Treasure Hunt

I’ve agreed to take part in Rebecca Joyce’s treasure hunt so here goes:

The Men of Treasure Cove cordially invite you to a …

   Treasure Hunt

In anticipation of the newest Men of Treasure Cove book, “Gabriel’s Heart” by Rebecca Joyce, over the next two weeks, The Men of Treasure Cove have hidden random questions and clues over a series of Blogs and WebPages. To win, all you need to do is gather the clues to find the Treasure the men have hidden.

                                                *THE RULES*

1. Read up on all the Treasure Cove books. (You will be unable to answer the questions if you haven’t!)

2. Follow the clues and the links provided to the next day’s clue, and you are off!

3. When all the clues are gathered, and you have answered them correctly, email me your answers before 8pm, EST on JUNE 8^th, to: morningcoffeedrinker@yahoo.com. The first to correctly answer all the questions, wins the GRAND PRIZE!

                        3…2…1… HERE WE GO!

Clue #5: In “Emma’s Treasures”, who taught Emma to shoot?

To find the answer read, “Emma’s Treasures” book one of The Men of Treasure Cove!

 

The darling girl of Treasure Cove, Emma McKenzie, wanted for nothing, except the love of three men. Days after her twenty-first birthday, she gets her wish. But one night of passion takes everything that she has ever known. Emma finds herself miles away with a secret that will change the lives of the people she left behind.

After a fire that rocks the town and takes the lives of two of their own, the town is left with unanswered questions.

Travis, Tucker, and Tate Quinn are hardworking ranchers and have made a life for themselves in the community. They never forgot the girl that got away. When she shows up several years later, she brings unanswered questions, danger, and a surprise. Together, the Quinn brothers must work to figure out the mystery of the past, save the girl they love, and protect all that they hold dear.

BUY LINK: http://www.bookstrand.com/emmas-treasures

Check out Rebecca Joyce’s Blog tomorrow for CLUE #6 and Good Luck!

'The Submission Challenge is up for Retro Release on Bookstrand'!

‘The Submission Challenge’ is on Retro Release on Bookstrand This means there is 50% off for the next four weeks until 27 June. This is the first in the ‘Doms & Acquaintances’ series which has cross over characters with the ‘Friends’ series and follows the fortunes of Rebecca and Jon.

When independent Rebecca derides her best friend’s brother for being a Dominant, he scoffs. She could never understand the lifestyle, but Jon challenges her to be his submissive for twenty-four hours anyway, demanding all that being a submissive entails. Not one to back down from a challenge, Rebecca agrees, determined to show him she can be submissive yet remain emotionally detached.
During the challenge, Jon works all his Dom tricks to try to make her lose, including insisting she be naked constantly, touching her intimately, and using various BDSM techniques, like bondage.
Some tricks Rebecca finds harder to accept than others, but as the weekend continues, they realize they are attracted to each other. But just as Rebecca comes to enjoy giving control to someone else, Jon learns to enjoy having someone who doesn't submit easily. But things aren't that simple.

Enjoy!

Jen

Wednesday Writing - Fictional BDSM versus Real-life BDSM

Following on from my blog last Weds about Fictional BDSM versus the real thing, one thing that I’ve become very aware of in my research has been that with many (or, indeed, most) of the BDSM stories that I have written or I have read, the Dom always falls for their submissive.

We like our ‘happily ever after’ (or ‘happily for now’ will do if the couple have just met and it seems ridiculous that they would declare ever-lasting love in such a short time!). Sometimes the plot follows the scenario of a Dom who has been looking for the right sub for a long time. The character thinks this means the right sub to suit them sexually and be their permanent sub, but the reader knows that this really means falling in love with them.

I know, this sounds awfully soppy but at the end of the day I do write romance, albeit, erotic romance!

But does this really happen in real life?

It does happen, and quite often you'll be glad to hear. In fact many couples start life as a vanilla couple and then decide to try out the BDSM lifestyle, whilst others have met their spouse/ partner this way.

However, once there whether they came to it as a couple or as singles many people like the fact that they can move on from one Dom or sub to the next. There could be various reasons for this - one being wanting to experiment more, another due to differences in how they take to this life, and so on.

Because people are not necessarily doing it as a way of finding someone with whom they can have a romantic relationship, just a sexual/BDSM one. The BDSM version of dating - finding out the likes/dislikes/preferences/ foibles of other people in the lifestyle. After all, it's no good if a Dom who likes giving his subs a good flogging ends up with a sub who hates impact play.

And, of course, like within the dating game, there will be those people that don't want to commit to any one person. They like playing the field too much.

However, if I were to write about a Dom (or even a sub) who moves on constantly from one person to another with no other intention than the enjoyment of BDSM, where is the romance? Where is the happily ever after?

And a huge part of romance is the fantasy - what the reader would like to envisage happening - and that is for the hero to fall in love with the heroine whether they are a boss and his secretary, a millionaire and his nanny, or a Dom and a sub.


Next week's post on this topic looks at the age of the submissives. Are they really only in their twenties and thirties with occasional subs a little older like stories would have us believe?

Jen

 

Inspirational Mondays

I am a sucker for soppy animal stories and I was sobbing when I saw this after the Oklahoma hurricane (but good sobbing!). This has to be one of the most inspirational videos I’ve watched.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUc1ZgXiQGs

Jen

Rabbit Fridays

When I am deep into writing and not giving my rabbit, Lucy, any attention this is what she does:

She jumps up, usually on top of my lap while the laptop is still there!! - and gives me the look of, "Okay, mother. That stupid machine you are constantly tapping into has had enough attention. I want some now. Preferably with food included......."

Jen

Wednesday Writing - Fictional BDSM versus real life BDSM

As you may know I often include BDSM in my stories. My experience is limited to some experimentation in the bedroom so I do a lot of research including talking to people who practice BDSM as a major part of the lifestyle, who attend clubs, etc.

I have had a lot of great conversations recently with an American Dom who has provided useful insights. Another issue, other than lack of personal experience, is what takes part in the UK is not necessarily the same in the US – or, indeed, other parts of the world.

This came out in a question I had asked him about whether submissive auctions actually take place or whether they were just a figment of writers’ imaginations, as this is a plot that you often find in BDSM stories. So, does it appeal to readers’ fantasies knowing that is all it is?

The answer back was that he had never experienced any himself but had heard it was a big thing in European countries, although he thought it was probably a small percentage of the BDSM population that would take part in an auction. 

A fellow writer of BDSM stories who lives in the UK, Jan Bowles, laughed when I told her this and said that several American writers of BDSM had revealed that they save their more masochistic scenarios for their European characters!!

An interesting viewpoint of us Europeans – are we seen as very kinky? Or even as despotic perverts? I’ll have to research European BDSM……..

Next Weds the topic is 'Does the Dom really fall in love with the sub and live happily ever after'?

Jen

Inspirational Mondays

I was intrigued to read this new article recently (I didn’t know dating sites had research teams!!!):

The research arm of dating site OKCupid looked at 500,000 first contacts and concluded that "netspeak, bad grammar and bad spelling are huge turn-offs". The biggest passion killers were "ur", "r", "u", "ya" and "cant". Also damaging to online suitors were "luv" and "wat".

On the other hand, correct use of apostrophes was appealing. Using "don't" and "won't" caused better than average response rates - 36% and 37% respectively, according to the research.

Food for thought. Except it hasn’t helped me. In the year I was on match.com I didn’t have a single person contact me – despite using the correct apostrophes with no abbreviations!!!!!

Jen

Rabbit Fridays

I’ve had a few pet rabbit tales for the past few ‘Rabbit Fridays’ – now here’s one about the ‘other’ type of rabbit! This is a guest post from fellow writer, Raven McAllen.

My friend got a very interesting phone call from her son's nursery school.

"Mrs. B? Would you like to nip down and collect your son's dinosaur? He's brought it in for show and tell." My friend said there was a definite giggle in the teacher’s tone. My friend was puzzled, because as far as she knew her son didn't have a dinosaur. She said that to the teacher, who did giggle then, and replied, "Yes, that's what I mean. It's very pink and still in the wrapper."

So my friend, who still didn't have a clue about this dinosaur went along to the school, to be met by a somewhat embarrassed teacher who handed over a brand new pink rabbit vibrator, still in its packaging. My friend's son had been into her closet and seen it on the shelf.

As she said later, thank God it was the new unused one!

Thanks, Raven! Look out for another one from Raven on the subject of rabbits in a few weeks…..

Jen

Wednesday Writing

Actually, nothing to do with Writing - just me on holiday recently enjoying the rare warmth in the UK(!) when I should be writing.

Jen

Inspirational Mondays

It’s lovely to get emails and good reviews from fans. These are my newest ‘fans’. The first is a Dom who had been asked by a submissive to recommend some BDSM literature and contacted me by email:

I recognize and appreciate that your stories and characters are a work of fiction.  I am recommending your works as an accompaniment to the training and experiences that my enthusiasts are involved in.  It is not easy to find a quality piece of literature on the BDSM subject that I will extol.

And this is a great review on Goodreads and Amazon:

This is the first book by the author I've read and I can promise you now, it certainly won't be the last!

I can tell you that this is an addicting story that made me laugh at Ann's snarky comments but shiver at the lovely sexy scenes the author has provided. The characters are super well done and I could totally see myself in the club the author has created. (I'd be watching of course.)

I would totally recommend this book to anyone who loves BDSM and HEA, also to anyone who loves a super sexy fun romance that will leave you wanting more! I can't wait for the next book!  

Thank you, Mike and Sapphire! It is always inspiring to receive wonderful compliments about your work.

Jen

Rabbit Fridays

As part of my Rabbit Fridays blogs – my friend and fellow writer, Tatum Throne, is another human owned by a rabbit (!) and is easily distracted from her writing by her own bunny, too.

Coco is almost a year old. My oldest son got him for his birthday last August. I spent three weeks litter box training him. Notice how I say, I spent three weeks training him? I knew we’d have to keep him in a cage if we didn’t get him trained. I really wanted to make Coco part of the family. So, Coco is trained and has taken over my office. I had to move my desk out of my office space because Coco kept trying to play with me when I was working.

I won’t go into the long list of things Coco has damaged as I’m sure my three boys have done much worse to our house. :o) My boys can’t have cats or dogs due to allergies, but they can have our bunny. Coco loves to groom us. We lay down on the floor and he walks around and on us, grooming our hair and giving us kisses. Coco is very independent. He doesn’t like it when you take control of him. He loves to make his own decisions. Did I mention that he’s terrified of outside? He hides on our lap when we take him for a walk.

If you’re thinking about getting a bunny, be prepared to be owned. Jennifer warned me, but I didn’t listen. We’re not dog or cat people, but we are bunny people.

Tatum Throne

Wednesday Writing - To Plot or Not to Plot?

To plot or not to plot?

That is the question! Some authors like to meticulously plot their stories in advance including character profiles, motivation, world building and so on. While at the other end of the scale some people are what is called ‘pantsers’. In other words, they write by the ‘seat of their pants’.

I do some plotting in advance, eg, a very rough sketch for each chapter such as ‘visit BDSM club, take part in flogging’. I find this important so that I spread out all the good ideas for that story across the whole book, so that I have equal points of view throughout the story to avoid head hopping (jumping from one person’s viewpoint to the other), so that I have the required number of penetrative sex scenes (the publisher requires at least two) and so on. Although I do admit that I plotted a lot more for my first book, Just Good Friends’ – but possibly because I had been visualising it or composing it in my head for some time before I started writing it.

That may be it for that chapter until I start to write as I do enjoy the excitement of seeing what flows from my fingers. It really is a delight to see what comes to you in terms of characters, emotions, storyline, scene plots, etc.

Sometimes by letting the story come as you write I discover someone’s motivation that I hadn’t thought of before such as Ford, Max and Callum in ‘Collared by Wolves’ becoming friends when Ford and Callum joined forces to rescue Max from bullies.

I was intrigued recently reading that Tolkien (my favourite writer) was never one for planning everything out. Take Strider/Aragorn, in Lord of the Rings, for example. Apparently he originally intended him to be named Trotter(!) and he just fancied having a mysterious, slightly menacing character to frighten the hobbits at Bree. Tolkien had no idea who this guy was when he introduced the character at this point in the story!!!

In another article about filming the life of a chimp family, the director said a particular chimp ‘wrote himself into the film’ – they had no intention of using him as the main focus.

This is so true. You can plan who your main characters will be and what their personalities are like, but when you start writing they may take you in a different direction altogether – or a secondary character may become a main one. The latter happened to me in ‘Chasing Emily’. She had been introduced in ‘Wife for Three’ but I had no intention of making her the heroine of the sequel!!

As for the characters taking you in a different direction, Dan in ‘Friend or Foe’ was going to be much more of a nemesis to Gina, but he insisted on being quite sweet! And I have had comments that Ben in ‘Submissive Training’ came over as something of a prat (or something like that). Yup. He came over to me that way too. Nothing I could do about it, that’s how he wanted to be!!

And it’s not just the characters. A review of the ‘Submissive Training’ said they found it quite humorous in places and yet I had never intended to include any humour, not like in my romantic comedies, eg, ‘Friendly Seduction’ where it is deliberate (and I had great fun writing it!)

There are some books you just have to plot in advance, particularly when writing with another author like I did with Susan Laine on ‘The Last Werewolf’. We had to make sure we were writing the same story(!) and that the characters were consistent. But in brainstorming (which was SUCH fun!) it often gave me ideas that I wouldn’t have thought of myself.

And if you are doing a series or writing in a particular genre, eg, BDSM, I found it necessary after my second book ‘The Submission Challenge’ to start drawing up a list of characters’ looks so that they were different, eg, a brunette and a blond in the first, two dark haired in the next, a red head and a light brown and so on, but also that I wasn’t using the same ‘props’ each time and that I included different ones, eg, paddling, flogging, clamps etc. In this particular book being naked on a garden table while being massaged is the only time I’ve used this so far.

The thing I tend to find the most difficult to plot in advance is motivation. I had an idea for a story, eg, a woman jilts her fiancé at the altar and years later he delights in being the person to train her at a BDSM club as in ‘Retraining the Sub’. But until I started writing I had no idea why she jilted him (I wrote in that she was shy with domineering parents and didn’t want to get into a relationship with someone else who was going to turn out the same way).

So, after all that, what was the most astonishing discovery as I let the words flow?…. In ‘The Sub Who Switched’ I had a completely different ending to the story originally which is the total opposite of what it became (I’m not going to say what in case you haven’t read it yet!)

Jen

Monthly Inspirational Author Interview

This month I have the lovely Tara Rose joining me for my inspirational author interview to tell me about herself and her series. Why inspirational? The woman gets two books out a month!!!! I may get two books written a quarter AT THE OUTSET. Well done, Tara on writing your great ménage series. Over to you:

Thanks for having me Jen. I love writing ménage stories because it’s so challenging to work out the dynamics of two heroes agreeing to share the heroine. I love small town stories because it’s so much fun to write about nosy gossipy neighbors who will also come to your rescue when you need them.

Tell us about your latest book.

Taming Her Racy Ways is book 5 of my Racy Nights series. The heroine, Marisol Santiago, is a court reporter in Racy Indiana, the fictional small town where the entire Racy Nights series is set. She is forced to hide in her basement during a tornado with hunky Rafe Rodriguez, her one-time boyfriend. That’s all it takes for them to start up again, but Marisol’s life gets a bit more complicated than that once she attends an emergency meeting two days later of City Hall officials, including building inspector Ellis McCree, who talks her into letting him take her new car shopping the next day. Ellis is a Dom at his cousin Maddox’s exclusive private dungeon in Racy, and he would love to make Marisol his sub.

(I love the name Marisol)

What makes a great hero?

I love alpha heroes with a heart. I like them to be strong and a bit domineering, but not mean or cruel. In the bedroom, they’re in charge, although they temper that with tenderness and passion. Out in public, they’re attentive without being clingy, and in a pinch, they’re right there by your side, ready to defend you or come to your aid.

(As every good hero should be!!)

Do you have anything in common with your characters?

There’s a little bit of me in all my heroines. I like to write them as independent women, but with a need for love and romance as well, because I think that’s what we all want, deep inside. But you won’t find my heroines in need of “rescuing.” They can hold their own.

(Hahahaha!)

Is there any trivia about your latest/forthcoming story that you can share with us (eg, the name of a real life pet that you used in the story)?

I wrote the tornado into the story because they’re one of my biggest fears. I wanted to show the town banding together and recovering from the destruction.

(Good one!)

What’s your guiltiest pleasure?

Food. LOL!! Anything battered and fried, or bakery. I love cakes and cookies.

(My kind of woman!)

What are you currently working on, or what’s on the horizon?

Racy Nights 6, 7 and 8 will be releasing within the next few weeks, and I’m working on the next series, Seduction Ridge.

How do you come up with inspiration for your books?

The inspiration for the Racy Nights series came from the miles and miles of wind turbines that line Interstate 65 in northwest Indiana. I set my fictional town among them, and they play a large role in the town.

(Interesting!)

What’s the hardest part of writing?

Finding time to do it! J

(Oh, I can SOOO relate to that!!)

Finish with links of how fans can find you on the internet?
 

http://www.bookstrand.com/tara-rose

http://www.tararoseromanceauthor.com/

http://www.facebook.com/TaraRoseAuthor

Twitter: @TaraRoseAuthor

Thanks for being interviewed, Tara. I wish you lots of luck with future books. Next month’s inspirational author is Fiona Archer.

Jen

Rabbit Fridays

One of my publishers, Evernight, is doing a special campaign until the 15^th. 25% of the proceeds from sales on their website will go to a breast cancer charity.

This is a VERY worthy cause (my sister died from breast cancer so it is close to my heart).

I have two books published with Evernight to date – Retraining the Sub and The Last Werewolf and you can get to either from my author page.

Also check out Evernight’s Facebook page and blog where pics from authors (or their families or pets!) wearing pink will be appearing J including this one below. I don’t have anything pink so Lucy the rabbit agreed to take part instead!

Jen

Wednesday Writing

Nothing to do with writing!! It's my birthday tomorrow.

For my 50^th birthday I had some erotic photos taken! Here is one of them. I haven’t put that much weight on so hopefully at 53 I still look the same!

Jen