The Dynamic Trio - Blog

(Cross Posted from my blog yesterday)

I was reading something earlier today and it went into my “sigh, so not sexy” file. Filled with a zillion fucking scenes but not a one made me even the slightest bit tingly. It was all random body parts thrusting and rearing, twitching and *this is Lauren, scowling* lots of random buttsecks. And whatever, okay, buttsecks can be totally hot in the right circumstances, it’s taboo, it has cultural baggage - it’s forbidden and when the right author harnesses those things it’s whew, hot, guh! But it’s like any other scene in the wrong hands and I’m left sneering and rolling my eyes and sort of scared of rearing penises.

While I’m a very visual person, sexy to me is more often than not about the stroking of my brain. It’s why porn is okay for like five minutes but after that I find myself bored, amused or horrified. It’s why I like authors who realize it’s not in the quantity of sex scenes in an erotic romance but in how the scenes are utilized.

Don’t get me wrong - a scene with a super dominant dirty talking man is hotter than the sun if it’s done right and in context. Really, really hot (eyeballs roll to the back of my head hot). But a man who takes his time to lick the back of a knee or who leans in to breathe in the scent at her neck? HAWT!

Last night I was giving my husband a massage - yes a real massage, not a euphamism - and I just became entranced by the way his back felt under my hands. The flex and play of his muscles as I worked, the way his ass felt against me as I straddled him, the scent of his warm skin as I pressed my fingertips into it. The act of ministering to him, of caring for him and easing his stress became a huge aphrodesiac to me. Also, the fact that he was there, relenting to my control but still like a great big tiger who could pounce at any moment - shiver.

He told me about his day, just little bits and pieces and his voice echoed through his ribs. His hair, once deep black and now salted with gray, was soft against my fingers as I massaged his scalp.

What was the most sexy was the intimacy of the moment. He told me about his day, I told him about my new story idea, we laughed about the kids and normal stuff and it was good between us.

The outcome is something I’ll save for a book, heh, but there is sexy in every day things that aren’t overtly sexual in nature. There is sexy in connection

Author Kate Hill is hosting a heroes theme day on 30 June over at the New Concepts Publishing Yahoo reader list. There will be excerpts, prizes and of course a parade of heroes. For details go here

We hope to see you there!

A few things about BEST MAN

1. BEST MAN is part of Ellora’s Cave Naughty Nuptial series.

2. It’s a story written by Shelley Munro, and since she lives in New Zealand that’s where it’s set.

3. BEST MAN is a contemporary man-love story i.e. gay romance

4. Check out the cover.

5. Like many New Zealanders Shelley loves rugby. Jesse Peters and Grayson Lynford are both rugby players who dream of playing for New Zealand’s All Black rugby team.

6. The blurb:

A society wedding—the celebration brings both joy and regret for groomsman Jesse Peters. Jesse wishes things were different and his dreams of becoming a professional rugby player didn’t come between him and fellow groomsman and rugby teammate Grayson Lynford, the man he craves and has secretly lusted after for months.

One chance encounter and everything changes—hot, steamy lovin’, blistering passion and primal heat. Hunger between Jesse and Grayson blazes searing and intense. A future seems possible until reality intrudes and threatens to destroy Jesse’s relationship with the best man he’s ever found.

7. Shelley Munro loves an alpha male. Both Jesse and Grayson are on the alpha side. They know what they want and go after it.

8. Jesse and Grayson are great friends with common goals, and Shelley thinks they’re both pretty sexy. *fans face*

9. BEST MAN is a Quickie but by the end of the story Jesse and Grayson have a future. If you’re busy, with limited reading time, a Quickie is the perfect book to buy to soothe your reading urges.

10. BEST MAN is an erotic E rated romance.

11. BEST MAN costs $2.99 per download.

12. You can buy BEST MAN on 29 June 2007 from Ellora’s Cave or here.

13. If you’ve been thinking about trying a gay romance, BEST MAN is the perfect one - a great size and price plus an excellent story. But, if I haven’t convinced you and you prefer a traditional romance how about one of these?

or or

Contemporary or Historical or Paranormal

They’re all really good reads and available here for $2.99 per download.

1. Saigon Cinnamon
2. Bacon while it’s cooking in the oven
3. Fresh cut grass
4. The garage AFTER trash day
5. My daughter’s cinnamon rolls
6. My daughter’s fresh baked bread
7. Man sweat! (not funky teenager overdue-for-a-bath man sweat!)
8. The smell of a new book
9. The smell of my royalty checks
10. Fresh laundry
11. A field of blooming flowers
12. The smell of the aromatherapy incense and candle place that I can’t remember the name of
13. The smell of new babies (as long as they’re somebody elses! I have teens, I can’t go back!)

Link up so I can visit you, then leave me a post, m’kay?

technorati

I have the privilege of working with the most awesome authors in hot paranormal romance. I’m throwing a big bash to celebrate my August releases, EGYPTIAIN VOYAGE from Ellora’s Cave and SERATI’S FLAME from Samhain Publishing.

The contest kicks off August 1st and you may be one of the lucky finalists to get your choice of nine, count ‘em, NINE authors backlists. Check my July “TJ On A Tangent” newsletter, coming July 4th weekend, for details.

The Dynamic Trio and the Night Whispers Authors are groups with such fantastic authors as Lauren Dane, Kate Hill, Mary Winter, Shelley Munro, Denise Agnew, and more. And they’re all friends of mine (Woohoo!) which is the only way I could pull this off!

Details and contest rules will be in the newsletter. (To subscribe, visit my website at www.tjmichaels.com)

If you’re not familiar with all of these authors, check out our group digs at here at www.dynamicthree.com and www.nightwhispersauthors.com.

And the winner of the download of BEST MAN is:

Becky

Congratulations, Becky. Email me at shelley munro @ gmail. com (no spaces) and let me know which format you’d prefer.

Cynthia Eden wrote a wonderful blog entry at the Bradford Bunch last week about novellas. I love to read novellas, it’s often how I discover new author voices. But when I read a novella, I read a novella. By that I mean, I don’t expect to get the same experience I’d get in full length novel. I’m going to remember that in a novella, I won’t get the same level of detail and characterization I’d get in 100K words. A novella has to be a great balance of characters and enough world to give the reader a backdrop. Cynthia’s novellas in Secrets 15 and 18 are great examples of how to balance detail and character and wordcount. MaryJanice Davidson is also excellent with novella length, Angela Knight, Megan Hart, EC Sheedy, Erin McCarthy are also favorites of mine.

In a quickie - a short of about 10K words, I’m going to keep that in mind even more. I’m going to look for a story that gives me a sharp punch of sensation. A quickie isn’t going to be about worldbuilding, it’s going to be about the characters. EC’s “quickie” series are great ways to find new authors or even to get a tiny bit of an author you already enjoy. Cheyenne McCray’s quickies are wonderful, as are Charlene Teglia’s, NJ Walters’, TJ Michaels’ and Shelley Munro’s.

In a category length novel, you’re talking 60-70K - that’s enough room for worldbuilding and good characterization but it has to be tight or you’re left hungry at the end. There are some harlequin authors who should write the book on how to write great category because they do it all the time and they kick category’s limitiations in the ass. Alison Kent and Jo Leigh are two who immediately come to mind. I’ll add William Gibson because while he doesn’t write romance category, he does write 70K at times but gives the reader an immense world with three dimensional characters (Neuromancer is in my top 10 favorite novels of all time list)

And in a single title, the author has more words to work with, but she doesn’t need to throw in everything including the kitchen sink. Just because you’ve got 100K, we don’t need to know about every single detail. The single title author has to create a big, rich world with interesting characters without unloading *too much* detail and information. Megan Hart is fabulous, Lara Adrian, Liz Maverick, Guy Gavriel Kay - just to toss out a few

Different authors can master these different lengths and some authors can do them all really well. I don’t have much more of a point, I was just having a discussion with a friend of mine over the weekend about novellas and expectations of different types of stories.

It’s exactly six months to Christmas - the mid-year point. Down in the Southern hemisphere we have a celebration we call the mid-year Christmas dinner. When you think about it, this makes sense. It’s the middle of our winter, the weather is cold and it’s the perfect time to have a traditional hot dinner. Our usual Christmas lunch/dinner is a barbeque, and we’re all dressed in T-shirts and shorts, sweltering in the heat.

We had a spur of the moment family dinner at our local golf club on Saturday. The golf club had notices about their mid-year Christmas dinner. They’re having ham, turkey, mulled wine and Santa is arriving with presents. After a little discussion, we decided we should have our own and celebrate my nephew’s birthday at the same time. We picked a house to descend on, everyone is taking a selection of dishes. Now all we need to do is inform the lucky family member that we’re all coming to dinner and decide on a date. Should be fun!

I could do with some menu suggestions. What are your favorite things to eat for Christmas dinner?

This is a rather strange topic, but it’s been on my brain since I woke up this morning. What’s the deal with billboards? I hadn’t paid much attention to them until I realized that I haven’t seen a good one in a long time.

They’re building a bunch of new communities and businesses near my house, and now that I think about it, the only kind of advertisements I see are for the new communities. You know, they basically say ‘Come live in our neighborhood,’ which translates to ‘Come pay top dollar to us.’

What happened to the days of Calvin Klein hunks and such? Where have all the cowboys, uh, billboards gone?

When was the last time you saw a good ad and more importantly, where was it? And if it was online, be sure to give me the link so I can go see it too!

TJ

PS - If you haven’t seen the new cover for SERATI’S FLAME, V.C.O.E. Book 2 yet, here it is. I don’t have a book cover for my Torrid Tarot yet, but I’ll let ya’ll know as soon as it comes.

Cherie J is the winner of the Sexy Summer Fun Contest! Send me your mailing address and I’ll get your copy out when I get mine. Congratulations!!

What else? Hmm, I’m working on Reading Between the Lines - a fantasy themed erotic romance releasing October 2 from Samhain. Of course, my heroines are always very shirty when I don’t give them their way so Haley is making sure I know what she wants me to say and not letting me do anything else.

When this one is turned in, I’ve got a novella eating my brain I need to finish because I love it so much. And something I started last month featuring Connor and Minx from Vengeance Due. After that I’ve got Wolf Unbound to finish up and a number of other things as well. It’s goingto be a very busy summer and fall around here, thank goodness.

My dude and I are planning our second annual Vegas vacation without the kids later in the summer and I am really looking forward to the time with him. And Vegas is so wonderful, I always come back with a new story idea. I may even go without my laptop because it’d be nice to have some time without it. We’ll see, I am a junkie and all, LOL!

Okay, I’m just babbling now. My middle kiddo finished preschool this week and my oldest will finish on Tuesday. I can’t believe I’ll have a kindergartener and a fourth grader! Jeez! And now I have a few months of them home all day long, fighting and bickering, to face. Thank goodness it’ll be nice enough to toss em outside all day.

Don’t forget to check out The Bradford Bunch Blog as well as my other blog for contests as well. I’ve got a release, Threat of Darkness, due out July 25 from EC so there’ll be some fun stuff I’ve got planned.

Okay, gotta go and get some work done. Talk to you Tuesday!