I’ve got three things on my mind: Sex…and other stuff. I’m just kidding! Actually, there’s a lot of going on these days and I’ll tell you about it all once things calm down. In the meantime there are a couple of topics on my mind this morning. Warning: It’s barely past 8:30am here on Sunday and I haven’t had a cup of coffee yet.
First, are there words in erotic novels these days that just flat out turn you off? I love, love, LUV reading erotic romance, especially paranormals. I recently read a contemporary with a bit of a paranormal twist that was an excellent short read. And in it, I ran across something I see often that just frosts my cookies (for those who aren’t sure what I mean, it means that it irks me ;D). The author actually used the word ’squealch’ to describe the sound of the couple having sex. And all I could think was, ‘EWW!’ I actually expected the guy to fart next or something.
Then they described the natural lubrication that secretes from a man’s ‘organ’ *snark* during foreplay as white. In most normal men, it’s CLEAR, not white. But I swear I see that reference to white pre-fluid all over the place in erotic romance. Here’s another one - “He felt his orgasm begin at the base of his spine…” - er, when I asked my ex-husband and several other males who didnt’ mind answering the question, they all said their orgasms are mainly focused in their genitals, not in their backs/spines. Again, you see it all over the place (sorry, I was a nurse’s daughter and the anatomically and psysiologically correct side of my brain just gets going sometimes - just smack me).
Any words that make you squirm when you read ‘em? I’m wondering if it’s just me.
Okay, second topic - what’s TOO close in regard to story lines? For example, Lauren has an awesome book (haven’t read it yet, but hey, it’s Lauren so you know it’ll be good) coming out where a contracts lawyer is having an affair with another lawyer. Without knowing anything about her book, I finished a novella and sent if off to my editor back in November that has the heroine as an executive at an international shipping company who’s having an affair with a contracts lawyer. So we’ve got two contracts lawyers here. While I could bet you real money the plots are way different, is the contracts lawyer thing too close in plot, in your opinion? And do you think it’s weird that both of us came up with contracts lawyers without either of the other knowing about it?
Maybe we’re linked by some sort of a psychic…nah. If that were the case I’d be writing faster ’cause ya’ll know that Lauren can really crank ‘em out!
Third topic - I reached level 27 in WarCraft the other day! Squeeee! Not bad for a newbie! My son is having a fit ’cause I’ve passed him up. Tee hee!
Happy Sunday, ya’ll! Be good to yourself!
TJ
LOL, she’s an employment contracts attorney specializing in non-compete and confidentiality agreements. There are oodles of lawyers in the world (me included). She’s the second lawyer I wrote about this last year (the other one is in To Do List).
Anyway, I don’t think it’s close to have people with the same vocation. I mean if you have characters doing something totally specialized and the plots are super similar, it might be an issue. But in truth, there are just only so many things you can write about, LOL.
In an interesting parallel - Jaci Burton and I were asked to write holiday novellas for Samhain. Just a simple, write me something with a holiday theme. And without discussing it or even knowing the other was writing a holiday novella, both our stories are about uptight lawyers. It just happens that way sometimes!
by Lauren January 21st, 2008 at 4:03 pmWow! That’s actually really cool that you and Jaci came up with something similar since it was for the same holiday season. COOL! They always say, “Great minds think alike!”
TJ
PS - You’re so cool!
by TJ January 21st, 2008 at 9:46 pm