Cate Ellink's Blog, page 77

Wildlife Wednesday

I'm extending my backyard for the next few weeks and going out to the beach. I'm out of immediate backyard things - but my eyes are open to stock up on more :)

This little guy was at the beach, which is a few blocks from my house. Can you see him camouflaged in the vegetation? (In case you can't find him, look just to the right and up from the middle of the picture and look for a grey stripey lizard looking thing - see him?)

He'd be about 7 cm long, so he's pretty little. I looked up Dragons, Lashtails, Lizards and Geckos and damnit, I couldn't find him. Gosh, story of my life lately! I better start finding things I know, not these cute strange things that shouldn't live here :)

Sunday Story

I just read Lisa Kleypas' Rainshadow Road. Have you read it? Someone (on a blog somewhere) listed her as their favourite read, and when I went to the library the book sort of leapt at me. So I read it.

I should admit here that I'm not a great reader of pure romance. I like extra things with my romance (like suspense, raunch, paranormal activity, fantasy words, something).

This story sounds like a typical romance - girl has a screwed up life and is making the best of it, breaks up with loser boyfriend, meets the man on her dreams. The man of her dreams had his own screwed up childhood and is commitment-phobic, but through their struggles and self-belief they come together to live happily ever after.

But there was magic in this story. Not just the mystical magic Lucy, Sam and the house possessed ... but magic in the writing.

Both characters have quirks, and wit and empathy. And the writing beautifully draws out these odd things. Here's a quirky passage from Lucy, reminiscing about the lost loser boyfriend, Kevin.

"...her life was entirely different from how it had been when she woke up that morning. How could she go back to the home that she and Kevin had created together? She couldn't sit at the kitchen table with the wobbly leg that both of them had tried to fix countless times, and listen to the ticking of the vintage black-cat clock with the pendulum tail that Kevin had given her for her twenty-fifth birthday. Their flatware was a jumble of mismatched knives, forks, and spoons from antiques stores. Flatware with wonderful names. They had delighted in finding new treasures--a King Edward fork, a Waltz of Spring spoon. Now every object in that house has just become evidence of another failed relationship. How was she going to face that damning accumulation?"

That is such an incredible paragraph for me. It shows me how much she enjoyed living with Kevin, what they shared, and quirky details that make them unique (a wobbly table, a weird clock, odd cutlery) even though most people would have such things in their house.


There are magical descriptions, quirky sentences, images that paint stunning mind-pictures. It's more than just a story. More than a romance. It's a feast for the mind and the senses. And a great lesson about creating unique characters, showing the story and looking at things differently.

Phallic Friday

Age.

That's my topic for today - which doesn't seem much like a Phallic Friday post, does it? Let me explain...

My Dad is visiting. Not quite sure how but we ended up talking about an episode of Can of Worms that he saw, where age, sex, and first base came up (My dad and I have weird conversations). Anyway, the show said kids today have blow jobs as first base. Sex occurrs as young as 14. And these issues were discussed by various people.

As we kept talking, I started thinking that the age thing is a big problem. I can't publish a book where people have sex (well, not described anyway) if they're under 18. But in reality, people are having sex at 16, even as young as 10 or 12. The Virginity Mission has the heroine 21 and a virgin... which is kind of out-dated.

Dad watches Glee, where he says homosexuality, cross-dressing, transgender people, marriage, sex and all is portrayed as normal in a high school. I've no idea what age this is though - are they 16, 18, 21?

Should we be publishing books that have information to suit the age that needs it?

Or maybe it's not needed. Maybe you use text books for information and we don't want pleasure reading to expose us to the reality of sex at 16.

I don't know the answers but it was an interesting discussion.

Do you have any thoughts?

Wildlife Wednesday

Okay, I call these locusts... because they're ugly. But they aren't the Plague Locust - which is even uglier, or maybe it's only when they're in bulk they're uglier - so it could be a grasshopper (but in my mind, grasshoppers are prettier than this thing). I know, I'm totally nuts.

The Australian Museum has lots of information. Here's some -
Grasshoppers, locusts, crickets and katydids belong to a group of insects known as orthopterans (meaning 'straight wings').

Grasshoppers and locusts have a row of pegs like a comb on their back legs. They scrape these pegs against the hard edges of the front wings to make sounds. Crickets and katydids produce sounds by rubbing their wings together. In order to hear these sounds, orthopterans have a tympanum (ear) on each front leg, just below the knee.

Locusts and short-horned grasshoppers belong in the other suborder, Caelifera, and have shorter and more robust antennae.

Locusts and grasshoppers (Suborder Caelifera, Family Acrididae) are very common insects. However, locusts behave differently depending on their numbers. When numbers are low they act as individuals, in the same way as grasshoppers. But when large numbers are present they behave as a group or swarm, causing plagues.

I did a grasshopper collection at uni and I only include pretty grasshoppers. It took many hours wandering aimlessly with my net to catch enough to make the collection - but I can't remember how many that was. All I remember were the hours to collect, then the yelling at me (by my Mum) when jars of grasshoppers filled the back fridge - because I hated using chloroform to kill them and thought freezing to death was more humane (go figure).

Okay, I need the critter to open his wing for good identification - see these photos are just no good. I should be collecting the critters!

Sunday Story

I'm going to talk about me again - cos it's my blog and I can (big grin) and also because I get to use the hot cover again!
The Blurb & Grease & my nightmare  This is the blurb:  An erotic new adult romance about old insecurities, new beginnings, and the things you can get up to in a tent…
It’s lust at first sight when Mac sees Jason shirtless and sweating on the back of a truck. Jason is the army sergeant assigned to support the six-week scientific expedition that Mac is participating in, and might just be the perfect candidate for another journey of discovery that Mac is desperate to undertake — sex. Fraternisation between students and staff might be strictly prohibited, but everybody knows fruit always tastes better when it’s forbidden.
When I was in Year 5 (11 or 12 years old), the movie, Grease, came out (yep, I'm old!). My school went as the Year 6 break up (year 5 got to go - I didn't argue, it was a treat!). We must have gone pretty much the week it came out. I loved it.
Some days after I saw it, there was a big kafuffle about it within the Catholic Church (of which my parents were heavily involved, and I went to a Catholic school). It was a monumental moment in my childhood where I was immersed in controversy that I didn't really understand but I tried hard! I mean, I'd seen a sinful movie!!
My Mum had a big discussion with me about the "bad" things in the movie - which I'd laughed at - and I always thought they were the bare bottoms shown early on (I know, as an adult you almost miss this split second shot - but as a kid I saw it!).
Then she explained that the hoo-har was all about the fact that Sandy had to change to be with Danny - and the change wasn't good. Oh, now I got it - she raunched herself up (remember those skin-tight, black pants, the boofy hair, the makeup?) and this was a no-no in my house. 
Okay, so scroll forwards about 10 years (in which I don't ever doll myself up for men, cos that's so not on!), and I watch Grease again. Oh.... did I miss the plot or what!? Rizzo was pregnant? Who knew. I totally missed all those underlying threads about "growing up" and sex that were in the movie. Wow. I could not believe how innocent my 11 year old self was.

So... when I looked at The Virginity Mission after I wrote it, Mac changes to be with Jason. She does the thing she thought she never would (I can't tell you or I'd give away the story!). In writing terms, this is what you're meant to do. But I've done it like Grease, in a way my Mum wouldn't like (lucky she's not here to tell me off!).
I thought it would just sneak by, maybe without anyone noticing or commenting. (I dream!)
And then I read the blurb Escape did for me. OMG! Right there in B&W is my problem, the problem that I wrote, the problem I created all for myself, staring at me, confronting me - 
 everybody knows fruit always tastes better when it’s forbidden
Oh my!
I've done a Grease. My stomach churned as I read it, terrified I'd be shot down in flames by the Catholic church - and then I remembered, oh hell, I will anyway, the book's about sex - unwedded sex! And I'm worried about a tiny forbidden fruit!!
But my Mum will be pleased, I still have a conscience about some things! :) 

Phallic Friday - penis size

I just read an article that prompted this post. Here's the link to the article: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/lifestyle/life/women-only-have-eyes-for-the-big-boys-20130409-2hi0f.html

The article says that ANU scientists did research with 105 Canberra women, between 20 and 40 years old, to determine what made a man attractive. They had 53 3D images of naked men for assessment, created using natural variations in size and body shape which they got from an Italian project measuring 3300 young men (why, oh why, did I study soil!?!?!).

The results gave some interesting data - well, that were written up in the newspaper anyway.

Women can assess a man as unattractive in 3 seconds flat.Women find tall men with long penises most attractive. Women had a clear preference for men with penises in excess of 13 cm in their flaccid state (penis length varied from 5 cm to 13 cm), which is larger than the penis supported by 95% of the male population.
This has me thinking... how often do you see a flaccid penis if you're not married/living in a relationship with a man?

Maybe I led a sheltered life but I rarely saw flaccid penises... usually they were somewhat aroused by the time my eyes, or hands, were on them. After the event I would have seen them flaccid but my memory would have been of them much bigger.

So, do we really want 13 cm long flaccid penises? Or has this research been skewed because of the flaccid nature?

Don't penises have varying abilities to enlarge? Some smaller sized flaccid penises are actually very impressive when aroused, whereas some larger flaccid penises don't grow that much. Or am I again making assumptions from not enough sample size (if only I'd measured 3300 young Italian men)?

Personally, I have a limit on penis size. You know, some of those hugely endowed porn stars make me wince. If they're too long and/or too thick, my body just goes a little cold and scared. But maybe I'm a chicken!

Anyway, I'm not convinced by this research. I think I'd like to have been a partcipant. Or even a researcher and made the penises all aroused.

Any thoughts on penis size, or this research?

Introducing... The Virginity Mission

An erotic new adult romance about old insecurities, new beginnings, and the things you can get up to in a tent…
It’s lust at first sight when Mac sees Jason shirtless and sweating on the back of a truck. Jason is the army sergeant assigned to support the six-week scientific expedition that Mac is participating in, and might just be the perfect candidate for another journey of discovery that Mac is desperate to undertake — sex. Fraternisation between students and staff might be strictly prohibited, but everybody knows fruit always tastes better when it’s forbidden. 

Coming 1st June from Escape Publishing