Not in the Mood

 I've been charting religious practices, social strata, names, holidays, traditions, etc... in world building within my United Factions, the Allied People's Republic, and the neutral cities of Seraph and Selph within the world of Azuramer. I've also been continuing to work within my two works in progress, Control and Surrender.  I've become a hybrid planner/pantser and I like it.
The problem I'm having is that I'm at the BIG sex scene. You know, the genre required scene toward the climax (he he) of the story where the couple realize it's true love, etc... These scenes have never really been a challenge. Once I get my writing groove on, the scene flows. Yes, I have some tidying to do, but in all the scenes are well written and get the intended emotional content across. And, I shouldn't have to mention, they're hot.

This is my problem right now. My real world influences have been decidedly not hot. Life is, well, life. I've been sick with an upper respiratory thingy (not hot), I'm broke (not hot), and work is crazy. To top it all, I recently watched Bridesmaids. While I really enjoyed the film, the residual imagery it left with me has made sexual content really laughable. I am not able to suspend disbelief long enough to allow a mood to establish.

So I'm stuck on my w.i.p., unable to finish the scene. Since a big part of my process is seat of my pants, I can't just write the last scene and be secure in the knowledge it will be the organic extension of their sexual moment of clarity.

To add insult to injury, I Googled "romantic imagery" for this blog, and this was the 2nd image suggested.  WTF? Thanks Google, I needed the help to be not turned on.

Romance Novels as Love Making Manuals

It's been said that women should not read romance because it gives them unrealistic expectations. I disagree.

Main stream media paints the picture of the woman as the seductress luring in the defenseless male. The burden of sexiness is placed on the woman, the man just grateful to have someone paying attention to his penis besides himself. This is all male fantasy.

Reality is that most women don't think about sex that often. For a woman to be turned on it's more complicated -- and that's not because of unrealistic expectations, it's because our minds are busy. For a man to get aroused there must be oxygen in the atmosphere.

If it is reasonable for a man to pick up a woman or initiate sex by grabbing her boob, then, yes, romance novels give us unrealistic expectations. I can tell you from experience that it's not a turn on when the man goes straight from a kiss to a crotch grab. Neither is, "Hey, wanna do it?" in anyway going to make me horny. And the man wants the woman to be horny, doesn't he?

In a romance novel it is all about the seduction, the anticipation. Sure, the man's perfect body is great too, but really it's the mental arousal that gets the body in gear.  If the woman is in a sexual frame of mind, she will be more than just a willing partner who's really thinking about cleaning the bathroom. If she's into it rather than just cooperating, you'll find she initiates it herself more often.

My recommendation? Men should read romance novels. Ladies, if you read something you find particularly hot, share it with your guy. AND guys, don't mock it. If it turns her on, it's worth your time. You may not have known that she loved the idea of being in front of a mirror or in an open window. Maybe you didn't realize that little nips on the ear lobe were sensual. You won't know unless you are part of the same world she is. If she reads romance, obviously she likes it. It's true, the sex scene isn't just a paragraph, it's ten pages -- but that alone should tell you something.

I don't think women have unrealistic expectations, I think men should step up. Use the romance novel as a how-to manual. Probably too much information, but after my man read (in effort to help me edit) Mind, Body, and Spirit, some awesomeness happened that still makes me smile.

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.

Blizzard Gets All Romantic... Sort Of

I am so bummed Blizzard got the memo before me. They found out that girls play WoW and started developing romantic story lines. I did not feel threatened when Aggra asked Thrall to suck her tusks and he agreed because, hey, they're orcs. Orcs aren't hot (based on my standards of beauty. If you think they're hot, bully for you).

But then there's this whole Leyara story line. And my loading screen today had a WoW romance cover-esque illustration for the short story about Tyrande Whisperwind (which sounds like a name out of Pixie Hollow -- no, that's not fair. I'm just being snarky.). The good news is there's no sexual tension.

Just for fun, I've helped Blizzard along by editing the jpeg to look more appropriate for the romance genre.

BTW, for this cover to work she needs more cleavage.

Fantasy Romance

I find myself not as equipped to write erotica as I had previously thought. It's hard for me to add the little extras that bring it up to the next level. I thought that adding the element of fantasy, of magic, would free me a little. Nope.

Why?

Because I can't honestly write about penetration of orifices that, in my world, are strictly exits. Though I can imagine kissing another woman, doing much more than kissing is a turn off. And don't get me started on inter-species unions.

When it comes down to it, if I don't find what I'm writing hot, my writing is not going to be hot. And the idea of having sex with a cow man is not hot (to me - I don't judge your interests).

The good news is, I'm finding this project inspiring and sexy. Besides that making me happy, my garcon-de-jour happy, and my readers happy, it bodes well for the possibilities of this project being successful. So, maybe it's not hard core erotica -- who cares?

Seduction

Vent and chat give you a mask of anonymity. There are no lasting repercussions to what you say and do. That woman who sounds hot lives hundreds of miles away. You are safe to be your honest self. Free to say whatever without fear or real rejection (you can always transfer servers, right?). Playing the gentleman is for rl.

Not entirely.

As a woman, there is also a feeling of security in WoW that does not exist in rl. No expectations or obligations, just the potential to have a really great time. That faceless voice could belong to anyone, and the potential for fantasy is thick. Unfortunately men (boys) blow it by being idiots.

Women want the seduction, the romance. They want to feel beautiful and alive; they don't want to hear about chili dogs or rusty trombones (look them up, I'm not even going to link them for you). It's just not sexy.  If you are a male interested in online flirtation, the best thing you can do is make a woman feel desirable. Subtlety is in order. Suggestions of soft caresses, simple things like wishing you could feel the texture of her hair, can make her breath catch. What would her skin feel like if you were to brush your lips along her neck? Would your hand feel hot against her back? Little things. Let her imagine. And, just for the record, asking a woman (out of nowhere) what makes her pussy wet is NOT seductive. RL is full of assholes, don't be one online (in this regard -- in a raid, fine).

Who knows? Being a bit more gentlemanly online may help you develop more finesse in rl.

RL vs the Fantasy

In rl I have a penchant for slim men. I have never dated a man more than 2 inches taller than me, then again I'm fairly tall. I am attracted to beautiful features rather than rugged. I prefer Lokki over Thor.

Of course, the fantasy world is different. I surprised myself as I wrote the first erotic encounter between my druid and warrior. Malcinno, my warrior tank, was more like Chris Hemsworth. As the scene progressed, his strength and proportions became a definite asset. The anime ideal of the small woman and the ginormous man gained a little more clout.  I mean, if both partners were similarly sized some of the things that progressed in my scene (which almost wrote itself - it's certainly not what I had planned, but I'm not complaining) would have been physically impossible.

I'm rl I'm an assertive, modern woman. But in my scene Evanesse just wanted to be taken. Dominated. Yes, it goes against everything in regards to women's equality and I should be ashamed, but there must be some basic mammalian instinct involved because it was just hot.

I look forward to posting samples once I'm done with my editing.

Just Started: Mind and Body

These stories have been floating through my mind for years, but I just now started writing them down. I enjoy writing, it is a big part of my life - but writing this is so much fun. I have no deadlines, no expectations, I just get to write. And, since I already have a created world I don't have to build it as much as I would in a peice of more serious fiction. Plus, since it's fan ficiton, but slightly different for copywrite reasons, I can tweak things just a bit to suit my needs.

Beside the writing being smooth and organic, it is hot. I love getting in the mind of my toon. She's powerful, sensual, and follows the dictates of nature and her body. I have a feeling this first story will become a new addiction.