Classy Schmassy

In my rl I strive for my writing to be classy. Yes, it's sexually explicit but always in context with the story and never for gratuitous reasons.

Not so much with this. It's quite freeing, really. This alter ego sets my very repressed rl personality a little more free to go crazy. Add in the fantasy world and everything becomes possible (in my fantasy world, elves can hold their breath for a really long time).

Yes, the sex still works into the story, but there is a little more than you would expect, but not quite erotic romance. The character's sexual encounters all lend toward character building and story. But I'm throwing in side characters with sexy side stories just to throw the readers a bone (pun intended).

For example, my current project is about a Mage and Warlock. He has the ability to summon a demonic minion. She has the ability to cast a glamour to reproduce herself. Both the minions and the clones are under the control, or linked, to the main characters. While the main characters are becoming aroused by verbal sparing and displays of magic, the minion and the clones channel their master's arousal in a much more basic way. It's sexy, but doesn't draw away from the development of my Mage and Warlock. I don't even think it's a cheap trick, because it helps them both realize things about themselves that will lead to their eventual happy ending.

So, I've released the need to be classy, but I have not released my ethics in regard to storytelling. I look forward to opinions on this. In Mind, Body, and Spirit did the sun elf orgy  enhance the story? Or just add titillation? I hope for both, but I'm not objective.

Artistic Endeavors

I've neglected this blog of late. I have finished final edits for Mind, Body, and Spirit and am currently working on a book cover. I've discovered the royalty free graphic images from Ghetty Images. They are awesome. Of course in order to find what I'm looking for, I did a search for 'man woman nude lover' and then had to scroll through many many pages of suggestive and explicit pics. Am I complaining? Not at all. But it did take longer than I had anticipated.

Anyway, I've had some fun with Adobe Photoshop. I've learned a lot about layers and filters and whathaveyou, but everything still looks really amateurish. Personally, the cover does impact my decision to buy a book. Even a $0.99 book. So much home made silly stuff out there. I looked through Amazon's fantasy/paranormal romance section to get an idea about cover art and all the self published stuff just looked so... self published.  I've come up with some decent things but have also enlisted the help of a teenager. Sad really, that I have crossed the line in the sand of technological age.  In most respects my age just makes me a mature woman with a confidence in myself I lacked when I was young enough to easily understand new technology. Le Sigh.

I started awhile back on my second Silk and Stone Novella, Control. Lady Janae is an ambassador for the Allied Kingdoms in the neutral city of the Seraph. She is a very powerful mage, but more known for her diplomatic abilities. Concerned about the upcoming meetings between the Allied Kingdoms and the ambassador for the Sun Elves regarding the question of jurisdiction after the defeat of the High Magistrate, Janae takes an evening for herself. To unwind. To forget who she is for a few hours. Incognito at the Tavern at the End of the World, she meets a powerful sun elf Warlock. He is weary of physical pleasures and more aroused by power, by control. Janae's choice to submit to him, to pretend she's less than she is, only proves to whet her own appetite for dominance.  Between the give and take of power, the draining of mana and the seduction of surrender, the two form a bond that reignites the joy of physical passion.

This story has bdsm flavor without being too outside general market romance. My challenge has been to make the spell casting byplay so sensual in itself that the primal nature of the sexual content is just the icing on the cake. Oh... maybe there should be some icing. Nah. That's another book.

Just for fun, here is a cover I made with the help of Ghetty Images and Adobe Photoshop that I am not going with. Not hot enough.