Joey W. Hill's Blog: Author Joey W. Hill, page 2

A "What If" for Memorial Day

So today I visited a couple different social media pages. I saw where people not wearing masks were publicly ridiculing someone who was, even ganging up on them to try and “make them” take off the mask. I saw where people wearing masks were saying people who don’t wear masks are selfish jerks who don’t care about anyone (I’m cleaning that up – the language used was much worse).

What if this happened instead?

The person who believes in wearing a mask posts that they wear a mask because, based on the data they’ve read, they feel like they’re helping to protect others and their family. They support this condition and other mandates because they believe it will slow the virus and result in the lowest mortality rates. But they respect (even if they don’t understand or support) other people’s right to make the best decision for themselves and their families.

The person not wearing a mask posts that they don’t wear a mask because, based on the data they’ve read, they don’t feel the masks or other mandates will make much difference in who gets the virus. They feel like what will most help their family and others is a fully re-opened society. But they respect (even if they don’t understand or support) other people’s right to make the best decision for themselves and their families.

That last sentence in both posts is key to positively changing the atmosphere created by the voicing of someone’s opinion. In both cases, the people involved are exercising their right to choose. The two people may not agree, but they each feel they have the right to make those choices. And you’ll notice the common thread in both of those scenarios is a concern/caring about one’s family and others.

I have neighbors on both sides of this spectrum and what is genuine in both is a core of serious caring and concern about themselves, their families, their communities and their country. So ridicule or contempt claiming a lack of caring on either side isn’t only unconstructive, it’s incorrect. Social media is a great thing, but I don’t necessarily support the use of it as a venting tool. Venting privately with a friend or family member, where we can allow our emotions uncensored free rein, is healthy and often needed. Doing it on social media, in contrast, contributes to an atmosphere of negativity and hatred that continues to mushroom and polarize.

I believe in courtesy and respect and kindness, and not just because I’m some annoyingly perky person (I may be, but that’s not why I believe in those things). It’s because I’ve seen more positive change come out of courtesy, respect and kindness than I have ever seen come out of hatred, vitriol, sarcasm and passive aggressive behavior. And yes, that’s from direct experience, because my emotions/angers have run away with me plenty of times - just ask my husband, brother, mother-in-law, childhood friends…pretty much everyone in my personal life can raise their hand on that one!

So, my message of the day--which feels appropriate on a weekend where, in the U.S., we’re honoring those who have fallen in wars where we couldn’t figure out a better way to solve our differences—is this. Whenever we feel strongly enough about something we want to express our opinion about it on social media, imagine we’re saying it to our best friend in the whole world. Now imagine that friend’s opinion on the matter is entirely different from ours. Then choose the words to say, keeping in mind how much we value the friendship.

That friendship is a symbol for our connection to one another, to all of life, and how we move forward in this world together.

Seven Brides for Seven Brothers - Social Distancing with an Erotic Twist

I was thinking about a middle school assignment the other day. I expect it was for history or current events class. We were given this question: “You’re the leader of a fictional country. Due to drought, you’re experiencing a serious food shortage. How do you decide who gets what?”

To make it interesting, the teacher gave us different roles. One person was the leader, several people were his/her legislative body, a couple more the judicial body. Other people played parts like a wealthy person, a poor person, a teacher, a lawyer, a doctor, a construction worker, a housewife. We had to discuss what we would do to problem-solve the situation from our perspective or role expectations.

Being kids, I’m sure some of our ideas were a little unrealistic, but the teacher asked us questions that challenged our critical thinking skills and more importantly, moved us out of the easy answers of isolationist thinking. All decisions are comparatively easy if it’s just about yourself, right? How will me, myself, or I get food?

But then there’s my family, which includes my pets. And my extended family. How do they get food? Do we pool resources? Work together? Hoard food wherever we can grab it? What about elderly Mr. Smith down the road, who lives alone since his wife died, and his kids live four states away? Do we let him starve so we can protect our own? Then there’s essential services. We need to feed the people who take care of us, like doctors, firemen, police. Who is important? Who deserves food? And if we step up the ladder of Maslow’s hierarchy, we question what the word “deserves” means, and contemplate the troubling question of WHO has the right to say one person deserves something and another person doesn’t.

We don’t usually come up with solutions in school exercises like that. We just realize the questions and answers are way more complicated than any of us realize, and that we ARE a web of connections.

Like everyone else, I’ve been watching the progression of events related to COVD-19, the decisions federal and local governments, businesses and individual people are making. They are facing the real life task of balancing our economic health against our physical health, and those are not easy choices. It’s hard to put precautions against a virus that doesn’t seem to adversely impact most healthy, pre-60+ age people over the need to pay your mortgage or light bill. Even when we see the graphs and know, unchecked, the “5%” seriously impacted by this virus could become millions of people who won’t have access to the ventilators that could save their lives. We all have friends, family members or acquaintances in the at-risk group. How would we choose who gets the few ventilators? Would we want to be one of the healthcare workers who has to make that terrible choice?

A certain amount of faith has to be exercised, that we and the decision makers will figure out the best thing to do and those efforts will align more often than not. Or self-correct, thanks to environmental or societal pressures when they don’t. We can also hope that, if we make the wrong decisions, we can still figure out the right ones and get back on track before more bad stuff happens.

I don’t know all the right decisions, but like everyone, I’m trying to figure out the right balance between family and community, and determine what is right and wrong. The one thing I can do – and am doing – is praying daily for all of us. That includes you and your family, me and mine, and all the way up the ladder to the decision-makers who are struggling to solve a real life impossible-to-solve social problem. I also send a virtual high five to everyone out there who is trying to make the best decisions possible, while keeping that “web” in mind.

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I had two purposes to this post. The first was to send out that prayer thought. The second is to give you a book recommendation. Like everyone else, at times I need a bit of a break from worries about this. I recently did a post where I asked my readers to recommend a good book they’ve read lately, for all of us who use reading as a way to manage stress and escape the real world for a little while. I just finished a doozy I want to recommend here, in order to keep that idea rolling.

Do you remember Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Talk about your social distancing – taking seven women up into the mountains right before the snow falls and then spending the winter winning their hearts, far from the crowded civilized world. Credence by Penelope Douglas takes the spirit of that story and turns it into a dark erotic romance involving four incredibly complicated and interesting characters – Tiernan, Noah, Kaleb and Jake.

Tiernan ends up in their mountain home with them, cut off from the world for several months. It doesn’t involve kidnapping, but it is a dark romance, so the content can sometimes be uncomfortable. But if you are the kind of reader who can handle edgy stuff, this is a deeply emotional, heartrending story, with a little bit of everything on the erotic spectrum – menage, age gap, primal play, bondage, etc. Penelope balances the complicated relationship between the three men and one young woman in a way that makes me think we should maybe put HER on one of these COVD decision making task forces, lol.

The story builds slowly – it actually takes off at the 50% mark, but once you’re there, you understand the need for that build. Because from there forward it is a very intense journey. Don’t worry – it has a happily-ever-after ending and characters I really liked throughout – with occasional moments of intense dislike for Kaleb that Penelope rectified for me before it was over. And the steam factor after the 50% point is enough to recommend having your favorite cold drink on hand.

Happy reading, happy social distancing, and hope all is well with you and yours. If you’ve read a fabulous book, recommend it to someone so they can escape a little while and re-charge.

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At Her Command is now available for pre-order at Amazon, Kobo, iTunes and Nook! Coming June 15.

The Most Important Question An Author Can't Answer

“Which book of yours should I read first?”

Is there any question quite as terrifying to an author? Ah, to be Harper Lee.

Reader: “Harper, which book of yours should I read first?”

Harper: “Let’s see, I have TWO, and the second one is a follow up to the first one so, um… Read To Kill a Mockingbird first, and, if you like that one, read the other one.”

Reader: “Great! Now, to this side of our author panel: Joey, which book of yours should I read first?”

Joey: Deep breath “Okay, so I have SIX SERIES, 50+ books. Some contemporary, some paranormal. All different permutations of BDSM romance – M/f, F/m, F/m/f, M/f/M, Vanilla heroine/male sub, M/F, interracial, protagonists with handicaps… In paranormal, I have mermaids, witches, vampires, angels, sorcerers… In contemporary, I have millionaires, housemaids, SEALs, cops, roofers, tea room managers, artists… Oh, and if you have an “edginess” preference, I have everything from sensual undercurrent Dom/sub dynamics to extreme edge relationships. Etc."

Don’t get me wrong, I am SO SO SO happy when a reader WANTS to read one of my books. I will, without any complaint, do my best to recommend a book to that person, but making the decision seriously stresses me out, lol. That’s because I’m a reader, too. Which means I know the REAL question a reader is asking when they say, “What book of yours should I read first?” isn’t about the surface elements, cop versus vampire, etc. It's this one: “I’m looking for a certain experience when I read a book. Is this story going to deliver it?”

No author can answer that, because it’s as individual as the person asking. But it usually takes a reader less than a couple chapters to know they’ve found it. I’ve discovered it quite randomly, across nearly every genre, and in some of the most unlikely story lines.

Given all of the above, being asked which book of mine a reader should try first is paralyzing. I think OMG, what if I suggest the wrong book? Maybe I think the reader would fall in love with Book A, but they not only hate it, they swear never to pick up another of my books. Which yes, is bad for my future book sales, but what really crushes me is that I gave this reader a terrible experience, when MAYBE I had something in my backlist closer to what they really wanted. I just needed a better understanding of what they were seeking.

In marketing a book for film rights, there’s a thing called a logline. It’s similar to a pitch line, but it answers, “why is this story worth telling?” Unlike a pitch, it’s not a teaser. You’re not hinting at what the story’s about. You’re telling the listener what it IS about, in an arrangement that stirs their interest.

For instance, my logline for Natural Law is as follows: “When an alpha male cop goes undercover in a BDSM club to solve a murder, he teams up with a Mistress who schools him in what submitting to a woman really means.”

I know I seriously overthink things sometimes. But the above is about selling a book, or in this case, the film rights to that book. Trying to determine what questions to ask, what information to give, to bring a reader together with the book that will offer them the reading experience they really want, matters a great deal to me. As I examined the question for this post, it felt like a different approach was needed than something like the logline strategy.

That was when I thought of the line from Notting Hill: “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” Or in this case: “I’m just a reader, standing in front of another reader, telling her/him about a book I think is really worth reading.”

The best person to recommend a book to a reader is NOT the author. It’s another reader. It’s why I’m so glad my JWH Members Only fan forum on Facebook exists, as well as the many other book forums where readers can talk to other readers and help them navigate those waters. Prior to social media, this happened on the bus, at work, by the pool, etc. Some of that lovely interaction still happens. Even if they’re total strangers, there is no such thing as dreaded “small talk” and awkward pauses between avid readers.

When deciding what book I myself want to try by a new author, I employ a two-part strategy. 1) See which book their fans like best and 2) if available, ask the author what her/his favorite book is in their backlist. The answer to those two questions tells me which books have the largest part of an author’s energy and heart in them. If they can deliver the experience I’m seeking as a reader, it’s most likely to be in that selection.

But even if I still send the inquiring reader to one of the book forums to get a good recommendation, they’ve asked me the question directly first. I owe them an answer. And the thought process above brought me to the idea of “think like a reader.” When I suggest a book to another reader, I want them to understand what it was that captivated me about a story. As an author, I can tell them what I’m striving for when I write a story. Something that has nothing to do with publishing goals, marketing trends and all that. It’s about what’s between me and that empty page or screen.

So here’s what I really want to say when someone asks me, “Which book of yours should I read first?” (aka “Will your book deliver the experience I’m seeking?”)

I want to write characters I love so much that I don’t want their story to end (which may be why I write pretty long books, lol). I want their relationship to be intense and emotional. I want it to make me laugh and cry, curl my toes, and think about the way I love others. I want it to arouse me the way first love does. I want to be so pulled into the story that, at the end of a writing day, I’m a bit dazed. And finally, I want the Dom/sub elements to be so integral to that relationship they only intensify the emotions the characters feel, and make the journey they take together even more significant.

That’s the experience I’m trying to deliver in every book I WRITE.

If that gels with the experience an inquiring reader is seeking, THEN I'd feel more comfortable proceeding to a list of the tropes/elements my books have (Male Doms, Female Doms, cops versus vampires, etc), and suggesting something that might work for them.

Finding an audience for a book is always a challenge, but it’s a special pleasure when you get to do it one-on-one, helping to fill the seats in that theater.

In closing, I leave you with a little plea for mercy from all of us authors with a substantial backlist. When you ask us what book you should read first, don’t say “Oh, you choose.” Give us a little guidance about what kinds of books you like best, so we can get you a little closer to that experience you’re seeking.

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After all that, it seemed sensible to offer a short list of my readers’ favorites, broken down by elements/tropes. Hope this will help you or any of your fellow readers decide what Joey W. Hill book to read first. At the end of the list, I offer a general guide to what type of D/s dynamics prevail in each of my series overall.

[NOTE: All of the below titles can stand alone in their respective series.]

Male Dominant/female submissive

Paranormal/vampires: Beloved Vampire

Paranormal/other: In the Company of Witches or A Witch's Beauty: A Daughters of Arianne Series Novel

Contemporary: Afterlife: A Knights of the Boardroom Novel or Worth the Wait

Female Dominant/male submissive

Paranormal/vampires: The Vampire Queen's Servant: A Vampire Queen Series Novel

Contemporary: Willing Sacrifice, Natural Law, At Her Command

Menage (Threesome)

Paranormal: Vampire Mistress and Vampire Trinity (conclusion of story started in Vampire Mistress)

Contemporary: Naughty Wishes: The Complete Novel, Divine Solace: A Nature of Desire Series Novel

Interracial

Paranormal: Vampire Master

Contemporary: Honor Bound, Soul Rest, Truly Helpless

Male Dominant/male submissive

Paranormal/vampire: Vampire's Soul

Contemporary: Rough Canvas

Male Dominant/Female Dominant

Contemporary: Ice Queen and Mirror of My Soul (conclusion of story started in Ice Queen)

Vanilla heroine/male submissive

Contemporary: Branded Sanctuary: A Nature of Desire Series Novel

SEAL/Military Heroes

Unrestrained, Willing Sacrifice, Honor Bound

Cop Heroes

Natural Law, Soul Rest, Chance of a Lifetime

Working Class protagonists (no millionaire hero/heroines)

Worth the Wait, Branded Sanctuary: A Nature of Desire Series Novel

Vampires ==> Vampire Queen series

Mermaids ==> Daughters of Arianne series (mermaid heroines)

Angels ==> Daughters of Arianne series (Angel heroes)

Witches==> Arcane Shot series

Wolf shifter ==> Vampire's Soul – vampire master/wolf shifter sub, Male/male story

Mythology Reinterpretations ==> Medusa's Heart

Handicapped or Dealing with Serious Illness Heroes/Heroines

Unrestrained, Worth the Wait, Honor Bound, In His Arms

Lighter BDSM elements

Paranormal - Daughters of Arianne series or Arcane Shot series

Edgy/More Extreme BDSM elements

Paranormal: Vampire Queen series

Contemporary: Hostile Takeover

More Mature Hero/Heroine

Unrestrained

SERIES DOM/SUB DYNAMICS GUIDE:

My contemporary Nature of Desire and paranormal Vampire Queen series have the most diverse D/s dynamics from book to book. You’ll find M/f, F/m, menage, M/m, IR, etc.

The Knights of the Board Room series is all M/f, with the exception of Book 6, Willing Sacrifice, which is F/m.

The Mistresses of the Board Room series is F/m, though Book 2 (Neil/Abby’s story) is a switch heroine.

Naughty Bits is M/f. Naughty Wishes is full triangle menage M/f/M (which means there is also a M/m relationship. Both men are Dominant with the female member of the threesome).

My paranormal series Arcane Shot and Daughters of Arianne are M/f series.

Being a Memory Tourist

I’ve never been one of those people who says, “I wish I could be in high school again” or “I wish I could be this age again.” But what I do wish is I could be a Memory Tourist. That I could choose a memory, go back and be there when that memory happened. Because wouldn’t it be nice to experience it, not only as you did the first time, but also through the lens of new experiences and understandings?

For instance, Super Bowl Sunday. My mom was not a sports person, but my dad always hosted a Super Bowl party with his friends. So she’d make sure he was set up with all the good snacks – meatballs, chicken nuggets, chips, dips, beer, etc. Then she and I would take off to see a movie double feature on that day. Back then, when you went to the movies, you had a pretty good chance of seeing something worth seeing. She and I saw a lot of movies year-round, but I wish I could remember the specific ones we saw on those annual Sunday double feature outings. I always think of her on Super Bowl Sunday. If I could, I’d jump back in time and “tour” one of those days we had together.

I also wish I could “tour” memories that aren’t as clear to me now as I’d like them to be. Figure out what I was feeling and thinking, or see the emotions and body language of the person I was with more clearly, to interpret through the window of experience things that were beyond my grasp at the time they happened. It would certainly shed light on many of the horrors of my teenage dating life, that’s for sure, lol. Of course, I’d have a hard time being only a tourist in those memories. I might want to give the idiot that was me, and the double-idiot that was him, a piece of my mind! Or maybe I’d just want to give a motherly hug to the two confused hormone-driven messes we both were. Hard to say.

The two books I’m writing now, In Her Arms and At Her Command, both rest on the foundation of a lot of important memories built “off camera” between the main characters, forming their own culture of friendship or family. For instance, in At Her Command (coming Summer 2020), Rosalinda is part of a close-knit group of women, the executive circle at Thomas Rose Associates. As the story unfolds, we witness snippets of those shared memories in dialogue, action or internal narrative, all of which underscore the strength of their relationship bonds and draw us into their story. Like this internal narrative recollection Rosalinda has when she wakes up at Lawrence’s place:

Unlike Lawrence, she wasn’t a light sleeper. Not at all. Her best friend Abigail claimed Ros slept like a person capable of a self-induced coma.

“Sleeplessness is a sign of a guilty conscience,” Ros had informed her.

“If that’s true, then your sleep is the opposite end of the spectrum,” Abigail had retorted. “Conscienceless sociopath.”

In my books, particularly my Board Room series, where so many erotic experiences are shared, those memories can be a little on the racy side. Another member of Rosalinda’s inner circle is Cyn Marigold. The first time Ros gets a look at Lawrence’s bare backside, here’s what runs through her mind:

His seriously superior ass was all flexing, taut muscle, begging for teeth marks. Cyn was a biter. Ros could see her going after that perfection like an erotically starved piranha.

Some of my delightful readers were recently talking about how they enjoy the bonds between my characters, the way they build, book to book. They mentioned they like going back to the beginning to spend time with them, as those early memories were created. Which makes me realize that writing a series gives an author the ability to let her readers become memory tourists.

I’m the same way. In the Outlander series, I love to go back to the first books and read Jamie and Claire’s unorthodox wedding. Or cry over how they reconciled after losing their first child. I especially love the scene where Claire fought the wolf outside Wentworth prison. I still can’t believe they didn’t include that in the TV series, though in all fairness, I’m not really sure how they could have done it on screen well with CGI, and yuck on using exotic animals for entertainment).

When I’m writing a book that includes beloved characters from earlier books, I also often give into the urge to revisit favorite scenes between those characters. Rory and Daralyn’s story, In His Arms (also releasing Summer 2020) includes key appearances by Marcus and Thomas. Which is only to be expected, since Thomas is Rory’s brother, and Rory played an important part in Thomas’s own love story with Marcus. With every book in a series, we’re building a family history, a friend history, that becomes a scrapbook of memories to revisit.

One of my favorite scenes from Rough Canvas was when Thomas and Marcus made love in a field. Here’s a snippet:

They put the top down on the Maserati. It handled well on the small winding roads that took them deeper into the Berkshires, where leaves danced as they passed and wildflowers on the road side nodded. Marcus found there was a soothing greenness to it all, like the clasp of something familiar, important in its vitality in a way that couldn’t be described, that he found vaguely disturbing.

Thomas finally had him stop on a rise, where a flat, slightly sloped expanse of field provided a rolling panoramic glimpse of the forest backdrop, followed by a layering of blue green hills. Marcus followed him over a fence with the basket, blanket and book. In short order he had the blanket spread out, the basket serving as a side table for his glass of wine. Putting a book in his lap and tree at his back, Marcus set his music player at his side to softly play the programmed selections he’d downloaded for this trip.

While Thomas had packed all those things for his comfort, he paid little attention to Marcus’s use of them now, moving about fifty feet away into the field, dropping several sketch pads around him. There he stood now. Staring into space. Shifting.

It was like watching a bloodhound, Marcus reflected. Thomas turning, making slight, erratic shifts that couldn’t necessarily be predicted, seeking something no one else could detect. Abruptly he settled, dropping to a cross-legged position in the long grass, opening the sketch pad and letting his pencil take him to whatever place he tangled with his muse.

Marcus had heard of family members of artists who felt excluded, isolated during these times. Maybe he felt differently because of his reverence for what happened in these moments. When the end result captivated someone on a gallery wall, he knew he’d been present for creation, a fly on the wall.

But with Thomas, it was as if his lover’s creative awareness expanded and cloaked Marcus the same way the greenness of the trees did. The cool comfort of it was a buffer against the world, as if it guarded something sacred, untouchable in this field. He was a part of this, not just an observer.

Pushing away that thought and the other unsettling thoughts it raised, Marcus focused on his book and wine, letting the breeze and the quiet of the place close in on his mind, fill the troubled spots for awhile. It was as if that quietness had substance, for while it was present it seemed to have no room for uneasy ruminations.

Three glasses of wine later, he stretched out on his back, ankles crossed, one arm behind his head as a pillow, holding the paperback up to read. Until it slowly descended and he dozed.

Wheat-colored grass, flowing, rippling like a lover’s muscles. Green flowing into the gold like interlocking fingers. Every part different, but all part of the whole. Birds spiraling and speaking in musical tongues, warbling, chirping, trebling, the piercing shriek of a hawk. The occasional rasping calls of the crows, or the surprise of an owl’s hoot as the sun rose, giving warmth, a dying god’s gift, the promise of renewal as it moved inexorably toward the autumn cycle.

Marcus opened sleepy eyes to find his lover’s face very, very close. Thomas was leaning over him, one hand braced on the other side of Marcus’s hip, his dark chocolate brown eyes studying Marcus’s face intently. Leaning in further, he kissed him.

Marcus raised his hand, intending to cup his head, feel the short hair layered over his knuckles, but Thomas’s hand closed over his wrist, held it in the air, his fingers straightening to meet him palm to palm. Then, slowly, Thomas eased both their hands back to the blanket as he shifted and laid his body fully on Marcus’s.

“Let me,” Thomas murmured. “Just let me.”

Marcus wondered if it was only incidental that John Mayer’s languorous "Gravity" was playing, the words and tone so appropriate.

* * *

Everything about this scene paints it into a memory, surely as Thomas’s brush. I think that’s why it’s one of my favorites in the book to revisit.

Interesting note: The above was a live scene in Rough Canvas. However, since the story is a reunited lovers story trope, Thomas and Marcus’s memories of their relationship before it crashed and burned also play a pivotal role in drawing the readers into the story, as well as building their hope for the two to resolve their obstacles and get back together again. In a book, memories and remembrances can create a powerful magic that way.

What memories do you wish you could “tour,” in your mind? In books, or reality? Or both?

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Want to read the first chapter of In His Arms or At Her Command? Here are the BookFunnel links to do just that:

At Her Command

In His Arms

You can read the first chapter of Rough Canvas here on my website, or through the preview feature at your favorite book vendor, if applicable.

Let's Go to the Disco!

“Hey, were you serious?" Ella asked. "You know the Hustle?”

“It’s been awhile.” Wolf pulled her away from the instructions. Without looking at them, he took her hands, shifting her to his side so they were hip to hip, ready for the opening step. “Have you figured out the basics?” he asked.

“Pretty much. You lead and I’ll follow.”

“What every Master likes to hear.”

--Vampire Master by Joey W. Hill

Did you see Saturday Night Fever in the theaters? I did, but it took some convincing to get my mom to take me, since I was nine. Mom was never really worried about sexual themes as long as they were light-hearted. She took me and my friends to see Porky’s when we were 13, after all. It was the darkness/violence and suicide issues that made her hesitate on SNF, but eventually she relented. I was taking jazz dance at the time, and loved all things dance. Like everyone else, soon I’d be learning the line dances, and our local teen club was regularly playing Donna Summers and the BeeGees.

Why am I going on about disco? Because, as the opening quote implies, Vampire Master has a disco scene! Ella is known as the Club Atlantis “Minion of Play,” and she pulls together a Disco Night. Complete with everyone dressing up, doing line dances and playing disco music mashups that include “Disco Inferno” and “I Just Want To Be Your Everything.” Yeah, call them up on ITunes. I’m willing to bet you’ll buy a copy before it’s done. Because of how she feels about Wolf, Ella can’t help but identify with these lyrics:

If you give a little more than you're asking for, your love will turn the key

I, I just want to be your everything

Open up the heaven in your heart and let me be

The things you are to me and not some puppet on a string

Oh, if I stay here without you, darling, I will die

I want you laying in the love I have to bring

I'd do anything to be your everything

--I Just Want to Be Your Everything, performed by Andy Gibb, written by Barry Gibb

So, would you like a mental picture of how sensual it is to watch Wolf and Ella doing the hustle together? Here’s the epic hustle dance scene from Saturday Night Fever. It integrates other dance styles into it, like the tango, but the hustle is featured early on in it, and it’s so romantic, I just had to go with it.

If you want to remind yourself of the basic line dance steps and then build on them, I recommend this page. You have to scroll down through a lot of in-between stuff, but it lays it out more clearly than a lot of the other how-tos I looked at before I decided on this one. And after it gives you the basics, it shows you how to do it with a partner, and then ways to add more moves into both approaches. Good exercise AND fun! How often can we put those two things in the same sentence, right?

I enjoyed looking for what Wolf and Ella would be wearing that night. It’s funny how polyester can look so cheesy in theory, but put it on the right person with the right attitude and it works SO well. The pictures of what they were wearing are on Pinterest, here. Don’t cringe too much – I seriously think they would rock these clothes. The guy's outfit reminded me of how, in high school, “cute” boys wore their shirts two buttons open to reveal a slim gold chain around their necks. We thought they were dreamy – grin.

Back to Saturday Night Fever. One of the things I also remember was that scene where John is getting ready to go out (I think he’s blowing his hair dry), and the camera angle is shot straight from the floor. He’s only wearing black underwear. A trio of young women in the audience squealed in appreciation, which made my Mom burst out laughing. It’s when I think of moments like that, I know where I developed my relaxed and healthy attitude toward sexual expression (grin). Thank heavens for that. Otherwise I might have written an entirely different genre!

Hope you all enjoy Vampire Master, releasing December 15, and Wolf and Ella's disco scene.

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FREE READ! Read the first of the “Club Atlantis” books in the Vampire Queen series. Vampire Mistress is available FREE until December 15, in honor of the upcoming release of Vampire Master. You can find out all the details of the unforgettable threesome love story of Daegan, Anwyn and Gideon at your favorite book vendor link:

Apple iBooks

Kobo

Nook (enter free code bnpjoey100)

Amazon

VAMPIRE MASTER LINKS:

FREE Prequel

FREE Chapter One

Amazon

Kobo

Apple

Nook

Amazon UK

Amazon AU

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The Best Kind of Ghost Stories

It’s a couple days past Halloween, but almost everyone I know has a ghost story or two to tell. “Tell me a ghost story you’ve experienced personally.” Wouldn’t that make a great conversation starter at one of those “I don’t know what the hell to talk about” social occasions?

I think there are two major types of ghost stories people experience. There’s the scary, goosebumps, hair-raising on the back of the neck, let’s get the hell out of here and NOT hide behind the chainsaws (love that Geico commercial) kind. Then there’s the far more reassuring kind, where we experience what we believe is a direct contact, sign or intervention from a departed loved one.

My first encounter with a ghostlike being happened when I was really young. I woke up in the middle of the night, and there was a man standing in my bedroom door. I only saw him in silhouette, but he slowly started walking across my room. He was carrying a flashlight, and he moved to my closet. Initially I thought I was dreaming, but then I realized I was wide awake. I called out “Dad?” thinking it was him, but the figure just kept moving. It was when he started opening the closet door that I dashed out of bed, up the hall, and right to my mother. She told me it was a dream, and since there was no one there, I couldn’t disagree, but it was SO real, I remember it to this day. He didn’t do anything scary toward me, but him appearing so corporeal freaked my little self out.

The first “welcoming” ghost incident I encountered was when my husband and I first moved to Southport. We bought this wonderful little pink historic house, built in 1898. The first night we were there, we had no furniture moved in yet, so we’d set up an air mattress in the living room, with a lamp on a box near it. We turned off the light eventually to go to sleep. A couple hours later, the lamp light woke us up. Neither of us had turned it on, and it wasn’t the kind of switch that could be “half-turned” by accident, flipping back to “on” by chance.

We were startled, but there was no bad energy associated with it. We assumed that whatever spirits inhabited the house were basically saying “hello.” We took it that way, said hello back, and returned to sleep (grin). We never had any more incidents like that while we lived there, but the house always had a wonderful, welcoming energy toward us.

Those two situations were my “ghost stories” where I had no personal relationship with the ghost (that I know of – smile). However, the first one that did involve someone I knew who’d passed involved a co-worker, one who’d been permanently confined to a wheelchair by polio when she was younger. She had myriad health issues. She was also a born-again Christian, and while everyone interprets their faith according to their own experience and needs, she did not see other faiths as valid paths to God. At first, we were able to skirt around that and be really good friends, despite me being Wiccan. Over time, it became more difficult, and we started to draw apart, regretfully.

Unfortunately, she passed away one night. It bothered me, how our relationship had degraded in the time leading up to her death, and I wished I’d been a better friend.

A few weeks before, I’d lost an earring. As a Wiccan, I like wearing jewelry that reflects my faith and helps me focus intent and energy. Pentagrams, shamanic style symbols, etc. The earring I lost had a turtle totem on it. Turtles can reflect a lot of things in the Wiccan faith, including ancient earth wisdom and patience.

A few days after her death, I came into work and opened my desk to start the workday. The earring was sitting in the top drawer, plainly in sight. There was no logical explanation for how it could be there, but what jumped into my mind immediately was my friend was sending me a message. Whatever she’d found in the afterlife, I think her understanding of faith had deepened and expanded considerably. And I also felt it was a message of comfort, that our friendship had had value for her, despite it taking a not-so-great turn in the last year.

As fun as the scary ghost stories are, it’s those “messages beyond the grave” ones that have occasionally inspired scenes in my books. Most have heard the tales of the Fae Haunt (or Hunt) on All Hallows’ Eve. The Unseelie ride out to cause mischief, mayhem and terror, and the Seelie to bless the harvest. However, there’s more to the Hunt than that. In Bound by the Vampire Queen, the king of the Seelie summed up one of the deeper purposes here: “There have always been special stories about Samhain night. That those who are torn apart by grief, or regret, or the need for forgiveness, might go to a sacred place, like a burial site. There they might be found by the queen of the Fae. As she holds their heads in her lap, she gives them forgiveness, comfort . . . release.”

I included a cemetery scene during the Hunt in Bound by the Vampire Queen, where my hero Jacob and even the vampire queen Lady Lyssa are reunited with past loved ones for a brief, emotional scene that still makes me cry to read it. It’s impossible to read those kinds of scenes without wishing we could do the same, right?

Then there was the “helping” spirit that came forth during the writing of Marguerite and Tyler’s story in Ice Queen/Mirror of My Soul. During a climactic scene, Marguerite is protected and helped by the spirit of her twin brother, David. Who gets his own story later as an angel in A Witch’s Beauty, my Daughters of Arianne mermaid/angel books.

Those more poignant tales are the kinds of ghost stories that stick with me. Not too long after my father died, my husband’s grandfather was in the hospital. At the time, it was still difficult for me to go into a hospital because of my father’s death, and at one point I was in the restroom. As I was washing my hands, it all kind of overcame me, and I started crying, bending over the sink. I felt a hand on my shoulder, a warm presence at my back, and I knew it was my father. What made me certain of it (rather than just me conjuring a sense of him to comfort myself) was that he and I did not have a close relationship during his life. Him reaching through the Veil to give me comfort meant so much. The connection we couldn’t feel in life was in full force in that moment.

I hope your Samhain had fun scary moments, as well as comforting ones where you felt touched by those who’ve passed. Wiccans believe the Veil is at its thinnest that night, which might be why that scary things are more apt to happen – but so are lovely gestures from those we wish to remember.

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Print – coming near release date

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My Favorite Love Story - 30 Years in the Making

“Everyone says, ‘Put off getting married and having a family, because you need to live your life first’.” Marcie shook her head. “To me, loving someone is living. Marriage isn’t a prison sentence—it’s an invitation for someone else to join you on your journey, experience all those things together.”

(from Hostile Takeover: A Knights of the Board Room Novel)

I am coming up on my 30th wedding anniversary. I met my husband when I was 19 years old, while doing a college co-op job at a humane society in the town where I grew up. My mother introduced us. Scott worked at the same company she did. I had recently broken up with a college boyfriend, and had little interest in initiating another relationship, but I had a roommate on the co-op who was lonely, and Scott had a roommate, so our first date was a double date. We went to see The Untouchables, so Kevin Costner and Sean Connery, and the fabulous train scene with the young Andy Garcia, will always hold a big place in my fondest movie memories.

Alas, our roommates did not work out, but Scott and I continued to see one another. Ten weeks later, he asked me to marry him, and I said yes. After a two-year engagement (so I could graduate college first), we were married when I was 21.

Though my mother had introduced us, she didn’t want us to get married. She had grown up during a time when marriage meant the end of a lot of possibilities for women. A married woman had children, stayed home and handled the household. She took care of her husband, and supported him in his aspirations and career. If she had any goals, they fell within the domestic arena. PTA, Garden Club, local charities, etc. To her, me getting married so young would inhibit my ability to stretch my wings and really fly.

Readers often ask if any of my characters are autobiographical. The answer to that is no, but that doesn’t mean they don’t sometimes reflect my feelings/viewpoints on things. Marcie’s quote above very much echoes how I have always felt about my marriage. To me, getting married was taking the hand of another and saying this:

I will always try to be your best friend, and in your corner. I join hands with you to join lives, so that we might journey through ours together, sharing everything that makes it worth living.

My husband has been with me for the ups and downs of my writing career, and my animal rights/welfare activism. He’s also shared my grief during the passing of both my parents. He had to handle the unexpected changes to the shape of our intimate life when I discovered my deep submissive orientation during the writing of Make Her Dreams Come True. We have shared the pleasures and grieved the losses of thirty years of our wonderful four-footed children.

There are no words to truly express what it is to share the life of another person, to try every day to understand and honor the love you promised to always offer to one another freely, loyally and without regret for any other life or choice. During this journey together, we have laughed, fought, cried, been baffled and frustrated, and occasionally despaired of understanding one another. We’ve learned how to forgive, and to learn what it is to be forgiven, even when we each act unforgivably. Most importantly, we’ve learned how to be friends even before being lovers, because the friendship is the bedrock that has made the rest work.

I have no idea why I was given this gift. I have friends I dearly love who had their hearts broken as their marriages fell apart. Or they never found that loving lifetime bond, even though they longed for a person who spoke to their heart and soul. Most if not all of these people are honestly far more deserving of that gift than me. As such, I try to never take for granted what I have with my husband. I also try to work on the relationship a little every day. I’m not always successful, but the determination is there.

Now that Mom is in a place where she can see and understand every pathway of my heart, I hope she has the peace of knowing that I, like Marcie, embraced the biggest adventure I could ever imagine having. Not once have I ever seen it as a wall between me and the things I want to achieve.

I’ve spent my life trying to write unforgettable love stories. Believing in my own has been the bedrock of every book I’ve written. When you walk into our house, in the entryway there is a little plaque that says: “All love stories are beautiful, but ours is my favorite.”

It’s a reminder I cherish every day.

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“She was a control freak with only one wish—to lose control.” Did you know Naughty Bits is back out with a new cover? All four novellas of Logan and Madison’s story are under one cover, for $4.99! Click here for the Amazon buy link.

My 100-Book List - Part Four of Four

The Open Ended "End"

So we’ve arrived at the fourth and final part of my discussion of my 100-book list. In a way, I guess that list is open-ended, because as an author and a person, I’m always growing and learning, so books will continue to contribute to that in significant ways—I hope!

Prior to the social media presence we have today, where we can exchange book recommendations so much more quickly and easily, one of the deep pleasures of becoming a published author and having writing peers was discovering the gems in their work that found a spot on my keeper shelf. Books by Denise Rossetti, Charlotte Featherstone, Charlotte Boyett-Compo, Shelby Reed, Ann Jacobs…just to name a few. Almost everyone on that list took a chance with the early ebook publishers, including myself, and that’s often how we crossed paths and discovered one another’s work.

However, once writing deadlines and the business of writing took up the amount of time it eventually did, I often fell into the trap of writing/editing more than I read. I discovered a wonderful warning flag for that state, though. I’d note a staleness to my writing. The scenes would feel forced or formulaic, like I’m writing on auto-pilot. Writing is not easy, but the creation portion has a “flow” feeling to it that’s unmistakable, once you’ve been doing it long enough. Just as the absence of that flow is an alarm bell that tells you something’s off.

Sometimes the “off” feeling is because I’m not reading enough. When that happens, I go looking for stories to read that will jumpstart the creative juices, and not only feed into my existing style but improve and enrich it as well. It’s a very similar and vital need in all art or craft forms; the need to expose the mind to the efforts of others to keep evolving as an artist or craftsperson.

Over these last two decades, I have found some amazing sources of inspiration. I enjoy different approaches to storytelling, as long as the story offers wonderful characters and a good central love story. When it does, it motivates me to stretch my own talents as an author.

To this day, Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger has my awe, for its scrambling of timelines that put everything in its perfect yet completely out-of-order place to tell a haunting love story. Or My Lady’s Heart by Laura Kinsale, which I discovered years after she wrote it. The courage to write a love story in Old English dialogue, and do it so well? Incredible. Then there’s Jodi Picoult, the master of taking a topic where everyone has preconceived notions of who is the villain, who is to blame, who is the hero, and looking at that topic from every player’s point of view. My Sister’s Keeper wins the award for spontaneous ugly cry from me, but Nineteen Minutes is a masterpiece of understanding a tragedy (school shooting) from so many different perspectives.

You’ve heard the question everyone asks readers; how do you choose your books? It’s of vital interest to those of us who market our books, so it’s probably no surprise that the primary way I choose stories to read is my preferred way of marketing my own—reader recommendation. I keep an Excel spreadsheet of my TBR. That list is 95% reader and fellow author recommendations for stories they’ve read and loved. I don’t really care about the genre, because to keep my style fresh, I read a wide range. For instance, in the last several weeks, I’ve read literary (All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve), historic/espionage/thriller (Archangel by Robert Harris), MC gritty romance (Fearless by Lauren Gilley) and Daddy Dom erotic romance (Control Freak by Brianna Hale). I’m currently reading The First Time by Joy Fielding, mainstream women’s fiction.

Having trusted readers/fellow authors who recommend the best titles for my specific reading interests and writing intentions is such a gift. My husband, a reader and fan of good storytelling, helps guide me too. While it was his father who brought me to Dean Koontz’s early works of Watchers and Strangers, it was Scott who brought me back to him to read Odd Thomas. And Scott as well who turned me on to Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series, which to me does an outstanding job of preserving the best elements of high fantasy and combining it with the romance and entertainment of urban fantasy.

Love stories will forever be my favorites (in case you haven't guessed that already, lol). Especially the kinds that are emotionally intense, with unexpected twists/approaches that skirt dark edges or dwell right in the abyss, but manage to come out with an HEA and a love to last forever. Dark Notes by Pam Godwin, The Mount trilogy by Meghan March, Control Freak by Brianna Hale as noted above, and Addicted by Charlotte Featherstone, come to mind as good examples of that. What will consistently draw me in, change my world view or reinforce it, is a wonderful story.

I’m glad that my 100 book list will continue to grow and change throughout my life, but I’m also glad that I have the books I’ve discussed over these four segments that have formed my course and preferences. Because I think that foundation will lead me to equally excellent books going forward. I hope you all have the same pleasurable experience on your reading journey. When my books make the cut, I’m grateful and deeply flattered to share company with so many incredible stories and authors.

Books were my first sense that there is a spiritual world. The crafting of words in ways that capture the heart and mind, speak to us so deeply in ways we can’t express…if that’s not evidence of a spiritual world, I don’t know what could be.

So here are the final books in my list. I may have gone a few over 100 if you add up the lists in all four segments, so don’t check my math, lol. However, as I said from the beginning, probably for every one of these books I remember, I likely read ten others, equally as memorable. “Rabidly avid reader” is a very common early description of most authors!

Black Dagger Brotherhood by JR Ward

Dark Melody (plus a handful of others in the Carpathian series) by Christine Feehan

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

For Real by Alexis Hall

The Fifth Favor by Shelby Reed

The Phoenix Rising series by Denise Rossetti

Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

Addicted by Charlotte Featherstone

Queen of the Darkness by Anne Bishop (first trilogy)

Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy

Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult

Bloodwind by Charlotte Boyett-Compo

Bittersweet Homecoming by Ann Jacobs

Rain and Whiskey by BA Tortuga

The Lover by Robin Schone

In Death series by JD Robb (yes, I know she's Nora, but it's a different style)

For My Lady's Heart by Laura Kinsale

Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher

Shadowdwellers series by Jacqueline Frank

Kushiel's Avatar by Jacqueline Carey

Sharing Knife series by Lois McMaster Bujold

Harry Potter novels by JK Rowling

In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Sabran Foer

Dark Notes by Pam Godwin

Earthly Joys by Phillippa Gregory

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“She was a control freak with only one wish—to lose control.” Did you know Naughty Bits is back out with a new cover? All four novellas of Logan and Madison’s story are under one cover, for $4.99! Click here for the Amazon buy link.

My Personal 100 Books To Read List - Part Three of Four

Or, as I like to call it:

My Husband and The Writing Years

When it comes to my love of fantasy, I have my husband to thank for taking me from the foundation I’d created in my teen years with Lloyd Alexander, CS Lewis, Mary Stewart and Stephen Donaldson, and building upon it with the likes of Raymond Feist, Mercedes Lackey and Katherine Kurtz. Though he was a strong high fantasy fan (hence the Raymond Feist), he appreciated any well-done fantasy story, and read a lot of stuff that crossed paths with our contemporary world (and would later would be called urban fantasy), a la Harry Dresden type work. Some of those were books/series like Mercedes Lackey’s Elves of LA, the Shadowrun series, and Katherine Kurtz’s work.

By hanging out with him in the fantasy racks, I also found names/titles I wouldn’t have otherwise. Jennifer Roberson’s Tiger and Del series, for instance. We discovered Laurell K Hamilton together, and it was there the idea was spawned for my Vampire Queen series, seeing how paranormal and erotic could tie together (and the intriguing D/s possibilities of vampires and servants). LKH was more about positing erotic scenarios and letting the reader’s imagination take it from there, rather than writing those details herself, but still, an important seed was planted (grin).

Now, a little segue from the book list to the personal. I had pursued creative writing all the way to college, but then my lifelong passion for animal rights/welfare accelerated to a far greater level. So for the next eight years or so, my writing drive “turned off.” To this day, it’s somewhat of a mystery how that switch flipped so decisively, but if I tap into my own belief system, I think there were two parts to the "why" of it. The more important one was I wanted to try and do what good I could do, with a committed approach to a cause that remains essential to who I am. The second part was my writing needed a strong dose of life experience/insight. When I picked up the pen again in my mid-to-late twenties, I brought that richness back to my writing, but I also continued reading, and found key influences that would set me more decisively on my writing career path. Enter one of the most vital influences: Nora Roberts.

I can’t undersell the impact that Nora Roberts had on my writing with her work in the 1990s. And how did I discover her? I’m sure I read a couple category romances with her name on them in my teen years, but my husband and I bought a sailboat in 1997 and sailed our beloved Shadowfax from the sale point back home. It was a three-day sail, and on one of the stopovers for fuel, there was a book exchange in the little provision store. I picked up a three-story anthology of Nora Roberts stories.

Suddenly I found an author who brought together a lot of important things for me – strong, high-quality writing, well-developed, unforgettable characters, sexual tension that was mesmerizing and, very important here, a discarding of the ridiculous “misunderstanding” conflict in the love story. Instead, her characters faced emotional obstacles – bad experiences in past relationships, doubts, self-esteem issues, and to resolve them, they worked on them together. These were things that resonated with my own journey with a life partner, not some idiotic “I overheard him say he didn’t want to be with me, so I packed my bags and left and didn’t talk to him about it until he chased me half way across the country to find out what the hell happened” nonsense, lol.

She was also the first author I read where I noticed she changed POV in the story – and did it well enough it told me the “one POV only” rule in romance COULD be broken, quite effectively. [Note: It could be argued that learning this rule could be broken in romance played a small part in the journey toward writing male/male for female romance readers, as romance authors found they really enjoyed being in the male POV – grin]

Finally, Nora had a way of writing sex and sexual tension in a way that aroused and immersed. Intriguingly, without breaking any of the rules of the time about being too graphic. Like many of her 80s bodice ripper predecessors, her stories also had strong undercurrents of Male Dom/female sub dynamics without calling it such. Now, while I enjoy being an erotic writer who has free license to be more graphic, it underscored something important to me – that word choices that engaged a reader’s libido and heart at the same time would be as essential in erotic writing as in mainstream romance.

You can throw graphic words and outrageous sex toys at a female BDSM romance reader all day long, and you’ll be lucky to get a “meh” reaction at best. But let the sexual tension build, provide an emotional scenario that touches the heart, unfold those delightful Dom/sub mind dynamics, and then, in the key moment, ramp things up more graphically. When that all happens, a reader who seeks a more sexually explicit romance experience, in a story chock full of emotion and good writing, gets what they hoped to find.

Tastes change, and I drifted away from Nora Roberts’ work some time ago (though I am still VERY addicted to the In Death series – love Eve and Roarke!), but that doesn’t mean that I will ever forget the influence of her 1990s work and how incredible and full of inspiration they were to me as a reader and an aspiring author.

Next on the hugely influential list? Laura Kinsale. If I had to choose one author in the whole wide world whose work impresses the absolute stuffing out of me, it would be Laura Kinsale, particularly the books she wrote in the 90s. Flowers from the Storm, For My Lady’s Heart, etc. She pushed herself, wrote amazingly intense, deep love stories that picked up the romance elements we all love, but she took us even further, opened our hearts at the same time she did those of her characters. And when I read her books, I was awed, demoralized (because no mere mortal could write that well, lol), and thinking “Yes, that’s the kind of books I want to write.” From there I discovered more along the same vein. Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series (with one of the most unforgettable heroes of all time), Julie Garwood, Jude Devereux, Elizabeth Lowell…

Okay, you say. I get it. Nora and those like her laid the foundation. But where did you first stumble upon “real” examples of the erotic romance you wanted to write? At the time this evolution was happening for me, there were a VERY small handful of publishers (pre-ebook) putting out stories that had the elements of erotic romance. Red Sage and Black Lace are the two I think that received the most notice. I stumbled upon a Secrets anthology (Volume II), with an Angela Knight story in it called “Roarke’s Prisoner.” Shortly thereafter, I also found Anne Rice’s Exit to Eden in the “literary” section of the bookstore (that’s where they used to put explicit erotica that wasn’t self-help nonfiction, lol). Though I’d picked up one of her Beauty books, and it was undeniably arousing to a submissive person with a healthy erotica fantasy imagination (grin), it wasn’t exactly what I wanted to read. I wanted Kathleen Woodiwiss or Nora Roberts, with bondage. When I found Exit to Eden and “Roarke’s Prisoner,” I recognized that I’d found it.

Every book was adding to a style proposal in my head, a goal for me to achieve in my own writing, such that I can look back and put it this way: Mix together Nora Roberts 1990s work, Angela Knight’s “Roarke’s Prisoner,” Laura Kinsale, Kathleen Woodiwiss, Penelope Williamson, Anne Rice’s Exit to Eden, Outlander by Diana Gabaldon, Linda Howard’s Son of the Morning, and you have a pretty good amalgamation of the kind of writer I wanted to become. To this day, if you ask me my favorite deserted island book, it’s Once in a Blue Moon by Penelope Williamson. It sort of brings all of it together in a perfect storm kind of way, though it’s possible only I understand why that is, in my poor twisted brain, lol.

Character development/exploration, intense love story, BDSM erotic content. My books usually break down to an integration of those three main elements. Now, I would be leaving out something critical if I didn’t mention one final pair of authors who were essential to my development as a writer at this point in my life. In fact, my husband is likely to never let me forget that I spent most our honeymoon waving him away while I was steeped in a book by one of them - ha! Stephen King.

A smart writer always looks for a good story to read, no matter the genre. I’ve never really been a horror person, but when Stephen King’s books started gaining traction, I made the mistake of reading Salem’s Lot and spending the next six weeks looking in my closet and under my bed before I went to sleep. However, when I started reading The Stand, the character development was what caught my attention. The journey they took amid these horrifying challenges, and they persevered – that’s what set it apart from the normal horror book. Stephen gave us a scary book with wonderful characters we loved…and a freaking HEA!! Then there was It, and that was the one that added to my writer’s style guide. These characters formed a bond of strong love and friendship that made this horrible, scary story romantic and caring. A love story of sorts.

The other author was Dean Koontz. He followed in King's footsteps with Watchers and Strangers, and later (during my fourth and final segment of the 100 book list), Odd Thomas, still one of my personal favorites, which has at its core a very strong central love story. I have my father-in-law to thank for Dean Koontz, because he was a big fan and persuaded me to read Watchers.

Anyhow, somewhere during the journey with all the authors I mentioned above, I learned something that set my writing compass. I wanted to write romance, yes, because I love the elements of good romance. But in the depths of my heart, what I really wanted to write were love stories - and I realized that all the really good "romances" on my keeper shelves were exactly that.

So that’s what I set out to do. And when I wrote my first erotic romance, Make Her Dreams Come True, and it became a D/s love story, the erotic became another immutable element of what I wanted to write.

Next month I conclude my personal 100-book list with a discussion of the books I read NOW to keep my style fresh and on target. Until then, here’s the third segment of my 100-book list. As always, feel free to comment and tell me about your own!

[Oh – PS, the honeymoon killer book was The Stand – grin.]

Watchers by Dean Koontz

Strangers by Dean Koontz

Fear Nothing by Dean Koontz

It by Stephen King

The Stand by Stephen King

Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton

Shadowrun Novels (various authors)

Demon Dance by T. Chris Martindale

Forever King by Molly Cochran and Warren Murphy

Children of the Night by Mercedes Lackey

Charlemagne's Champion by Gail Van Asten

Knights of Ghosts and Shadows by Mercedes Lackey and Ellen Guon

Tiger and Del series by Jennifer Robeson

Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist

Hidden Riches by Nora Roberts

Dream Trilogy by Nora Roberts

Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts

Montana Sky by Nora Roberts

Son of the Morning by Linda Howard

Untamed by Elizabeth Lowell

Roarke's Prisoner by Angela Knight

Exit to Eden by Anne Rice

The Gift by Julie Garwood

The Black Lyon by Jude Deveraux

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (first trilogy)

Once in a Blue Moon by Penelope Williamson

Flowers from the Storm by Laura Kinsale plus everything else she wrote around that time period

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Did you know that Vampire Queen’s Servant and Mark of the Vampire Queen, books 1 and 2 of the Vampire Queen series, are now both available as $4.99 ebooks? With new covers under the Story Witch Press self-publishing label!

Read Lyssa and Jacob’s story and discover Joey’s Vampire Queen series…

My Personal 100 Books To Read List - Part Two of Four

I was intending to get to this a little sooner, but now that The Problem with Witches is done and ready for its June 30 release, I’m hoping I can get on a better schedule with this four-part series about my personal 100-book list. So thanks for your patience, and on to Part Two!

In Stand by Me, Stephen King says the friendships we have when we’re 12 have a depth and tone like no other friendships we have in our life, making their impact on our lives unforgettable. I think the books you discover in your teens, the feelings you have when you first read them, are like that. While romance and fantasy have always been my lifelong passions, my teen years were an exploration of many different ways of telling a wonderful story, including romance. So let’s call this second part of my 100 Book List blog series:

The Age of Harlequin, Pern and Cosmopolitan Magazine

First, the Romance

Many of the books I read before age 10 were love stories, but my introduction to love stories framed by the glorious elements of romance happened in my early teens, and they were those formulaic little books known as “category romance.” Harlequin, Circle of Love, Candlelight Ecstasy, Silhouettes… Silhouettes were my favorites. They quickly replaced Harlequin for me, because they were steamier, and were willing to break formula a bit, go deeper into the relationship. Many of our greats in the romance world were breakout stars from the category romance world, where they first gave voice to their inimitable writing styles.

If you’re shaking your head, think about this. We forget what the passage of time does to us. What was so wondrous to us twenty or thirty years ago often looks cheesy or simplistic when held up to the light of our sophisticated tastes today. We recognize a good story in the context of the times in which we live, and at that time, I couldn’t get enough of those little romances. My friend and I devoured them, traded them back and forth, and scoured the library and used bookstores for more.

Plus, this was a pivotal moment for my writing career. We were creative girls, who loved those stories so much that we’d act out our favorite storylines. Figuring out where we’d go next with them, we started putting them down on paper. We’d pass them back and forth during class. Eventually, I was thinking about them all the time, such that I would work on new characters and storylines at home and bring the pages to school. My friends would review and pass me written encouragement in notes under our desks. “Wow! That works! That’s so awesome! You need to publish these!” God/dess bless wonderful friends, lol.

Those stories became my first romance novels. I think I’d written at least half a dozen before high school. I wish I’d kept them. I have no doubt they were overly dramatic teenage scribblings, full of weak craft, but they were the earliest, unfiltered evidence of my deep craving to write love stories.

During this time another key moment occurred. On the annual family summer vacation, I noticed my older cousin and her friend huddled over a book on the beach. They were giggling over the “dirty part.” The book was a much thicker romance than my category romances. When they tired of it, I picked it up. Yes, of course, I read that dog-eared section (I was younger, but close enough to that hormone-driven episode of teen life to be curious), but then I started on page one. I read it from cover to cover, and for the first time in my life, a romance made me cry.

That book was Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen Woodiwiss. It was a significant step closer to what I ultimately would strive to write; an intense, well-written love story with strong romance and erotic elements. I didn’t want to stop at the bedroom door. I wanted that intensity and emotion to happen there, too. And the sex shouldn’t be a rote Slot A in Tab B titillation scene before the “real story” could resume.

So category romances were left behind as I migrated over to a mix of what this “behind the bedroom door” romance genre offered. Pretty much all of Woodiwiss, but also classic bodice rippers like Bold, Breathless Love by Valerie Sherwood. That book stuck in my head, because the heroine is torn between her first love and a dashing pirate captain. A pirate captain who, when she thinks her first love is dead, makes love to her over and over, to give her the will to live. Yep, total forced seduction scene, and my teen self mulled over that one quite a bit. But at this point, I wasn’t experienced enough to understand why that premise was catching my attention so thoroughly. So, let’s put a pin in that until Part three of this discussion (grin).[But I will note that the dog-eared portion of Ashes in the Wind that so captivated my cousin and her friend was also the forced seduction scene in that book.]

There were lighter-handed romances which still made an impression, like Bride of the MacHugh (which resulted in my reading a LOT of Sottish romances, all leading to my forever love, Jamie Fraser in Outlander), and the Dawn of Desire trilogy, set in ancient Egypt. Then came LaVyrle Spencer. Sigh. In the same class as Kathleen Woodiwiss, this was a woman who knew how to write a LOVE STORY. She’d weave in those classic romance elements I loved, but that core love story was something that made me think, “Yes, this is how it should be done.” I am not a Western romance reader, yet The Gamble is my favorite of all her wonderful books. Another lesson learned – it’s not the genre/setting that matters. It’s the characters and the nature of their love story.

I read so many books in the same vein of Woodiwiss and Spencer during this time that they should be crowded into my 100-book list like nested files, but these were the frontrunners. And though I’ll expand on it more in Part 3, this is where the essential seeds were being planted for my love of erotic romance. Because the books I most loved were the ones where the erotic moments took the relationship between the characters to a deeper, even more intense level—and often had strong D/s undercurrents to them.

Next, Other Books

You’ve probably heard a lot of us author types say that reading diverse genres is important, drawing upon different styles and approaches to develop your own unique voice. Genre fiction focuses on telling a good, entertaining story, and the greatest authors in their respective genres include unforgettable content that inspires, elevates and enlightens. Around the time I was reading lots of romance, there were other books, not romances, that made an impact on my idea of what a good story contains. The wondrous thing about books is they’re a house with endless rooms, and we can spend time in all of them.

So, here’s where Cosmopolitan magazine enters the picture. Right about the time I discovered Woodiwiss, I was petsitting for a lady who had a subscription to Cosmopolitan. They used to do LONG book excerpts (maybe they still do), which is where I discovered a generous excerpt from The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum. I went on a major binge with him, with The Holcroft Covenant, Materese Circle and Parsifal Mosaic becoming favorites. It led me to other male suspense writers, including Sidney Sheldon and Harold Robbins, specifically The Adventurers and books like Shibumi by Trevanian (with a brief though memorable Tantric sex scene). I’ve never been a great suspense writer, but these books did show me how you can integrate strong characterization into a complicated story arc, which I think helped me substantially with my more action/politically heavy books like Vampire Queen series. I’m sure they aided the suspense elements of books like Natural Law.

You also may be wondering, did assigned school reading provide me any direction in my development as a writer? For the benefit and reinforcement of English teachers everywhere, I am happy to say that it did. As I wrote this section, I realized I overlooked a very important entry on my first post, my pre-teen book reading, so if you don’t mind, I’ll include a note of it here. Forgive me, but going back 40-50 years to recall what books inspired me when was a bit of a challenge. I have trouble with timelines in my books – it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that I have the same trouble in my own life, lol.

Anyhow, in 5th grade Junior Great Books club I discovered Les Miserables, thanks to a dramatic reading of several scenes from the book. I was caught up in Eponine’s broken-heartedness, because of how much she loved Marius, though he barely noticed her. I read the whole book and it was my enduring favorite for years. The real stories in Les Mis have nothing to do with Marius and Cosette. Eponine’s unrequited love for Marius, the self-sacrificing love of Fantine for her daughter, the main figure of Jean Valjean, doing his best for those around him while being a fugitive – those are the truly memorable stories in the book, whereas Marius and Cosette’s love, so clueless and untested, cushioned as they were by everyone else’s sacrifices around them, held no real substance. VERY important writing lesson for me there.

Now, fast forward a couple years. I had a remarkable English teacher in high school. While I’m not a big fan of teachers who try to impose their religious or political viewpoints on their students, she had a passion for Native American spirituality, and spent the first three weeks of her class on it. (She VERY loosely tied it to Native American storytelling forms to justify teaching it in English, lol.) I think those three weeks helped open me up to the Wiccan faith I eventually embraced (which has a strong foundation in shamanic principles). When I was working on what would eventually be my first published book, an epic fantasy called Guardians of the Continuum, I explored that faith more deeply, because it intersected with the magical elements of the book.

She also had us read Self Reliance by Emerson and Walden Pond by Thoreau. I think those (along with my mother’s unflagging practicality, no matter the crisis) helped me understand the line between dramatic angst, that has us rooting for a character to overcome emotional obstacles, find love and happiness, and whiny wallowing self-indulgence. Hence, no whiny vampires for me, beating their breasts over being “monsters.”

This English teacher also introduced me to The Scarlet Letter. Here was another book that stuck with me, because it was about love and how it can be so sorely tested. One particular line has remained with me throughout the years: “And still they lingered,” referring to how Hester and John stayed in the woods a little longer after their fateful, sad meeting. I can remember the way my English teacher said that line, with such dramatic emphasis. As teens, of course we thought she was implying SEX happened, and maybe it did, but that wasn’t my takeaway from it. It was the power of subtle suggestion, which has such a vital place in every great love story, where sometimes the simplest touch can be more erotic than even the most passionate embrace. A very significant point for a burgeoning erotic romance writer (grin).

An important final note on “other genres.” One of my friends and I also discovered a dramatized biography, Mrs. Mike the true life love story of Sergeant Mike and Katherine Flannigan. That set me on the path of reading a lot of biography, which took me deeper into all the layers of a character’s personality.

Last but not Least – Fantasy

In my first blog about my earliest readings, I noted a love of fantasy was already there, with the Taran Wanderer series and other books. In my teen years, my already existing interest in fantasy literature gravitated me toward authors who brought together fantasy and romance, as well as drew in the deeper spiritual elements that can often be accessed through those channels of fantasy and love. If you’re not sure what I mean, think of the pivotal source of Harry Potter’s survival of Voldemort’s attack – his mother’s love.

My teen years were not my best years. High strung, creative and melodramatic (I am aware that melodramatic teen is pretty much an oxymoron, lol), I struggled a lot with depression and anxiety, and I hated school. Hated it with a passion that put me into therapy, where the verdict was that I was 14 going on 40, an accelerated maturity (in some respects) that made institutionalized education a suffocating, anxiety-inducing trap to me. So needless to say, I’m not one of those people who long to return to my school days. But what I do remember was all the time I had to read books. I would LOVE to have those long expanses of time to do that again. Books, the love of the story, helped me more than I realized at the time. I might be struggling, but the next story was always waiting to provide a respite. And authors who could mix love stories, remarkable characters and a fantasy world in ways that would make me long so much to be in them? Yeah, no brainer there on who became my favorites.

So along with the contemporary romances and spy novels came Anne McCaffrey with her Dragonriders of Pern. As did Mary Stewart with her Crystal Cave trilogy and Marion Zimmer Bradley with Mists of Avalon. At 15-16, I had a boyfriend who loved The Thomas Covenant Chronicles. Thomas was a tortured anti-hero (stricken with leprosy) catapulted from our world into a high fantasy world, a story driven very much by his character. This series and many others like it that I found afterward showed me the pleasure of telling a story about how someone facing so many personal obstacles could embrace the best in themselves.

Though I am not a classic sci-fi reader (due to my strong deficiency in the part of the brain that understands science), I dabbled in some Frank Herbert, specifically The Jesus Incident and White Plague, because they also had a focus on good characters and spiritualism.

So that’s a glimpse of my teen years. Whew. I think this was the hardest of the segments to write, because it was the most voracious reading time of my life. For every book I mentioned, I feel like I’ve probably left a hundred out. In Part Three, I’ll show how all the influences of Part One and Two joined the books I read on the threshold of my writing career to drive what I’d eventually write – BDSM Romance!

Here’s the “teen year” portion of my 100 book list:

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (should be on Part One list, but forgot)

Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne

Walden Pond - Henry David Thoreau

Bride of the MacHugh by Jan Cox Speas

Dawn of Desire Trilogy by Joyce Verrette

The Gamble by LaVyrle Spencer

Bold, Breathless Love by Valerie Sherwood

Ashes in the Wind by Kathleen Woodiwiss

Mrs. Mike by Benedict and Ann Freeman

Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Crystal Cave trilogy by Mary Stewart

Lion of Ireland by Morgan Llywelyn

Dragonriders of Pern (first trilogy) by Anne McCaffrey

Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson (first trilogy)

The White Plague by Frank Herbert

Jesus Incident by Frank Herbert

Rage of Angels by Sidney Sheldon

Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace

Shibumi by Trevanian

Adventurers by Harold Robbins

The Holcroft Covenant by Robert Ludlum

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June 30 is almost here, and The Problem with Witches releases on that date! Click the title for all pre-order buy links. In the meantime, Chapter One is available at that link, if you want a preview of this crossover novel between my Knights of the Board Room and Arcane Shot series characters.