When writing romantic scenes where does one draw the line?

by

Cindy McDonald

E.L. James certainly took boundaries to another level but even the most timid romance readers were picking up her books and diving in. The critics went nuts, but hey ya know what? Everyone, yes, everyone, was reading the Fifty Shades trilogy.

I love a well written love scene, and I make a concerted effort to read a lot of them. Why? Because when I write a hot scene I want it to be hot. I don’t want it to fall flat, and for the reader to roll their eyes with a grumbling “Eh…” tumbling from their lips. But not everyone is comfortable writing the kind of scenes like that of Christian Grey’s “playroom”. As for me, I find myself walking a very vigilant line. Let me explain…

When I published my first book, Deadly.Com, I informed my husband over dinner one evening that there were a few “suggestive” scenes within the pages. He stopped with his fork almost to his mouth, looked at me over his glasses, and said, “What do you mean by suggestive?” Uh, oh, I could see this was going to be a problem. You see my husband and his family are an extremely conservative group of people, and I could see in my husband’s face that he didn’t want to have to explain to his family that his wife was writing dirty books. In fact, after Deadly.Com was published and the family read my book, they have never mentioned my writing or my books again. It is sort of a taboo subject at family gatherings. Hmmmm.

Okay, so while I was writing my second book, Hot Coco, my husband decided to broach the very sensitive subject over breakfast on the deck one morning. He very casually said, “I hope you’re keeping those suggestive scenes in check. I mean you spent twenty-six years as Miss Cindy, the dance teacher in this community. People entrusted their children to you. What would they think?”

Wow! That put a whole new spin on writing romance—which is exactly what Hot Coco is, a romantic comedy. And yes, there are suggestive scenes in the book. I was taken aback. Should I concern myself as to the position that I used to hold in the community? Is this a problem for romance writers in general? Are their reputations in the community tarnished because they write books with sex or suggestive moments? I had never thought about it before. When E.L. James’s neighbors see her in the grocery store, are they wondering if her playroom is red? Are they speculating as to how many different kinds of whips she might own? Yikes!

You may be asking yourself, what is this writer going to do? Is she going to allow her in-laws and her former occupation to dictate what she writes? Nope.

When I posted the excerpt from the third book of my series, Dangerous Deception, on my website I featured a very sensual scene between Ava and Lugowski. As a matter of fact, it is also the featured excerpt announcing the book at the end of Hot Coco as well. That said my scenes are of a sultry suggestive nature. I have never written an in-your-face sex scene naming body parts or taking the reader into the steamy tangle of desire between the sheets with the characters—yet.

My Unbridled series has been mainly murder/suspense storylines with one romantic comedy thrown into the mix for fun; however I have an ardent desire to write a romantic suspense series, and have decided to do so in 2013. I have some decisions to make as I write my new series. Will I cross that line to pen those hot sex scenes? Or shall I protect my sweet Miss Cindy dance teacher reputation and remain steadfast on this side of the line: very sensual yet strictly suggestive scenes?

I think through it all an author has to find his/her own comfort level, without becoming too comfortable, too complacent in one’s creativity. I truly admire writers like E.L. James, Cindy Gerard, and Maya Banks. They are able to toss all inhibitions aside and write smokin’ hot romance. I am toeing the line. My eyes are fixated on it like I am waiting for someone to shoot a pistol into the air so that I can leap forward. Can I cross it? Do I want to cross it?

How important are Secondary Characters?

The Girly Book Blog Hop Main Site

Best answer wins a PRIZE!

by 

Louise Wise

How important are secondary characters? Put it this way wouldn’t a novel be flat without them? Who would your character fight against? Fall in love with?

Ellen Semple or Ellen Simple, as main character Valerie Anthrope calls her, is far into middle-age, has no interest in fashion, wears bobble hats and long woollen scarves, calls everyone ‘dear’, and is bossy, interfering and downright annoying! Yet she almost became the star in my latest chick lit novel The Fall of the Misanthrope: I bitch therefore I am.

And I LOVED writing about her! You don’t have to worry whether your readers will like or dislike a secondary. They can be hateful, annoying, evil and downright unpleasant. It’s brilliant!

But what is it about secondary characters that take over? Or try to? Should we have written THEIR story instead? Oh no, no, no. It doesn’t mean that at all. If we did that we’d have to make them ‘sympathetic’. That means they will need to have redeeming qualities and have something that readers can connect with.

Think of all the secondary characters in books you’ve enjoyed. It’s the MAIN character you loved, the secondary were either the baddies—and they died or got their just deserts in the end, or they are someone your MAIN character bounces off. In other words, we need strong second characters to carry the main one, without them our characters become flat and one dimensional.

Amazon.com
Amazon.UK

So what is it about Ellen Semple that I loved? All she wants from life is to help people. She and her husband went to places like Ghana and Afghanistan to help build hospitals and schools. They were the type of people to march the streets carrying banners for better sanitation in prisons or stop animal experiences. They’d tie themselves to railings for their beliefs. When her husband died she vowed to carry on his life work. It took her away from home for long periods, so when she discovered her nephew (she never had children of her own) had split up from his wife and she didn't even know, she was horrified and came home immediately. She decided she'd stay home and keep an eye on her beloved nephew, Alex. But, and it's a big but, she couldn't' stop 'helping'.

She spotted Valerie putting flowers on a grave when she was there visiting her late husband's resting place. She saw her again the following month and the next. Valerie looked so lonely, Ellen thought, and so decided to help her.

By chance, Valerie was looking for staff for her brokerage and Ellen bustled her way in and practically employed herself. She decided that Valerie was poor and needed financial help, so she coerced Alex into buying insurance from Valerie's brokerage, but didn’t envisage him falling for her!

He's one of those rich playboys and one of the reasons why his wife divorced him, Ellen thinks, and she worries that Valerie will get hurt and become even more damaged than she already is.

Ellen brought them together but now she has to part them! Sometimes it's hard being a busybody.

The Fall of the Misanthrope: I bitch therefore I am is out 
NOW on Kindle: Amazon.UK and Amazon.com

Paperback coming SOON

Join me and others on 

The Official Chick Lit FB Page for writers and readers of contemporary romance

Food expert, Beth Aldrich, talks us through her book tour, and how you should go on one, too!

How to Conduct a Love Affair with Food, Lose Weight and Feel Fabulous

by 

Beth Aldrich

Congratulations, you've garnered a book deal with a major publisher and you've written the book; but that's just half the work. The most challenging work is about to begin. Most writers do just that, they write; but with today's competitive book market, good writing is only half the battle. Nowadays, writers are encouraged to be active in social media and other forms of marketing so they can ramp up their book's presence-to stand out on the bookshelves and increase sales. 

When I began my book journey two years ago, little did I know that I'd be embarking on the ride of my life: with 12-hour work days, writing the book and "getting the word out" about my book in any way I could.

Knowing that I would be responsible for my own "tour" expenses, I decided to build my presence in social media as a way to reach my target audience of busy moms, so that the sponsorship money I raised would be best spent traveling to book tour events. Knowing that many moms like to connect online through social media, I began making connections and generating useful and trustworthy content to build my following.

Nothing good comes easy and it's been a daily challenge to garner followers (legitimately) who appreciate and value my content. Through my networking and connections I decided to partner with SocialMoms.com, a popular moms online social media community filled with articles, content and great mom networking. With the power of social media, we created a book launch virtual party and contest with over 100 mom bloggers who participated.

I acquired book tour sponsors who donated prizes for our contest so that all participants would have incentive to be a part of the fun and excitement. I love to get involved with contests and communities and I wanted to create that for the moms who took the time to be a part of this special project; within weeks of my book's launch, there were thoughtful blog posts about my book, spanning the internet, from real moms-the demographic I was hoping to tap.

Word spread like wildfire and on my book's launch day, and the throughout the month that followed, my book was a best seller in two categories on Amazon. The mom bloggers agreed to Tweet, FB and share their blog posts and in exchange, we offered sponsored goodie boxes of book-inspired products (all garnered from months of product partnering sponsorship deals), exposure on our blog and cross promotion through social media. We had a multi-prize drawing the night before the book launched, and announced winners via a private newsletter designated just for the participating bloggers. All-in-all, it was a successful book launch, thanks primarily, to the hard work and support of the mom bloggers in our book tour contest, social media and my tenacity to get the word out.

When people ask me, "How did you know what to do to promote your book?" I always tell them that I networked with other authors, researched what other authors have done in the past and trusted my judgement. I know that I love prizes, so I spent weeks and weeks, acquiring products that I knew I'd love to receive as a participation gift goodie box. I also understand the power of communication, so I interacted with the registered participants regularly, sharing all of the steps of my book tour publication, along the way.


I often connected with the moms on Twitter, through Twitter parties (where we had, yes, more prizes), and on Facebook. I made sure I was following everyone that was following me on social media and I always tried to re-tweet their tweets, etc. With consideration and on-going communication, relationships were built with new mom friends throughout the process. The folks at SocialMoms.com were so supportive, offering advice and ideas, making the launch everything that I hoped it would be. Some of the mom bloggers even agreed to help me host in-person parties in their cities, making my ground tour a huge success. We used the power of social media to get the word out about our on-location book events, which helped raise attendance and bring more awareness to my book's brand.



Real Moms Love to Eat: How to Conduct a Love Affair with Food, Lose Weight and Feel Fabulous (Penguin Books, NAL, January, 2012), had a fantastic launch and I can certainly say that the power of social media helped contribute to its kick off success.

To find out more about Beth and her book, visit, RealMomsLovetoEat.com; her book is available where ever books are sold, or online at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.