Happy Halloween!

First off, congratulations to Celia for her Top Pick from Romantic Times for One More Time and the terrific review! I just received my RT and there is Celia's book on the page 3 Top Picks.

And Happy Halloween! I hope everyone has a safe, enjoyable, and "fun-scary" night tonight. This would be a great day to talk about sexual fantasies that involve disguises, but I’ve been in the midst of proving Murphy’s law over the last week, and don’t have anything brilliant to say. (As I’m sure you know, that’s the "Whatever can go wrong, will" law, usually accompanied by the companion observation, "Murphy was an optimist".)

I’ve reached the point in my WIP where, in the synopsis, my heroine challenges the hero to explore his wildest fantasies. So I’ve spent this morning scratching my head and writing odd lists about sexual acts and locations. What would be his wildest fantasies? I’ve tapped into my hero’s vulnerabilities to set up three other love scenes in the book. I’ve used the heroine’s house as a setting for the previous sexual encounter to this one, because the heroine’s home represented escape and freedom and control to her, and it was critical for the growth of their relationship that she let the hero into her own, personal bed.

So where to go from there? I don’t want his fantasy to be too pedestrian—two women in his bed, for example, especially as he’s probably done that already at some time in his younger days. As for setting—in previous books, I’ve used Vauxhall, a theatre, a hot-air balloon ascension, even a family mausoleum. I am searching through reference books looking for a setting that will strike a chord. The book I’m using right now is "The Polite Tourist—A History of Country House Visiting" by Adrian Tinniswood. The description on the flyleaf is fun: "When Elizabeth Bennet…set off with her uncle and aunt for a tour of Derbyshire, she planned to see both the beauties of the country and its fine mansions. In the event she overcame her prejudices concerning the proud Mr. Darcy, becoming his wife and mistress of his country seat, Pemberley. Not every tourist finds country house visiting provides such a dramatic outcome…" That is certainly an understatement, though we can all hope!

The Polite Tourist gave me the perfect image I wanted for a gentleman’s library (already used for a sex scene, alas, so I can’t use it again). So I’m scouring, and thinking in great depth about my hero, to find that hidden fantasy that will reveal all to both the reader and the heroine.

So for those of you donning a costume tonight, enjoy your fantasies!