think of old Marcel Proust who got one for ‘Remembrance of Things Past’ which read “…but rack my brains as I may I can’t see why a chap should need thirty  pages to describe how he turns over in bed before going to sleep.”

If someone makes a malicious reference in a blog, it’s the modern equivalent of The History of Fiction (1814) remarking that Gulliver’s Travels is “Evidence of a diseased mind and lacerated heart”. Or Walt Whitman being told, by The London Critic that he is “As unacquainted with art as a hog is with mathematics”.

Ouch.

Of course, the only proper public reply to a naff review is ‘Thank you’. All the raving and ranting and sticking pins in dolls should be reserved for in private. Some great advice from great men:

Andre Gide: “A unanimous chorus of approval is not an assurance of survival; authors who please everyone at once are quickly exhausted.”

And, my hero E M Forster: “Some reviews give pain. This is regrettable, but no author has the right to whine. He was not obliged to be an author, He invited publicity and he must take the publicity that comes along.”

I’m excited and delighted to announce the release of my first fairy story, a hot piece with a killer cover: Secrets of the Solstice Sacrifice!

Secrets of the Solstice Sacrifice

By: Giselle Renarde

Published By: loveyoudivine

ISBN # 9781600544927

http://tiny.cc/cypm4

Professor Selyf is a fay magical, a solitary academic who lives near the mythical village of Gwyllion on a Welsh hillside. When a knock at the door interrupts him from his manuscript, he curses the intruders—until he gets a look at them! The ginger boy, Bedwyn, he doesn’t much care for, but Trysta, his beautiful cara, awakens Selyf’s heart and the sleeping serpent within.

Trysta has a “female problem,” as Bedwyn puts it, and needs the professor’s audience. She and Bedwyn are mixed-bloods–half human, half fay. When Trysta’s mother conceived her, she wished for a little girl. The fae have a unique ability to select their children’s genders with simple wishes, but since Trysta’s system contained “stagnant” human blood, the wish only half succeeded. Trysta was born a girl with one particular boy part.

Bedwyn doesn’t know the true nature of Trysta’s “female problem,” and she asks Selyf to help her resolve it so she can finally share her body with her caru. As a guest in Selyf’s home, Trysta grows as attracted to the professor’s magical intellect as he is to her beauty. The desire to give in to temptation mounts, particularly when Selyf realizes the only way to resolve Trysta’s problem involves a sexual sacrifice on the solstice.

Excerpt:

He knew she’d return. He sensed it in her look of longing as she left
for dinner with that stupid sod of a caru. “You’re here for my bed, I
presume?” Selyf said as she slipped in the door. Her eyes revealed
everything she longed to say, but he understood her restriction. “Will
you sit with me?” he asked, beckoning her into the chair by his desk.

Gazing into the empty seat, she shook her head. “I should not have
come,” she said with a look of apprehension in her conflicted eyes.
Slipping her bag from her shoulder, she sat in the chair. “You should
know you represent a distinct temptation for me.”

Selyf was not easily scandalized, but her bold admission took his breath
away. “As do you, for me,” he admitted. “But you needn’t fear me, Fay
Trysta. I have spent all my adult life as a solitary magical. I know
denial and self-sacrifice only too well. You are safe here in my home.”

With tears in her eyes, she nodded. For a moment, she looked as though
she might speak, but then said nothing. As she rose from her chair, she
finally blurted, “What if I don’t want to be safe anymore?”

He only stammered, with no response at hand.

“You speak of denial?” she went on. “What do you think my life has
consisted of up until now? At my age, I have yet to experience the
pleasures of the flesh. In the village, I must pretend to be exactly
what I seem, and why? Because only my mother, her mid-wife, and I can
know the truth. You have no idea the trust I’ve put in you, Professor
Selyf. You hold my very life in your hands.”

“I hold your life,” he repeated, rushing around his desk to meet her.
“Why may I not hold your body as well?”

Slipping past him, she hurried to the window, mumbling, “Bedwyn.” Just
as Selyf’s heart began to plummet, she continued, “He mustn’t see.”
Ensuring the curtains were fully closed, she walked to him like a vixen
on the hunt. Her eyes burned like roaring embers as they explored the
lengths of his body. Wrapping her arms around his neck, she ensnared him
in a kiss the likes of which he’d never imagined. He felt her veiled
passion course through his veins as his mouth melded with hers. Their
tongues fluttered and surged one against the other. His whole body was
so rapt with hers he could hardly breathe. As they kissed, he ran
intrepid fingers through her silken hair and down her back. In turn, she
held his cheeks and his neck, his back and his sides. When he grasped
the firm flesh of her buttocks, Trysta wheezed and broke free.

The look in her eyes was indiscernible but for the temptation they
aroused. He almost apologized for being so dreadfully forward before
realizing it was she who’d kissed him. Grabbing her wrists, he pulled
her into his arms and carried forth the sweet embrace she’d abandoned.
After a moment of brave indecision, she gave in to the kiss and melted
in Selyf’s arms. His tongue wrangled hers until she broke away once
more. Pressing her soft lips to his ear, she whispered, “I’ve never felt
like this before.”

“Neither have I,” he admitted. “You’ve aroused in me the sleeping
serpent.”

At that turn of phrase, her body grew limp in his arms. “Yes,” she said.
“I know only too well what you mean.”

Buy Now! http://tiny.cc/cypm4

Hugs,

Giselle Renarde
Canada just got hotter!

http://freewebs.com/gisellerenarde/

http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/GiselleRenarde

http://audreyandlawrence.viviti.com/

I’ve heard lots of authors complaining about someone raining on their parade. You post a blog with news about your life or a new contract–even a work in progress. And you’re hoping for positive feedback from readers and fellow authors alike. The feedback IS almost always positive, but have you ever noticed that there is always an author here and there who will—come hell or high water—blatantly promote on YOUR blog with their comment?

These authors are in constant promo-mode and defy the unspoken rule of blog etiquette. Now most of what is said in comments is congratulatory or uplifting in nature, but these promo queens turn the blog topic around, whatever it is, and make it all about them somehow. Yeah, they try their best to upstage the poster.

The cardinal rule of blogging and commenting is this: THOU SHALT NOT PROMO THYSELF ON ANOTHER AUTHOR’S BLOG UNLESS REQUESTED TO DO SO.Yeah, wait until the blogger invites you to guest blog, why don’t you?

Not too long ago, a very upset author emailed me about this. She could not fathom the idea of someone commenting to HER blog all about THEIR big news and upstaging her announcement. Neither can I. Other times these promo queens–and kings, cause I’ve seen the guys do it too–will actually go so far as to mention the titles of their books and even leave buy links. But even if they don’t do that, they are pretty crafty in nature–or at least think they are–and find other ways to promote themselves. They have a way of taking the spotlight off of the poster and shining it on them.

What they don’t understand is that what they deem to be genius promo tactics isn’t winning them any brownie points with the blogger OR other commenters. Trust me, everyone notices it, rolls their eyes, and thinks: “there she/he goes again.” Yeah, again. Cause these type of commenters do garner a reputation for what they are doing after a while. People see it happen over and over again and wince every time they see that author’s name. So if you are one of those little rain clouds on your fellow author’s blog, take a step back and think before you post all about yourself and your own work. It’s not as well-received or welcome as you think it is.

I have some pretty big news of my own coming up soon. Well, I may not announce for several weeks yet. Got way too much on my plate and things are still getting sorted out. But when I do announce, and one of these rain clouds comes along, I’m going to simply smile, delete their comment, and move on. Hey! They asked for it.

On another note, Faith Bicknell-Brown, author and editor, owner of the Avoid Writers’ Hell Workshop, posted here at FAB yesterday about some upcoming news. She’s decided to close the AWH workshop in favor of posting lessons from the AWH blog. I think it’s a good idea as the lessons will be archived and much easier to access. Members and non-members alike will be able to ask questions or have discussion in general on the blog in the comment section. Faith will leave the sister group–AWH Chatters open for Monday promos, general chatter, and lesson announcements. So if you haven’t joined Chatters yet, now is your time to do so. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/avoidwritershellchatters

As my day to blog here at FAB approached, my tired mind sorted through pieces of ideas of what to write about. The family has moved into a nice, five-bedroom farmhouse, and then myself, my dau, JadeyKiss, and her bff, drove across state to the Lori Foster Get Together. We returned Sunday afternoon, and ever since then, I’ve been juggling the unpacking and sorting of the house as I’ve been revising six contracted manuscripts. My brain and my body are just too tired to get into anything philosophical or even zany today.

But I did crawl into bed last night and lay thinking for a while, this blog post once again in my mind. My thoughts turned to my writing and I realized that I have four pen names, plus two variants of my real name that I write under. Honestly, I hadn’t really thought about the fact that I have four nom de plumes, but for me, they’re not difficult to manage or maintain. The pseudonyms just developed on their own for various reasons. The first big reason is for anonymity for my really adult material and also because the Internet is full of green-eyed gremlins.

Where am I going with this?

Well, a good author friend of mine mentioned that she has never noticed where any of the online groups—Yahoo, MSN, and Google—have helped her book sales. I agreed with her. My material sells just as well without schmoozing on the groups. Besides, with so many groups and forums out there, who the heck has time to hang out on all of them? I’d never get anything done, LOL!

But, one of the blessings of groups is that I’ve met some amazing and truly wonderful people.

Anyway, there have been many changes in my life, including my writing career. I’m relieved and pleased to say that all the changes have been wonderful ones. However, trying to maintain my online life with my real one has become a huge challenge, so I’m making some necessary changes of my own, some life trimming. By doing so, I’ll be able to continue an online persona, take care of my family, and live in my writing cave so those hunky guys, lovely ladies, and all the possibilities between them can keep heating up book pages and readers’ minds!

Where will I be? A blog appearance here and there like FAB, as well as maintaining two of my main blogs will be where you’ll find me the most. Also, I’m on Twitter and Facebook. These tools are easily at my fingertips and save me a lot of login time, etc., especially now that I’m stuck with infernal dial-up until wireless or DSL is available in my area (if you think you’re hearing profane words drifting through the ether, that’s Faith over in Appalachia bitching out dial-up!).

That’s it for today, my friends. I have coffee to drink, scenes to write, and contracts to fulfill. To find me, check out my links, look for me on Twitter and Facebook, or simply drop me an email through my websites.

Faith’s site, Faith’s erotica site as Molly and the AWH blog for writing life and creative writing info .