Ever since my first book, Bartlett’sRule, was published in 2008, people have come to me to discuss “personal issues”
thinking I would have the right words to help them reach their
Happy-Ever-After. I only wish I had the advice to help them, but the truth is
even my storybook characters have had to go through a lot of their own false
starts and some mistakes before they found their true loves. The most
embarrassing thing that ever happened to me because of the books I write was
when the husband of one of my then close friends came to me to complain about
his wife’s “performance” in the bedroom and wanted me to give him some advice
to get her to be “willing to experiment”! Pushed for an answer I haltingly told
him to just talk to her and tell her how he feels. (It was hard to look her in
the face after that.)
The truth is that while many
writers are told to “write what you know” we also have to use A LOT of creative
imagination. I remember at a book discussion appearance for His Lucky Charm
one audience member actually asked me if I was describing my husband in the
love scenes! I think I turned beet-red right then and there. (I still refuse to
answer that question, it will forever be a mystery.) I remember a
fellow-romance writer friend whose husband refused to read any of her books because
he was afraid if the hero wasn’t him he would be jealous. By the way, I have
always used at least one of my husband’s traits in every hero I create, but I
will never say which one it is.
Not all of my books are sexually
explicit, and never just for shock value, I basically use what I feel is
appropriate for the story. In my first EMS-based novel Final Sin the villain was
a sexual predator so, yes, I went there. Then in my first paranormal story
Karma Visited the two would-be lovers weren’t really ever together (until the
very end) so there wasn’t exactly too much they could do; while the sexual
innuendos went further in the sequel Annie’s Karma, the sex was still rather downplayed
even while the passion was heated.
I love the idea that people like to
read about passion and hot romance, it’s certainly one of my favorite book
topics as well, but read the stories and let them get you in the mood. One
couple I know (because one of them told me so) likes to read a chapter together
and cuddle — I don’t ask what else they may do… Some women who have attended my
book discussions have said that they like to read passionate, sexy stories
because it gives them a wonderful escape from the mundane; that’s why I write
romance. It’s not auto-biographical, it’s just a fictional story that enthralls
me and I feel needs to be shared.
I hope you enjoy reading my stories
as much as I like writing them.
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