Tuesday, November 01, 2005
November Issue, Welcome to ChaosWelcome to Chaos!
November Issue
Ahh…fall. The leaves are changing color here, and the nights are getting colder. It’s the perfect time for hot cocoa, a fire and a steamy book or two to help keep you warm – or get you in the mood to help keep a partner warm, too! :)
Here at Chaos, I’ve been busy with my glamorous life. Work. Laundry. Ferrying children to and fro to Brownies, religious school, gymnastics and other things. I got a new washer and dryer to ease my domestic burden, and now instead of doing laundry every day, I get it all washed and dried in one. Putting it all away, on the other hand, is something else, entirely.
I’ve been hard at work, finishing a novel called Dirty. Dirty is not erotic romance, though it’s definitely erotic, and it’s also a bit of a love story…it has not, as of yet, found a publishing home though I have my hopes for it. I’ve also completed my second screenplay, this one a romantic comedy called Tangled.
*** Debbie Schwartz has had enough. Pushed to the edge by the demands of her family, friends and co-workers, she’s about ready to explode when the mysterious Lady Mocha offers her a job in a “spa.” The Velvet Thorn turns out to be more than a place to get massages and facials. It offers other services, too. Debbie becomes a dominatrix.
At first it seems the perfect career for her, but when she meets handsome pharmacist Sam Kaplan, Debbie has to figure out a way to mesh the life she’s always lived with the one she’s discovered. Can she keep Sam and her clients, too?
Tangled is a romantic comedy about one woman who learns having everyone bow at her feet isn’t quite the whip it’s cracked up to be.
Up next on my writing plate: a story for an upcoming AmberPax, Cinco de My Oh My! And one for a unique AmberPax coming in summer 2006, tentatively titled Blue Silver. The Pax will be five stories, one each by five authors, describing a night’s events from five different viewpoints and featuring five different couples. All the stories will feature the same backstory and characters, but the focus of each will be on a different hero and heroine. It’s pretty exciting and lots of fun, so stayed tuned for more information!
I’m also plotting some new work for my alter-ego, Willow Switch. Willow, that naughty girl, plans to write material a bit more hard core than what I’ve been doing under the name Megan Hart. Not exactly sure, what, but it’s sure to be fun!
My latest release, Everything Counts, came out in October. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out, here’s the blurb: Arithmancy was a far more precise practice than Divination. Divination used signs and portents to predict the future, Arithmancy used numbers and calculations to determine how choices would affect outcomes. The difference of something as simple as one number could result in an end completely different than if one used another number or calculation to figure it...
Elspeth Valerin couldn’t put a numerical value on love, couldn’t use addition and subtraction on the human heart. It doesn’t work. She could fact and figure her way into an assumption of the future; use the numbers to lead her choices toward positive or negative, but in the end it all came down to something she could not control.
Either Connell loved her, or he did not. And no matter how many times she looked at the numbers, she wasn’t able to decide which of the two most likely results were going to happen...
My next release is called Amidst A Crowd of Stars, and it’s scheduled for release November 19 as part of the Starlight Serenade AmberPax.
I’m really excited about this story. I usually like most of the stories I write, or at least finish them knowing I did the best job with them that I could. I’m proud of my work, the effort I put into it, the way it can touch readers the way it touches me. A writer, like a mother, isn’t supposed to admit she’s got favorites, but I do. Amidst A Crowd of Stars is one of them.
Why? For several reasons. For one, it’s science fiction, which I always enjoy writing. For another, the hero, Keane is to-die-for cute, and not only that, but an excellent lover. Though he and the heroine, Marrin face a number of challenges during their marriage, his love for her and for her children is an abiding constant in their life together. I loved finding this world, Lujawed, a desert planet (probably inspired by Tattooine, now that I think of it…Star Wars geek to the end! LOL). I loved thinking of the different ways a desert planet and its native people would interact, react and accept homesteaders. I love world-building, and this story, though it’s short, really drew me in.
Aside from that, the format of this story was challenging and exciting to write. I’d tried my hand at something similar in Sand Castle, a story that is told chronologically in order, though the characters experience shifts backward in time. While the events of the story move forward, they are moving into the past. Complicated, but interesting.
With Amidst A Crowd of Stars, I tried something even more different. The story is told completely backwards, beginning at the end and moving toward the beginning and their first meeting. Often in romance we assume the hero and heroine will end up together, but the fun of the story is discovering how, or wondering if, indeed, they will.
In Amidst I took a whole new approach. We already know the hero and heroine are married when the story begins, because the first scene describes them as husband and wife. We already know what’s going to happen to them, because that is clearly described as well. But each section after that jumps back in time, to their past, describing the events leading up to the section before it.
If you’ve seen the movie Memento, it’s somewhat like that, though not as closely tied together. In a short story format, I didn’t have room to describe every year in full detail. I had to be satisfied focusing on the events that would make the story an erotic romance – the lovemaking between Keane and Marrin, and how they came to find and love each other.
Wow. I guess you can see how excited I am by this story, and imagine how nervous I’ll be waiting for its reception from my fans. But if I don’t challenge myself as a writer, there’s no point in continuing. I might have failed miserably, but damn, I had a great time trying.
Here’s a sample of Amidst A Crowd of Stars.
Blurb:
When Marrin Levy sends away for a field-husband to help her on her homestead, the most she hopes for is a man who can help her survive on the harsh desert planet of Lujawed. Keane Dealcore's heart is as strong as his back, and he brings Marrin more than just his help in the fields. He brings her the love she thought she'd never feel again...
Excerpt:
“Good morning,” he whispered against her skin, teeth nipping in a way that made her sigh. “The sun is shining again.”
This made her laugh, as it always did, for on Lujawed, the sun almost always shone. “Good morning.”
She cracked open an eye to look down at him settled between her thighs as though he had no place else to be for the rest of the day. He laid his cheek on her thigh and let his hand stroke along her side. Her hand came down to rest on his hair, the glorious length of it that time and the sun could burnish but not diminish.
“I love you, Keane.” The words slipped out without effort. She stroked his hair, like silk against her fingers.
“I love you, Marrin.” He turned his lips to kiss the skin beneath his cheek, then grinned. “I would love you better.”
She parted her thighs in reply, her eyes already going half-lidded in anticipation of the pleasure he would bring her. She heard his chuckle and felt the hot puff of his breath on her clit a bare micron before his lips kissed her there. She sighed, shifting. His hands curved around her hips to hold her to him while he began to make love to her with his mouth.
He kissed and licked her gently no matter how much she squirmed, taking his time. He always did. It was one of his charms, this constant ability to give his full attention to any task he performed, as though he had all the time in the world to complete it.
Because he does, she thought, lifting her hips as his mouth teased her flesh. To a Seveeran whose lifespan was limited only by accident or choice, anything worth doing was worth taking time for.
Her breath caught as his tongue fluttered against her folds. He nuzzled her, then parted her with his fingers to taste her. His low noise of arousal urged her own, and she answered with a gasp.
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