Sakura Skye's Blog, page 6

Undone

She let the scarf fall to the floor and unbound her hair as she entered the enclosure. The day had been particularly hot and sticky, making this moment of solace all the more precious. She sat on the stool near the tub, letting the cool afternoon breeze pass through her hair and chill the tiny droplets of sweat that were still beaded around her collar.

On a whim, she happened to look up and out of the latticework on the window. She thought she caught it. The tell-tale sign of movement from within. The slight shift in light and form that told her he was watching. She had been sure he was watching before. She had seen him, bold and brazen, face pressed upon the window as she pretended that she couldn’t see him. She had seen him on the street as well, as he drank coffee and talked too loudly with other men his age. When their eyes met she made sure her face remained impassive and innocent as a flower. He blushed. She did not. He had memories of her naked flesh he was trying to hide in his memory. She had nothing to hide.

Why would a good girl from a religious family ever acknowledge being watched, much less WANTING to be watched; even if only to herself.

She gathered her skirt around her thighs and peeled the wet camisole from her chest.

“I will not look, I will not look,” she whispered to herself over and over again. Although she could feel his eyes on her skin, hot and demanding like a lover’s caress, she refused to turn and look.

“If I look, it’s a sin,” she reminded herself. This was enough. This had to be enough. She stepped out of her skirt and hung it from the hook, her whole body humming with awareness of the window.

She picked up the large enameled ladle and poured the warm water over her head, letting it flow through her curly tresses and down her brown skin. Again and again, she scooped and poured until the grit and grime of the day became a runny paste. The wind blew again and her nipples hardened.

“I will not look. If I look it’s a sin,” she chanted, grabbing the soap from the dish it was kept in and roughly lathering her exposed skin. Her hands skimmed across her breasts and ducked down over her hips and buttocks, stopping momentarily between her thighs. He was watching. She knew he was watching. She could feel his blood racing through his veins as if it were her own. His heavy breathing and his desire to touch her invaded her consciousness.

He was watching, but she couldn’t look. Looking was a sin.

She told herself over and over as her hand worked furiously to “clean” her body. She rubbed again and again, harder and faster, scouring away any impurities with quick rhythmic circles. She closed her eyes against the harshness of the late afternoon sun and thought of his face. His eyes and smooth bronze skin. His hands….

And then, she was finally clean.

Taking up the ladle once again, she poured water over her head and used the other hand to wipe away the suds. The sweat and the dust of the day flowed away from her body as she poured cup after cup of warm water over her brown body.

It wasn’t until she had completed the ritual that she turned around and looked up.

IT’S COMING!!!

If you have been wondering where I have been, and I know you have…right?

I have been working hard to write and edit two new books. The first one, coming out In September, is Fairy Passions. It’s a slightly paranormal erotic romance about a Fairy Princess struggling with love, marriage and duty. It ends with a lovely twist that could dovetail into a second book; if you’re into that kind of thing…and I am.

The next one is called Discovered,  the follow up to Desired, which I project will be out in October, in time for NaNoWriMo. It is in its infancy, being outlined and developing character sketches. I will be looking for beta readers for that one, so please let me know if you are interested. (Yes, I would love to beta read for you too, just keep it around 35K words.) You should be able to pick up Discovered and read it without reading Desired, but I think you get so much more out of the story if you experience it from the beginning.

And YES, I have an idea for my NaNoWriMo novel as well…its called Duets, and its an AMBW romance about a graphic novelists and a model/photographer who meet because they both like to sing in the shower. Ooh la la!

You Could Wear Pajamas, But You Probably Shouldn’t

So the great thing about being a writer is that you essentially work for yourself. Unless you are one of those people in copywriting who have to get up and go into the advertising firm that employs you, most of your work happens at home on your own time. The first thing people usually say when they hear that I work for myself is that I am lucky that I don’t have to get dressed to go to work every day.

This occurrence always bothers me. Is there some great angst amongst employed people about putting on pants and going to work? Has the drudgery of button-down shirts and loafers become a social issue of which I am unaware? I almost hate to tell them that I, a professionally unemployed person, must also get up in the morning, shower and get dressed. The idea of being able to lay in bed and complete assignments sounds very tempting. Even I dream of having such liberties. Unfortunately, I have to work for my living.

The reality is that in most cases, being in bed results in being asleep most of the day. If you have one of those soul-sucking, cubicle hell dimension jobs, you could argue that most employees are sleeping most of the day. The difference here is that my check is not guaranteed, so I must wake up and do work if I hope ever to get paid.

And to be honest with you, the thing that attracted me to this lifestyle wasn’t the distinct lack of pants. It was the ability to get up and go someplace I wanted to be, or nowhere at all. There have been many days when the trek from my bedroom to the kitchen table has been the longest commute of the day. On other days, I can go off the beaten path. I can go to a library and sit and write, or a museum and sit and write, or a coffee shop and sit….you catch my drift. There is a whole lot of sitting involved.

The point is that if you decide you want to work for yourself or work from home I recommend that you reconcile yourself to a life with pants, a shirt and sometimes even shoes. Experts say that the act of getting up, making your bed and getting dressed helps to keep us motivated. They are cues for our brains that tell us that this is time to work. Whatever that work may be, I can almost guarantee that you will be better at it if you get dressed first. Even new moms report feeling more in control if they get a chance to shower before the busy day starts.

So while I support all of the new freelancers and mompreneurs of the world, my advice would be to continue to get up and get dressed for work. Clock in with one of those old-fashioned punch cards if you need to, George Carlin did. Do whatever it takes to stay motivated and professional during your work day. Remember, this is your business and you should run it like one.

Working from home isn’t really about being free “from” anything. I have found the freedom of being a solopreneur is that I am free “to” do a great many things. And that freedom is worth the commute.

Eve: The Awakening

Eve is an outcast. A chimera.

After years of abuse and rejection, 19-year-old Evelyn Kingston is ready for a fresh start in a new city, where no one knows her name. The esteemed Billington University in Southern California seems like the perfect place to reinvent herself—to live the life of an ordinary human.

But things at Billington aren’t as they seem. In a school filled with prodigies, socialites, and the leaders of tomorrow, Eve finds that the complex social hierarchy makes passing as a human much harder than she had anticipated. Even worse, Billington is harboring a secret of its own: Interlopers have infiltrated the university, and their sinister plans are targeted at chimeras—like Eve.

Instantly, Eve’s new life takes a drastic turn. In a time filled with chaos, is the world focusing on the wrong enemy? And when the situation at Billington shifts from hostile to dangerous, will Eve remain in the shadows, or rise up and fight?

Eve: The Awakening Available now on Amazon

Let me say that I love Jenna Moreci. She is my new Jenna. (I was secretly a Jenna Marbles fan for a while, but let’s not talk about that now.) I have been following her on YouTube for a while and if you haven’t yet, you should probably go and do that now. She is super funny, as followers of my blog already know. (see Jenna Moreci post here)

Her book has officially launched and I couldn’t wait to snap it up. As I write this I am literally going into my 30th hour of consciousness because I refused to put it down. It is that good. The characters are so well developed, you love and hate them all. The writing is crisp and the story moves along at a pretty good clip.

This is one of those rare gems that you usually only find in new adult fiction, where all the best elements of several genres blend to make one kick ass story. There is some romance, and awesome fight scenes, some literary fiction elements (but not enough to slow the pace) and aliens.

The book is available for Kindle Unlimited members, but it is well worth the $3.99. Just buy it and support this amazing author. Self-publishing is always a gamble, and I am guilty of using my Unlimited membership to hedge my bets against an unknown author now and again. In this case, there is no gamble. Ms. Moreci is the real deal and her “Eve” will restore your faith in self-published authors.

Sakura Skye

Dear K Drama Writers; You Suck

Somewhere at the junction of romance and fan fiction, most non-Koreans will encounter Korean Dramas. And whoa nelly, can that be a minefield of bad acting, bad singing and really, really, really bad writing. That isn’t to say that there aren’t genuine nuggets of dramatic brilliance sprinkled liberally throughout…but the bad is REALLY bad.

Before we dive in here let me make and few qualifying statements. I am a fan of global television. I love a good Asian drama or Argentinian telenovela. I love Bollywood and Nollywood and I am upset that Hum TV doesn’t bother to subtitle most of their programs because some of them are so good. And I recognize that each culture has its own idea of what beauty, family, responsibility and love mean. I recognize and celebrate those differences. But this isn’t about that. This is about one thing and one thing only…BAD WRITING.

The same way hackers take one look at my amateur website and laugh their balls off, I watch TV with an “eye” for the writing. If it’s quick and clever the whole performance reflects that. Even bad actresses are hard pressed to ruin really well-written roles. A mediocre director and a bad actress with a great script can pull off a drama that is not completely cringeworthy. As an international fan, and holy shit there are a lot of us, I would like to tell drama writers the things they should stop doing immediately if they intend to keep our respect…or at least mine.

Stop trying to convince me that a girl with a master’s degree is somehow unable to complete simple domestic tasks. Her inability to prepare a meal or clean the kitchen or properly apply a broom to a dusty floor is not endearing; its embarrassing. As a matter of fact, most women I know with master’s degree know how to cook and clean and do all kinds of domestic and tasks because grad school was expensive, and they were fucking broke.
Stop writing really awesome conflicts that end abruptly and leave plot holes big enough to drive a bus through. Characters just disappear or change motivations COMPLETELY without warning. If they were looking for the family heirloom, let’s not forget to revisit that before the close of the drama. Especially if you spent more than three episodes focused on this one thing.
Stop wasting my time on episodes built around misunderstandings that could be resolved with one declarative sentence from the lead. Those aren’t real conflicts. That is lazy writing. You have essentially turned your characters into idiots and it makes me want to watch something else because I see plenty of idiots in real life. I don’t need to import them.
Stop writing female leads who chase after male leads who treat them like shit for six episodes. I’m not talking about lead couples whose relationships start out with a mutual conflict. I am talking about lead couples where she is kind and understanding and he is an asshole. Instead of giving him a heavy dose of his own medicine you say he has some deep dark backstory that justifies the fact that he treats people like shit. But, only she understands and only her love can change him. Bullshit. Why? Because emotional abuse and bullying aren’t sexy. Period. And a woman who signs up for that shit isn’t attractive, she is an idiot. See above for my policy on idiots.
Finally, if you are going to write a tough or strong female character make sure she is actually strong and not just obstinant. There is a difference. Maybe you don’t know any fierce, independent women, but I do. I am surrounded by them. They don’t struggle to come up with replies during verbal sparring matches, they don’t pout or storm out of rooms when they feel like they are being picked on. The essence of a strong woman is her dignity and self-control. She is quick and clever because life has made her that way. She doesn’t back down from a fight even if she knows she might lose because she believes her cause will win eventually. She isn’t easily intimidated because she has proven herself against incredible odds. She isn’t looking for help, but can accept it graciously, if not hesitantly. She loves hard, but can cut her losses when the time comes. She isn’t an emotional cripple, she just isn’t impressed by romantic posturing. I recognize that strong characters are more complex to work with. It’s okay if you want all of your characters to be fun and light-hearted. Just stop trying to convince me that your lead is a “strong woman” just because she wears practical shoes, has short hair, or is mean to boys.   It’s an insult to all of the strong women in the world.

Listen, dear unnamed Korean Drama Writer, you are not alone. There are plenty of scripts from all over the world who suffer from similarly jarring issues. The problem is that my beta readers and any editor worth a dime would have ripped me to shreds if I had attempted to pass off any of those elements in my story line. These things are annoyances for audiences and are like shards of glass in the eye of anybody who is an avid reader or a writer like myself. They are not only signs of lazy writing, they pull the reader/viewer out of the story. Good fiction helps the reader to suspend reality but, as an English teacher once told me, it must be suspended from something IN reality.

Sincerely,

Sakura Skye