Aphrodisia Authors :: Blog

I don’t usually have a particular person/actor/model in mind when I come up with descriptions for my characters. I know some writers scour until they find just the right picture and then refer back to it while they write.

Not me.

In fact, I just have a list of character traits and names I’ve used for each of my books, and when I come up with names and descriptions in a new one, I go for a look and name that I think fits the personality I want…and try to make sure it doesn’t match another character I already have. Or get too close to another character, anyway. There are only so many combinations, you know?

However, there’s always that one book that doesn’t fit the norm, that breaks the usual mold. I went looking for a volleyball player because a character I’m working on plays the sport…and there she was. MY character in the flesh. Her real name is Logan Tom (hey, I didn’t name her–blame her parents), and she’s Dani-the-heroine come to life. Crazy, right?

So, I guess there’s always some person that can be inspiration for our work, even if we don’t mean for them to be. Of course, now I’m running the internet around looking for other photos of my heroine’s doppleganger so I get her just right.

Another fun inspiration I always like to keep around is a favorite Italian model/actor named Raoul Bova. I fell madly in lust with him when he played in Under The Tuscan Sun with Diane Lane. Isn’t he scrumptious?

This got me thinking about what inspires people to write a character the way they do. Is it a picture? A person they know in real life? Or is it completely made up the way my characters usually are? I work from my list quite happily, but I’m an obsessive compulsive list maker. Lists of traits, hair/eye combinations, scenes to write versus scenes I’ve already checked off the list, sexual positions so I don’t repeat too often. It all goes on a list. Maybe that’s something that inspires my writing in general. Checking off each box as I go and finishing a list is a challenge for me. It’s me against the list. But in the meantime…models and actors aren’t a bad way to go for a visual pick me up when planning out a character.

Pretty.

-Crystal Jordan
www.crystaljordan.com

Two days ago I spoke to a college English class on Living The Life of a Writer: Is it Really All Glamour & Bon Bons?

Their questions and their enthusiasm really took me back to when I was sitting in those same seats, dreaming of one day holding my own book in my hands and seeing it on the shelves of a bookstore.

I do vividly remember sitting in an English class imagining how my life would be. Not really thinking I’d ever write full time, but figuring I would pen some novels on the side on breaks from my well-paying day job. Now to be honest, I did picture myself with pad and paper sitting on a sunny patio under an umbrella sipping some fruity drink while I wrote the next NYT Bestselling #1 hit book. The gentle breeze teasing my hair, while my hottie hubby was down swimming in the ocean, the water glistening off his six pack abs. Oh and did I mention I looked glamorous and hot and still weighed what I did in college—not to mention that body parts were still tight and firm and hadn’t moved South? (Ahh, the imagination of youth…LOL!)

Little did I know the reality would be far from the above. I AM actually writing full time, I gave up my well-paying day job so I COULD write full time. And I could NOT imagine writing my books in long hand—I have an intimate relationship with my laptop. No umbrella, fruity drink or patio overlooking the ocean, although I do have a pool in the backyard, but it’s usually too hot to sit out there to write. I DO have a hottie younger hubby, but he’s usually doing work on his computer or watching TV in the recliner rather than down swimming and being eye candy inspiration for me while I write! And let’s not even discuss the tight/firm body parts situation.

But strangely, I remember those youthful aspirations with a smile. Hey, at least I knew what myths I was out to bust with my talk to those college kids!

When I was in school, we never had an actual published author come and speak to us, but I remember the teachers answering my questions as best they could at the time. Although none of their answers really resembled the information I gave in my talk. Don’t get me wrong—all but one teacher really encouraged me to go after my dreams and write. And that one teacher was the one who told me I was a good writer, but no one would ever buy any of my books if all I wrote was that “weird” stuff (aka paranormal) threaded in with all that sarcasm! Well, lucky for me, I didn’t listen to her at all, because all of my books have both of those things in major doses. The rest of the teachers were all very supportive, and even if they didn’t quite believe I’d make it—never gave me that impression—or at least I don’t remember it.

Anyway, when I found myself in front of that college class, I wanted to present a true picture of what it is to be a writer—the money, the realities of the publishing biz, the deadlines, the legalities, the lifestyle—along with a huge dollop of motivation. And with every question and every answer, I tried to give them as many facts as possible without being discouraging.

I’ve heard too many talks over the years where someone seemed hell bent on making the masses think they could never have their dream, or that they were insane if they thought they could be that one in a crowd who actually finished a novel and got it published. And those people and their message always made me angry. Who are they to take away that hope from someone else?! (Can you tell that’s a hot button for me?)

I walked out of there a little nostalgic for my ignorance of old, but also oddly happy that despite all my delusions of youth, I’d made my dream come true. And even despite the things I remember and miss fondly (like the tight firm body) I’m happy with my life and very glad I never let anyone discourage me along the way. How funny to think I would be horrified if my thirty-eight-year-old self time traveled back to my seventeen-year-old self and told that poor girl what she was in store for, but from this side of the passage of time, it doesn’t look so bad. I think that actually proves the old adage that ignorance is bliss.

I’m curious to see what the kids thought—even if they hated the talk I brought bookmarks, buttons & chocolate—so who knows, maybe somewhere in between the snarkily-presented facts and answers and the bribery at the end, they learned something that will help them end up happily when they are ancient like me. (Don’t you all remember when you thought 30 was way past middle age?)

At the very least, it reminded me to appreciate where I’m at in life and to never take for granted what I have. Not bad for an hour spent…

Cassie
www.cassieryan.com

It’s officially release day for the October books–wahoo! All of these books are receiving glowing reviews and other accolades, so if you haven’t checked out the incredible lineup yet, do so today.

Need to get that appetite whet? Check out the cover copy from the new releases by clicking on the titles below.

Hot For It - Melissa MacNeal
Naughty, Naughty - P.J. Mellor, Melissa MacNeal, Valerie Martinez
Sins Of The Flesh - Devyn Quinn
Big Spankable Asses - Angie Daniels, Kimberly Kaye Terry, Lisa G. Riley

Best wishes for a sizzling fall!

~ jodi

www.jodilynncopeland.com/bodymoves.html

So the cover for Sexy Beast IV came in the mail with my edits last week!

It’s so exciting to finally see the cover for a new book. You just hope that the art department have managed to capture the essence of the story in a single snapshot.(not an easy thing to do at all) I have to say Kensington did me proud. I love this cover, that almost kiss, the way the lighting highlights the soft hair on his forearm…sigh. I am one happy author.

Of course, the end of January seems a long way away until the book is actually released. I can’t wait to see it on the shelves with all the other Aphrodisia titles and I hope that everyone will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I’ll finish with the blurb from the back. I did notice that there was one teeny tiny inconsistency, but I’m sure no one else will notice but me.

“Ten years as a sex slave in a Turkish brothel left Lord Valentin Sokorvsky with an insatiable appetite for sex. Now the time has come for him to marry, but finding a woman who can satisfy his lustful desires proves a challenge…until he meets Sara and all he can think about is having her lie under his rock-hard body, begging him to taste and touch her…

Sara Harrison knows she should be shocked and scandalized by Lord Sokorvsky’s bold advances, but instead she is secretly aroused by this sensual seductive man. For beneath her calm and composed manner is a wanton woman who longs for a man’s intimate caress. She is most willing to be educated in the art of sensuality, to receive and give pleasure and to succumb to the wild desire that knows no limits…”

I loved writing these characters. Poor Valentin, thinks he can separate married sex from the depths of sexual excess he sometimes craves. Luckily, Sara shows him that they can be one and the same.

Hope you are all having a great weekend. I just had my shopping bag stolen at the mall, so I’m not very happy, although I wish the bag snatcher joy of my new bra, I doubt it will fit many people… (you’ve got to laugh, right?)

Kate

Talk about being in the right place at the right time!
To set the stage, I’d finished my latest contract with Kensington Aphrodisia and had submitted a new proposal to my editor hoping to again become gainfully employed. Then because my editor had a month to make a decision on that proposal, I wandered off and wrote something for another publisher. Then one day last week I received emails from both my editor and agent. The editor had read the proposal, zeroing in on the title, Hawk’s Fangs. She was looking for novellas to include in the 2008 Sexy Beast collection. Would I entertain changing the Hawk’s Fangs storyline from book length to novella length? Worth thinking about because no less than Kate Douglas (dear friend and leading Aphrodisia writer) is anchoring the anthology. But I love Hawk’s Fangs as it is and didn’t want to try to compress and lose huge chunks of the plot in order to shorten 80,000 words to 30,000. So when my agent called, I threw out a suggestion. What if I give the editor a whole new idea to hopefully fit into Sexy Beast 2008? She had some reservations for complex and legitimate reasons, but I was getting excited. All I lacked was a plot. And characters. And setting.
Not the first time.
Okay, I started brainstorming. My editor wanted a sexy beast. I thought PREDATOR. Headed for the Internet with the word cougar running through my mind because the something I’d just written for another publisher had a cougar in it. But I didn’t want to repeat myself. What do you know, pumas are even larger and bolder than cougars and range from Alaska to the tropics. Best of all, ancient Native American legends are rich with references to all kinds of predators. I’ve written a lot about NA legends and have a number of reference books. Started pouring through them about 9 p.m. the same day all the excitement started. Picked up just enough information to be dangerous, specifically that the Apache believed that the night scream of a puma signaled impending death. Is that sexy or what?
Went to bed knowing damn well I wasn’t going to sleep. Plotted and planned, ran myself into and out of brick walls, conjured up a couple of characters I couldn’t put names to for the life of me. Because said editor had, in part, been drawn to Hawk’s Fangs become that hero was a shape-shifter, guess what I did with my nameless hero? Of course it made sense for my heroine to be a modern woman who doesn’t buy any of that wo-wo nonsense.
Staggered from the bedroom around dawn, mainlined some caffeine, plunked myself in front of my computer, and hammered out a one page synopsis which I emailed to my agent. By the end of the day, the editor had read and approved it, and I had a whole new gig—a novella called Night Scream which will be in the Sexy Beast 2008 anthology with Kate Douglas!!! As for Hawk’s Fangs, well that’s all good too.
If only all writing was that easy.
What do I mean easy, I still have to write Night Scream. And find names for these characters.
Vonna Harper
http://www.vonnaharper.com/

So is it the curse of every writer out there that you can’t find anything, ever?

I am madly hunting down my iPod charger, just so I can sync my iPod with my computer (oh, and recharge it) and I cannot find it anywhere. I found my spare charger, but it doesn’t come with a cord. Grr.

I found my 3-hole punch that I had given up finding months ago and had finally bought a new, cheapie one last week.

About this time last year, I packed up my office into boxes. I sorted the magazines into one piles, books into sundry other piles and the space actually looked habitable. I had 12 boxes to start with, and I have 6 boxes left to go through.

I am heading out to the Georgia Romance Writers “Moonlight and Magnolias” conference next weekend, so I declared last night (after 3 days looking for this iPod charger — and I’ve tried positive thinking and prayer — I don’t think my backbrain even subconsciously knows where it is) that the house was getting a complete cleanout when I got back (nothing like putting it off for another weekend). When I’m done emptying my study boxes, one will be hubby’s stuff, one will be books and the rest is getting either filed or tossed. I’m aiming for tossed. If I haven’t needed it for almost a year. That’s got to tell you something.

Meanwhile the detritus on my desk has been magically restored — and I have an excuse for about every piece of paper about why it’s not somewhere else.

So desperate author seeking more organized heads… what do you do to stay organized, or can you relate?

I’ve never in my life seen so many people trying to avoid my eye. Come on, folks, I’m not a gang member or a beggar, I’m just a romance author at a book signing.

This weekend I attended two multi-author signings. These were put on by bookstores where I’m guessing the customers do actually read and enjoy books. Wouldn’t you think they might like to talk to an author or two? Apparently not. Or is it that they’re scared that if they come anywhere near us and our books, they might have to – gasp! – buy one? God forbid, a fate worse than death.

Well, of course we’d like to sell books but mostly we’d just like people to be friendly and talk to us. If they take a bookmark or excerpt, or buy a book, that’s a bonus.

So, what’s the deal with signings? Why doesn’t anyone want to talk to me and my fellow authors?

At the end of the second signing, yesterday afternoon, two of us asked the store manager that question and he said, “That’s crazy. I mean, you can talk to romance authors about anything!”

Yes! He knows us. He GETS us! Now the question is, how do we get that same message across to readers? I suggested that next time we put up a banner saying, “Romance Authors – you can talk to them about ANYTHING!”

What’s your experience with signings, as a writer, reader or bookseller? If you do signings, why? Are they good or bad experiences? What do you think makes for a good signing or event? I’d love to know, because I have a bunch more coming up!

(Before I stop, I’d like to say thanks to the great store managers and staff at Borders Express in Cascade Mall, Burlington, and Chapters Metrotown in Burnaby, who were so wonderfully supportive this weekend.)

Susan Lyons (www.susanlyons.ca)

Today is the 6th anniversary of 9-11. For my blog post I am requesting a personal moment of silence from each reader to remember the fallen. We will not forget.