Wednesday writing

The last books in both the Friends & Doms series come out in May. So you may be wondering what I am writing now.

I have tons of story ideas in my list and these are from all sorts of genre not just contemporary – sci-fi, futuristic, fantasy, paranormal, historical. I know some best-selling authors stick to the same genre but I decided I didn’t want to be restrained that way. If I have an idea I will want to write it regardless of the genre. Some writers use a different pen name if they write in a different genre but I think that is just too confusing for the reader so at this moment in time I have no intention of using a different pen name.

The story I have just had accepted is a new series - a futuristic/sci-fi story called Wife for Three set on a planet that has been colonised some sixty years after they first landed and the trials and tribulations of colony life in that time – how do they make clothes, what do they eat, what work do they do, how has the community evolved and so on.

It is my first ménage story – although I did have a ménage scene in Submissive Training. This is a foursome relationship (three men and one woman) and the problems they have in a society where women are far and few between. One of the heroes advertises for a wife for them to share so when Brianna marries the guys she doesn’t know them so it takes time to build up their relationship. In the meantime, jealousy, shame, disappointment all rear their ugly heads as does desire, need, love. And it doesn’t go that easily as she is accused of already having a husband……

That book is due out in June so watch this space for more info.

Alongside this I have started on a new BDSM story, a werewolf story and a follow up (ten years on type story) to the Friends & Doms series.

Jen

Inspirational Mondays - review for Friendly Seduction

I had an absolutely FAB review from Coffee Time Romance last week and they gave me their top rating of 5 cups which they state is for exceptional books. Wow! What is even better is that it is for Friendly Seduction – my favourite book to write – but one that hasn’t sold particularly well, possibly because of the humour in the story. So this might boost sales!

It will certainly boost my ego – when you get a good review you jump up and down for joy and are inspired to immediately write another story (but it if is bad you never feel like writing ever again!)

Rating: 5 Cups

Matt is a sci-fi author, not a romance writer. When his editor tells him more sex, more romance, more heat, he asks his cousin for help.

Lissa has a huge crush on Matt, but she has no way of letting him know she finds him sexy. Every time he walks into the room, her tongue feels like it has been turned and twisted and pinned on the roof of her mouth.

After setting up a meeting time with his cousin and her friends, Matt is shocked when he sees Lissa in the group of women who read erotica. As she begins to open up about what she likes and dislikes about the hedonistic novels, Matt really sees Lissa for who she is. When he needs help again, he finds himself alone with Lissa time and again instead of the group setting like the first time. What follows is some of the sexiest and erotic encounters that both Matt and Lissa have ever experienced. But what will happen when the novel is finally finished? Will they say goodbye to their experimentation, or hello to a newly discovered love?

I loved, loved, LOVED Friendly Seduction! At times I found myself sighing because of the pure pleasure Matt took in discovering Lissa’s body. Other times, Ms. Denys had me laughing so hard at the less-than-stellar sexy performances that the words seemed to be jumping around on my eBook Reader. Reading this book was such a pleasure and I enjoyed each erotic encounter, whether it was pure sexual or had the humorous scenarios that made me fall in love with this tale. I want to read more by this author and I can only hope that her other stories will grip me from the getgo like this one has.

Danielle
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More

Jen

Friday funnies

This is one of my all-time favourite funnies. Enjoy.

A man was working on his motorcycle on the patio, his wife nearby in the kitchen.  While racing the engine, the motorcycle accidentally slipped into gear. The man, still holding onto the handlebars, was dragged along as it burst through the glass patio doors.

His wife, hearing the crash, ran in the room to find her husband cut and bleeding, the motorcycle, and the shattered patio door.  She called for an ambulance and, because the house sat on a fairly large hill, went down the several flights of stairs to meet the paramedics and escort them to her husband.

While the attendants were loading her husband, the wife managed to right the motorcycle and push it outside.  She also quickly blotted up the spilled gasoline with some paper towels and tossed them into the toilet.

After being treated and released, the man returned home, looked at the shattered patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle. He went into the bathroom and consoled himself with a cigarette while attending to his business.
 About to stand, he flipped the cigarette  butt between his legs.

The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard a loud explosion and her husband screaming.  Finding him lying on the bathroom floor with his trousers blown away and burns on his buttocks, legs and groin, she once again phoned for an ambulance.  The same paramedic crew was dispatched.

As the paramedics carried the man down the stairs to the ambulance they asked the wife how he had come to burn himself.  She told them..  They started laughing so hard, one slipped, the stretcher dumping the husband out.  

He fell down the remaining stairs, breaking his arm.

Have a good weekend

Jen

Wednesday writing

I had a terrific review a few weeks ago for my latest book Submissive Training:

‘Well written, sexy and even quite humorous at times. A weeks training seminar for new submissives and Kat certainly gets her eyes opened. Very enjoyable reading’

Many thanks to the reviewer, but what made me take a step back was the fact that they found it humorous.

Now, as many of you will know if you have read any in my Friends’ series, I like writing humour into my stories, but I would have said with my hand on my heart that the characters in Submissive Training were the most humourless ones I had ever written. I hadn’t intended them that way – that is how they came out. But for the reviewer to mention humour in their review makes me realise my natural instinct to find humour in situations must have come out in my writing after all!

You might like to know that this book is now available to buy on Amazon.

Jen

Inspirational Mondays - talk at Sh!

Hi everyone

Well I gave my talk on my experiences since I became an erotic romance writer at Sh! last Saturday. It was a shame only one person attended but she seemed really keen and interested so I hope she got a lot out of it.

My thanks too to Shelley at Sh! for her encouragement.

For those that didn't come but wanted to pick up some hints and tips here are a few:

• Carefully check the publisher's website for their submission criteria (different publishers will have different criteria);
• Make sure your manuscript is well proof read - preferably by someone other than yourself;
• Know your apostrophes;
• Check out how to write dialogue properly, particularly use of punctuation, and what consistutes a dialogue tag;
• Depending on the publisher's style preferences it is possible that they will ask you to change your manuscript if you include semi-colons, brackets, capitalised words indicating emphasis - instead use italics;
• Make sure your submission email as well as any attachments like a synopsis is as well written as your manuscript - it is a step by step process. If the publisher thinks the email is well written they will read your blurb, if that is well written and has enough of a hook they will read the synopsis if you have had to attach a separate document; then the first page of your story and so on;
• Make sure there is some indication on the first couple of pages that it is going to be an erotic story - don't start with long narrative detailing the back story - not unless it has a terrific sex scene in it!;
• Acceptance rates are generally between 1-4% but there are a fair number of small independent publishers selling erotic romance these days;
• Avoid head hopping which is the worst 'new author' mistake;
• Another is you must start the chapter with dialogue or action to draw your reader in - no long narrative, back story or inner reflection;
• If you are writing a story which you have little experience in then do your research - and particularly if you are writing an historical story as you don't want to write about motorcars before they have been invented;
• Don't be surprised to have negative reactions from friends and family. They may be supportive but the thought of reading any sex scenes you have written is tantamount to you describing your sex life (even if it is all from your imagination);
• Is it worth writing a series - yes because they sell better. If you like the look of a book that is the second in a series chances are you will go out and buy the first in case you have missed anything important. BUT it can be difficult being consistent in your details within the series so you have to be careful about that;
• Will you make enough to give up the day job - probably not. It is said that most writers earn less than £5,000 pa. If you do want to take this up to earn money and not because you just like writing then think about sticking to the same genre (eg, sci-fi, contemporary, historical, etc) and sticking to the same sexual preference, eg, m/m, m/f or menage but not mix them.

And lastly:

• Don't be worried if you get your book accepted by a publisher and you then get bad reviews - you can't please everyone and remember that a publisher likes your work enough to want to sell it and you have achieved your dream of becoming an author!

Jen

Wednesday writing - my talk at Sh!

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Inspirational Mondays

As you know from last week’s blog I attended Eroticon conference recently and I commented on some of the things I learnt there. But here are a few personal reflections that I found intriguing:

• This is the first time I have been away since my books came out and I hadn’t realised how much I have become addicted to checking emails, sales figures, review sites, forums, publisher’s website and so on until I started panicking that evening that I couldn’t get onto the internet (well, I could, but I refused to pay the £4 per hour that the hotel was charging). This was despite knowing that I was able to get onto the internet at the conference venue the next day. I have made the resolution to have one evening a week when I don’t go on the internet (we’ll see how easily I can keep it!).

• I use a pen name for both first and last names so, although I have got used to seeing my pen name in print or in emails, it was weird having people call me Jennifer. It took a moment for me to realise they were talking to me!

• I met a couple of writers whose books I had read before I started writing and found myself getting star-struck. Here were some real writers – wow! I still have to hit myself on the head and remind myself that I AM a real writer….. (and here’s the first book cover to remind myself!)

Jen

Friday funnies

Sex is like playing bridge: If you don't have a good partner, you better have a good hand.

Have a good weekend.

Jen

Wednesday writing - my talk at Sh!

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Inspirational Mondays - reflections on Eroticon

Hi everyone

As you will know if you read last week’s blog, I went to Eroticon at the weekend - the UK’s first conference for erotic writers (this included writers of erotic romance, erotica as well as sex bloggers).

I had a terrific time – and well done Ruby Kiddell for organising it. It was terrific to talk to people who understand, not only my love of this genre, but the trials and tribulations of writing this genre.

These were my reflections:

• The conference had quite an international flavour – a number of people from America, a couple of Australians, one from Belgium and another from Switzerland (although American) that I was able to ascertain. 

• But the discussions also brought out an international element relating to attitudes of different countries to erotica. For instance one of the publishers there said that, despite having licensed brothels, they have found it impossible to get their books into Australian mainstream bookshops (whilst they have no problem in the UK). On the other hand in mainland Europe (in particular France and Italy) erotica is not necessarily a separate genre but has been included in mainstream literature for decades. I was intrigued when the same publisher who talked about problems with Australia stated that they are selling exceptionally well in Spain, Portugal and Romania.

• As expected there were mostly women at the conference (one of the publishers indicated that most writers of erotica are women compared to 20 years ago it was mostly men). What surprised me was that the women seemed to be mostly in their 20s and 30s with a just few older. I felt distinctly old at 51.

• One item of interest that came out for me was different people’s experience with different publishers – and not necessarily the same. Some people had had a dreadful time with their publisher whilst others thought theirs was terrific.

• At a publishers’ panel session I attended one of the questions asked was what type of novel is over-represented and one publisher said ‘the couple appearing to have an affair who turn out to be married after all’. As for the under-represented themes these included Victorian spanking and generally anything historical.

• The recent paypal issue was raised. Worryingly one of the publishers there stated that they only dropped one book from their shelves. This was worrying because it was a ménage with twin brothers as it was regarded as incest despite the men not being involved with each other as ‘brothers with one woman’ is the subject of my latest story I am finishing off!!! I know Siren has lots of those type of stories so I hope it is going to be acceptable when I submit it. On the other hand the publishers also commented that they felt this issue will die down in a few weeks. I certainly hope so but it is a shame for any author in the meantime who has had to have their book pulled.

• I came away feeling very lucky that I am able to be open and honest about my writing to family, friends and work colleagues as so many people had to keep their work hidden behind pen names (which I have, but not because I want to hide it from people I know) because of concern about family – particularly if they have children - or work reputations.

• There was a session on how to write about things you have no experience of including other genders. Generally it was fairly obvious – read, research, practice on yourself, on others if you are able, talk to others and don’t be afraid to write it. It was interesting to note though that women writers are regarded as being more emotional in their writing and men more descriptive but also that as the market is generally for women – and women like their characters to have more emotion – o maybe we don’t need to make our male characters less emotional.

• The conference finished with very interesting flogging/whipping and burlesque demos.

• The highlight for me was meeting my favourite erotica writer – the fabulous Janine Ashbless – the person who inspired me to write (despite me telling her I wasn’t nearly creative enough before I started writing – so the joke is on me now six books later!).

Roll on Eroticon 2013.

Jen