Writing a New Genre

This is the sixth in my series ‘Writing a new genre’. Thank you, Tamsin Baker for taking part.

Manlove to…. None!… shock horror!

Hello everyone, thank you so much Jen for having me on your blog today.

I’m here to write about a change in my writing, and as a woman who LOVES jumping from genre to genre, I had to choose something significant to talk about. The biggest shift of the past six months for me has been from writing lots of manlove, to not including it at all.

I’ll take you back to the start.

Shortly into my erotic romance career I wrote an m/m contemporary romance and LOVED it. The journey, the romance, the heat. It easily became my best seller, so I wrote five more of them. When a friend of mine dared me to try a ménage, I changed an M/F vampire tale into MMF (First Bite).

Excerpt: “Can’t I have a taste too, Lina? Please? We could share,” Antony begged, his voice bordering on a whine.

Benedict flushed, his body heating in unusual ways at the idea of being shared between these two beautiful vampires. He had never been attracted to another man before, but this one smelled divine. His arousal was evident and Benedict wanted to touch him.

Lina turned her head toward Benedict and narrowed her eyes, inhaling deeply. Her eyebrows rose high as a small smile graced her lovely face.

“You want him to join us?”

Benedict blushed deeply, the heat on his throat and cheeks embarrassing. He couldn’t hide his arousal from her, but he was worried about the unknown. Afraid of the strength this male possessed. What would he be made to do in a sexual situation with the two of them?

This was a natural shift for me, to go from a love between two men, to adding a woman to the mix. I would NEVER have dreamed of writing a MFM - after all, I was a die hard Manlove fan.

If you are new to ménage and don’t understand the letters, MMF means that the men are bisexual and the woman is heterosexual, therefore it is a full threesome in love and sex. Since I love to read and write gay erotic romance, I had to make my men in my ménages fall in love too. I wrote my Third Bite series (a regency vampire ménage series) and decided to try different sorts of ménage (because I like to try new things). I ended up with an MMF, an MMM and an MMMF vampire story.

They sold relatively well, especially the MMM (surprise surprise - manlove I tell you!) and I decided to try my hand at shifter ménage romance. I began Fighting Destiny as an MFM (The men are both heterosexual and the woman is too.)

I wanted to write a MFM romance, as I had been told that they sold better, and me being me, I wanted to push myself past my limitations. Within two chapters of writing my supposed MFM, my two heroes are panting and heaving, naked on top of each other.

Excerpt: “No, Tommy.”

Tommy arched his back and screamed out, but nothing changed. Jeremy grabbed his wrists and held them tighter. Panic began to swim through him.

“It’s not my fault.” He panted as he thrashed his head from side to side. Tommy was frantic in his arousal now. What would Jeremy think when he felt it? He was fully hard now, so there was no way of hiding it.

Jeremy dropped his head and bit into his neck, the move carnal as well as dominant.

Tommy shuddered and worked to slow his breathing down. Jeremy didn’t lift his head, just whispered into Tommy’s ear.

“I know, and I’m sorry. We’ll find her together.”

Tears formed at the back of Tommy’s eyes, and he blinked them away. There was the man he wanted. Fuck! He wanted to keep on hating Jeremy! It made things so much easier.

After another few minutes Jeremy rolled off him and got to his feet.

Tommy’s cock was fully erect, weeping pre-cum, and his balls hurt. How was he going to explain that?

He sat up, lifting his knees to disguise some of it and looked up at the tiger shifter. Jeremy had the longest, thickest cock Tommy had ever seen, and it was also heavily aroused. Wow, really?

He reluctantly looked up into Jeremy’s eyes, he shrugged. “I always get horny when I shift and run. You do, too?”

Tommy nodded and got to his feet. He couldn’t have come up with a better excuse himself.

Oops… ah well… so I wrote Fighting Destiny and Knowing Destiny as MMF… I couldn’t help myself.

I continued writing M/M stories, comfortable with the fact that I simply couldn’t write MFM, despite the fact that I’d been told that ‘it was a classic female fantasy and the best selling of ménage.’

Then I got an email from one of my publishers - Escape Publishing. They were launching a new continuity series and they wanted me to be a part of it. They gave me a character and asked me to do a threesome, preferably with two men, since that was the only type not already ‘taken’ by the other ten authors.

It was an MF romance, so this would be a MFM threesome for one night, not a ménage - so it was different (I really enjoy ménage because of the equal amount of love shared by the people) - but I got SO STUCK!

I had five months to write ten thousand words (something I could do in two weeks, easily, most months) and I put it off to the final ten days. I didn’t want to write a sex scene when the men didn’t touch and the female was the center. I’d failed before in attempting an MFM and I wasn’t comfortable doing it.

I forged forward, rewrote it three times, and finally succeeded with my story ‘Sienna: Secret confessions: The Sydney housewives.’

Excerpt: “Feeling good?” Brad asked as he fucked her harder, making sparkles of pleasure explode inside her belly.

She looked down and saw Brad’s blue eyes widen as she concentrated on the muscles of her pussy and squeezed him tightly. She may be the one being fucked, but she loved knowing that she had power over the men too.

Sienna nodded. “Yeah, it feels awesome.”

She would have enjoyed the moment of triumph longer if Charlie hadn’t spoken and distracted her.

“You ready, babe?” Charlie asked her and she nodded, fear filling her despite the trust she had in her man. This was way out of her comfort zone.

He removed his fingers and pressed his hard cock against her arse. Brad kissed her then, drawing her into a kiss so fierce and passionate she felt only a slight stretch and burn as Charlie pressed his cock into her and continued forward. Filling her until she could feel his belly against her arse.

So, I had broken the mold and during the process had a new inspiration, my perfect pairs shifter series. The idea was to have a pair of un-identical twins that are perfect compliments to each other.

I knew the best way to stop my boys falling in love too, was to make them brothers, it was a trick I’d seen happen a lot with other ménage stories (especially shifter stories.) The men were always related, so there was absolutely no man love going on.

I began writing Prowling the Vet and couldn’t believe how easy it was to keep the boys apart - brothers!

Excerpt: “What are you doing?” she asked him as she spun around to face the blond Viking towering over her.

Brandon gripped her arms and pulled her against him, the strength of his body undeniable as her belly quivered in anticipation of what he would do with her.

“Showing you…”

And with that enigmatic statement he kissed her. His lips were hot and soft, strong, but unhurried.

Push him away! You don’t even know this guy! But her fingers were already moving toward his chest and up into his short hair. She moved her hands around to cup his scalp and moaned as his tongue slipped into her mouth. His sweet, orange taste overwhelmed every sense. Her knees weakened and she sagged against his large, strong body.

He pulled back and Laura’s eyes sprung open. Brandon was staring down at her with shock written across his face.

Tyler stepped up next to them and somehow managed to take her from Brandon. One minute she was in the Viking’s arms, and the next moment she was with a dark angel.

“What’s happening?” she asked, blinking slowly. Tyler had the most angelic face. She traced her fingers along his smooth jaw, dreamlike calm coming over her.

Never, even in her wildest dreams, did she imagine a man like this would want to kiss her.

“My turn.” He swooped in and kissed her with the most incredible passion. He kissed her slowly, exploring her mouth with his tongue and lips. It was completely different from the strength and possession she’d felt behind Brandon’s kiss, but it was just as amazing.

That was the cure J The sex scenes were heaps of fun to write because I could make the woman the center and focus on her, it felt more like two MF scenes happening at once, rather than the much harder to orchestrate MMF scenes.

The love story was different too - you didn’t have to worry so much again on the balance, because the brothers already had an existing relationship and a great understanding of each other. Again, it was like writing two MF romances, whereas with an MMF, you had to make sure all three people loved everyone the same.

I wasn’t sure I could manage it, but I did, and now I’m writing the third Perfect pair book and it’s coming along well.

My biggest test will come when (and if) I attempt a ménage where the men aren’t related, but I am more confident that I can now succeed in writing a MFM ménage.

Thank you all so much for visiting

All the best

Tamsin Baker

www.tamsinbakererotic.com

www.erotictamsinbaker.blogspot.com.au

Many thanks, Tamsin. Next month it is the turn of Marion Webb-De Sisto on writing horror.