Robin Schone's Blog, page 5

Who's your favorite RS man?...

I'm giving away a copy of Private Places, which features my novella "The Men and Women's Club," at my Facebook home. The winner will be chosen at random. All you need do to enter the contest is post on my Facebook page which of my men - Charles, Connor, Gabriel, Jack, James, Joseph, Michael, Ramiel, Robert, or one of my secondary men - you would like to vacation with.

This contest ends midnight on Monday, May 16.

I can't wait to see who is your favorite!

A Man and A Woman: Erotic Romance's 1st Eunuch

"A Man and A Woman" (Fascinated) is Connor/Muhamed's story, Ramiel's manservent in The Lady's Tutor.

Publisher's Weekly wrote that Connor is "probably the first 53-year-old eunuch to be a romantic hero." I don't know about that, but I do know that he fought me every step of the way. His life was private, and he wanted to keep it that way. Furthermore, he absolutely refused to let me romanticize any aspect of being a eunuch.

Instead, he revealed himself through one painful question after another, until finally I . . . and Megan . . . began to understood: Connor was a very, very lonely man who saw himself through the eyes of the men who would judge him, rather than through the eyes of the strong man circumstances had forced him to become.

Megan, however, refuses to judge Connor, just as she refuses to be judged by him.

"You think a woman is a whore because she has physical needs?" she flared, forgetting that he rightfully thought her a prostitute. Forgetting that she had come to him out of loneliness, not to debate women's morality. "You do not think that women are entitled to take comfort in a man's embrace?"

"I do not know." His grating honesty shattered her anger; his breath lapped at her breasts. "I do not know what either men or women are entitled to. All I know is what I want..."

More than one reader wrote expressing disbelief that a eunuch possessed sexual feelings, or in the case of Connor/Muhamed, that eunuchs who had been castrated while leaving the penis intact could sexually perform.

Both history and medicine are full of real-life men who have for one reason or another been castrated. Men with heartbreaking stories. Yet sometimes, those very same men whom we are supposed to pity . . . and who have been despised and ridiculed throughout history . . . provide the ultimate affirmation of our need to love and to be loved.

Eunuchs did and do have sexual feelings (many modern men must undergo castration due to cancer). Juvenal, a Roman satirist, wrote that Roman women enjoyed men who had been castrated after they reached maturity, because such eunuchs could still sexually perform but without causing impregnation. One particular account of a man who had been competely "shaved" (both testicles and penis cut off) profoundly touched me. Chief eunuch in charge of a harem, he himself kept a concubine, and was not only able to sexually satisfy his beloved, but by the intimate messaging of his prostate gland, was able to obtain sexual release, also.

I remember when typing the final chapter to "A Man and A Woman," a familiar thunk sounded overhead. Oops! I had stayed up all night writing . . . again. The familiar "thunk" was my husband's feet hitting the floor as he got out of bed and walked across the living room to turn on the radio, an early morning ritual. Almost immediately one of the most beautiful and haunting songs I had ever heard drifted down the stairs. It perfectly captured the pain Connor experienced and the beauty he found in Megan. I wrote the last sentence to the fading strains of Sting's Desert Rose.

Click here to learn how to win a free copy of the anniversary edition of Fascinated.

Here's Michael!

Yay! We have a winner! Actually, we have three winners!

Here's Michael for the "Find Michael Contest." Both Carrie, Lori and I envisioned the same model for Michael. How cool is that?

And here is Daniela's choice of Michael out of all those entered in the "Find Michael Contest."

Thank all of you for coming over to my Facebook page and playing with me! In the next few days I'll be having another contest. So please do stop by again!

Michael in the flesh!

I've had such fun choosing Michael from the Find Michael contestants, that I decided to share the fun. And the angst! So many handsome, sexy photos were posted, that it was difficult indeed to choose just one. So please do stop by and see the gorgeous contestants in my latest Facebook contest: Michael . . . You Choose! Don't forget to post your favorite while you're there!


OFFICIAL RULES:

To be eligible to win, you must choose only one (1) Michael from the Michael: You Choose! contest gallery. All the Michael pictures are numbered. Simply post the number of the picture that you think best represents Michael. You must post your choice on my Facebook page.

I ship internationally, so all are invited to participate.

The contest ends at midnight on Monday, April 25. The winner of the Michael Contest . . . You Choose! will be chosen at random, and will receive a copy of either The Lover or Gabriel's Woman (winner's choice). The winner will be announced the following Tuesday, April 26 as will the winner of the Find Michael contest.

I look forward to seeing which photo you think best represents Michael, my dark-haired angel.

A new heart and a fun contest!

First, I would like to apologize for not keeping my Goodreads page updated. I've been very ill since my heart attack Christmas Day 2008. The good news is that I received a new heart December 22, 2010. It's only been three months, but already I'm so much better! Don can't keep up with me anymore. Well, okay, he injured his foot, but still. . . . I'm doing splendid, as Frances Hart would say.

Now for the fun part! I've updated my Facebook page, and am running a special contest there. Since it is book related, I thought I would post about it here, so that all of you will have a chance to participate. The contest is called: Find Michael at Shutterstock.com! The winner will receive autographed copies of THE LOVER and GABRIEL'S WOMAN in their language of choice (American English, German or Spanish). It's very simple to enter the contest; all you need do is find the photograph you think best represents Michael (THE LOVER and GABRIEL'S WOMAN) at www.shutterstock.com, and post a link to the picture on my Facebook page.

I hope to see you there!

Gabriel's Woman: Career maker or career breaker? . . .

My editor loved The Lover. When she asked what my next book was going to be--and I responded Gabriel's story--she sighed, and said, "I was afraid of that."

In 2001, there were very few romances that could list their hero's occupation as "homosexual prostitute." But that was what Gabriel had been in The Lover. When writing Gabriel's Woman, I could not sweep his past under the rug and pretend it had never happened. Victoria wouldn't allow it. She had the same questions I and my readers shared. I had to deal with Gabriel's sexuality, and I . . . Gabriel . . . had to be brutally honest. But just how honest could he be, and remain a romantic fantasy?

When Victoria asked Gabriel if he got an erection when he was with men, my mind froze in horrified fascination--rather like watching a freight train bear down on one--even as my fingers typed on.

"Sexual organs, mademoiselle, are apparatuses." Cynicism tarnished the silver of his eyes. "Like my bath or my shower. If you turn a valve cock"--he paused, allowing the double entendre to sink in, valve cock, cock--"it releases water. It does not care whether it is a man or a woman who turns it."

If that were the case, then why were his eyes so bleak?

"You are saying that there need not be emotion, or feeling, in order for a man to . . ." Victoria struggled to find the words, she, a governess who had never even heard the word cock until six months earlier, "to sexually perform--"

"That is correct."

"--And that the . . . that copulation is merely a reflexive response, a matter of cause and effect."

"Yes."

At which point, Victoria asks the question that could not be avoided, much as I had wanted to do just that.

"Are you saying, then, that you did not orgasm when you were with . . . a patron?"

This was the moment I had dreaded. Gabriel's answer would either be a career maker, or a career breaker. Yet there was no future for Victoria and Gabriel if he didn't answer. So answer he did.

I expected plenty of naysayers; what I didn't expect was how many readers would take Gabriel to heart. And how many women--and men--would write thanking me for Gabriel's unflinching honesty in dealing with the darker aspects of human sexuality.

I remember talking to Kathe Robin, reviewer extraordinaire for RT Book Reviews. She said Gabriel would never have found redemption without Hans Christian Andersen's tale of "The Angel." What do you think?

The Lover: the journey continues!

The Lover is my third "single title" novel. Strangely enough . . . or perhaps not . . . the idea grew out of research I came across while writing The Lady's Tutor. I was intrigued by the thought of night houses, hotels of sorts . . . NOT brothels . . . where not only prostitutes, but lovers could rent a room by the hour. In France these hotels were called "maisons des rendezvous," or houses of rendezvous.

I knew my hero would be a male prostitute named Michael, or more specifically, Michel (Michael in French) des Anges. (Voir les anges is a French term for orgasm; Michael is literally named for his ability to give women sexual satisfaction.) However, when I sat down to write the book, my muse balked at writing a story with a hero named Michael. I know so many Michaels in real life; alas, nary a one of them is a beautiful, violet-eyed gigolo. I simply couldn't create such an extraordinary character with such an ordinary name. Gabriel has always been a favorite name of mine, so I renamed Michael "Gabriel." Only to have Gabriel jump out of the pages and say, "I am Gabriel; Michael is Michael."

Suddenly my simple story of a historical gigolo became much more complex. But wait a minute. Did gigolos . . . a term coined circa 1920 . . . really exist prior to the twentieth century? Homosexual male prostitutes did--there's all kinds of documentation about m/m sex for hire--but what about heterosexual male prostitution?

I read over a dozen books that suggested it had, indeed, occurred, but not until I was thumbing through Frances Grose's A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue did I actually find terminology for these men. (My favorite is 'petticoat monger;' 'stallion' is still in use today.)

Okay. The names, characters and story were laid out, but there was still a major stumbling block: I wrote The Lady's Tutor using a traditional writing style; very straight forward. I knew this wouldn't work for The Lover. Michael and Gabriel--one man trained to please women, the other trained to please men--are two very complex and dangerous individuals. The very urgency surrounding their circumstances demanded that I convey this danger and urgency through the writing. It is a style frequently used in thriller/action genres--short, high-impact sentences--and what else, really, was The Lover but an erotic romantic thriller? Hence the opening, which laid the groundwork for the remainder of the book:

Death.

Desire.

Michael did not know which of the two had brought him back to London.

He sat and waited for both.

It was a risk, writing The Lover as I did. I knew many readers who loved The Lady's Tutor wouldn't like the staccato-like writing. I also knew there were scenes in it that would greatly disturb gentle readers. When I sent it off to New York, I was quite certain my editor would toss it in the trash. The next night, I was drinking a glass of wine (okay, more than one) and whining to Don that I had probably murdered my writing career. When he asked why (due to time constraints, he had not read The Lover), I told him about the Andrew Marvell scene. He grimly agreed, "You are finished."

After all these years together, he knows just the right words to boost my morale! :-)

Unbeknownst to me, however, I had forgotten to turn on the upstairs phone that morning. While I was crying in my wine, so to speak, my editor called and left a message. She had received the manuscript that morning, and had stayed late at the office to read it. Fortunately for my sanity, I went downstairs to check my computer and saw the flashing red light on the telephone indicating I had voice mail. My editor loved the book! I drank the rest of the wine in celebration.

A writing career is very much like a roller coaster ride . . . lots of ups and downs.

Michael and Gabriel--mes deux anges--will always hold a special place in my heart. I think, in some ways, Anne is my most courageous heroine. She knew what she wanted, and in the end, she was willing to pay the price.

The Lover was my first single title release to hit the USA Today Bestseller list, and has thus far been published in six countries.

The Lady's Tutor

A friend gifted me with a copy of Richard Burton's translation of The Perfumed Garden one Christmas. Since I had used Tantric . . . and in a round-about way, the Kama Sutra . . . in Awaken, My Love, I thought how cool would it be to use The Perfumed Garden in a book? I immediately knew that the story must revolve around a man--half Arab, half English--who uses the book to instruct a woman in the art of sexual love. Bingo, Ramial was born! But while Ramiel came to me right away, Elizabeth was a much more difficult character to get a handle on. I wrote and wrote and wrote, trying to put my finger on exactly why a respectable woman such as the wife of the Chancellor of the Exchequer and daughter of the Prime Minister would turn to a disreputable man like Ramiel for sexual tutelage. Elizabeth finally came to me when Ramiel challenged her:

"Women who love their husbands do not ask strangers to teach them how to please a man," he said caustically.

"No, cowards who love their husbands do not ask strangers to teach them how to please a man. Cowards sleep alone, night after night. Cowards accept the fact that their husbands take their pleasure with another woman. Cowards do nothing, not women."

Whoa! Elizabeth spoke, and what a voice she had! I very much enjoyed her journey in not only learning about her sexuality, but in accepting that her needs . . . not only as a woman, but also as a person . . . were just as important as those of a man.

My editor loved The Lady's Tutor, therefore I was mightily surprised when I received the copyedited manuscript and all the Arabic terms had been deleted and or changed! It turned out that the copyeditor knew someone in Jordan, and asked him about all the Arabic sexual terms. Strangely enough (yes, I am being sarcastic), the terms used in The Perfumed Garden, a four-hundred year old book on erotology, were for the most part obsolete in modern Jordan, so my copyeditor thought to modernize my manuscript. It apparently never occured to her to check my Arabic terminology with The Perfumed Garden. As my editor said, "Imagine her phone bill!"

Needless to say, all my original text was restored. The Lady's Tutor--published August 1999--went through 2 print runs in a Zebra Splendor edition (it has a holographic heart on the front cover), and then 2 print runs in a regular Zebra edition, before finally in September 2000 being published in trade paperback, where it is now in its 8th trade paperback print.

Oh! And for those who didn't read my "Author's Notes" at the end of TLT. . . . The Uranian fellowship actually existed.

"A Lady's Pleasure" is second, not third!

Because Captivated (September 1999) was published after The Lady's Tutor (August 1999), no doubt you assumed my novella in the anthology was my third work: It was not. I finished "A Lady's Pleasure" before I wrote TLT. In fact. . . . It was I who came up with the brain-child of Captivated. After winning my ordeal with fibroid tumors and HMOs (check here for the full story: http://www.robinschone.com/page/women...) I wanted to create a book that would celebrate women's sexuality. What better way, I thought, than to bring together the hottest names in the romance industry?

Okay. I had the plan, and I had the names of the authors I wanted. Two weeks after my myomectomy (an operation that removes fibroids rather than the uterus), I called Thea Devine: She agreed to contribute to the anthology! Two and one-half weeks after my myomectomy I felt so good - and so like my normal self, as Don (my husband) put it - that I drove to a local RWA chapter meeting in which Susan Johnson was speaking.

Was I nervous that night! Here I was, a little nobody with only one book under my belt, and I was daring to approach a New York Times Bestselling author! One, I might add, of whose books I was a fan. After much fidgeting and stomach-churning adrenaline, I got the chance to speak to Susan at a dinner after the meeting. She didn't laugh! OR turn up her nose. In fact, she said she had been approached by many authors - all of whose ideas for an anthology had fallen to the wayside - but if I succeeded, she would be more than happy to contribute. Bingo! Two down, one more to go. I am very happy to say that Bertrice Small also consented to be a part of Captivated.

But getting together the authors was just the beginning. . . . I still had to write my first novella!

After the initial excitement of having a publisher accept the anthology, I thought: Oh! A novella! Everyone says they're so easy, I should be able to write it in 2-3 weeks. Well, I did, and proudly presented it to Don, who in the past had claimed the title of being my worst critic and best fan. Well, my 'worst critic and best fan' yawned and said it was well-written. Somewhat offended, I asked: "But don't you like it?" He replied that there really wasn't that much to like. It's a cute story, he said, and that's all there is to it.

Well, indeed. I was determined to make him eat his words, so I sat down and redid the novella. I didn't so much rewrite it as weave more emotion and motivation into it. I believe agents/editors call it "fleshing out" a story. It was during this two-month process that I learned the difference between character-driven plots and action-driven plots. Well, my husband did indeed eat his words. Don . . . who is a big Stephen King fan . . . to this day says Robert is one of his all-time favorite heroes. High praise, indeed!

"A Lady's Pleasure," my second story, is a bridge between Awaken, My Love - which is lighter and more plot-driven - and the more intense, character-driven stories I now write. Without it, I would not have been able to write The Lady's Tutor. But that's another blog. . . .

Awaken, My Love: the beginning . . .

I thought it might be fun to write about my books in the order they were published, and to give you some facts you may not know.

Awaken, My Love was my very first romance. What a rocky road to publication it was! Twenty-eight agents rejected it. One agent wrote that I must study the romance market; a romance book simply could not start with the heroine masturbating! (Read the scandalous opening that evoked such a maelstrom of emotion in "Robin's Writing.")

Well, I persevered. The twenty-ninth agent read it, loved it, and sold it to Avon Books (1995) five days after submission. My Author's Edition was published in 2001 by Kensington Brava. Awaken, My Love is still in print today . . . fourteen years after its original publication (and being told I couldn't start a romance book with a masturbation scene!) . . . and has thus far been published in Germany, Poland, Spain and Taiwan.

Awaken, My Love is somewhat lighter in tone than my later works. It's about a thirty-nine-year-old modern woman who wakes up in the body of a twenty-one-year-old Victorian woman. Elaine doesn't know anything at all about the girl whose body she now possesses, nor does she know anything about the era. One of my favorite scenes is when Elaine starts her period:

“Oh, marm, ye’re hurt!”

Righting herself, Elaine turned a scowling face toward the maid. Fancy Katie noticing she was lame after all this time, she thought caustically. But the maid’s eyes, big as the spindle hole in a floppy disc, were fastened onto the back of Elaine’s gown, not her leg.

Elaine grasped the right side of her nightgown and pulled it forward until the back slid within visual range.

The white silk was smeared and speckled with blood.

Red blood.

Fresh blood.

But where had it come from?

She twisted the gown this way and that. It was stained only in the back. What . . . ?

Elaine’s cheeks flamed with sudden knowledge of the blood’s origin.

“Oh, marm!”

The knowledge, too, had just occurred to Katie.

“Oh, marm!” the maid repeated, sounding utterly astonished that a ‘lady’ was subject to the same physical realities as the lower classes.

Elaine looked down at the maid in budding dismay. Oh, marm, indeed! In this era that didn’t even have toilet paper, what did they use for sanitary napkins?


While I have always revered archeology and palentology, it was this book that gave me an undying love and appreciation for the Victorian era. I was as ignorant as Elaine when it came to what 19th century women used for sanitary purposes. Visiting the Chicago museum, I was informed that women used 'napkins' that they pinned to their drawers. But drawers in those days had no seams in the crotch, so how could they pin anything to them? . . . After perusing dozens and dozens of books about feminine apparel, I came across a reference to sanitary belts. And a little later, a one-sentence reference to sanitary napkins! Thus began an education that continues today. . . .

If you've read Awaken, My Love . . . or even if you haven't! . . . I would love to hear your comments. And please, if you have any questions at all, don't hesitate to ask them: That is the purpose of a blog, to communicate!