Liz Everly's Blog, page 88
May 26, 2015
Read A Book, Have An Orgasm
By For those familiar with the vibrator industry – and if not, have I got a homework assignment for you! – the dominant player among high-end devices is Lelo. Praised for it innovative, sleek designs, Lelo also manufacturers one of the priciest vibrators in the world – a $15,000, 24-karat gold-plated number that allegedly counts Jay Z and Beyoncé among its (very) satisfied customers.
But a new player in town may just make Lelo buzz in alarm. With its titilating tagline commanding us to Read! Vibrate!, B. Sensory brings us Little Bird, the world’s first sex toy synchronized via Bluetooth to literally make literature erotic. Read a book, have an orgasm? We’re all a-quiver here at Lady Smut.
The concept works by installing an app on your smartphone or tablet to make it function as a remote device for Little Bird. Start reading a hot story and as you breathe hard or shake the tablet, it will trigger vibrations in Little Bird that the author has chosen for you. Even more fun is that this pleasure needn’t be yours alone. You can start off (or get off, as the case may be) by going solo, but the option exists to hand the device over to a partner who can command the vibrations when and where he or she sees fit. The promo video, seen here, shows a naughty couple in a restaurant using the app in “duo” mode.
Clearly the woman in the video is wearing her Little Bird and, according to B. Sensory’s website, it’s easy to do. The “love
egg,” as the designers call it, is sleek (although does look curiously like a Sherlock Holmes’ pipe), waterproof, made of medical-grade silicon, and – perhaps most important – quiet, thus providing the ability to give yourself a little thrill from your Little Bird whenever you like, without anyone being the wiser.
B. Sensory has attracted several authors eager to sign on to the concept, including erotic writer Françoise Rey, the “grande dame of erotic literature” in France. The crowdfunding campaign is apparently working and B. Sensory claims on its website that Little Bird and the app will be available in November.
If all this sounds like something you’d like in on, there’s a solicitation for authors to submit their manuscripts in either French or English. Ooh là là! What a nice way to get a whole new group of readers discovering your erotic stories. For you editors out there, by the way, B. Sensory is looking for you, too. Scroll toward the bottom of this link and you’ll find the information. It’s in French, but essentially all you need to know is that they’re looking for editorial partners. If you’re interested, you’re invited to contact them.
Leave it to the French to combine vibrators and books, but leave it to Lady Smut to make sure you all know about it. Hit us up with the comments about Little Bird, but don’t rely on a little bird to keep you up on all the latest fun. For that you’ll need to follow us at Lady Smut.
Oh, and while you’re at it, hop on over to Goodreads and be sure to enter the Lady Smut Book of Dark Desires giveaway. We’d love for you to win a copy.
May 25, 2015
In Praise of Italian Men
By Liz Everly
Sometimes I like to ponder the deeper things in life. What is love? What is the meaning of life? And what, just exactly, is the appeal of Italian men? Hmmm?
I grew up in a heavily-Italian populated part of the U.S. The “Sons of Italy” held fish fries on Fridays and were always participants in any kind of community food festival. For me, my love of Italian men might be traced back to my roots. They were so different from the blond, blue-eyed men in my family. (For me, being different from my family was an attractive quality.) They were dark, earthy, passionate men, bound by family and community. Yet, oh, so mysterious to me and very, very, VERY sexy.
I love their classic bone structure and deep-down love of good food. I love Thai food and Indian food and a variety of other kinds of food—but if I had to choose my favorite kind of “ethnic” food, it would be Italian. It tastes like home to me. In truth, so do Italian men.
Wouldn’t you like a bite of this?
Eduardo Verastegui
And then there is the accent. Can you just imagine the sweet whisper and sighs between the sheets, punctuated with those sexy accents? Or maybe lovely Italian words “Bella…” (is there a language more beautiful?)
Fabricio Zunino
Of course, Italy’s regions all offer up different kinds of food, traditions, and men (I suppose). When I was researching for the sixth installment of EIGHT LAYS AROUND THE WORLD, which is set in Italy, I focused on Tuscany because this is the white truffle region. I loved learning about the highly trained dogs and the methods of finding the very expensive nuggets. (I have a new Pinterest board Truffle Hunting, check it out.) Giovanni, the male character in this story, is a wealthy truffle hunter who is also, um, quite earthy and delicious. He has interesting thoughts about food. Of course.
“We stopped working at about 5 a.m. and I was tired and hungry when we stepped into the kitchen of the villa. The scent of frying butter and something else…earthy, musky wafted. When they sat a platter of it in front me, I nearly fainted from the richness of the butter, dripping off the truffles.
“This is the best way to have them,” Giovanni told me. “You can do all kind of things with them—dress them up, add special sauces, but those of us who know will tell you. Plain. In butter,” he said with butter dripping down his chin. “It’s like sex. If it’s good, you don’t need, um, embellishment.” ”
Click on the cover to go to Amazon and purchase for .99.
Another little bit of wisdom from Giovanni:
“We used to talk about food and cooking, You know, Marko used to say that cooking is about control,” he said. “Eating is about submission. He said that people who really enjoy their food are great in bed.”
So there you have it. Sexy-food wisdom from my hunk of a truffle hunter.
This series has been fun for me to write. I’ve learned a lot about other cultures in my research, and had fun creating my multinational cast of men. Two more installments to go in the series. Check out my Italian men Pinterest board. Yowzah. In the mean time, to celebrate the release of “Italy,” I’m offering the first in the series for free until Friday. Enjoy!
Click to go to Amazon and download this freebie! Just until Friday!
Spring Cleaning Now Summer’s Come
by Kiersten Hallie Krum
I don’t know about you but, holy cats, have I been waiting for summer. We all know how bad the winter was across the board with previously unseen depths of cold. My pipes froze for the first time in my life, it was that cold.
Sunshine is scientifically proven to be necessary to good mental health. Me, I have the moon roof on my CR-V opened every chance I get, turning the heat on when needed in the cooler months of May. I may be getting sunburn on my scalp and I do not care. I need the air and the sun and being out and about and off on an adventure, even if that adventure only ends at the supermarket.
People talk of spring cleaning as something done only to one’s home, but the mind and the soul likewise require the rush of fresh air through their rooms and halls, a cleansing of spirit as much as that of body. Likewise, one’s TBR pile can always do with a new book. I picked up Edie Harris’ RIPPED this past week, the second book in her Blood Money romantic suspense series, but my first for her. In short, I loved it.
Attorney and political heavyweight Tobias Faraday is the Ice King, a man alone in the eye of a deadly storm. And in the wake of his sister’s torture, he’s out for blood. The key to Tobias’s revenge is the disavowed British spy he’s kept imprisoned for weeks. Chandler McCallister can get him behind enemy lines in Russia, but the clever double-agent has a demand of her own before she puts her life on the line in the name of redemption.
Posing as Chandler’s boyfriend at an aristocratic wedding in the English countryside won’t kill Tobias. Not in theory.
As the threat of Moscow looms larger and the enemy reveals himself to be crueler than any human can imagine, Tobias reluctantly partners with his prisoner to derail the immediate threat—to their families, to Faraday Industries, and to their lives. What he finds in the process is a feverish, relentless need already melting the ice from his veins.
Tobias and Chandler should be enemies. Their relationship begins with him imprisoning her in a secret Faraday holding cell. Hardly the start to a promising relationship. On the surface, Chandler recently betrayed Tobias’ sister to a criminal who viciously tortured her and Tobias is pissed. But he’s also intrigued. Because Chandler is an accomplished spy in her own right and her secrets run far deeper than even the genius Ice King can fathom. Their courtship is a verbal duel, sharp and quick, that soon confuses the issue of just who is captive to whom. Tobias’ icy exterior slowly melts under the heat of Chandler’s growing appeal while Chandler eases her tight grip on the burdens that shaped her difficult decisions. But soon the trappings of aristocratic life are stripped to reveal the rot beneath, putting both their families in jeopardy. And when it all hits the fan and their lives are on the line, Tobias has to decide whether he can trust the woman for whom he’s fallen or be the next victim to a clever double agent.
Romantic suspense series are catnip for me and particularly clandestine organizations working without and (mostly) without official sanctions. Add a family dynamic and it’s Christmas, which explains why I’m a huge fan of Tara Janzen’s (early) Crazy/Loose books and Maya Banks’ KGI series.
RIPPED is like a mash up of James Bond’s Skyfall with a Working Title British Rom Com Production a la Bridget Jones or Sliding Doors and a soupcon of a Christie mystery movie. Mind you, it’s not a comedy, but the wedding setting at the posh estate kept me expecting some comedy of manners. There’s even shooting! I’m intrigued by the Faraday family and all their sibling dynamics as they’re embroiled in clandestine operations on the world stage. I can’t wait for the next Blood Money book from Edie Harris.
If you’re sitting on a beach this Memorial Day weekend or lake side or pool side or fire side, do yourself a favor and pick up or download RIPPED.
Then head over to Goodreads and sign up for the Lady Smut Book of Dark Desires giveaway.
Follow Lady Smut. We’ll melt all your inhibitions.
May 24, 2015
Hot Summer Swirl: Afton Locke Talks Sadie’s Surrender
Want to spend part of the long, hot summer on the water? Click to buy.
By Alexa Day
In the U.S., we’re celebrating Memorial Day this weekend. It’s a holiday for honoring those who lost their lives fighting for this nation, and it also serves as the informal beginning to the summer season. So in the spirit of merging mindfulness of history and discovering sweet, hot summer action, I’m here with Afton Locke.
I first got to know Afton at my first book signing a couple of Romanticons ago. She and I sat next to each other at the front of the room, where a person can get the best view of the entertainment. That afternoon, we shouted over the music about the fascinating field of interracial romances, especially the historicals. (I’ve written about those here, too.) I still think that particular subgenre of the subgenre is underserved, but I’m so excited by the work Afton’s doing with it. Her Oyster Harbor series, which started with Plucking the Pearl, has just expanded to its third book, Sadie’s Surrender. Here’s a little bit of the conversation I had with her about the new book, interracial historicals, and what’s she’s got lined up next.
What’s drawing you to interracial romance? What makes those stories enjoyable for you to tell?
I’m not sure. The stories have been popping into my head, begging me to tell them, for many years. I enjoy the conflict, forbidden love, and different cultures. I’ve had several past life regressions, and so far, I’ve been three different races. Once I began the Oyster Harbor series, I couldn’t stop writing.
At some point, we’re going to have to discuss the use of past-life regressions for story development! Right now, do you prefer writing historical or contemporaries? What sorts of challenges come with each subgenre?
I like historicals better, and my readers seem to prefer them too. The challenge is they’re harder to write because you have to do more research about everything, including language used. Since my stories are steamy, I also have to research birth control and underwear.
You going to say no to a cover like that? Click to buy.
Oyster Harbor is in Maryland, and your series takes place in the 1930s, which is kind of a socially complicated place in the history of interracial relationships. Does this time period make the research harder? What were your favorite resources? What was your favorite research surprise?
Writing about the 1930s is easy because it’s kind of recent, but hard because there’s not as much written about it as something like the Civil War. Writing a series makes it easier because I can re-use research. I like www.etymonline.com for word origins and eBay for old sewing patterns when researching clothes. Usually, I work in this order: story idea, write book, research and polish. My biggest surprise? Visiting an oyster museum actually gave me the idea for the first book.
Rose, Exposed, Book 2 in the Oyster Harbor series, deals with colorism and passing. The hero of Sadie’s Surrender is in the Klan. Even though this was a time when it was often safer to be in the Klan than not, this is still a pretty bold storytelling choice! I love bold storytelling choices. Do these choices ever feel like taking major risks for you, or was this just the story as it needed to be told?
Pretty risky, yes, but I like being bold and different. This was how the story needed to be told, so I went with it. So far, readers have been accepting. Book 4 will be the boldest of all! I really hope I can pull it off.
It’s a lot more complicated than black and white. Click to buy.
When you’re not working, what are you watching or reading or otherwise occupied with?
I love to read, romances and classics. I also like to watch TV comedies and dramatic movies from the 1970s. I love the bold emotions and the chances the characters took with interracial themes. I watch very little current TV because it seems so much flatter in comparison. I’m loving the Outlander series, though. I’d love to see the same done with Oyster Harbor.
What’s your next project?
I’m working on Book 4 in the Oyster Harbor series. It features a wild hurricane. I also have a 1970s interracial time travel waiting in the wings. Not sure when I’ll release it. In my other author personality, I have another Black Hills Wolves werewolf story coming.
Afton is probably working hard enough for both of us, right? If you want to keep up with her, check her out on Facebook or keep an eye on her website. She’s also got a newsletter waiting for you right here.
And don’t forget to follow Lady Smut. Our super hot summer is just getting started!
May 17, 2015
We’re Warming Up For Summer!
Doesn’t everyone have a pre-summer beach practice run?
Hey there, neighbors!
The ladies of Lady Smut are taking a bit of a vacation this week, in order to properly prepare for the summer. There’s just so much to do. Scheduling pedicures. Shopping for sundresses. Popsicle-licking classes. The annual changing of the cabana boys. (That one might be just me, but if you’re interested, you know where to find me.) We’ll be back in time for Memorial Day, though, with loads of summer fun to keep everyone hot and bothered in the coolest possible way.
While we’re gone, consider this a week-long open house. Check out the Shop and some of our most recent posts. And enjoy one of my favorite summertime anthems.
(A lot of so-called “official” videos of this song are only four minutes long. Just think that over, little lobsters.)
Get ahead of the game, and hit that Follow button now. See you soon!
Don’t forget to head over to Goodreads and get in the drawing for a copy of The Lady Smut Book of Dark Desires! You need some hot beach reading.
May 16, 2015
Sexy Saturday Round-Up
By Liz Everly and the Lady Smut Bloggers
Hell0 Sexy! Welcome to your Saturday reading pleasure. Interested in a little Amish sexy fun? How about the science of high heels? If not, there’s always the blog post about masturbation. At Lady Smut, we’ve got you covered.
From Liz Everly
Amish Romances: The New Fifty Shades?
Free Love Movements in the U.S.
7 Reasons Romance Novels are Totally Feminist
The power of romace novels! In Mali they’re being used as a way to give voice to women’s intimate feelings, and to teach them how to read.
Women with bad breath? Say it isn’t so! Yet apparently it’s one of the things scaring men about dating.
Wanna be healthier? Masturbate.
If you want to be happier in your relationship, one study suggests you should have less sex.
From Madeline Iva
A giant Fan Fest for Passionate Readers of Romance Novels. (And I didn’t get to go. :( )
Wanna man’s interest? The science of high heels.
Does Don Draper Believe in Love? Cogitating the end of Mad Men and what it all means…
Stay Hungry,
Liz
May 15, 2015
The Human Side of Sex Dolls
Editing erotica has been my personal form of adult sex education—not the kind you’d find in a school setting, perhaps, but one that has greatly expanded my knowledge of human sexuality and empathy for a far wider range of people than I’d have otherwise. Being exposed to fetishes, kinks and fantasies I would never have dreamt up in a million years on my own has forced me to recognize how vast the human sexual experience truly is, and to push myself out of my comfort zone to see the world and its eroticism through new yes.
This was especially the case when I decided to publish the short story “Must Love Dolls” by Giselle Renarde in my anthology Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, about a couple who purchase a Japanese love doll. To the best of my memory, I’d never read an erotic story about a love or sex doll before, and what impressed me the most wasn’t just that Renarde managed to humanize an inanimate object, but to make the tale both sexy and romantic. She took a topic that could have come off as creepy and turned it into an ode to love and rekindling a woman’s bisexual desire:
Honor’s stomach knotted with nerves as she cupped one of Natsuki’s perky silicone breasts. She could hardly breathe as she carried that significant weight on her palm. It had been ages since she’d touched any breast but her own.
“How does it feel?” Tom asked.
“Heavy.” She sank onto the bed, wrapping her arms around the love doll, pressing both big breasts together and wishing she were naked too. “Her skin’s so soft. Her hair smells like lilies. God, I’ve missed this.”
“Playing with dolls?” Tom asked.
“Playing with women.”
He smiled. “I know, babe. Take off your top.”
She did him one better and stripped bare. “I’m nothing to look at, compared with Natsuki.”
Tom raised an eyebrow. “I’m looking at you.”
He always knew the perfect thing to say, and it made her horny as hell. She grabbed his belt and unbuckled it, then tore into his pants and found his erection. He was as hard as she was wet.
“I want to look between her legs,” she told him.
In real life, almost every article about sex dolls (a term I’m using interchangeably here with “love doll,” even though not everyone who owns such a doll does so for sexual purposes) has stated that the market for such dolls is almost entirely male—but not entirely. Photographer Benita Marcussen captured a range of doll owners, whose motivations range widely. One of them, Angela Halliday, met a fellow doll owner through a forum and now owns two dolls.
I admit that this is a topic it’s hard for me to personally sink into because when I look at these dolls, especially the images of the male dolls on the RealDoll website, I see something far from lifelike.
Yet I admit I have never seen one in person, and I would imagine that the longer you own and interact with such a doll, the more lifelike it starts to seem. Furthermore, if you do buy a female doll, you get plenty of options in terms of customization, from eyeliner style to choices of eye color, including blue grey and teal green. The attention to detail means that those investing the big bucks can craft as close to their ideal woman or man as they want. There’s even a flaccid penis option for the male dolls!
And, because I just can’t resist, elf ears are also an optional add-on (for $150). Who knew?
Yet that is precisely why I want to learn more, because just as I may not 100% “get” the desire to own a human-size, lifelike doll, there are plenty of people who similarly have no idea why I, for instance, would want to be choked or have my face slapped as part of a BDSM practice. I consider my writing, both fiction and nonfiction, a way to explain, both to myself and others, those turn-ons, and consider it my job as a human being and especially as someone who writes about sex, to make my best effort to understand doll owners.
I think the reason the idea of owning a sex doll throws many people off is that it goes against all we are taught about sex—that its purpose is rooted in romantic love, that it should be, at least in part, not selfish, but selfless, that it’s about, at its heart, human connection. So those who object to sex dolls on the basis of their being inanimate should also, by that logic, object to sex toys just as strenuously. As Mark Shrayber puts it in an insightful article at The Daily Dot about sex dolls made in the image of popular porn stars, “Even if the RealDoll ‘objectifies’ women, is there any substantial difference between that and another masturbation tool, such as a wad of tissues or a Kleenex?”
Wicked Pictures RealDolls of porn stars jessica drake, Asa Akira and Stormy Daniels, via The Daily Dot
The more I’ve read about these dolls, even though I still can’t picture myself embracing one, the more I’ve found that these interactions, for many doll owners, are deeply personal and powerful. For instance, an interviewee in the documentary Guys and Dolls is quoted at Alternet, saying, “It’s the difference between being alone and lonely. Being alone is one thing. I don’t mind being alone at all. However, I cannot stand being lonely….that’s something that more people, I would hope, would understand. That’s why iDollators [people in the doll community] have their dolls.” If a doll is what’s keeping someone from being lonely, who am I to argue with that?
That being said, I think it’s one thing for someone to give up smoking for a year in order to afford a doll (now that’s a person I’d love to interview!), but I can’t help but be horrified by the copy for the Finally Mylie! Love Doll, whose package reads “She’s Young, Dumb and Old Enough for Cum!” I feel no qualms about saying that I want nothing to do with someone who’s turned on by language like this, via its Amazon sales page: “She’s had years of practice speaking into the mic, and now she’s ready for yours. just add air and this teen-queen pole-dancing princess comes of age right before your own eyes!” I’m not trying to say that cheaper blow-up dolls are somehow déclassé next to more expensive dolls (the Abyss Creations, makers of RealDoll, dolls range from $6,500 to a whopping $51,000!), but rather that promotional copy touting the joy of having sex with someone who’s just turned 18 is not my thing in any way.
I’m still fascinated by the fact that these dolls, whether we have any experience with them or not, bring up such primal responses. They do tap into human urges, sexual and otherwise. I’m grateful to Renarde for bringing to life, in the realm of fiction, a side of these dolls I had never considered, and making me think hard about their potential. Although I don’t think erotica writers need to take on the role of being sex educators, by default, we do expand people’s knowledge about sex practices, and this single story certainly illuminated a whole world I had no clue about prior to reading it. I’m grateful for that, and look forward to exploring more about the human/doll connection.
Want to learn more about these kinds of dolls from the people who actually use them? Visit The Doll Forum, where there’s even a doll role-playing section for “all the dolls who’ve come to life and want to chat it up with other dolls out there.”
Some might say that dolls are serving as substitutes for human interaction. But even if they are, if the people using them aren’t harming any actual humans, and in fact, are enhancing their quality of life, what’s the problem? Furthermore, the fact that doll forums and testimonials exist prove that not everyone is simply hiding away with their dolls and never speaking about them. When I titled this post “the human side of sex dolls,” I didn’t just mean the sexy side, but the various human factors that go into both having a sex doll and living in the rest of the world. There are some photographed by Marcussen who can’t tell their children about their dolls, while others have disclosed their doll ownership, in conversations that I’m sure were challenging and thought-provoking. That, to me, echoes the way many sexual practices, sexual orientations and even erotica writing also has to be kept a secret. That is also the common thread, as I see it; even if we’ve never thought about sex dolls before, if you dig a little deeper into the subject, I suspect you’ll also find a way to relate.
May 14, 2015
Tortured Heroes = Me, One Happy Reader
by Madeline Iva
I just discovered that Goodreads has a tortured heroes section — two in fact. Popular Tortured Hero Books, and the Tortured Hero Shelf. Meanwhile, All About Romance has a Tortured Heroes page that began in 1996!
You’ll see a lot of repeat books/authors on these lists, with books I happen to lurv. Which leads me to suggest: aren’t tortured heroes their own romance sub-category/brand? I think so. Here are five top reasons why we love tortured heroes:
1) He’s Cursed. Curses suck. They can be painful, they can repeat daily/nightly/monthly — wherein the hero becomes the shameful opposite of what he wants to be. See Gena Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld series for variations on this. What you basically have here is male subjugation. It’s hot.
2) He’s Cursed–for All Eternity. The hero has gotta believe he’s in a mess he just can’t get out of. Ever. Which is pretty bleak and grim, but it also means that this kind of hero is not Mr. Cool. You don’t play games with people if you’re suffering badly. So for the heroine, once you get past the messy, there the hero is at his raw, most elemental, vulnerable core. No games. An easy win.
Also, when he interacts with the heroine and she can provide him some sweet balm from his cursed, tortured life–it’s really really important to him. She quickly becomes the focus of his attention–his gratitude.
Or as he’s tromping around in the dark pits of Hades and he has to rescue her, and she becomes a total butt pain –but he’s used to pain. So he can stand it–after all–what else has he got to do except be tortured? He can expend great excruciating amounts of effort on her behalf to keep her safe. Even if he’s reluctant to get involved. Which is hot.
3) Mr. Messy, Messy, Messy. Kresley Cole’s books are on all these lists. The last book I read of hers had a hero who was just insane. Like insane in the membrane. Not only that he was ripping things apart, tearing up the place, raving and swearing, etc. He was at odds with the world, so once he finally got his head straight, he had to deal with the repercussions of his past–which were that everyone wanted to kill him, and he still felt like he should kill tons of people himself. Also… *spoiler alert*……..he’s a virgin.
Really, this big hunk of messy is someone only a Kresley Cole heroine could love… And it’s a sign of her true love that the heroine is willing to take on that much baggage and help sort it out. It also shows how strong she is. But you know, he doesn’t have to be insane to be a proper tortured hero. He could be covered in scars instead, or missing body parts–just as long as he’s not a Ken doll people — okay?
Even if he is a Ken doll (I’m looking at you, Mr. Grey) the point is that there is ongoing despair in his soul, and the heroine provides symptom relief–the cessation of torment and pain. by the time the novel ends, he’s my other favorite type of hero: broody. Broody is sort of like the hangover you get after being tormented for so long.
What’s great is the heroine gets to work on making it ‘all better’ which gives her an active role to play in the book, and so she’s not the passive object.
4) Use Your Words, Man. But tortured heroes don’t. Use their words, that is. Feminists say we have to learn to talk it out with guys–negotiate for what we want sexually & expect men to express their feelings. I’m all for it.
ON THE OTHER HAND, It’s nice to escape the real world every now and then and sink into a pre-verbal relationship in the tortured hero romance novel where all the real action is happening on a primitive non-spoken emotive level. Where people are using their feeling-vibes as a kind of language with each other. This of course, leads to things get physical quickly as they progress. Words are just the cherry on top.
It’s not that they’re not communicating. They are–horizontally. I mean, isn’t this the whole point of erotic romance? It’s human-animal level of bonding first, brainiac stuff later–much much later. The head is not a happy place for your tortured hero, so it’s best to connect with other parts of him right off the bat. Besides, your ideal tall, dark, and brooding hero is not chatty. J.R. Ward made a point of this when she made one of her best heroes mute. Go J.R.! (We introverts abhor chit-chat.)
5) The tortured hero has empathy–because he’s suffered. He’s not an oblivious, uptight, entitled Alpha prick. He’s not slick. He’s not bland. He’s intense.
Who’s your favorite tortured hero? Do you like the tortured hero’s cousin, Mr. Angsty Hero?
Don’t forget to follow us at Lady Smut — and stay tuned for our post on Grigoris Drakakis, romance book cover model who knows how to play tortured to a “T”.
May 12, 2015
Dudes Writing Romance
A few weeks ago we at Lady Smut were contacted by a perfectly nice book publicist who wanted to know if we’d be interested in reviewing a newly released romantic comedy, Close of Play by PJ Whiteley. As our regular readers know, we don’t do a lot of reviews on this blog, but this book caught my eye ’cause it was written by a guy. Interesting. So I took the plunge and read it.
This isn’t, of course, the first romance written by a man. There’ve been a smattering of them over the years, most notably and successfully Leigh Greenwood and Jennifer Wilde. But it’s still an unusual genre for a man and and this one that I’ve just read is a romantic comedy, more unusual still. Let me give you the lowdown:
Brian “Colin” Clarke is a 44-year-old ultra conservative, rather religious attorney and cricket player. He meets Elizabeth Giles, a progressive former nun. Intriguing premise! Different as their backgrounds may be, sparks fly and the relationship begins. Kinda.
As we’ve maintained over the years, we Lady Smut writers are fully supportive of other writers and it’s just not our schtick to be overly critical. Leave it for someone else cause writing is too damn hard. Anyone who wants to trash writers ought to try their hand at it first themselves. But I’ll be honest – there were some challenges with Close of Play, the primary one being that I couldn’t figure out who the audience is.
To begin with, the POV is first person and entirely the hero’s. There isn’t a single chapter or scene devoted to the heroine’s perspective. OK, well, that’s not ideal but it would still be doable if we could at least get to know her. Yet after reading the entire book I never came to care about her because I honestly felt I didn’t know her. Being a fallen nun is a draw, but I wanted to know more. Why did she feel she’d gotten the ol phone call from God to serve in the first place only to abandon the calling later? Does she wrestle with guilt over her decision? Does she ever think she was wrong? And mainly, as the relationship develops, what kinds of emotions is she experiencing? Unfortunately we never get to learn any of this.
For a “romantic comedy,” there honestly isn’t a lot of romance in Close of Play. Nor much comedy. What we get instead are
tremendous amounts of pages, whole chapters, even, devoted to cricket. To be fair, the story takes place in England. Yet I no more want to read that much about cricket than I do about golf. Or baseball. Not if I’m reading a romance. In the story we learn all about the guys on the hero’s team, their nicknames, how they got them, their positions in the game, how they perform, the hero’s batting stats, their after-game celebrations at the pub. Sounds as if the readership might be guys, right? But I’ll be honest, the hero isn’t really a “man’s man.” He’s fussy about his dress (on his first date with the heroine he even frets over what to wear), and mentions that he trims his nasal hairs. Um, PJ? We don’t actually need to know this. Some secrets should remain just that.
The hero is also only 44-years-old but acts as if he’s 75. He’s goes off on tangents about young people’s lack of manners and lack of morals. Can guys relate? Some of them, maybe. Retirees in Florida, perhaps. But as I mentioned earlier, the focus of this “romance” isn’t romance. The hero spends quite a bit of introspective time reflecting on life’s purpose and his own feelings of melancholy (not exactly what I’d label laugh-out-loud comedy), but we never really get to know why. As the hero notes toward the beginning of the book, “Chaps don’t talk about feelings; at least, not innermost feelings – only those that don’t matter.”And that may be Close of Play’s biggest problem of all.
I applaud Mr. Whiteley for taking a crack at writing romance. And, to be fair, there were parts of the book that were enjoyable. But we women read romance for the romance. For the initial rush of physical attraction, for the development of feelings, for the heady adventure of falling in love. Romances aimed at women are primarily in the heroine’s POV because we readers inserts ourselves in her place. Yet unlike real life, romances also give us the inside scoop on the guy’s perspective. We want chapters from his POV as well because we want to know what he’s thinking about us just as much as we’re thinking about him. I’d love to see more romances written by guys and get an upclose peek at the male mind. Just not when he’s thinking about cricket.
Back to Scotland
Hurrah, hurrah, the day is here. Semester is over and I am heading back to Dundee. You will hear the biggest sigh when I get there. But rushing through grading, another writers conference, sorting, packing, making lists so I don’t forget anything essential hasn’t left much time for blogging, so apologies.
It’s not like this for the swallows who return to Capistrano!
But one thing to be sure to mention: if you’re on Goodreads, pop over there now and be sure to join our giveaway so you could be one of the four lucky people who will win a copy of The Lady Smut Book of Dark Desires.
And always, follow Lady Smut because we know what’s sexy (Scotland? Sexy!).
