Following the King

Becoming a writer isn’t easy. SURPRISE!!! I know you’re stunned. I was!

Reading is so simple, so wonderful, so engrossing, that I thought writing should be exactly the same. I should be able to lose myself in the world I created just as easily as I do those of my favorite authors. BUT, it doesn’t work that way. Writing isn’t just fun. It’s honest-to-god, back breaking, agonizing, sweat inducing WORK.

Finding the perfect words are hard. Creating the right characters is tough. Building a story is like building a multi-trillion dollar skyscraper–screw up your inner structure, and it’s going to come tumbling down like Jenga blocks.

When it comes to who my writing idols are, I wish I could make it look as easy as they do.

Julia Quinn, Eloisa James, Catherine Coulter, Susan Donovan, all these women create stories that read so easily! They’re my favorite books to read, they’re fun, full of love, life and laughter.

But my all-time idol, the man who has inspired me over and over again since I was just a teenager, is the master of horror himself.

By bunkosquad / Michael Femia (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bunkosquad/17915541/) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

Stephen King got me interested in books other than my usual fare. Someone gave my grandmother a big box of books, and she gave them to me one day when I was staying with her for the weekend. There were lots of different genres in there–thrillers, contemporary novels, love stories. But the book that kept sticking out to me was DOLORES CLAIBORNE.

I read the first page countless times. The whole story was narrated! It was in first person! The story was told so deeply from her point of view, because she was telling the story as she remembered it. It was odd. Frightening at first, a little off-putting. But eventually, I got it. I realized how I was supposed to read it. And since that day, I’ve read that book a billion times. I worked my way through some of his other classics. CARRIE, PET SEMATARY, THE GREEN MILE, and MISERY, to name a few. God, I loved MISERY.

 

His book ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT inspired me to write my first mainstream novel (as Gina Lamm). And since then, his advice to write what you love, not what you know, has permeated my books, making them (I hope) much more driven and appealing.

So yeah. Stephen King is my writing idol. He writes 2,000 words a day, every day, no matter what. I need that kind of drive, that kind of persistence. And I know I can do it. He’s my inspiration.

Who’s yours?

Who I Wish I Could Be

Brace yourselves. I usually whine about how hard it is to answer some of the topic questions, right? Not this week.

Which writer in all the world did I secretly (or not so secretly) wish I could be? Easy. Andre Norton.

There are books by other authors that I wished I’d written. Several of Robin McKinley’s books fit that bill. So do some of Anne McCaffrey’s and Charles de Lint’s. And while I admire all kinds of writers and envy the ever-living heck out of their writing skill, Andre Norton is the one author I wanted to be. To this day, I still have this tiny voice in the back of my head urging me to live up to her example.

Andre Norton began publishing in the 1930s. At first, it was YA adventure and even a few westerns. But when that upstart, hack genre, science fiction, got started, she jumped in with both feet. She wrote and published over 70 years. By the time of her death in 2005, she had over 300 works published. SFWA inducted her into their hall of fame. She was awarded Grand Master of SF in 1983. in 1998, she won the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement. All great stuff to aspire to.

Those are all the impressive, but ultimately dry facts about a woman whose books affected me deeply growing up. I suspect most of us remember being lonely from time to time. Especially as kids. Maybe the fact that I was born a complete and hopeless geek in a time before anyone even had a word for what was ‘wrong’ with me made it worse. But it was pretty common for the other kids to ditch me so they could go do whatever they were going to do without the odd duck in their midst. Yeah, yeah, here! A tiny violin. Let me play you the whining song of my people. It retrospect, it was a good thing. Turns out the neighborhood kids were larcenous. I grew up without a police record. And when I got left behind, I made up stories that occasionally involved their messy deaths.

Then one day, when it was my cousins and sister who ditched me, my aunt Betty pulled out a box of well loved paperback books. All by Andre Norton. She handed them to me. I started reading. And suddenly, I was reading stories about strong, determined women – often isolated, sometimes the last of their kind – always people who don’t belong anywhere, but who manage to carve out a sense of purpose and belonging.

I want to have the longevity in publishing and the story-telling skill that she had. I’d really like to be as prolific, but I have a long way to go on that. But most of all, I want my stories and my characters to have the kind of impact on someone that hers have had on me.

I’ve given up wanting to be Andre Norton. I’m happy being me and writing the stories I’m driven to write, but everything I write – maybe the fat that I write at all – is due to that first, dusty box of books that made me realize that strength doesn’t often come from running with the crowd, but in going it alone on your own path.

Flipping the Love Scene Switch

I love this topic because I’m getting all these new smexy books to read! Which leads to a confession. This may be pathetic, but I don’t have a favorite sex scene. I – uhm – kinda like ‘em all. Except for when I don’t.

I won’t name the story that sticks in my head when I wish to heaven it wouldn’t, because I figure what squicks me out is going to be perfectly fine for someone else. And the story clearly worked for the author. So no naming names.

The upshot of the scene is that the hero gives the heroine over to other people so they can arouse her. While other people watch. But no getting her off, mind! He reserves that right for himself. Ew. Dude. If you’re not going to do the work, you don’t deserve the rewards much less the chick. Don’t care how willing she is.

While I don’t have a single favorite love scene, I can talk about what makes all the other sex scenes work for me.

1. Satisfy tension – I’m a sucker for a story that builds sexual and emotional tension winding it tighter and tighter until the characters have to get it on or shank one another. (Some authors do this with humor, others with danger and adrenaline, others with wine and deliberate seduction. It can all be sexy. Just generally not in the same scene.)

2. Discovery – the scenes that work really well have an element of exploration in them and only rarely is that physical. Sex scenes that knot my undies are an emotional/mental risk far more than they are a simple physical action.

3. Immersive – by which I mean total and complete focus of the sex partners (however many may be involved) is on one another and the sensory/emotional details. Lurv scenes that drive one or more participants to the edge of what they think they can take. This need not be BDSM – though that the obvious place to find this trope.

4. Raises stakes – I don’t mean this in a ‘hey, we totally dig one another now so it would suck if we died’. I mean ‘Dear heaven, what have I done and how will I ever get out of it’. When my characters finally get to hop in bed (or wherever) together, their chances of dying a messy death go up exponentially. Kidding. I don’t really care whether someone’s in mortal danger, though from my books you wouldn’t know that. I DO care whether the hero and/or heroine feels like they’ve just stuck their hearts in a blender.

I’m sure there are a ton of other aspects that make love scenes work for me. I know that I prefer the lead up to the sex rather than the sex scene itself. The dance of psychology and approach/avoidance fascinates me. But it can only go on so long.

What absolutely has to be in a love scene for you in order for the scene to flip your switch?

I’m on the radio, Ma!!

So this week I did my very first internet radio interview! I talked with Curvy from Curvy’s After Midnight (click her name to visit!) and we talked about Caught in Crimson, what else I’m doing, and I may or may not have shared my most embarrassing (for my husband) story about writing research.

You can click here to listen, or you can check out the podcast on iTunes!

 

Sorry for the short post, but it’s been a long week! You can @ me on twitter to berate me for my short post. twitter.com/reggicole

 

AND here’s a hot guy. Just because.

 

Purchased from Fotolia.com

 

 

Cinderella vs Sinderella

Sinderella is my favorite fairy tale! Ooops perhaps I should have said Cinderella?

Yes, *Jan eagerly nodding her head* when I was younger, it was Cinderella.

As a child I loved reading fairytales  Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and so many more. It was awesome to wrap my mind around those awesome fantasy worlds. When I was a wee kid, one night my dad dragged me out of bed and sat me down on the living room couch, tossed a blanket over me, turned on the black and white tv (we didn’t get color until the early 80′s) and he said, “Watch this one. You will like it.”

He was right. LOL. OMG! I loved it! It was the 1965 musical/fantasy/romance version “Cinderella” starring actors Leslie Ann Warren and Stuart Damon.

Music/songs are by Rodgers and Hammerstein. I sing the songs from that movie to this very day while I am hiking in the woods. So when you come across a strange lady in the wilderness singing “It’s Possible” –  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtFhREtPdiE  (check out those glass slippers!),  “Ten Minutes Ago” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIe2Y5lgahQ , or “Do I Love you because you are Beautiful?” or many others…chances are it is me singing!

Soap opera fans of General Hospital will also be thrilled to see that Stuart Damon (Alan Quartermine) plays Prince Charming. He’s so cute! As you can see by reviews on the Amazon.com site the movie is well worth the purchase if you love a sweet romance and fairy tales.

As I got older, I wrote Sinderella, my own Cinderella version – an adult erotic romance. I love this cover!!

Here’s a peek:

By day she’s a dedicated gynecologist. By night Dr. Ella Cinder escapes reality by secretly performing in her own erotic, adult version of Cinderella, aptly re-titled Sinderella.

When sexy colleague Dr. Roarke Stephenson shows up in the Sinderella audience on the same night her Prince Charming stands her up, Ella seizes the opportunity to make Roarke into her Prince Charming for one carnal night of hot, blazing sex.in front of an audience.

But at the strike of midnight, Ella knows she must face the harsh reality that Roarke must never learn her secret life and they can never be together again. Until then, she plans on making sure he’ll never forget their night of carnal play.

Dr. Roarke Stephenson is immediately captured by the lusciously curvy actress who hides behind a mask and is known only as Sinderella. For some insane reason she reminds him of his klutzy co-worker Ella. But that’s not possible. Ella would never have the nerve to do the wickedly delicious things Sinderella does to him…or would she?

More info on Sinderella – http://www.ellorascave.com/sinderella.html  Or at other online retailers.

Thanks for dropping by and for reading my post. I hope you enjoyed it.

Hugs and Happy Fairytales!

Jan

Jan Springer 
http://www.janspringer.com

“Sex With the Ex” – SGP

“Sharing the Billionaire”-TEB

“Resistance” – Outlaw Lovers Ellora’s Cave

“The Pleasure Girl” – The Desperadoes – Siren

Twisted Fairytales

I love fairytales. Always have. Read everything I could get my hands on – including some of the unsanitized versions that included blood and lopping off body parts. So I can’t give you a favorite. I love ‘em all. HOWEVER. We can talk about execution.

Unless you are of a certain age, you won’t know Fractured Fairytales from the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. Without fail, these are some of my fav reworks of classic fairytales. I linked in “Leaping Beauty”, but if you search Youtube for Fractured Fairytales, you’ll find a bunch of five to six minute episodes.

Twenty plus years past the era of Fractured Fairytales, Shelly Duvall produced Fairytale Theatre. Cheesy, fun sets. Silly costumes. STELLAR casts. It’s like she blackmailed a bunch of her friends into doing this project with her. Some of the shows are funnier than others, but my two favorites of hers are Cinderella (Jennifer Beale and Matthew Broderick) and The Princess and the Pea.  Here’s the opener for Princess and the Pea.

In books, Robin McKinley made Beauty and the Beast my very favorite retold fairytale of all time. Her book, BEAUTY, is one of my desert island books.

Beauty by Robin McKinley

How about you? Are you a strict traditionalist when it comes to fairytales? Or do you get into the retellings – the more twisted the better?

Yay Thingamabobs and Whatsits Galore!

Today’s MANhandler picture has, as usual, nothing to do with my post. Enjoy!

On to today’s topic: Favorite Fairytales. This means it’s confession time. I’m a complete and total “Little Mermaid” junky. It’s true. (sigh) I stalked kids at the theater so people wouldn’t realize I was there to see it by myself. I bought an extra DVD when it was available so that I’d have an emergency copy in case of “mishap.” And, uh, Iknowallthewordstothesongs. There are several things about the Little Mermaid that make it a favorite story of mine, despite the fact I didn’t know the story until later in life.

First, I can totally relate to Ariel’s overwhelming desire to live somewhere else. I have a perpetual, incurable case of wanderlust, so I’m forever eyeing the next stop of life’s journey and yearning for it. “I want to be where the people are” is a battle cry for me. I want to surround myself with the “new,” and tend to become obsessed with “thingamabobs” and “whatsits” of faraway, seemingly impossible places (*cough*Ireland*cough*). I can, and have, become so focused on what’s coming that I forget to celebrate what is. Fortunately, I’ve had good friends around me to keep me grounded.

This brings me to my second talking point. Ariel has friends who have her back. Always. And even though they’re a lobster, a fish and a trippy seagull, they have her best interests at heart. They hold the hard lines with her when they need to, even though they don’t always win. And they are always there to commiserate and celebrate. The one thing I would have changed would have been the fact that all her friends are male. I would have loved to see her given a female friend and for that friendship to be valued by the prince. Seems women are forever denied strong female friendships in fairytales while the “evil” sisters or step-mothers or witches are elevated and thrust forward so we’re sure to know who the bad “guy” is.

My final talking point is, not surprisingly, the prince. Prince Eric falls in love with Ariel without the benefit of words and, for someone who talks a LOT (me), this is impressive. The two find a way to overcome their differences and he loves her in spite of a perceived “disability.” This is HUGE. Even though she’s this undeniable beauty, she’s not perfect, and that made the whole story so much more appealing to me. He loves her, not the evil Ursula in disguise (again, a beautiful woman disguise — and why do all the evil women have dark hair???) who’s ironically sporting Ariel’s amazing voice. That Eric loved her when he could have had a woman who wasn’t mute made me mad-crazy in love with him.

What are your thoughts on the Little Mermaid? Do you have a different take on it that you’d like to share? I’d love to hear from you. One final thought: if you’ve never read the original fairytale? DON’T. Just…spare yourself. I read it as research for this blog and I’m clinging to my lyrics and HEA harder than ever. Sea foam? Three hundred years for a soul? Prince Charms-a-Little? EEK! Disney, I’m all about your version.

Scandalous Earls float my boat

Wow. Time gets away from ya when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?

I’ve spent the week celebrating (and writing blog posts, and checking rankings, and worrying myself silly) over the release of my alter ego’s first mainstream full-length novel, THE GEEK GIRL AND THE SCANDALOUS EARL. So much so that when I saw my reminder this morning that I was supposed to blog here today, I went EEP!!

I hope you’ll forgive me, and check out GGSE! It’s a steamy, humorous time travel romance. A modern gamer chick in Regency England. Hijinx and hot smexin’ ensue.

It’s available at these (and other!) places: Sourcebooks  ***  Barnes & Noble  ***  Amazon  ***  Kobo  ***  Discover A New Love

If you plan to check it out, let me know below!

Words, oh Words, You Sexy, Suggestive Beasts

Today’s MANhandler picture is one of absolutely sinful suggestion. The things I could do to those abs… (coughs) Sorry. Enjoy, my lovelies.

Today’s topic: Bulletproof Kink — What gets you going no matter how badly it’s done? Yep, we’re going there, folks. We’re talking sex–done dirty, done sweetly, it matters not so long as it’s done. (Wo)Man, I am looking forward to this post. How much fun, right?

It shouldn’t surprise anyone that, as an author, I’m in love with words–any words, all words, simple or complex. I love them. When I read a romance, I want the author to tell me what’s happening, explain who’s feeling what, talk to me like they’re Chris Hemsworth reading to me, breath brushing over my ear, from behind. Pressed close. God, pressed SO close. (Hey, it’s Chris Hello-I’m-Thor-with-the-HUGE-Hammer Hemsworth!) Ahem… (wipes brow) Let’s get not talk about Thor’s hammer. There’s no telling what I’d be encouraged to say.

Back to words, though there’s no safety here, either. See, I love suggestive conversation. I’ll never forget a date I was on. We’d been seeing each other for a while and we both knew where we were headed. We were walking into a restaurant when he looked over at me, yanked me to a stop with the words, “Fuck it.” He kissed me like I’d never been kissed. I was helplessly turned on. Yes, the kiss was amazing, but the passionate violence of those two words did me in. We ended up going into the restaurant for dinner. All throughout the meal, he’d lean over and feed me a bite of this or that with the excuse I had to try it. I have zero idea what we ordered. In fact, I don’t even remember the restaurant. What I remember is what he said when the fork was in my mouth. Those words made me it almost impossible to stay in my seat. His sexual innuendo was wicked, and I worked that fork well enough we were both squirming by the time dinner was over. The verbal foreplay had decimated me and I would have done (and maybe did do) anything he asked.

I don’t remember what we ordered, but I still remember what he said. Never underestimate the power of suggestive foreplay, my friends. Try it sometime. Tell your partner(s) what you’re going to do to him/her/them when you get home. See if  pupils don’t widen and breaths come short. <insert wicked grin>

What is it about words, written or spoken, that turns you on? Do you ever find that the right word, combined with either the right touch or the promise of the upcoming touch, flips your switch? Don’t be shy. Consider it author research — I want to know so I know how better to meet reader expectations with sex scenes.

Just the Facts, Ma’am?

For me — and the Academy — the best picture of 2012 was Ben Affleck’s Argo. It was taut, gripping, well acted and entertaining as heck. I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish, even though I knew how it would end. Of course the movie wasn’t particularly true, despite appearances. Affleck and co. certainly took dramatic license with a few pivotal plot points to rachet up the tension.

My question is, does it matter? In movies or in historical fiction, is it okay to fudge the facts?

As a Canadian, I wish they’d given our ambassador Ken Taylor more of the due he and his wife, Pat, deserved. They put their own lives at great risk to shelter the Americans when others turned them away. I’m glad that after Ken Taylor’s friends saw the movie at the Toronto International Film Festival and expressed outrage, Affleck flew the Taylors to LA to see the movie and changed the movie’s postscript to reflect that the rescue was a joint Canadian/US effort. I understand the movie is from the CIA agent’s POV, and that this is Hollywood. Truth is relative.

But as a viewer does it matter?

Nope.

In real life, they never went to the bazaar. Pat Taylor bought the plane tickets with no drama. They flew out of Iran without a hitch. Thank goodness! But does that make for a dramatic movie? Not so much. As a viewer or reader, I want a tale that keeps me riveted, and Argo delivered. If I read a historical romance, I want it to be as true to the time period as possible, but the most important aspect is capturing the spirit of the era or events. I don’t need slavish accuracy at the expense of drama.

How about you? Does it bother you when movies or books aren’t historically accurate?