Maggie Wells's Blog, page 12

Monday Mayhem – Because you’ve gotta have friendssssss

I believe it’s important for every woman to have a close female friends. Wether it’s one, or a dozen, makes no difference. The strength and resilience of female friendships is something I try to incorporate into every story I write. The friends you can text with random questions concerning bodily functions. Those who will hold …

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Monday Mayhem – Quite sporty

This may or may not come as a surprise, but I am a sporty girl. After all, I was raised with a half-court basketball court for a backyard. Remember? It’s Martin Luther King Day here in the States. A day when people dream big. When I was little, I dreamed of being Dorothy Hamill, and …

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Monday Mayhem – Ramping up!

Gang, we are t-minus 29 days until LOVE GAME is released into the wild, and boy-howdy things are happening. Big things. Wow things. In case you have somehow managed to miss my spastic whooping, this happened this week: Yes, Publishers Weekly gave my book a STARRED review! If you want to read the whole thing, …

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Monday Mayhem – Happy New Year!

There’s so much happening in 2018 and I cannot wait to share it with all of you! My word for the year in 2018 is BOLD. I’m going to try to live my life more boldly in the New Year. How about you? If you had to pick one word to encapsulate your 2018 ambitions, …

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Monday Mayhem – Merry everything

  The greatest gift is friendship. Thank you for being my friends. I feel like the richest woman in Bedford Falls. Wishing you all the joys of the season, and nothing but wonderful things in the New Year!    

Monday Mayhem – I challenge you…A challenge revised

I’ve created a reading challenge for us to start in the new year! As some of you may know, I’m named for my grandmother, Margaret (famous for hula dancing with Don Ho at the Polynesian Palace). They called her Grady, and there was little Grady loved more than a good game of BINGO. Don’t get me …

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Monday Mayhem – The Gift of Giving Up

This time of year, I’m always focused on what I want to accomplish next year. The list is always fairly lengthy. I won’t get to everything, but I will complete some things. As I get older, I find that accomplishing some things is more than enough. The things I don’t get done will shift to …

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Monday Mayhem – Kari Lemor New Release

It’s the season of giving. I hope to dedicate my blog posts this month to sharing some treats with you! My fellow Lyrical Press author, Kari Lemor, has a new release this week. Check it out: Fatal Evidence Kari Lemor What you don’t know can get you killed . . . Construction company owner Scott Holland …

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Monday Mayhem – Attitude of Gratitude

An attitude of gratitude. I hope you all know how very grateful I am for your support and encouragement. Lord knows, I probably don’t say it often enough, but I am. Writers write the stories they want to tell, but when we connect with at least one other person…that’s golden. So, in case I haven’t …

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Monday Mayhem – Snow White vs Cinderslut

There’s a phrase that gets tossed around Romancelandia that really raises my hackles. No, it’s not ‘bodice ripper’. I can laugh that idiocy off because it’s only used by people who don’t know (or want to know) any better.

No, this is a term that people use to differentiate those books who leave the bedroom door open during sex scenes from those who close the door and fade to black when things start to get intimate.

The label that makes me cringe is: Clean romance.

*shudders*

Just typing it makes my fingers curl. Why? Not because I want to see every detail of all the action on the page, but because it implies that sex between two competent, consenting adults is somehow dirty.

Sex is not dirty.

People who enjoy sex are not morally corrupt.

Women are not required to be ‘in love’ to enjoy sex.

Now, I have no issue with not having the sexytimes spelled out for me on the page (though I admit, I am usually a bit disappointed, particularly if I am way into the couple). But don’t dress one kind of book up as Snow White, and the other as Cinderslut.

I read a lot of romance. I know the high heat level in many of our books is shocking to those who don’t regularly read the genre.

But for the love of Happily Ever After, we do not need to start labels that imply that one depiction of love is good and wholesome, and the other depraved or shameful.

Sex is not dirty.

People who enjoy sex are not morally corrupt.

Women are not required to be ‘in love’ to enjoy sex.

All that is required for a story to be considered romance is a central love story and a happy ending.

Let’s keep it that way.