Welcome to Writing Inspiration Friday here at the Saucy Scribe Blog! Today I'm pleased to have Angelika Devlyn in the house to talk about what inspired her to take up the pen and write erotic romance!
For as long as I can remember I’ve always been a voracious reader, passionate about everything from fantasy to horror to crime. And then I discovered two things I’d never even looked at before - e-Books and erotica. Well, what can I say? Just like that all important first line in a book, I was hooked. I devoured books as though they were going out of fashion. Clearly, e-Books are a relatively new thing here in England and slow to catch on, but out of fashion they are not.
What surprised me most about these erotic stories was my own attitude towards them. After I’d shaken off the ‘dirty old-man mag’ mentality (because in my town all the paperbacks are on the top shelf) I began to realise that there was much more to these sensual stories than at first it would seem. They had a plot! They could be just as suspenseful as a mainstream adventure, but the sex was better. It wasn’t just added in there as a contender for the worst sex in a book award, these authors had taken the time to use sex to move the plot forward and create a story which more-often-than-not pushed the boundaries in a tantalising and erotic way.
The realisation of what a good erotic story contained represented a crossroads in my life, and I made a pact with myself to get my arse moving and just do what I’ve been thinking about for years - write.
The rest, as they say, is history, but with the tenacity of a hungry tiger, a “take-no-prisoners” attitude, some very supportive friends and many hours and words later, I finally sent my manuscript off and had my story accepted.
Since I’ve not had many reactions to it yet I cannot say what readers will feel about my maiden novel. Nor can I share with you any reviews at this stage. The road to future publications may be a rocky one full of obstacles, unexpected interruptions and hidden black ice. It might even be a fun sleigh ride, like those Calvin and Hobbes go on - only less dangerous - who knows? What I can say, however, is that whatever the future holds, I am determined to keep going; to crack on and break through the ice casing barriers of my mind and just do it!
I want to learn, improve and move on to bigger and better things. I can’t promise myself that will definitely happen or see into the future like the Birds of Doom that have escaped Raven’s Passage in my book, but I do know that to write a story you have to write! Anyone can dream, write lists (which I do a lot) and make goals, but to achieve them is not easy. To stay focused, take action regularly and above all never give up is hard work. You too can smash down that wall of ice which separates you from achieving your goals. And without a pick-axe in sight. All you need is a steely determination and the willingness to see it right through to those last all important words- THE END.
Black Ice: The Dark Kingdom Chronicles is my debut book and the first in the series of the erotic adventures of Ronnie Weaver - a girl transported to another world where the Pandora witches are after her blood. Ronnie will leave behind her safe and comfortable life for one of high adventure, steamy sex and exotic mysticism.
My question to your readers is - If I could snap my fingers and grant you an adventure of a lifetime, what would you ask for?
I will be hanging around to check for comments today. So please do drop me a line. I love to chat.
Angel
Thanks Angel for being here today!
CONTEST! Angel has graciously offered a free download of her first erotic novel to one lucky commenter! Winner will be drawn from comments made before Sunday July 25th at 11:59pm and the winner will be posted on the blog Monday morning - so don't forget to come back and check!
*Email subscribers and GoogleFriends - both found on my sidebar - get extra chances to win each week when they comment*.
"To get the chicks one must coax the hen." ~ Unknown
Todays word: Cajole
To coax gently and persistently
The weekend started out in the usual way for the DD household, which means, like most families - errands and shopping (which are really the same thing most of the time!) After the rounds of dropping kids at work and parties the husband and I found ourselves alone in the store - wow, that doesn't happen often.
Alone in the store with no one to toss unwanted items into the cart, no one to beg for stuff I don't want to buy - or so I thought.
Hubby and I found ourselves in front of the sunglass display.
Like every other redblooded woman, I love to see my guy in sunglasses, but he's a creature of habit and has resisted parting ways with his favorite pair of shades for a while now. Yes, ladies - the sunglasses are broken and have been glued! So while I was cajoling him into getting a new, improved pair of sexy shades - he turned the table on me and coaxed me into doing the same.
My problem is not that I've grown attached my sunglasses, my problem is more than I have at least a dozen pairs - somewhere. I can never find them. I leave them places, forget where I put them, toss them in the backseat of the car to be stolen by one of the kids...I think you get the idea.
This is what I picked out. Not sure if I like them yet...
WRITING INSPIRATION FRIDAY'S WINNER!
Winner of the Pocket-notepad - Krysten!
Please use the contact form on my website to email me your address.
Have a great monday, don't forget to use the word of the week!
As a teenager, I was often told to treasure these moments, as they would be the best that I would ever have. I listened to this advice in FEAR, because if that was the case, then what could there possibly be to live for? And if these years felt like CRAP, then should I expect the rest of my life to be even CRAPPIER?
I know I was not the only person to receive this little tip, so I'm certain that some people must actually feel this way to some degree, which I can't even imagine. Living in the past is something I've never felt compelled to do, and have always been pushing forward towards a better and brighter tomorrow. Which a lot of the time, is simply not the case. My life past high school isn't crappier, but it hasn't been a delightful climb into the heights of delirious happiness either. It's been an emotional rollercoaster, filled with highs and lows, but I can honestly say that the lowest of the low, for me, was the teenage years.
These were the years that I began to write. I wrote sad, depressing poems about life and death, in a confused attempt to understand myself and the purpose of my life. It was helpful I suppose, and I found that over the years, as my spirit lightened, and my despair faded, I wrote less and less.
Until now. Having my husband deploy for his military tour in Afghanistan was one of the most difficult experiences of my life, mainly for having to watch my two children struggle with his absence and the adjustment to our lives. Feeling uncertain of how to handle this, I resorted back to writing. But this time? Ten years later? I didn't feel the need to understand myself as much as I had in earlier years. I know who I am, what I value, which direction I want my life to go and how I plan to get there. Writing sad, depressing poetry? Well, that would serve no purpose other than to push me further into a deep, dark hole of despair and desperation.
What made me feel better? What inspired me to move on? What actually helped me pull through this challenging time, was writing a positive and humorous reflection of the moments in our life. Not a convoluted version that inaccurately describes our days as being happy-go-lucky moments, but a portrayal of how even the most brutal of brutal experiences can be something to laugh about. And in writing this, I found that the opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings about these moments inspired other people too. Which was all kinds of inspiring for me to continue blogging my heart out and sharing our story.
Some days, I find myself holding my head in my hands, frustrated with the chaos of managing to find enthusiasm for my son's dinosaur expression, while cleaning up the floors from the mess of my daughter's potty training attempts. The same place I had just cleaned up my yorkie's pee, after he jumped up from my lap, made eye contact with me and deliberately lifted his leg, all because I was unwilling to throw his ball for the 90th time. But these moments? They can be inspiring all the same, because as horrific as a day can get, the worst ones are often made of the best material for writing.
One commenter will win this cute notepad with magnetic closure. Fits in your purse or in your pocket and is great for writing down inspiration when it strikes!
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Winner are announced on the Monday blog - so check back!
(Winners chosen at random from comments made by Sunday 11:59 est.)
1. From Greek Mythology: A youth loved by Aphrodite for his exceptional beauty.
2. A very handsome young man.
First off, welcome to a new addition to the blog - New Word Monday. Your challenge is to think about this word and use it this week!
If you're a romance writer, this probably won't be hard to do - if you're not a romance writer - sorry
Now that we got the preliminaries out of the way, let's talk about the word and what it makes you think of - because I'd be willing to bet that my idea of an adonis might not be yours.
I'll go first. (Don't forget this word is meant to describe LOOKS, not personality!)
I like tall, dark and charismatic men, an easy smile and nice eyes. But dark is the key word here. In my dating years, I very rarely fell for guys with light hair - I don't know why, I'm just not drawn to them the same way I am to dark haired men. (So does this mean Brad Pitt is officially off my "adonis" list? - Um, I would make exception in his case. ) Tall, is also a fairly relative term - I just want my guy to be taller than me (and I'm not that tall...) I want to reach up on tip-toes to kiss my guy, not the other way around.
But in a novel when the heroine describes the hero as an "adonis" - does your mind instantly flash to an image of what you would want your adonis to look like or are you seeing the man through the heroine's eyes with all the features the author has given him? Honestly, I'm a bid torn on this. I always seem to want to plug in my idea of the perfect male specimen into whatever I'm reading.
Okay, readers! Your turn. What does your adonis look like?
The question most often asked to every fiction writer is about where we get our ideas.
If only it were an easy question to answer.
The best advice I would give to anyone thinking about putting pen to paper or fingers to the keyboard would be to pay attention to your thoughts.
I carry a small moleskin notebook in my pocketbook at all times. I listen to the banter of the people around me on lines, at work, in the stores (dialogue is my weakest link - while I can talk a blue streak, writing it seems to paralyze me, go figure.) If something catches my attention - a turn of phrase I haven't heard before, a slang word - I write in my book.
While in the car, out walking or exercising most of us listen to music. Have you listened to the words lately? There are some songs that just make you move, but others have a story, an emotion that jiggles at the heartstrings or pulls at a memory. Sometimes it sparks a "what if" moment that before you know it has characters attached or the beginning of a plot! Take notes...your imagination is calling you.
Watching TV or at the movies? Have you ever thought you would have ended it differently? Change up the characters and try to change the ending to suit you.
I'd like to say the corner coffeeshop has fresh ideas every morning to serve up with your grande mocha latte, but it's just not that easy. Most authors will tell you there actually are no new ideas, it's all in how we spin them that makes that idea seem fresh and new.
So grab your voice recorder or your favorite pen and a pad and start to pay attention to what's going on around you. Take notes when your blood pressure spikes or are overwhelmed by a good deed. Listen and observe.
Then when you sit down to write - read those notes, remember the feelings, let the characters run free in your imagination and you just might have a story in there!
Is every idea book worthy? NO. And that really isn't the point here. Even great ideas need to be developed, nutured into something that can grow to be a great book, it all takes time. But you never know where the next great idea is going to come from. The point is to be ready for it when it hits!
Go forth and take notes, open your mind and grab those ideas as they rush by.
Sometimes letting go of the past or accepting what came before can prove to be a difficult thing.
Before email and facebook we were left with just memories of past friends and loves. Now, good or bad - logging in to your facebook or opening your email could bring you face-to-face with recollections you might either embrace or would have preferred to keep hidden in the recesses of your mind.
As a writer, I often ask questions. One question I recently asked both friends and family was, "if you had the chance to go back to high school and college, would you? Would you do things different?"
My immediate response was "YES!"
But my husband was just as strong in his "NO!"
My reasoning was that I would have not listened to the naysayers and I would have pursued my love of writing waaaayyy sooner that I did. I wouldn't have written just for myself and then thrown away all those manuscripts without a second look. (Yes, I did throw out quite a few...oy)
But, my husband looks at the question from a completely different way saying, "every choice we've made, every relationship we've shared (good or bad) shapes us into who we are at any given time."
Would we have met and fell in love if we'd both chosen different paths? Would we have moved to California for seven wonderfully warm years? Who's to say.
As a writer constantly drawn to ways to give my characters traits and lives that people can relate to, his idea makes perfect sense and I've spent a lot of time contemplating just this theory.
Along the line of thought that choices we've made shape who we are today - what about the paths we've taken in a past life (if you're into that sort of thing - which I am ) Could fears, hope and dreams of a past life correlate with the person we are today? I know I have a very unnatural fear of railroad tracks, I will drive MILES out of way to avoid driving over them. Is that just a crazy phobia on my part - or is there something deep down in my soul that screams out in fear when those railroad tracks come into view forcing me to take a detour?
Lucky for me the month of March finds my local RWA writing group hosting a workshop on Past Life Regression as a tool to creating memorable characters! The best part is you don't have to belong to RWA or Dunes & Dreams Romance Writers to take the workshop. (And you can take the workshop in your pajamas (woot!) since it's an online workshop given in our forum. You can come and go at your leisure giving yourself plenty of time to reflect on your past.
*****PERMISSION TO FORWARD GRANTED AND ENCOURAGED *****
Dunes & Dreams RWA Chapter 215 (from Eastern Long Island) present their March 2010 Online Workshop.
Cost: $10 D&D members, $25 all others. Payable in US funds only.
March 1 through March 29: Past Life Regression for the Writer’s Soul: A New Approach to Character Creation with Dawna Richard
Blurb:Have you ever had the feeling that you have been to a certain place or time or experienced reoccurring dreams? Have you had a lifelong phobia that you have no explanation for? This could be an indication that you have lived before. Whether you are interested in exploring the possibility of a past life or you are just looking for that next story idea, this class is for you. Learn a little about yourself and unleash a plethora of new ideas along the way. Through past life regression/self meditation techniques, you will have the chance to explore the workings of your mind and gain the tools to uncover a story and characters waiting to be written.
Bio:Dawna Richard is a founder and lead investigator of California Paranormal Research and Enlightenment. She has more than 15 years’ experience with reading Tarot, past life regression, and paranormal research.
She lives in sunny California with her husband, son, and three dogs. When she’s not working or investigating haunted locals, you can find her pursuing her goal of becoming a published author under the name Kylie Dawn.
PLACE: Dunes & Dreams RWA FORUM (Not a yahoo loop)
Registrants will receive a login password to the workshop forum several days before the workshop begins to allow ample time to become familiar with the forum or to notify the coordinators if you have trouble logging in.
COST: $10 Dunes & Dreams RWA Members/ $25 all others (US funds only – paypal or checks)
CANCELLATION AND REFUND POLICY: No registration fees will be refunded. All payments for a workshop must be received by the registration cut off date. Payments received after the cut-off date can be applied to a future workshop of the
applicant's choosing.
If a workshop is canceled due to unforeseen circumstances, such as instructor inability to teach class, registration fees will be applied to a future workshop of the applicant's choosing.
Cacophony ~ (n) A disagreeable sound; discord of sounds
As writer's, some of us aspire to the wonderful delusion that "the muse" inside us needs to be treated with care, fed chocolate and given a place on honor in order for her/him to grace us with their magical tales that will translate to the easy task of writing of a book.
Don't believe it.
I believe it was the talented Nora Roberts who once wrote "the muse is a fickle bitch" and I couldn't agree more.
For a brief time, I imagined "the muse" as a greek goddess, lounging leisurely on my living room couch draped in white muslin and of course, eating grapes and chocolate while spewing heavenly tales that would land me an agent or at the very least a NY print contract.
Yup - that muse is a bitch. She's on vacation more than anyone I know, she flits from one story idea to the next when I'm struggling in the sagging middle. While she's drinking razzaritas and popping chocolate kisses in her mouth, I'm eating granola bars and wondering why last year's pants are getting snug around the ass.
If you think being a romance author equates to days spent drinking, eating and being wrapped in a pink feather boa while the muse whispers bestsellers in your ear - think again.
Writing may be a creative, wonderfully personal, endeavor - but it's a business. If you want to sell your book, you and you alone are going to have sit down and write it. You will have to get that butt in the chair, you are going to have to plot and figure out character traits and point-of-view.
You can't depend on the muse any longer, you can't fall back on the excuse that you didn't write today because "the muse" didn't show up for work. Sometimes that bolt of inspiration is going to strike while your sitting at the keyboard, sometimes it won't. But what sets the real writer apart from the pack is the fact that we show up for work - every day. We don't wait for the muse come calling, we know she can't be won over by begging, pleading or promises of diamonds.
The Saucy Scribe, proudly serving up the Sauce since June 2005! One bold writer telling it like it is.
Thanks for stopping by the blogging home of romance author Debora Dennis! I'm a wife, mother of three great kids (one on the autism spectrum) and a writer. This is the place I hang my hat to let my hair down and ramble on about my life.
Grab a chair and drink and get ready to Dish with Debora, saucy style. All comments, rants and raves contained in this blog are strictly my unvarnished opinions or delusions that are alive and well in the vast recesses of my own wild imagination.
I love comments, but lurkers are welcome too! Just know I'm glad you found me and hope you come back again soon!
) Tall, is also a fairly relative term - I just want my guy to be taller than me (and I'm not that tall...) I want to reach up on tip-toes to kiss my guy, not the other way around.
) Could fears, hope and dreams of a past life correlate with the person we are today? I know I have a very unnatural fear of railroad tracks, I will drive MILES out of way to avoid driving over them. Is that just a crazy phobia on my part - or is there something deep down in my soul that screams out in fear when those railroad tracks come into view forcing me to take a detour?
Angelika Devlyn (1)
David Bridger (1)
Debora (1)
George Allwynn (1)
Kissa Starling (1)
