Writing Again

About a month ago, I talked about how I’d gotten back into the writing groove and had written 30 pages on vacation!

Well, they were the last pages I wrote for a while.

However.

I’ve turned over a new leaf (yet again) and this month I’ve finished and turned in a novella, and am working on finishing a really fun proposal. I’ve given myself until the end of next week to write 30 pages and thus complete a first draft of the proposal. Which meant 2.5 pages a day. A cakewalk for me when I was under contract and writing 5 to 6 pages a day in order to meet the deadline.

As of today (Friday), well, I’m 3.5 pages behind my goal. But that’s okay. I know what I want to write next and I’m rather looking forward to it. There was supposed to be writing time tonight, but the hubby got good news at work and so we went out to a swanky restaurant to celebrate.

Yep, that kind of real good news.

So the writing is going well again, and I’m having fun doing so.

By the way, my husband is going to London. And no, I’m not going. What should he bring back for me?

Besides Cadbury’s, and possibly tea.

Cheers!
Celia

The Saddle

No, I’m not going to talk about kinky fetishes from Britain’s Regency era. The former madam story did not fly, and so that research has been set aside.

And that’s what I’m going to write about today. Setting things aside, and then getting back into the saddle.

When you read this, if Pam’s promises that it will post when I tell it to post turn out to be true, I shall hopefully be back in the saddle and writing again.

You see, I’ve been writing a bit here, a bit there, but really, have not been writing a whole lot. Why? Well, I let other things take priority -- it’s amazing what a complete lack of contractual deadline will do. I could launch into them all, but you’ve all surely heard the reasons ten thousand times from many a wannabe writer who just can’t find the time to write: back to work five days a week, needed time to play, intensive study course. Oh and the, “I’ll write during lunch time unless someone wants to lunch with me”, which was like, almost, every day, and when it wasn’t I was doing homework from the course.

Ahem.

The point is, I’m getting back into the saddle. I’m going down to four days a week pretty soon. The person I lunch with the most is moving to Virginia. My course is on a summer break.

And I’m gonna give my trusty (so far, it is rather new) AlphaSmart a good run.

I’ve the erotic romance story idea that needs another two chapters and a better synopsis than a set up and “Stuff happens.”

The full on fantasy novel that I started *cough* years ago because it wouldn’t shut up until a new contract silenced it, is making noises again.

I’m not sure which project I’ll take on first, but if it gets me writing again, I really don’t care.

And that’s where you come in, dear reader. The next time I post in a couple of weeks, I want you to ask me: “So how’s that word count, then?” or “Which story did you end up writing?” Make me accountable for my vow as blogged here.

I will get back in the saddle and write again.

I will get back in the saddle and write again.

I will get back in the saddle and write again.

Writers out there: have you ever fallen off your writing horse and needed to get back into the saddle again and start writing? What did you have to do to get there?

Hello From Afar

This past week I actually did some writing. Being a single mom with two jobs my life tends to be a bit on the caotic side. A friend of mine from a tinny little far away land invited me for ten days away from my fast pased unfocused exsistance.

I arranged for my X to watch the kids and I packed one very large suitcase with clothes that I mostly did not wear, and my research books, then headed with passport in hand to the airport. I was nervous; single woman traveling for the first time to another country where I did not know the language. So, I drank two glasses of wine and downed a Dramamine and I was out cold on the 9 hour flight.

I arrived in an airport that had wooden floors, something I have never seen in any airport in the US. I headed towards the man sitting in the glass booth and handed him my passport thinking to myself will he understand me if I speak?
He said in english "where are you going?"

I said "here" and smiled.

He smiled back and stamped my passport for the very first time and said "Enjoy your stay."

I walked through the power sliding doors and into the baggage claim area thinking wow that was amazingly easy.

I then left the airport for a 4 1\2 hour drive to the west coast and a beautiful beach house. I had wine… ate dinner... and then lie awake that night exhausted but unable to sleep! I had always wondered why people complain about jet lag. Now I know. I still have not quite gotten on any ones schedule but that has been okay. My trip has been relaxing and basically time has truly stopped for one week. I woke when I woke… ate when hungry… went for walks on the beach when I was awake and it was light out. (this happened only three times during my stay) and I wrote.

Yes I did just say that… I wrote.

I had been struggling to find the time to do this and then when I did find the time I was so distracted by all the other things I should be doing like taking out the over flowing trash or finally washing the dishes that had been sitting in the sink for a few days that I didn’t have the creative energy to think of what my hero should do to my heroine once he had her naked and sitting before him.

I have had a wonderful time on this escape from reality and I was curious… Do any of you do this? Take a holiday to escape and write? To leave the everyday and be creative?

I am still on holiday… Tomorrow I will explore the city and the local erotic art museum, then I will return to the real world the next day. Until then...

Hugs and Kisses,
Lacy.

PS... No English spell check on this computer. I am sure I have misspelled a few words! Amazing how dependent I have become to that feature... LOL!

Life and the Persuit of Happiness

I sit here today trying to think of something to write to you all... I have had a lot going on in my life of late. Being a single mom, working a full time day job that requires long hours and conversations to India in the evening, writing and having a social life(the little I get).

I had thought I would write something about research and historical sex here today, but I am too mentally tired to think of something, so you will get some questions about writing and life and families.

I am wondering how all of you do it? Balance life and writing and not get overwhelmed?

For me I can't write when I am emotionally taxed with other issues and this past year was filled with ups and downs. I miss writing daily. I always find joy in creating something that I look back on and go "wow I wrote that."

Sometimes I think it would have been easier to live in the time period that we write in. Sure there were hardships and illnesses, and I would not have been permitted to divorce, but on so many levels things were easier. Or at least they appear to have been to me. I think that is because your role was defined. woman, man, class.

In todays world especially here in America it feels like there is constant pressure to rise to the next level, to not be what you are woman, man, class. To have the best car, the best house, the best job, to do things that the opposite gender would do just because it shows you are different, better.

People seem less concentrated on the things that are important. Like relationships with people they care about. People also seem less content... Maybe I am naive about this... maybe that is part of being human. I don't know. Thoughts?

Humm I guess that is it...

Off to write.

Hugs and Kisses,
Lacy.

Writing Journeys

Here I am at the Moonlight and Magnolias conference in Atlanta, GA. (In the business center, as I didn't bring my computer with me this time.) Hanging out in a hallway this morning (most disreputable, I know), I chatted with a newbie writer and she wanted to know my writing journey.

So, here are the highlights.

• I've always written. Always. Well, since I learned how to write a sentence.
• I sent off my first full length novel (written on a manual typewriter) to Mills & Boon at age 20 (or thereabouts). It got rejected.
• I kept writing, but it was mainly fanfic. Which builds all your writing muscles except for world building and getting a character started. Oh and it didn't seem to help me with sagging middles either, but then I was writing mostly short stories.
• I took out that first novel from under the bed and joined RWA in 1999.
• Three manuscripts and many revisions later, I sold that first novel in 2004. Yep, it took me that long to figure out how to properly start a novel.
  (Hint: don't have the heroine riding through the countryside, thinking about things la de dah. Use those pages to create character, but don't put them in the book.)
• And here I am, writing for Kensington Aphrodisia...

Ok, so those really are the highlights. There's lots more stories to tell, so you'll have to corner me at some conference or another and ask.

Tomorrow night is the Bookfair and Autographing here at the Hilton Northeast Atlanta on Peachtree Industrial Blvd. It starts at 4pm and runs until 5:30pm. Maybe I'll see you there?



Well, back to slumming it, er, I mean, aggressively networking.

Before I go -- anyone else want to share their writing journey?

Sex Backwards

You won’t think that sex scene would still be a turn on if you read it backward, but lo and behold, that’s where I found myself while I worked on the copy-edits for ONE MORE TIME.

I am a believer in the saying that if the sex scene doesn’t turn me on, chances are it won’t turn the reader on either. So there are a couple of scenes in this book, which after a marathon session in writing them, I had to take matters into hand, as it were.

When I do copy-edits, I do a breeze through, reading the post-it notes and generally groan at the dumb mistakes I didn’t catch. Then I read forward, examining each of the copy-editor’s red pencil marks to see whether or not I agree with them. Then, I read it backward, sentence by sentence, looking to spot mistakes both I and the copy-editor have missed.

I always find some.

At any rate, you really wouldn’t think that a sex scene read backwards, starting with the climax, would get you all hot and bothered. But it does apparently.

Maybe its true what Pam and Jane have been saying about the erotic pay-off coming with the description of what leads up to the climax, rather than the climax itself.

So, fellow authors, do you review your copy-edits the way I do, and if so, is it still a turn-on?

And readers, anyone game to grab a book and take a crack at reading it backward? I wonder if part of the arousal is from remembering how I wrote the scene (in that I know what comes before).

Over to you!

(And there was going to be a picture by Rowlandson with a couple doing it "backward" as it were, although more truthfully from behind, but I ran out of time to scan it in.)

Ingeniousness Abounds

Okay...I know, I just know, that there are a bunch of you blog readers out there who have read lots of historically-set erotic (or otherwise very steamy) novels. Right? Riiiiiiight.

(Bertrice Small anyone?)

And I'm wondering....what was the most ingenious, interesting, and/or unique scene that sticks out in your head (I'm speaking of...shhh...sex scenes!) in which a character uses some sort of toy. Or sex tool.

I had a conversation about this very thing with Jane last year, and I was trying to figure out a way to have a vibrator in 19th century Europe. Not an easy thing to do. The best I could come up with was a wind-up one, but it seems to me that it would run down much too quickly for my heroines.

(I didn't put it in a book yet...but I probably will. Think it would work?)

Okay, so let's hear it from the peanut gallery. What did our historical heroes and heroines use for sex toys before batteries and latex?

Bad(der) Girls and Forbidden Books

The proposal I’m working on at the moment has for a heroine a former dominatrix, a woman cast out of polite society, who took to prostitution to survive, and now has made enough money to retire. She also carries a big grudge which is where the story gets to be fun. (Cross your fingers my editor likes this idea!)

Anyway, I thought I better do some research on historical dominatrixes, and did what I usually do: Google.

I came up with Theresa Berkley, who ran a brothel devoted to flagellation during the Regency period, and who apparently invented or commissioned the Berkley Horse, which enabled her to whip anybody, well, on any part of the body. I have yet to find a picture or a good description of this, which means I get to use my imagination!

However, the reference to her was awfully circular. From Wikipedia to the Deviant’s Dictionary entry on flagellation and back again, the text identical, and all referencing the same book.

Right, says I. Let’s see this book then. So a copy of it finally arrived on Saturday. I haven’t had a chance to read much of it yet, but this source book, Index of Forbidden Books is not that list that the Catholic Church once prohibited (although I’m sure all these books are on there) but a list of Victorian erotica complete with reviews, and with lots of side-trip details, like talking about the madams of various brothels, or sharing a short story. No pictures, alas, and the only extant copy of it seems to be a Sphere 1969 imprint, although Wikipedia again tells me that the original is in the British Library or Museum or somewhere. So I think it’s the real deal.

It still feels a bit circular to me, but the author is the guy they think wrote or edited My Secret Life, about a young Victorian man’s womanizing. And that book’s credentials have been proven.

In any case, the Index of Forbidden Books is cool in that it dips back to pre-Victorian erotica, and so we get to learn about women like Mrs. Theresa Berkley. Who in the code parlance of the day is known as a “governess”. Which phrase I get to have fun with in my current WIP.

Anyway, here are some titles plucked randomly from Index of Forbidden Books:

PRETTY LITTLE GAMES for Young Ladies and Gentlemen. With Pictures of Good Old English Sports and Pastimes, by T. Rowlandson, 1845. (Yes, that Rowlandson).

MEMOIRS OF ROSA BELLEFILLE: or, A Delicious Banquet of Amorous Delights! Dedicated to the Goddess of Voluptuous Pleasure, and her soul-enamoured votaries. (Ashbee’s review begins: “This is an insipid, tiresome book...”)

THE ADVENTURES OF AN IRISH SMOCK. Interspersed with Amatory Anecdotes of a Nankeen Pair of Breeches. By Terence O'Tooleywag, Esq.

MADAME BIRCHINI’S DANCE. A Modern Tale, With Considerable Additions, and Original Anecdotes collected in the Fashionable Circles. Now first published by Lady Termagent Flaybum.


OK, so somebody’s got to name they’re crazy aunt this or something similar!

I'm glad that the titles I made up for the erotica library in SHOW ME weren't too out of line!

Well, I guess I better stop blogging and resume work on this proposal. I decided on Friday to cut everything except the first half of the first chapter. This is what we call a “false start”, or if you’re under deadline (which I’m not currently), it’s called “Oh sh--t!”