Pamela Clare's Blog, page 25

MTM — The Eyes Have It with Guest Ronlyn Howe

It's said that the eyes are the window to the soul. They show us the needs and desires of the person, all the secrets that that person holds dear can be seen if you look deeply enough. They can reflect joy, pain, need ... anything we desire it's all right there.

This first guy (above) has lovely eyes. They're bright and smiling. I'd imagine he's got a good sense of humor...but do you notice the little spark of devilment in there? That spark that says, "I know what you want and I'd have a great time getting you there."




Our second eye guy doesn't have quite the same youthful twinkle, but paired with the sly grin his eyes say he's been there, done that... and if you play your cards right he might just take you with him. And, if those little smile lines are anything to go by, he can guarantee you'll have a great time on the ride.


Eye guy number three is completely engrossed in whatever it is he's watching. With the slight parting of those full lips I'm thinking he's watching someone trying to entice him. A slow sultry strip tease, maybe?



Guy No. Four has an intense stare that dares anyone to cross him. And he's got the muscles to back up his stance. And he's wet. And ripped. And hot.



Guy No. 5 captured my eye the second I saw the photo. Look at that intense look in his eye, along with the determined set of his jaw and compressed lips. He's being pulled through the ringer and he's determined to make it through. If you can't keep up, just get out of his way. This Warrior Man has work to do.


And finally, a look that says it all, along with the reaching hand. I know you girls know what he's asking.

[Editor's note: Yes, we do. And my answer is, "Yes!"]

Thanks, Ronlyn, for this sexy MTM treat. As much as we go on about pecs, abs, glutes and biceps, there's a lot to be said about a strong gaze, a sexy glint, and beautiful eyes.

Have a great Monday, everyone!

Got a concept for MTM or some super-hot pics you'd like to share? Just e-mail us at MTM HQ and arrange for a guest slot.

News for my historical readers

As most of you know, I left Dorchester publishing after they quit publishing books in print. When I left, I bought one box of each of my titles, unable to bear the thought of them all being pulped. I gave the books to my son to do with as he chooses, and he is opting to sell them for the regular retail price on eBay. All of the books are new, straight out of the warehouse.

I have offered to sign and personalize the books for anyone who buys one. They are available in a limited supply. Although Ride the Fire, Surrender and Untamed will be re-released with added material at the end of the year and into 2012, Sweet Release and Carnal Gift will not. I'll soon be making both Sweet Release and Carnal Gift available as ebooks, but for now, this is one of the few places you can find to get a new print copy — and certainly the only way to get a brand new signed copy.

If you're interested, here are the links:

MTM — The Flag Day Edition by Seductive Musings

Hello there fellow Man Titty Monday lovers!

A while back Pamela invited guests to appear on her blog to help her out while she is busy writing more of her tempting romances for us to read, and being a devoted fangirl I answered her call of need and volunteered to share some of my own MTM Muses.


I'm the blogger behind Seductive Musings, and I love romances (especially Pamela's)! When I first started my blog I knew I wanted to share the romances that I love and can't wait to read with like minded virtual friends, but I needed some inspiration...a placed to begin so to speak. I needed a Muse to inspire me to share my thoughts, and since most romances are all about the hero for me, I took that thought literally and began to seek out inspiring and seductive visual Muse representations (it's grueling work, but hey, someone has to do it, right?) Monday's Muse was born and has been inspiring me and my followers each week, but you better believe that one of my first online stops every Monday morning is here at Pamela's blog for Man Titty Monday! Because it's Monday, and I firmly believe that you need A LOT of inspiration to get up out of bed and start another grueling week. The more Muses the better, I say!


So this week I thought I would share the love of one of my new favorite holidays as inspiration for this week's Man Titty Monday. What, you didn't realize that there was a national holiday this week? If you didn't, let me enlighten you. By the end of the post I am sure you will understand, and agree, why Flag Day is a great and Muse worthy holiday. Yes, Flag Day. It's not just another holiday on your calendar. This one has a special place in my heart (other than being the day before my birthday). I am here to show you why I think the celebration of the representation of our country can be very inspiring :) It's a rallying point for our troops, inspired a our national anthem, and has many other useful purposes, in fact I think I might just declare it a romance lovers holiday (you'll see why, just trust me and go with it). Here are some flags that I found seductively tempting...




The flag as headgear

You did notice the flag on his head in this OMG, there is a God, Muse? If you didn't notice the first time is it your patriotic duty to look again :)




The flag as towel

Has a flag ever been worn better? Every time I see this Muse I have the same thought...If kilts are to Scots, what the flag towel is to this Muse....does that mean that all his star spangled glory is just one stiff breeze away? One can only wish :)




The flag as bathing suit

Umm, yeah, that's a teeny tiny flag bathing suit, and the only thing I have to say is that the designer of this piece of patriotic clothing is a genius. GENIUS! From his beautiful man chest, to his drool worthy thighs this particular flag is well represented :)





The flag as the flag

After all it is Flag Day on June 14th (every year) so why not one last but of MTM inspiration where our Muse is the flag pole and proudly displays his assets and all that is great about our Country :) Oh, say can you see...



Happy Man Titty Monday, Happy Flag Day and thank you to Pamela for letting me visit with you today!


(Isn't Flag Day a great holiday to celebrate?)

Answers to the I-Team Quote Matching Game

Congrats to those who participated! I guess this match-the-quote game was a lot harder than I thought it would be. But hopefully it was fun, too.

Here are the answers:

1. "Have you ever caught a criminal with ink?" — Julian to Tessa in Hard Evidence

2. "The word phobia implies there is something wrong with my reaction to spiders — horrid little monsters!" — Sophie to Marc in Unlawful Contact

3. "Maybe the mayor can hire a consultant for hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach the boys in blue the difference between a gun and a cell phone." — Tom Trent

4. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead." — Julian to Tessa in Hard Evidence

5. "Burn a bra if you want, but don't be ridiculous!" — Reece to Kara in Extreme Exposure

6. "I want a man who really loves me, who will stick by me no matter what, even when he gets bored with me and thinks I'm old and ugly." — Kara to Reece in Extreme Exposure

7. "You're just afraid to let yourself feel because feeling hurts so much." — Kat to Gabe in Naked Edge

8. "I just love to start the day with a bit of yelling." — Tessa Novak



9. "Sometimes you say the stupidest things, Holly." — Matt Harker in Naked Edge

10. "At least if you were plying him for information, get him to spill insider secrets, I could respect it!" — Tom Trent to Kara in Extreme Exposure

11. "I love you with everything I am. You are the best thing that ever happened to me." — Gabe to Kat in Naked Edge

12. "You should ask Kat whether she found it romantic, because before the rescuing bit came the part where someone nearly killed her—or did you miss that?" — Tessa to Holly in Naked Edge

13. "No one is supposed to be okay after witnessing a murder." — Kara to Tessa in Hard Evidence

14. "You're a reporter, and that means trying to catch the killers, doesn't it?" — Reece to Tessa in Hard Evidence

15. "I never could've done what you did. I probably would have jumped off the cliff myself just so I didn't have to be afraid of falling." — Holly to Kat in Naked Edge

16. "I'm sure there are lots of men who'd do or say anything to get inside her, but I'm not one of them. I don't want her. I want you." — Gabe speaking about Holly to Kat in Naked Edge

17. "If I thought you'd been a coward, I'd tell you to your face." — Marc to Joaquin in Breaking Point
18. "Oh, come on, Bradshaw. One beignet won't make you fat." — Matt to Holly in Breaking Point

19. "Your wish is our command." — Chief Irving to Julian in Breaking Point

20. "I'm ashamed to say it, but I tried not to think about what they might be doing to you because I couldn't stand it." — Kat to Natalie in Breaking Point

21. "That's just him being a man. Trust me. He's crazy about you, even if he doesn't know it yet." — Sophie to Kat in Naked Edge

22. "I want to hear more about Mr. Secret Agent Man." — Holly to Tessa in Hard Evidence



23. "The bastard shot him from the upstairs window when the officer was walking up the to the door. Didn't even warn him." — Joaquin during an I-Team meeting

24. "There's still something between us — something strong. You want me as much as I want you." — Marc to Sophie in the Jag in Unlawful Contact

25. "Yeah, well, I guess I was in the wrong place at the right time." — Zach to Kat in Breaking Point

26. "You can't just look through a reporters files no matter who you are." — Natalie to Zach in Breaking Point

27. "Sometimes the scar isn't on the outside. Sometimes it's on the inside where no one else can see it. Believe me, I know." — Natalie to Zach in Breaking Point

28. "Clash of the Titans." — Joaquin in Unlawful Contact

29. "You haven't exactly caught me at my best." — Zach to Natalie in Breaking Point

30. "I can't say how sorry I am to see you here. Not only does it mean bad times for you, it means I'm about to get a call from your asshole boss." — Chief Irving to Sophie in Unlawful Contact

I put the names of everyone who participated in my online contest randomizer and...

LANDIPAN!

You are the winner! Choose any book I've written that you'd like to have — I-Team or historical — and I'll sign it and get it in the mail to you. Congratulations!!!

Other news:

I'm working hard this weekend to finish editing and revising Surrender. As some of you know, the book is being re-released in December with a new cover and new content. Think of this as the "author's cut" of Surrender. The plot of the story won't change, but now that I have no size limit on the book, I'm able to include scenes I wasn't able to include before. Also, my editor at Penguin has edited it differently then the original editor, so there are subtle differences in the text.

I need to finish this quickly, however, as I need to get back to Connor's story, which is due soon and which I'm very far behind on. The release of Breaking Point took a lot of time away from writing, and I'm losing two weekends to Surrender, one weekend to out-of-town guests from Denmark and one weekend to a speech I've been asked to give in Denver.

As for that speech... I'm very excited that I've been asked to be the speaker at SlutWalk Denver. The SlutWalk movement started after a Toronto cop told a group of young women that if they didn't want to get raped, they shouldn't dress like sluts — which is more of the same victim blaming we're all tired of hearing. SlutWalks have been held all over Canada, the United States and Europe, and on July 2, there will be a SlutWalk in Downtown Denver. Already, more than 1,000 women have signed up to march, and I will be delivering the speech wearing a T-shirt that says, "This is what a slut looks like."

I also wanted to let you know that since Breaking Point was released, the volume of email and Facebook messages, Tweets and Goodreads messages that I'm getting have shot through the roof. It's not unusual for me to get 2,000 e-mails a day now. I'm doing my best to answer them, but if I haven't gotten back to you, please know it's not because I'm ignoring you. If your email was about an event, like a guest blog, please write back to me as a reminder.

So how did everyone do guessing quotes? And how's the summer going so far?

I-Team Match the Quote to the Character Game

Time for a bit of fun!

I finally got around to sorting through the zillions of quotes my home team — I love you! — plucked out of the five I-Team novels and have put together a little matching quiz.

All you have to do is match the quote to the character. Easy, right? You all know these characters so well!

Each characters has two quotes. In the case of heroes and heroines, the quotes may or may not be from their own story. I tried to pick quotes that were representative of the characters' personalities without being too obvious.

Try to see how many you can do in your head without looking in the books. Only turn to the books as the last resort. You can email your answers to me — my email is listed in the info on my Facebook page and many of you already have it — and share your experience by posting here.

Participants will be entered to win the signed book of their choice from me.



Good luck!
1. "Have you ever caught a criminal with ink?"

2. "The word phobia implies there is something wrong with my reaction to spiders — horrid little monsters!"

3. "Maybe the mayor can hire a consultant for hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach the boys in blue the difference between a gun and a cell phone."

4. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."

5. "Burn a bra if you want, but don't be ridiculous!"

6. "I want a man who really loves me, who will stick by me no matter what, even when he gets bored with me and thinks I'm old and ugly."

7. "You're just afraid to let yourself feel because feeling hurts so much."

8. "I just love to start the day with a bit of yelling."

9. "Sometimes you say the stupidest things, Holly."

10. "At least if you were plying him for information, get him to spill insider secrets, I could respect it!"

11. "I love you with everything I am. You are the best thing that ever happened to me."

12. "You should ask Kat whether she found it romantic, because before the rescuing bit came the part where someone nearly killed her—or did you miss that?"

13. "No one is supposed to be okay after witnessing a murder."

14. "You're a reporter, and that means trying to catch the killers, doesn't it?"

15. "I never could've done what you did. I probably would have jumped off the cliff myself just so I didn't have to be afraid of falling."

16. "I'm sure there are lots of men who'd do or say anything to get inside her, but I'm not one of them. I don't want her. I want you."

17. "If I thought you'd been a coward, I'd tell you to your face."

18. "Oh, come on, Bradshaw. One beignet won't make you fat."

19. "Your wish is our command."

20. "I'm ashamed to say it, but I tried not to think about what they might be doing to you because I couldn't stand it."

21. "That's just him being a man. Trust me. He's crazy about you, even if he doesn't know it yet."

22. "I want to hear more about Mr. Secret Agent Man."

23. "The bastard shot him from the upstairs window when the officer was walking up the to the door. Didn't even warn him."

24. "There's still something between us — something strong. You want me as much as I want you."

25. "Yeah, well, I guess I was in the wrong place at the right time."

26. "You can't just look through a reporters files no matter who you are."

27. "Sometimes the scar isn't on the outside. Sometimes it's on the inside where no one else can see it. Believe me, I know."

28. "Clash of the Titans."

29. "You haven't exactly caught me at my best."

30. "I can't say how sorry I am to see you here. Not only does it mean bad times for you, it means I'm about to get a call from your asshole boss."

Here's the list of characters you can draw from:

a. Kara McMillan
b. Reece Sheridan
c. Holly Bradshaw
d. Matt Harker
3. Joaquin Ramirez
f. Tessa Novak
g. Julian Darcangelo
h. Sophie Alton
i. Marc Hunter
j. Chief Irving
k. Tom Trent
l. Kat James
m. Gabe Rossiter
n. Natalie Benoit
o. Zach McBride

Coming soon:
Interview with the I-Team heroes
Baking pies with Natalie
News on Surrender 2.0

Stay tuned, and have fun!

MTM — Game of Thrones edition

If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out. HBO's new series GAME OF THRONES is exciting, creative and fun — and that's just the opening sequence with all of its clever pieces that pop up and become castles.

Typical of HBO series, it features a lot of hot guys who often get naked. Though I'd say there's been more naked women on this show than men, still, the guys are hot.

Above we have Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, a Danish actor remembered for his role in Black Hawk Down, who plays the loathsome Jamie Lannister, a highborn knight and king-slayer who also shags his sister. While I hate, hate, hate his character, he is just damned hot. And, yes, he is Danish, which scores huge points for me. (Those of you who remember the research about penis size that was recently released will recall that Denmark did itself proud, much better than the U.S.)


Here he is displaying his fine chesticles — one for those of you who don't like super beefy guys. Toned with nice definition, he also has an almost obscenely handsome face.


Kit Harington plays Jon Snow, Lord Stark's bastard son, who has taken "the black," i.e., joined The Watch on the big ice wall that separates the realm from the wilding and snow vampires beyond. Because he serves in an icy part of the land — and because taking the black means forsaking sex — we only ever see him dressed in furs and armor.

However, he kicks butt in that armor, showing the other recruits for the Watch exactly what they're supposed to be able to do with a long piece of metal called a sword.

I suspect that this vow of celibacy will be challenged later in the series. At least I hope it will. In fact, part of me is counting on it. His face is so expressive that he's a scene stealer every time he appears.


Here's one of my personal favorite actors — Sean Bean. We remember him as Boromir from Lord of the Rings, but he's played all kinds of characters from terrorists to heroes. In GAME OF THRONES, he plays Lord Stark, a man whose sense of honor looks like it might get him killed.

Here he is a bit younger and a bit beat up. There's something about him lying mostly naked in bed, covered with bruises, scowling and holding a gun that really does it for me. If only he could open up his mouth and talk. That northern accent is just damned sexy.

I've always thought it must have been easy for him to learn to spell. All he had to do was memories "e-a-n" and then alternate between "S" for his first name and "B" for his last name. But the pronunciation must have been confusion. Why isn't his name pronounced SHAWN BAWN or SEEN BEEN? These are the mysteries I contemplate late at night when I'm exhausted from re-editing a book I wrote five years ago.

This is none other than Jason Mamoa. Above we see him in his Hawaiian habitat, but below we get a glimpse of him as a barbarian — a role at which he excels. Clearly having hit the gym since his surfer days, Mamoa plays Khal Drogo on the program, a barbarian horse lord to whom young deposed princess Daenarys Targaryen is forced to marry early in the season. Their wedding night doesn't even constitute "forced seduction." Drogo simply removes her gown, bends her over and does the deed while Daenarys cries. (Mamoa reportedly had a difficult time with the scene.) Of course, Daenarys falls in love with him....

Here's Jason in his Conan days. Not sure what iteration of Conan he was in. A film with the title "Conan the Barbarian" is guaranteed not to draw me into theaters, though perhaps I should re-evaluate my position. Because make no mistake, Mamoa is hot. At 6-foot-4, he must be quite the sight nude on set. And, yes, he has been naked. (Hey, wait! Finish MTM first. You can subscribe to HBO later!)

Here he is as Khal Drogo on his wedding night girded in all manner of barbarian gibbeltry. I don't buy that any true barbarian would wear that outfit on his wedding night. It's hard to get to the relevant body part beneath all of that stuff — beads, lizard skins, dried seaweed, shells, braids of slain enemies, dragon teeth, leather...

Enjoy your Monday! Maybe a few daydreams about some barbarian lord lifting you off your feet and onto his horse will keep you going through the day.

Meanwhile, back in 1758...

As many of you have already seen on Facebook, I now have the final cover to the re-release of Surrender. I was elated to see the first images of the cover — posted here a while back — because they demonstrated the care my editor at Berkley has put into getting historically accurate images on the cover.

Compare this to the original cover with its entire village of tipis — I had sent an email telling my first publisher to make sure there were no tipis — and its "chastity plaid" that made an absolute waste of Nathan Kamp's excellent chesticles — a request made by a shall-not-be-named distributor that is now defunct. Yes, I wept when I saw this cover, and not in a good way.


But by now, most of you have seen the little gold medallion on the front that says, "Includes new material." I thought I would explain what's going on.

Basically, we've gone back to square one with the original manuscript. So the novel is getting a new edit — I am making small changes to the text, but not to the plot — and my editor has edited it in a slightly different way. The manuscript was never altered very much from the original, and these changes are subtle.

For example, my previous editor felt that using "ken" and "kent" in the story made it hard to read and irritating for people who don't like the Scottish burr, so all of those were changed to "know" and "known." But my editor at Berkley has left them the way I originally wrote them.

(Those of you who wonder where I got my way of denoting the Scots accent and such might be interested to hear that I got it from Scottish music. The way I spell things and much of the vocabulary comes not from my imagination, but from old Scottish folk songs.)

What won't be subtle are new scenes or extended scenes that will be included in the final version.

When I wrote Surrender, I was not too far away from the experience of having 100 pages cut from Carnal Gift. It wasn't that the book sucked and needed to be cut. It's that the original publisher just would not print anything beyond a certain number of pages, and I had overshot that by a significant number. It ruined the story, in my opinion.

So, when I wrote Ride the Fire, I was very conscious of this page limit and was simultaneously trying to write and not write too much. That's a hard thing to do as a writer. It was the same experience in writing Surrender. I never, ever wanted to go through the pain of having pages I'd worked so hard to craft cut just to please some bean counter somewhere. (It costs more to ship books if fewer fit in a box.)

Now with this new edit, I can loosen things up a bit. How much new material will be in the story? I can't say. But there will be some.

This same process will occur with Untamed in about a month. The difference with Untamed is that the original manuscript had 25 pages cut out to make the book fit the original publisher's even smaller maximum page count. (I was not pleased.) Those 25 pages will be restored, and the book will get a new, fresh edit.

The same thing will occur with Ride the Fire later this year, only my focus there will be to get in the epilogue I didn't have the stamina to write when I originally wrote the book. A deeply personal story for me, Ride the Fire stripped me to the bone. I had nothing left and couldn't function for about six weeks after I finished writing it. So, the epilogue just never happened. It still isn't written.

A lot of things will be happening in a short period of time as we move deeper into 2011. Here's a list:

Later this summer — Sweet Release and Carnal Gift will be available in the original print versions as I sell off the limited stock I have of those books. I bought a case of each, and I'll autograph them and sell them online or through email.

Early autumn — Sweet Release and the original version of Carnal Gift will be available as ebooks for Kindle, Nook and in other formats. I'm going to be self-publishing them, and that means those 100 pages will be included in the ebook version of Carnal Gift. You can judge whether what I wrote is better than what was originally published.

December — Surrender will be re-released in print and as an ebook by Berkley with the cover you see at top, the new edit and the new material.

January — Untamed will be re-released in print and as an ebook by Berkley with the cover you see at top, the new edit and the new material.

February (or later) — Defiant, Connor's story, which you have all (im)patiently been awaiting, will be released. This is a new book, not a re-release.

So those of you who've been waiting for more historicals from me will be getting what you asked for, and the entire series, which went out of print after the original publisher hit hard financial times, will be available in one format or another, part of it self-pubbed.

I'll keep you up to date as a I go along. As we get closer, we'll do a MacKinnon's Rangers reading challenge so that everyone can remember who these guys are and what the heck three Scottish brothers from the Highlands are doing in Colonial New York.

This weekend, I'm hanging with Iain and Annie, re-editing Surrender and making notes for ideas for new and extended scenes. It's something I've never done before, and I'm finding it kind of fun.

Have a great weekend!

Hawt summer reading

Thanks so much to Jenn LeBlanc for sharing her amazing photos of Denver hotties with us yesterday for Man-Titty Monday. It takes a certain courage and craziness to walk up to hot men in gyms and ask them if they'd like to pose naked for you. It makes me wish I'd learned to take decent photographs!

If you want to check out Jenn's illustrated romance, click here to visit her website. The idea of having photos from love scenes... Well, it has a certain appeal.

So what's on your summer reading list?

Mine includes:

The rest of Christy Reece's wonderful CHANCE books. I read the first one and then got derailed by surgery and trying to finish Breaking Point.

Marie Force's FATAL series and Gansett Island trilogy. The first, Maid for Love, came out in April. The second, Fool for Love, came out this weekend and is is live at Amazon, B&N, and Smashwords if any of you want to give her a try.

Anna Campbell's new historical Midnight's Wild Passion. She sent me a signed book from Australia, and I just love the cover. The colors are so lovely.

Julie James' first two books — Just the Sexiest Man Alive and Practice Makes Perfect. (I loved Something About You and A Lot Like Love).

Can you tell I haven't had time to read apart from research lately?

Also, Elisabeth Naughton has a book coming out today that sounds right up my alley. It's actually an anthology titled succinctly Bodyguards in Bed and featuring novellas from Lucy Monroe and Jamie Denton, as well as Elisabeth Naughton.

Here's the blurb from the back:


Bodyguards in Bed

There's just one cardinal rule when it comes to being a bodyguard: no matter how tempting it may be, never, ever get romantically involved with the person you're supposed to be protecting. But as these sensual novellas prove, even the most important rules are made to be broken–again and again and again. Join acclaimed authors Lucy Monroe, Jamie Denton, and Elisabeth Naughton as they open the files on an undercover operative who finds a sexy surprise under his covers, a hot case involving mixed messages and mistaken identities, and a mission impossible protecting a provocative beauty who lives to love dangerously.

Yeah, it's a hard job,
but someone's gotta do it.

What caught my attention was Naughton's novella, "Acapulco Heat," perhaps because I've just recently written a novel about Mexico.

Here's the blurb from "Acapulco Heat"

Sun, sand, skin and plenty of sex. That's the name of the game in beautiful Acapulco.

Bodyguard Finn Tiernay's new gig in the sultry city is nothing short of perfect. Too bad he can't stand it. Hired to protect supermodel Lauren Kauffman during her very public, very sexy cosmetic shoot on the beach, Finn's itching for a serious assignment and the chance to get away from the hot bod who's set her sights set on him. Their mutual attraction has been brewing for some time, but he's got no use for the super wealthy, isn't about to become another diva's boy toy. His no-fun-at-work motto might get him booted out of her bed, but when danger strikes, she won't be able to shake him. And when he discovers things aren't what they seem and that she's more than a pretty face and smokin' body, all bets are off. Lauren Kauffman's about to take Finn for a ride he never saw coming. And there's no telling who will survive.

Naughton totally had me at "Sand, sun and plenty of sex." Sounds good to me!

The anthology got good a review from Publishers Weekly, so I think this will be my lazy-day read. Click here to read an excerpt.

So what releases are you looking forward to this summer?

MTM — Author Jenn LeBlanc brings her own chesticles

MTM Editor's note: This is the first of what I hope will be many Guest MTM blogs from readers and fellow authors. We start off with author Jenn LeBlanc, a photojournalist (who, oddly enough was at SPJ picking up an photojournalism award the night I won my big award, but is also a romance novelist). Jenn takes her own photos for her books. Yes, she not only writes romance, but she convinces hunky men from Denver to take their clothes off for her. These are her original photos, part of her illustrated romance novel. Jenn and I met in person in Denver at Lady Jane's Salon, where she let me look through all her photos. It was amazing! So, now, without further ado, I turn things over to the talented Jenn LeBlanc.


p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Times New Roman"; }.MsoChpDefault { font-size: 10pt; }div.WordSection1 { page: WordSection1; }

Oh, Pamela, how can I ever thank you enough for letting me guest on Man Titty Monday? I so very much adore, not just the MTM, but also all the beautiful man titty you always dredge up from only goodness knows where. Today, I have brought along my own set of chesticles.

Well not mine, per se, but those belonging to my muse Mr. Derek Hutchins. He was the star of my illustrated romance novel, The Rake and the Recluse, and I have spent many — many hours in a studio just staring at this guy. I have such a difficult job. It pains me really. Okay, I give, I am the luckiest girl in the world, but that makes you all the second luckiest because the thing I love to do the most (besides shoot Derek) is share. Just follow me on twitter, and you'll see how much I love to share.

So let's get busy.

I brought a mix of historical and modern chesticals, because my novel is a time travel set in Victorian England and Derek plays Gideon Alrick Trumbull, Duke of Roxleigh. But here in the real world Mr. Muse is a fully tattooed hottie.

The image at top is, obviously, Derek as Derek. Those tats on his trapezii are the symbol for om. I could sit and meditate to this view for awhile, couldn't you? This guy is about as far from a 19th-century duke as it gets.

I like to call this one the Wolverine. Now don't get me wrong Mr. Hugh Jackman is a damn beautiful man in his own right, no argument there, but the veins on Derek's disembodied torso are SICK awesome. Seriously. Those muscles are not just for show, they are for taking and grabbing and squeezing and…oh my.

Yeah, this is my favorite image from the book. Because he looks like he is either a breath away from killing me or…well…see when shooting the love, anger happens to look a whole lot like the passion.

So you like them wet? So do I. Wet and nekked. What? Dukes go swimming. Seriously.

How about some painted man titties? Who wouldn't love to be that paintbrush? This is actually Ross, my other favorite man candy…er, uh, professional model. He now lives in Korea, teaching English to children, hot and smart. Did I mention he also plays piano? Yes, talented digits. SIGH.

Can't leave you without him wet. Well, I could…but I'm not like that.

* * *

Thank you, Jenn, for sharing your area of expertise. I think the idea of an illustrated romance novel is right up there with my idea for a "touch the man-titty" app. I think incorporating erotic photos could raise romance to a new level of hawt.

Please don't forget that I have offered to carry your camera bag and wield the spray bottle the next time you do a shoot. Help a fellow journalist out, will you? YUM! I know my Monday has gotten off to a fantastic start!

I-Team Heroes Poll

Marc Hunter when Sophie meets him in prison (subtract leather jacket and shades)

We're down to the last 24 hours of my latest poll, and I have no trouble predicting that Marc Hunter will be the big winner.

I am really surprised. I've been saying that all week. No matter how many votes came in, the spread remained basically the same. I really expected Julian or Zach to lead, followed by Marc, then Gabe, then Reece.

Reece Sheridan

I knew that Reece, lacking the über-alpha law enforcement personality, would come in behind the others. That's okay. He's very secure in his manhood and understands. But I truly thought that Darcangelo — aka Dark Angel, aka Dorkangelo, aka Dickangelo — would come in first. He seems to get so much attention.

Zach McBride

I talked with some of you about this on Marie Force's blog — the inner war of an author over which of her characters she hopes is most popular. Here's how it goes.

A Writer's Internal Monologue
"I hope they vote for Zach! If they do, it means they loved his story and that I wrote him well. Yes, I hope they vote for Zach! The book has been really popular, so they must all love him. Maybe my agent is right that my writing is getting better.

"Except that... if they vote for Zach, does that mean all the other heroes are crap and that those books stunk? Maybe the book were awful and no one could really bring herself to tell me that. Oh, God, they can't all vote for Zach! Did they love none of the others? Did Marc's sacrifice and Gabe's great loss mean nothing to them? What about the sucky-swirly thing?

"But what if they don't vote for Zach? OMG! That will mean Breaking Point was meh and he was the Navy SEAL girly-man of romance novels. It means I'll have written the only un-sexy Navy SEAL in U.S. history!"

And so it goes.

I've actually talked about this with people at work. Yes, they know the poll is going on. Most of them haven't read the books — no reason they should — and don't know Dickangelo from a hole in the ground. But they sure know what I think...

So here's one theory for Marc's success:

The poignancy of Unlawful Contact was built strongly upon the very real concept that Sophie and Marc had no future. Their time together was limited. The story could only end in one of two ways — either Marc dies in a hail of bullets or he's locked away in prison. That heightened both the suspense and the sexual tension and gave each and every scene a sense of desperation. The fact that Marc is willing to hold a gun to Sophie's head and the swagger with which he goes on the run makes him a bad boy — not a pretend bad boy who seems menacing but is just a fuzzy kitty cat. He actually does some bad stuff. But he does it for reasons we understand.

That's my theory.


Julian Darcangelo
Julian is... well, he's Julian, and it doesn't surprise me at all that he comes in No. 2. Perhaps the gap between him and Marc is wider than I imagined, but he is indisputably No. 2.

And Zach... Well, he's No. 3 with Gabe not far behind him at No. 4.

Gabe Rossiter

And Reece is exactly where I knew he'd be.

So the silly part of this poll is that very few of you wanted to vote for one hero. I got lots of messages about the unfairness of having to choose one. Sorry, but that's how this one went. And it was revealing.

Someone asked me if this will influence my future I-Team stories. Knowing what I know, will this impact the kind of heroes I write?

Yes, and then again no.

I can't write a series of novels about guys who break out of prison or who are convicts on the run. That would get old fast, and I don't like repeating myself. Plus, after five or so escapes, our entire prison system would be overhauled.

BUT I do know you love the I-Team heroes. Even if Marc is in the lead, every one of them got some love and some campaign support. No one took off his pants to find himself alone.

I wrote Marc when I was pining for Julian. I had such a hard time putting Julian behind me. All I could think was, "I'll never be able to top Julian. Ever." So I decided I would have to forget the idea of writing a hero who was somehow BETTER than Julian and instead focus on telling a story that was special in its own way. Its hero and heroine would be unique, too. And that way, maybe, I could write a hero equal to Julian.

So that's what I try to do, and that's what I'll keep doing — trying to write characters, both heroes and heroines, you can love for who they are. And I'll try to stop the monologue in my head.

In the meantime, please enjoy your long weekend. Memorial Day is about real heroes, men and women who gave their lives in service to their country. I hope we all take time amid bike rides and barbecues to remember them — and the loved ones they left behind.