Authors of Erotic Romance

I think I know how Dorothy felt when she toppled into another world from Kansas. 

Closing the door to my quiet office where I write erotic romance novels and stepping into the frenzy of the 2008 Romantic Times Booklovers Convention was like tumbling into Oz. One day I was Adele Dubois, author, alone at work at my desk. The next I was Adele Dubois, author, socializing with other erotic romance novelists inside a hotel conference area overflowing with gorgeous Ellora’s Cave cover models. Since I create fantasies for a living, you’d think I’d be unflustered in a room filled with handsome hunks. Not so. I giggled. I blushed. Oz is fun!

I need to get out more.

It was great to meet the cover models who posed for my new release INTIMATE ART and my February release DREAM TRAVELER. Wouldn’t you like to meet your cover model? 

Children often accuse their parents of playing favorites and loving one child more than another. And, of course, what child doesn’t secretly yearn to be the favorite child? Although parents are required to deny it by the offical Parenting Code of Honor, I suspect that sometimes they do have favorites.

Having grown older and a teeny bit wiser, though, I’ve come to recognize another truth, too. You can love your children in different ways for different reasons. Love isn’t something you measure. It’s unique and precious in every situation.

A writer feels somewhat the same way about her books. If someone asked me which of my books is my favorite, I’d have a hard time coming up with an honest answer. Each one has an individual appeal to me (and hopefully to readers) reflecting the spark of creativity that went into it.

When a new baby arrives in the house, though, they suck in all the attention and praise like a black hole sucks in light. The latest book is always a momentary favorite because it’s your most recent, and your burning with enthusiasm for it.

So I’ll admit that Mommy’s current favorite child is my latest book, Buried Passions, which released today from Loose Id. You gotta love a book with such a hot cover, and the characters are pretty hot, too! There’s a sassy pilot in the space navy called Tory who crash lands on an uninhabited world only to find her ex-lover Cor –a truly scorching guy who I personally fell in love with — in the middle of an archelogical dig. Cor has dug up a long-buried secret, but that’s nothing compared to the passions that rumble back to the surface the moment these two are reunited.

I hope you’ll click over to Loose Id and meet my latest favorite child. There’s a blurb and an exciting excerpt there to entice you! Just go to: http://www.loose-id.com/detail.aspx?ID=688

Kassie
http://www.kassieburns.com
Enjoy the burn!

When Ellora’s Cave sent me the completed cover art to my April 18, 2008, release INTIMATE ART the world around me stopped. Instantly, I fell in love with what designer and photographer Les Byerly had done for my book, and could hardly believe my good fortune. A great cover is the hope of every author. I wondered, will readers love the story inside the cover too?

According to GoEnglish.Com the idiom, “You can’t judge a book by its cover,” means the following:

“Don’t make judgements based only on appearances.”

“Before you can judge something, you need to take a deeper, closer look.”

“The value of something is not always obvious from what we see on the surface, so we should save our judgements until we have more experience.”

“When you have only seen the surface of something you cannot know what is on the inside.”

It is my sincere wish that readers love INTIMATE ART both inside and out, as I do. It’s the story of a meddlesome ghost who haunts the master bedroom of the house the heroine inherits, in order to keep the hero out. Writing this story was one of the high points of my life and I deeply love my characters. I hope readers will agree that the book and the cover are a perfect match.

A summary, full size picture, and excerpt of INTIMATE ART can be found on my website at www.adeledubois.com/

Thanks for reading!

I don’t know about anyone else, but when I seem to find something that works good for me, I lose it! Over the summer I wrote so many words I don’t even know what my final count had ended at. I could write 6k a day and still function. (For me that is something.)

School started and I thought YAY whoopee the kids will be gone and I’ll have oodles of writing. Wrong. I forgot how bored my youngest would be when everyone else was at school. Then I assured myself that once there was a holiday break I could write. There’d be time while they kept the baby occupied. Nope. Between the holiday hoopla and my volunteer activities, I am still struggling to find writing time.

I’m not sure how anyone else handles it, but what I do is I try to sneak time. I turn my laptop on when I get up and then I write whenever I can sneak a few minutes on the puter. I can’t get up any earlier than I do. When I do I find my writing suffers and I end up napping.

Another thing I will do is to put on music with headphones to drown out my kids. Sometimes I can sneak to the library, but my battery donly lasts about 45 minutes so I don’t usually get too much accomplished that way.

Anyone have any suggestion on finding writing time?

I remember well when my first book, Tales of the Magician 1: The Captive One, released on Loose Id. It was Nov. 14, 2006. My crit partner, Jade Buchanan, and I sat up and waited, impatiently, IMing back and forth as we refreshed the Loose Id page over … and over … and over. When it was finally there, I thought I would wake every neighbor I had with my screaming.

I had a different sort of release day today. The UPS man came to my door and handed me a box that contained my first two print titles, Sirens Song and Shivers, both anthologies from Resplendence Publishing. I remember telling a friend about my titles being in print. Her reaction, which provided congratulations, also included the words,  “I guess that means you’re a real author now, huh?”

We had a lengthy discussion then about the fact that e-books were still books, and I was a “real” author whether or not the stories I wrote were put into a book you can hold in your hands.

I have problems with people who are small minded and categorize anything, much less how much an “author” a person is by whether or not their books are in print. E-book authors work hard at creating great stories that will capture their readers imagination. They should not, under any circumstances, be considered second class citizens because they are using a medium that is so prevalent in the digital age in which we live.

Am I proud of my print titles? Heck yeah. I’m thrilled. When I saw my name on the cover, I realized I was living a lifelong dream. But then again, living that dream started with the release of The Captive One, and it continues with every story that has come after it, whether or not it is in e-book format, or in print.

And they’ve all been received with the same reaction: a squeal that could wake the neighbors. And I’ll do it happily every time one of my stories comes out, either electronically, or in print.

Happy reading!

Mel

It’s bad enough living life as one of the vertically challenged, but now a new scientific study has come out declaring that short women are jealous of the taller gals.

In my case, that would be pretty much everyone over the age of 12. They wrote a song about me –or someone like me — five foot two and eyes of blue, but it’s easier to sing it than to live it.

A few problems with being short:

• You can’t reach anything.
• You can’t wear clothes made for normal people. Your sleeves will drag the ground and you’ll trip over the hem of your skirt.
• The product you’ve been searching for is always on the top shelf and has slid to the back.
• You get into someone else’s car and search in vain for the pedal.

Not that I’m jealous, mind you. According to this study, short women get jealous because taller women are stronger and more dominant. Obviously, these scientists are a bunch of late-comers to the survival of the fittest battle, which is currently being led by the most socially adept, followed closely by the smartest.

I admit tall people might appear to have a slight advantage in the socially adept competition simply because it’s easier to see them, but that’s as far as I’ll go. Being socially adept is all about knowing how to get along with people and short people get tons of practice at that. We learn to be charming early in life so we can persuade others to get the stuff we can’t reach.

Incidentally, one of the thrills of my life is finding someone shorter than me so I can look down on them. I know, sounds terrible, but there you are. However, if you think about it, you’ll see this gives short people like me yet another advantage–people like us because they can feel superior around us. So watch out, tall people. You might want to glance down occasionally and see what we’re up to.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, but an interview on TV this morning sparked the issue in my mind. All romance authors scramble to figure out the laws of attraction for each set of characters they create–it’s always different for mine, depending on the circumstances. That initial spark of attraction is only the beginning. Every romance has a common denominator. Lust has to transform to love, then most usually a commitment of some kind.

But what happens next? What happens the book closes? After the endorphin rush of new love slows to a constant ache, and the normality of life settles in for the long haul?

It’s a thought provoking idea–one Anne Douglas brought to my attention when she proposed a new series that would focus on what happened after the happy ending. I think a marriage, or any commitment, hinges on communication and trust. So, I used a lack of communication as the breaking point for the couple I wrote about. It was fairly simple to imagine. After you’ve been with someone for a long time, it’s easy to quit talking about your feelings and desires, because you assume your partner knows everything there is to know about you. That isn’t always the case. Boredom sets in, lack of interest abounds, and before you know it life has become another statistic.

What do you think is essential to having a healthy, happy relationship? Why do you think such a large segment of relationships fail?

I look forward to hearing what you all think…

An online book review site hosted an erotic romance author chat recently that encouraged authors to post excerpts and summaries of our newest releases. The event was fun and I enjoyed chatting with readers and the other writers in attendance.

As I read the excerpts posted in the broad spectrum of genres from science fiction to historical, it became clear that the levels of sensuality shared by the authors were as diverse as the genres represented. Samples ranged from PG to XXX. The PG and PG-13 rated selections gave readers a window into the heart of the story. The most explicit examples offered a complete sex scene. The sexually graphic excerpts received the most reader feedback at the times they were posted, garnering cheers that rivaled the fervor of an online sorority party.

At the end of the day, however, when readers were asked to vote for their favorite excerpts and book covers, and claim free contest prizes, none of the entries that offered the sexually explicit scenes were named as favorites. Despite the enthusiasm participants had shown them earlier, when the time came to name their favorite books, readers simply picked the stories they said they liked best.

I began to wonder. Do erotic romance authors increase or diminish their individual sales by giving away their sex scenes for free?

Should authors post their sexiest excerpts on chat loops? Write free erotic stories on their blogs? Or save their sexy surprises for those readers who buy their books? Will readers become desensitized by all of the free, sexually explicit material being posted by authors in public forums?

Authors and readers–please post a comment and share your perspectives.

From Melinda Barron:

To Loose Id: Amethyst Eyes
To Resplendence Publishing: A Dusting of Syn
To Aspen Mountain Press: Brown Paper Wrapper: Pajama Party

From Michelle Hasker:

Loose Id:
The Bodyguard: Sorin

Changeling:
Agency Series (4 books)
Leandros Series (3 books)
Suffering Sassafras (one for the BBW series already at Changeling)
The Jewelry Club Series (5 books)

Tina Bendoni:

To Aspen Mountain Press: Latin Lover as part of the Del Fantasma series.

Congratulation everyone!

I read an article the other day about how writers are supposed to be depressed because they’re creative people and creative people are depressed because … not sure I got the connection there. Because why? Because it’s morally superior to be sad instead of happy or something?

I suppose if you think the world is a gloomy place, then you also think you are writing great and insightful literature by going on for hundreds of pages about how horrible life is, but personally I find the world exciting and fun, not least of all because of what is arguably the most popular activity on the planet. (If you don’t believe that, check out the population growth curve for the human race). Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been depressed in my life, more than I’d like, and I know depression is no fun. So why glorify it with a false cloak of creativity? Happy people can be creative, too. But read the article and judge for yourself. You can find it here: