Tanith Davenport's Blog, page 31

K is for Katharine Isabelle

Since I’m dedicating many of these blog posts to favourite things, I thought I’d dedicate this one to my favourite actress – Katharine Isabelle.

 I first encountered her in the Canadian werewolf movie Ginger Snaps. Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins (another excellent actress) play sisters whose relationship is tested when one is bitten by a mysterious creature and slowly begins to transform. The story adds a twist by running Ginger’s gradual wolfism alongside her menstrual cycle – nobody’s surprised by the growth of new hair or the increased sexuality, but a tail? Now that’s a new reason for back pain…
Most recently Isabelle took the lead role in American Mary, starring as a trainee surgeon whose financial straits lead her into illegal body modification. While the film itself occasionally lacks the courage of its convictions, Isabelle is spectacular as Mary Mason and some of the body mods shown looks amazing (the heart-shaped nipples in particular).
Now all I have to do is persuade somebody to make a film of one of my stories. Phone call for Ms Isabelle, I’ve got a part for you…

J is for Jokes

As an erotic romance author, I need to make my sex scenes… well, sexy. But there are many times when I have the urge to write comedy sex.
Let’s face it, it would ring true with just about everybody. I defy anyone to claim they have neverhad something ridiculous happen during sex. From my own experience and that of friends, I have enough stories to fill an encyclopedia. Propelled head-first into a shelf, fallen off the bed, kicked off the rear-view mirror… you name it. One friend decided to drizzle warm brandy across her stomach, only for it to continue downwards and leave her screaming in pain. Another had things dramatically halted when the dog appeared behind them with its cold nose.
In my case, I still hold in reserve the story of my husband’s missing mobile phone, which leapt out of his pocket during a tender moment outdoors on the way back from Scarborough. We eventually found it down a rabbit hole after half an hour of panic at the roadside.
One of these days I will write a proper comedy sex scene. For now, though, I’ll have to stick to the erotic. BDSM-loving billionaires don’t mix well with slapstick humour.

I is for Inspiration

To all the writers, artists, musicians out there – what inspires you?
For me, inspiration comes from many different sources.
Music. Nearly every story I write has at least one song as a theme. On one occasion I dearly wanted to include a soundtrack with a story – “OK, for this scene, grab your Basement Jaxx album and put on ‘Get Me Off’.” A couple of slow-moving WIPs are even named after their theme song – one of these days you might actually read them.
Dreams. As mentioned last week, I can pluck all sorts of weird ideas from dreams. The first spirit encounter scene from I Heard Your Voice came from a dream. Of course, they don’t all make sense, but it’s amazing how many times they do in a strange way.
Art. My favourite painting is “The Rose” by Salvador Dali. It’s a peaceful scene of natural beauty which one day I plan to write about (and probably utterly corrupt with erotica). I can easily see where Girl With a Pearl Earring came from – I adore that painting too.
Random encounters.I was once terrified by a very angry-looking man who chased my car up to a traffic light, cut me off, got out and shouted “Your tyre’s flat!” Much as I appreciated the information, I did wish he had approached me more as a concerned stranger and less as a raving maniac. I’ve never been so convinced I was about to become a road rage statistic. But it does make for good writing scenes.
So what inspires you?

H is for Horror Movies

I love movies, and specifically I love horror movies.
Why do we love to be scared, I wonder? Is it because we want the excitement without the danger? Horror movies give us a chance to get an adrenalin rush without putting ourselves in jeopardy. You know that at any time you can just close your eyes and the danger is gone, and when you walk out of the cinema or switch off the blu-ray player it’s all over.
I think I’m a little jaded when it comes to horror, to be honest. When a new film is advertised as being “mind-meltingly scary” or “the most terrifying thing you will ever experience” I find myself thinking “Yeah? Bring it on.” It’s pretty hard to find a decent horror film these days. Slasher films do nothing for me, and I can’t be doing with torture porn. J-horror is usually good for a scare, but other than that…
Although “Sinister” was a good one. That moment on the computer screen sent a chill down my spine. And while I’m not usually a fan of exorcism movies, I did enjoy “The Possession”. I’ve never seen a film about a dybbuk box before, or a possession done in quite such a physical way.
I’ll definitely be seeing “Dark Skies” and the remake of “Evil Dead” this month.
What are your favourite scary movies?

G is for Gastronomy

One of my favourite ways to develop characters is to show what they like to eat.

Personally, I love to try new foods, even when it turns out badly (frogs' legs, for instance - ugh). In restaurants I will be the one ordering the squid-ink bread or the kangaroo steak. I will be that friend who calls saying "There's a new Russian restaurant just opened - want to go?" (I love pierogi - can't find a decent place that does them.)

My characters are sometimes like me, sometimes not. I had one character, Sasha, who was a quirky little sweetheart, eating fluffernutters as a snack. I looked those up specifically and think they sound ghastly, but then I don't like marshmallows or peanut butter and the thought of something that sweet makes me want to faint.

Sometimes I'll have a character eating things I personally hate just to be contrary.

Sometimes I'll use it to demonstrate a family background - French grandmother? Cook oeufs en meurette for lunch. Or maybe an Italian ex who taught her how to make lemon tiramisu. Now that's an ex I wouldn't mind having.

Oh, how I love using food in my writing. Only trouble is that it makes me hungry. So I'm off - I've got a croque-madame under the grill.

F is for Film Stars

I love going to the cinema, and I love watching films wherever I am. And, while I’m not necessarily a follow of celebrity culture, I do tend to keep track of movie stars.
One of my geekier characteristics is my ability to remember who has been in which film with uncanny accuracy. If anyone watches the UK game show “Pointless” – those final round “British Actors” or “American Actresses” topics? They’re made for me. I can usually list at least ten films relevant to the actor in question, even if none of them turn out to be obscure enough to win the jackpot (although the Catherine Zeta Jones round would have netted me a fortune).
Maybe it’s because I spent most of my youth wanting to be an actress myself. But, since that’s no longer the case, the main use I have for film stars now is casting my novels.
I almost always have an actor in mind for each lead role. Sometimes they’ll be an amalgamation of two, or the character will be inspired by X actor playing Y role. Tom Felton has played quite a few of my characters in various incarnations (he made a nicely moody Ash, for one thing) and I always like to use Katharine Isabelle when I can. Let’s face it, if these characters are going to be living in my head for a while, they need a face, and sometimes it’s just simpler to pull one off the screen than make one up.
Although I never managed to find a suitable actress for Tamar of I Heard Your Voice. I think it was the breasts. They ended up of a size only matched by Linsey Dawn McKenzie. And well… nah.

E is for Experiences

If there’s one thing that truly defines how I live, it’s new experiences.
I am the person who keeps Red Letter Days, Experience Days, Groupon and LivingSocial running. Anything new, major or minor, I’m in there. New restaurant? Love it. I’ll be there trying the weirdest dish on the menu. New place to visit? Absolutely – I’ve got a list stretching from Pendle Hill to the Great Wall of China, although I expect crossing the Pennines will be a lot more likely than crossing the Pacific.
I’ve been up in a Virgin hot air balloon. I’ve bungee-jumped over the Thames. I’ve been on two track days to drive a Lambourghini and an Ariel Atom.


My favourite one, though, was probably the camel ride.



Camels are adorable – and despite what I had heard, these ones didn’t bite, spit, stink or kick. Although my friend, who accompanied me, was terrified that one was going to kick his car.


My next plan is to learn how to shoot. Not because I intend to carry a gun, I might add – I just would like to have a try on a clay pigeon range.
So what would you do, if you could?

D is for Dreams

One of the standard questions I am asked in interviews is “Where do you get the ideas for your stories?” There are a lot of answers I could give, but the first one I ever gave was “From my dreams.”
I tend to dream extremely vividly. Most of them make very little sense in the morning, as I often discovered when I woke up and wrote one down in the middle of the night only to find scribbled garbage come daylight. However, on occasion some dreams, or parts of dreams, have been the inspiration for some great story ideas.
The vividness is a particular help. Rather than imagining the emotions involved in a situation, a dream gives me the chance to live through it. It also means that any weird aspects – of which there are usually many – seem completely normal in context, so if I decide to use any of them in my writing there’s no small voice in my head saying “Nah, too off the wall.” And so far nobody else has said that to me, so I can’t be doing too badly… right?
But, you know, sometimes I really envy people who just lie down at night, sleep straight through and remember nothing. It would save me trying to figure out where that dream about crashing a helicopter into a pylon came from.

C is for Clandestine Classics

Total-e-Bound Publishing were my first publisher and my primary writing home, and I wouldn't consider myself a loyal member of their author list if I didn't mention their Clandestine Classics line. However, since I've already described it here previously, I'll move on to say why it's such a good thing - this time from the point of view of someone who has read every release in the line so far.


I love to read new books, and I especially love to read classics. But it's sometimes easy to forget that there are many, many more writers than Jane Austen and the Brontes. When the first wave of Clandestine Classics came out, there were the usual suspects - Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights, all of which I found equally good with their sexy additions. And then, much to my delight, there were novels I had never even thought of reading before.


Which ones, you ask? How about Dracula? Tarzan of the Apes? Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? A Princess of Mars? And let's not forget the re-vamped Sherlock Holmes, which introduced me to a whole collection of stories I only wish I had discovered sooner.


So, when invited, I started work on my own Clandestine Classic. Sadly, though I have signed a contract, I can't tell you which one it is yet. But I will do so soon - and I thank all concerned for giving me the chance to write it.

B is for Book Signings

As a writer, the thought of doing a book signing has always terrified me.

For one thing, I fit the stereotype of the introverted author pretty well. The idea of sitting in the middle of a bookshop, behind a desk, trying to attract people to come over and buy my book so I can sign it, is foreign to everything in my nature. I'm quite happy for people to just click on a link at Amazon, honestly. I'm getting better, because we can't get away with hiding behind our screens anymore, but I will never be an in-your-face marketer no matter how hard I try.

For another, the horror stories I hear from other writers make me cringe. It takes me back to high school. Not only am I forcing myself out there, but people are walking past ignoring me! Or, worse, giving me the wrong sort of attention. In these cheerful reminiscence sessions, writer friends have reported being asked what they write before being told "Oh yeah, I don't like those", told off for being too expensive, mistaken for someone else and then hearing "Oh... damn" or, on one memorable occasion, being asked where the toilets are. Having heard far too often that as an erotic romance writer I am a filthy slut, the last thing I want is to sit in the equivalent of the stocks to be insulted. Or mistaken for E. L. James.

Of course, since I'm primarily in ebooks at the moment, this hasn't been an issue so far. But we do have one method of signing now - Authorgraph. I signed up early on and wrestled gamely with the mouse to create a signature that bore some resemblance to my own, in the hope that somebody somewhere might want one.

So far nobody has. But hey, I can live with being rejected on the internet. I can sit comfortably, wear a dressing gown, and nobody can tell if I stick my tongue out at the screen.