What's in a setting?

In fiction, authors use details of setting to define location and character, drawing on readers' knowledge and sometimes cliched impressions about the elements they use. Location and time, for instance, implies climate and sometimes draws on stereotypes of the people living there. Readers might automatically think of freewheeling partygoers in New Orleans, violent criminals and their victims in Chicago, or wealthy retirees, drug lords and Cuban expatriates in Miami.

Beautiful mansions, modest homes and shoddy tenements in whatever location tell readers much about their inhabitants. A character's chosen surroundings can either solidify stereotypes of who he is (a hot, bachelor lawyer with an obviously decorator-done condo that looks like a seduction pad) or a detail that stands away from that stereotype (perhaps a faded, framed photo set unobtrusively on the credenza beside his desk, of a little boy in tattered clothes, standing next to a woman bent over in a strawberry field).

Like the Rolex on his wrist, his custom-tailored suits, his yacht and his gleaming red Ferrari, this hero's condo tells the reader he has achieved success and wealth. The lone personal looking item, in this case a picture, hints that he has known poverty and makes the reader wonder what shaped him into what he is today.

Natural phenomena in settings often punctuate or trigger tumultuous emotions. Is a character apprehensive? Afraid? Uncertain? Or even as wild as the storm? Many times in romance, these feelings in characters will be accompanied by a roll of thunder...crackling lightning in an otherwise black night sky...a burst of hailstones--or a blizzard with snow falling so fast that it seems the lovers may be buried under its frozen depth.

I've pulled an example of using nature to heighten character emotion from each of my Lawyers in Love series books, which I've been revisiting as I write a new, connected series, Courthouse Connections, which I hope will be completed by the end of 2013.

These books can also be bought in two print collections, THE DEFENDERS and THE PROSECUTORS. All of my books are available from Ellora's Cave, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Sony, All Romance EBooks, Kobo and other authorized online booksellers. Print ones are also available through LSI and Createspace.

"Waves rocked the boat. Thunder rolled. She tightened her hold on his hard-muscled torso. He would keep the world at bay, keep her safe..." (In His Own Defense)

"Damn it, he shouldn’t have to keep reminding himself every few minutes that he had no business lusting after what he could no longer have. As if in warning, the thunder clapped again, louder this time.
"Andi shuddered, a strangely sensual motion that contrasted with the fierceness of the storm. “You know, I’m afraid of lightning. Always have been. I wish…" (Bittersweet Homecoming)

"Sensation sizzled through her brain, the heat of the day bringing sweat up on her brow. Mild heat, though, compared with the fires Craig kindled inside her..." (Gettin' It On)

"For a long time he held her. Shivered with her while the wind pummeled their shelter, reminding him of the danger. Not only that which threatened them, but that which promised to consume him if he gave his raging emotions free rein. If he took her, claimed her now the way he'd been too young and green to take her years ago." (Eye of the Storm)

Conversely, authors will often set the resolution of conflict or its lusty aftermath on a sunny day at the beach, a riverbank with the river's sometimes rushing water running lazily by contented lovers--or a cool evening inside, perhaps in front of a warm and inviting fireplace.  heirloom quilt.


So... There's a lot of emotion an author can show readers by setting. Setting includes not only physical surroundings but also acts of nature that can illustrate the depths of characters' emotions. There's a whole lot to the settings in which authors place their characters.

Ann Jacobs

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Writers' Block's the Pits

If you've ever had it, you know how helpless it feels not to be able to put together a story from the synopsis you used to sell it! I don't often get stumped, but I am now--and I'm trying hard to blame the blahs on the nasty case of not-flu-bug that had me down most of last month!

Two competing story lines sit in my computer when I'm two days before deadline, and never the two shall meet! I've vacillated like a politician with a hot-potato issue, lobbyists on one side and irate constituents on the other--and only today have I managed to reconcile in my head that one of the story lines works marginally better than the other.

Why, you ask? Well, my initial story line called for my IR hero and heroine to be strangers, when the hot sex they want to have doesn't mesh with the idea of them just having met. Now I've added a prologue with them meeting, having incredible sex and parting ways because they're just too different and their worlds are totally incompatible.

Add to this the fact that the proposal for the story places it as a continuation of a long series with many characters and complex relationships--and a timeline that doesn't quite match up in the older stories, although the lapses aren't too bad considering that the series wasn't originally written as such--rather as separate books that somehow ended up as part of a loosely connected series!

The series: BLACK GOLD, where the Middle East and Texas merge in some steamy yet difficult-to-reconcile ways. The current WIP: SELENA'S SHEIKH, in which I'm trying to bring together an independent Texan heroine with a fairly traditional Kuwaiti sheikh for whom sex is the major glue that holds two improbable lovers together.

My hope: that when I finish SELENA'S SHEIKH it will bring a new and different set of conflicts to a nontraditional interracial/multicultural romance--and that readers will enjoy what's proving to be a very different yet highly erotic contemporary romance.

Meanwhile, check out my current book, #3 in the Caden Kink series, available from Ellora's Cave, Amazon and other online booksellers!

Ann Jacobs
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Check Out WILD ONE...

On January 4, Deidre finds her Master in the third and final book of the Caden Kink series. Les Fourchet is the new doctor in town who's not what the spoiled baby of the family thinks she wants-- but who's exactly the Dom she needs to capture her restless heart and show her the sort of life she truly needs to tame the discontent inside her.

The WILD ONE, Deidre Caden follows her two older siblings, Bye (the heir to the Bar C and all the Caden wealth) who found the submissive of his dreams in LOVERS' FEUD...

and Jack, their bastard half-brother, who discovered a kindred spirit in his 24/7 slave, Liz Wolfe, in SHOTGUN RELATIONS.

If you like wide-open spaces and steamy, uninhibited romance with a BDSM flavor, don't miss these siblings and their sizzling stories, available now (or coming January 4) from Ellora's Cave Publishing!

Happy New Year. May 2013 bring you health, wealth and happiness!

Ann Jacobs
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Anatomy of a Romance Hero

What is a romance novel hero, anyhow?

The word "hero" has been around in English since 1387. Its core meaning is "protector" or "defender". Usually a hero is male, and the female version is called a "heroine". Ironically, most romances' main characters are women, therefore, most romances are written primarily from the heroine's point of view.

Erotic romances are different from traditional romances in many ways, not only because the sex acts are portrayed graphically and in more frank language than in their tamer sisters. In erotic romances, the heroes are often the main characters rather than mere love interests for the heroine. They frequently are the driving force behind the stories. Their wants, fears, core beliefs and prejudices can fuel the journey, and they swoop up the heroine and take her along for the ride.

In literature (including the erotic romances I write), the hero has common qualities despite vastly different cultures and beliefs. Whether set in a medieval castle, a modern high-rise, a battlefield or an imaginary world, all heroes are larger than life. Usually an ordinary person given extraordinary circumstances, a hero prevails in spite of all the odds being stacked against him--in life, in career, in battle and in love.

This isn't a new concept. Joseph Campbell wrote about it in THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES more than sixty years ago. He described the hero's journey as beginning in an ordinary world, answering a call to an unusual world of strange powers and events. This hero must survive severe challenges, and if he does, he will get a great gift that may include the discovery of profound self-knowledge. After receiving this gift or wisdom, the hero may go back to the ordinary world, often facing yet another challenge on the return trip.

  

There are plenty of more recent books about heroes and their journeys from a writer's viewpoint. Two I've read and tried to apply are Christopher Vogler's THE WRITER'S JOURNEY and Robert McKee's STORY. Both of these books dissect the hero's journey as a basic structure for storytellers and screenwriters. I can't say I follow either author with slavish devotion, but I've tried to incorporate some of their advice as I create my heroes and their stories. I've also found much valuable information in DANGEROUS MEN AND ADVENTUROUS WOMEN, edited by Jayne Ann Krentz.

I've spent a great deal of time dissecting the eight hero archetypes in THE COMPLETE WRITER'S GUIDE TO HEROES & HEROINES, by Tami D. Cowden et al. My conclusion is that no memorable erotic romance hero is all "chief", all "warrior" or all "swashbuckler"--or all of any of the eight archetypes. He is basically one or the other, usually a chief or warrior in the books I sampled. He has other qualities, though, that may be primary characteristics of the "lost soul", the "best friend", the "swashbuckler", the "bad boy" or "the charmer".

 What qualities do erotic romance readers like best in their heroes? Well, I've written a lot of them, many of which are hero-driven stories. My personal bestselling heroes are "chiefs", each with a healthy dose of "lost soul". Kurt (A MUTUAL FAVOR) also has a touch of "professor" and a smidgeon of "best friend", while Gray (BITTERSWEET HOMECOMING) almost tips the scale toward pure "lost soul". Jake (FIRESTORM) is "chief" with "bad boy" and a little bit of "lost soul", while Jared (ROPED) is the ultimate wounded Alpha "chief".

My more recent football guys all share “chief” and "warrior" qualities, with touches of other archetypes that make each hero unique. Bobby (NAKED BOOTLEG) has "best friend" qualities, while Keith (FORWARD PASS) is a bit of a "lost soul" and Dave (HOT IN THE CLUTCH) has a lot of "bad boy" in his personality. Colin (COACH ME) is a "warrior"/"chief". These stories segue into the Necessary Roughness series where each hero has embraced a particular sexual kink. Warriors at their core, Jimmy (SACKMASTER), Jack (END RUN), Sid (BEST RECEPTION) and Matt (PRIME DEFENDER) demonstrate qualities of "charmer", "professor" and "chief" when circumstances demand they do so for the sake of the women they love.

To me, the most important quality of a romance hero is that he grows during the course of the story, becoming not only larger than life but also more than he was at the beginning. He may be a "chief" who has learned to display his deep emotions, a "lost soul" who has realized he has retained or gained more than he lost--or a "warrior" who has learned the value of mercy. That growth is what makes a hero memorable.

Coming soon: Wild One, Book 3, Caden Kink series, from Ellora's Cave

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Happy Holidays!

Ann Jacobs

http://annjacobs.net

Ann Jacobs: My First Sale to Ellora's Cave

I had been suffering a two-year-long dry spell. Oh wait, it had been three years since my last sale to one of the revered New York publishers--but just two years since the last book had come out. I was tearing my hair out, wondering what I had to do to succeed in the crazy business of publishing!

At the 2002 RWA convention, I was grousing about getting turned every way but loose by editors who kept saying my sex scenes were too explicit for the delicate ears of readers. I'd gone through two agents who had tried and failed to sell my proposals. Now NY Times bestseller Angela Knight told me about Ellora's Cave, then a fledgling epublisher that actually wanted steamy, explicit romance they had dubbed Romantica (TM).

Having heard nightmares about ebooks earning their authors literally not enough to buy lunch at McDonald's, I had trouble believing Angela when she said she was earning more with EC books as with the novellas she'd published in Secrets. Since I, too, had been one of the authors who had an erotic novella published in one of the Secrets anthologies, I knew there was gold out there.

Being even more greedy than I was skeptical, I bundled up a complete novel that had made the rounds in New York with a contemporary erotic novella I had proposed for Secrets, and emailed them to Ellora's Cave. After all the rejections I'd been getting, I didn't have a lot of hope...but within two days an EC editor came back with offers for both projects!

I accepted, not expecting a lot in the form of actual money--no advance but a promise of 35% of the proceeds. After all, it had been all that time since I'd made a sale to one of the big six--and I couldn't quit writing even though the prospects seemed slim.

That was in October 2002. I immediately got into edits for the novella, Commitment--and commissioned to write another one about a magician (long story, for another time) that became Illusions. These two stories were originally published in late November 2002 in a collection entitled Love Magic.

My editor also wanted a Quickie--a short story meant to lead into what would be my first full-length EC novel, Firestorm. Love Slave also was released in late November, a few days after Love Magic--back then releases weren't scheduled a lot in advance or limited to one a month.

In early December I got my first royalty statement--and check. I could hardly believe my eyes. In less than a week those two projects had earned me royalties that were upwards of $500, and my editor actually apologized that the check wasn't bigger.

I was thrilled--sold on epublishing, Ellora's Cave and writing what I'd always loved. I no longer had to water down the sex scenes or write heroes' dialogue and narrative using euphemisms no self-respecting male would utter! I could indulge my dirty mind and write all manner of kink, from anal play to threesomes to improbable off-planet hot stuff with my first effort at futuristic later on--in 2003 (Gates of Hell).

Here I am, ten years later, still misbehaving at EC and loving it, celebrating the release earlier this month of SHOTGUN RELATIONS, book two in a brand-new, sizzling western contemporary series tweaked with BDSM and menage scenes I wouldn't have dared to write back in the day!

See you all again next month! Your comments (if you include your email address) may win you a download of your choice of any of my ebooks. I'll be checking them after Romanticon and picking a winner.

Ann Jacobs
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Modern-day Liberty Valance storms The Big Valley

Book 2 of my Caden Kink series, coming Friday, Sept. 21, from Ellora's Cave, is built on this question.

Jack Duval, country lawyer and bastard son of the Caden patriarch, first discovers rancher Liz Wolfe when he goes after her to spite his father. Soon, though, he learns she’s the submissive partner of his wildest fantasies…

But rustlers and murderers interrupt their hot BDSM play, and Jack must reveal a pair of secrets that may tear the two apart before he and Liz can move on to the next step toward happily ever after.

Here's an excerpt that tells a lot about the two as they're preparing to have sex the first time. They've just come to his house from the wedding of Jack's half-brother.

Liz didn’t understand why Jack had sat her down on the black leather sectional sofa that dominated his living room and immediately excused himself to fix snacks she doubted either of them could eat. She was stuffed from the sumptuous three-course meal they’d eaten at the wedding reception and her head was still buzzing. No doubt she’d had too much of the free-flowing Moët champagne while repeatedly toasting Bye and his bride.

Like Jack himself, his living room seemed conventional and scholarly, much like his law office above The Corral. Off-white walls and golden oak floors contrasted with the black sofa and black-and-chrome furniture. The few splashes of blood-red on a predominantly black abstract painting on one wall seemed out of character with the rest of the décor. The only other color was in a multicolored afghan draped over a lone, very old-looking straight chair against the wall.

Damn it to hell. She didn’t want Jack to be the dutiful host. She wanted him to take her to his bed and fuck her brains out.

It may have taken her a few dates to figure it out, but she knew now. She wanted the hot young lawyer who supposedly got his rocks off at the sex club called the Neon Lasso. She’d enjoy him as long as she could, even knowing he was more than she could expect to hold on to for more than a brief affair.

When she looked in the large mirror on the far wall, she confirmed the likelihood that was true. A woman who wasn’t ugly but was certainly no beauty stared back at her, reinforcing what she’d first realized when she was twelve years old. At five-eight then, she’d towered over everybody in their middle school class except her friend, Bye Caden, who’d already been over six feet tall. Since then she’d stopped growing up, but she’d never really lost her lanky, colt-like body and was still too tall to wear stilettos around ninety percent of the men she knew.

Including Jack. From a distance he’d looked tall as well as hot as hell with his arresting almost black eyes, strong nose and stubborn jaw. She’d first singled him out at The Corral a year or so ago because he wore his dark-brown hair in what she thought was called a high-and-tight. Shaved down to nothing but a dark shadow except for the horseshoe-shaped ring of crisp, slightly darker stubble around the crown of his perfectly shaped skull, it was as military-short as that of any Marine she’d ever seen on recruiting posters. 

She liked the no-nonsense, take-charge look of that haircut, which looked out of place with his conventional suit and tie and the businesslike black briefcase he carried. Tell the truth, she’d been itching ever since that day to feel that intriguing, dark stubble against her skin so she could learn if it felt smooth or scratchy .

Jack obviously hadn’t noticed her at all back then. He hadn’t paid her an ounce of attention until a few months ago, when he’d surprisingly come on to her at the local watering hole and barbecue joint that was the only place to get a beer or something to eat in tiny Caden.

When he’d come up and stood beside her at the bar, she’d realized he wasn’t nearly as big as he’d looked from a distance. He stood maybe half an inch below six feet, only the height of a pair of modest heels taller than she was. That hadn’t mattered, though. He was still the hottest man she’d ever laid eyes on and he’d made it clear that when he was with her he’d be the one in charge. She needed a man to take charge in a relationship, since she was the one who’d had to call the shots at the Laughing Wolf since coming back from college six years ago.

She stared down at her pink ballet slippers. They weren’t the least bit sexy. She’d chosen them so she could look up at Jack. Men were supposed to get turned on when they felt strong and protective. Of course they were also supposed to get hot over big boobs and hourglass shapes, and she didn’t have either. The nicest compliment she’d ever been given was that she should have become a runway model, and nobody in her right mind would think those bags of bones were sexy.  Liz sighed, crossed and uncrossed her legs and wondered when the hell Jack was coming back in here to let her down.

It was obvious to her that he’d had second thoughts about fucking her. Nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs, she adjusted her pink chiffon skirt. It had looked so flirty on the model in the designer salon at Neiman Marcus when she’d bought it in Dallas last month, but had garnered her not one single compliment today.

“How about getting more comfortable? There’s a robe like this one on the hook in the powder room over there.” Jack had changed from his suit into a black silk kimono that reached halfway down muscular thighs dusted with short, black hair. It had red and gold embroidery on the back—a dragon, she thought.

She smiled when she noticed what looked like a raging hard-on tenting the thin material. Her mouth watered and she wondered if he was wearing anything at all underneath the kimono. So much for worrying that he’d decided he didn’t want to fuck her.

She stood and started toward the door he’d indicated, then she noticed the tray he’d set on the cocktail table held not conventional snacks but a couple of feathers, four neckties, a handful of wrapped condoms and a miscellaneous collection of bottles in various shapes and colors. One of the bottles caught her eye. It was a full honey bear with a red cap and a grin on its sassy, painted face.  “What?”

“They’re flavor enhancers for the main course.” He sounded amused, as though he thought she might not have the vaguest idea what he meant by “main course”. She did, and her pussy tingled when she imagined him lapping the honey from it.

Imagining how that honey might taste when she licked it off the head of Jack’s cock, she smiled as she opened the bathroom door and saw the kimono he’d mentioned. “I’ll be right back.”

With trembling fingers, she unzipped her dress and let it drop to the floor. For a few seconds she hesitated, then she took off her bra and panties as well. I might as well live dangerously. It’s not as though I didn’t practically beg him to fuck me. Or as if I’ll be the only one of us who’s naked under skimpy black silk.

She belted the kimono around her waist and looked in the mirror. It barely covered her pussy. If she moved at all Jack would get an eyeful of her pubes. Oh well, he’d see them soon enough anyway. And her barely-there breasts. Sighing, she headed out of the bathroom, back to him.

Her fierce desire for sex with him trumped her fear that she wasn’t woman enough to grab him and hold on.

EC's celebration of authors who've spent a decade misbehaving kicked off this month and will go through November. Check out my personal blog every day in September and enter for a chance to win one of thirty gifts including books and promo items provided by Ellora's Cave.

Ann Jacobs

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I can't believe it's been ten years!

No, not my marriage LOL. I've been married a lot  longer than that! I guess it is a marriage of sorts, though, because in November I'll have been writing for Ellora's Cave Publishing for ten years.


This month I had my sixtieth ebook release from EC, LOVERS' FEUD, the first in a new series called Caden Kink. It's been a fun, busy ride that I hope goes on for many more years--the company has great management, super editors and the best art department in the business!


I'm happy to be a part of the company's ten-year celebration, with all sorts of neat perks including new, super-hot covers for my oldies but goodies like AWAKENINGS-- a fairytale fantasy, probably the first or one of the first of the company's successful themed series.

AWAKENINGS came out first in the summer of 2003, an erotic takeoff on "Sleeping Beauty" and "Jorinda and Joringel" in which Jorinda falls under an evil witch's spell that requires two princes--in this case Jorinda and his twin brother Khalil--to make love to a sleeping princess and break the spells cast on both women.  Needless to say if you're familiar with my books, AWAKENINGS is a big departure from the contemporary erotic romances I usually write.

If you like erotic fantasies and haven't tried this one, check out the excerpt below...and get your updated copy with the beautiful cover by Syneca from Ellora's Cave, Amazon or other online retailers. It's also available in print, in the collection DARK FANTASIES.

EXCERPT:

 The most profound experience of his life. ‘Twas the only way Joringel could describe the orgasm that had overtaken not only his body but his heart and mind. Content, he lay on the mossy bed in the glen, tracing the sweet, womanly curve of Jorinda’s spine as she lay against his chest. Birds of red, green, yellow, and brilliant blue swooped down, then returned to perch in the branches of trees filled with fragrant blossoms.

The waning sun warmed his cheeks.

Paradise. Perhaps all he needed was this woman, not a thousand-year-old princess who’d only awaken to the touch of a worthy lover. Chances were, that worthy lover would have been Khalid, not he, in any case. Perhaps he’d take Jorinda, leave the forest ere evil befell them, and carve out a kingdom of his own in the verdant valley of Aphrodisias.

Yes. That was exactly what he’d do. Closing his eyes, Joringel imagined restoring the palace, fortifying the valley’s defenses…

Suddenly the sound of the birds’ songs changed, grew urgent. The sky darkened. Alarmed, Joringel drew Jorinda tightly into his arms as a huge black bird swooped down from the sky, its descent accompanied by an ominous rumbling from the top of a snow-capped mountain that lay far in the distance.

But his strength was no match for that of the mighty raptor. It grasped Jorinda by the waist and dragged her away…and up, up, up until she hung suspended from its huge yellow claws as though she weighed no more than one of the frightened songbirds.

Out of his reach. He searched for a tree to climb, that he might free her. None reached as high as the creature had already soared. Desperate now, for he now knew Jorinda was his destiny, Joringel snatched up his robe and sword, and took off running in the direction the bird had headed with its precious burden.

Toward Acilik Mountain, from which ‘twas said no man had ever returned.

The legends he’d heard and scoffed at before venturing into this place of tempting horrors now terrified him. Tales of maidens being carried away and turned to stone by Marij, the wicked witch of the mountain, never to be seen or heard from again, reverberated in his ears.

His original quest forgotten, Joringel uttered up prayers to the deities of his own people, and to the gods and goddesses that were said to keep the Aphrodisiasi people from harm.

“Protect my lady. Give me the strength to free her.” Joringel repeated those words like a mantra, though he had no clue as to how he might wrench his lover from the clutches of the evil one.

His concentration centered on his prayers, Joringel noticed only when he’d been neatly captured in the branches of a gnarled flower tree that he could no longer move about.

To no avail, he struggled to break away from the encircling branches. Finally realizing he’d been rendered helpless at least for the moment, Joringel assessed his surroundings. Nothing unusual. Only the forest, with its plants and creatures… He gawked, amazed, at the large snow-white owl when it landed on the ground before him, for the creature emitted a surrealistic glow, then changed into a wizened gnome before his eyes.

A gnome who looked much like the one his mother had described in the bedtime stories of his youth.
“Help me free myself, for I must hasten before it’s too late. The evil one has taken my lover.”

“She will go nowhere but to Acilik Castle. ‘Tis where Marij keeps all those she finds trespassing in this enchanted forest. Fear not. We’ll retrieve her in due course.”

Joringel struggled to break free, but the branches held him fast. “I must go to her now. I cannot lose her.”

“Calm yourself, my prince. First you have a more pressing duty: to break the spell Acilik Marij cast on my sleeping princess, for the time is upon us. Where is your brother, so we can get on with the seduction?” asked the gnome. “You are a prince of Gaziantep, are you not?”

“Yes, but—”

The gnome stomped one claw-like foot. “There is no time to argue, Your Highness. Marij’s curse was to last a thousand years, until the princes would come and waken Princess Talia.” The gnome’s wrinkled cheeks turned a brilliant red, and he lowered his gaze. “She’s to be awakened with all manner of carnal pleasures,” he added as though reluctant to impart that proviso.

Joringel had heard before that the awakening would involve mating with the sleeping princess, from wandering Aphrodisiasi minstrels who often visited the courts of Gaziantep, as well as in the Yazilikaya pleasure palaces. Understandably his mother had omitted that part of the legend when she’d told it to him and Khalid.

An hour ago Joringel would have argued that he could waken Talia alone—that his sexual prowess was without equal. Now, though, it was Jorinda he wanted—for life, with or without the kingdom that would come to the prince who awakened the Aphrodisiasi princess.

Making a Trailer

Okay. I've had book trailers before. Only thing is, I paid somebody else to do 'em. When my editor asked if I wanted to link one to LOVERS' FEUD, my next (July 18) EC release, I figured it couldn't be terribly hard to put together something using Windows Live Movie Maker.

After all, other authors have managed to make good trailers, and I'm not a complete moron--not quite.  At least I didn't think I was, until I started on this project.

So what did I need? Some royalty-free photos, preferably free ones. I found them after a few hours' diligent searching, only to discover they needed a trip through Photoshop to get them to the correct sizes for the video. Add another hour or so...and some major cropping of a Jimmy Thomas (Romance Novels Covers) shot I bought to use on a self-pubbed short story a while back. You see, Jimmy has dark hair, his female model's a blonde...but Bye and Karen, my hero and heroine, have pretty much the opposite coloring.

Next, I played with putting photos into frames in the software. That went pretty easily until I got to one crucial photo which took up only a fraction of the center of a frame. Oh well. I could live with that. Too bad it had to go into two frames to make the text make sense.

The text was easy, thanks to my wonderful editor who pretty much wrote the blurb that I shamelessly copied onto the trailer. (It wouldn't have been half as easy if I'd had to create the text from scratch, because I suck at writing blurbs and anything else shorter than a scene in a novel, LOL.)

I took a deep breath and saved the trailer. Then I played it, only to discover it was way, way longer than a single-book trailer ought to be, so I went back to the drawing board and cut the length of each frame until the whole thing played in a little over a minute. That was better.

The silence was deafening, though, so I searched out some free music. The piece I found seemed to work with the pictures and the tone of the text, and it fortunately only required a credit for its use.

The trailer was done, ready to hawk LOVERS' FEUD on Facebook, YouTube and hopefully my website. Unfortunately my website requires a different format than the one Windows Live Movie Maker produces, so the trailer is still waiting for me to find a way to convert it to whatever format my Joomla website requires. That's a project for later, after I finish edits for MOUNTAIN HEAT and turn in the next book in the Caden Kink series, SHOTGUN RELATIONS.

What do you think? Should I keep on making trailers or bite the bullet and pay somebody else to do it? Best comment, whether it's a bashing or a compliment, gets a free copy of LOVERS' FEUD on its release date!

Ann Jacobs
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 LOVERS' FEUD, book 1, Caden Kink series, coming July 18 from Ellora's Cave

A Little BDSM Psychology

Some people say BDSM play helps both Doms and subs cope with various traumatic experiences in their pasts. Many believe that submission in BDSM power exchange helps the sub overcome an inferiority complex and social phobias. This is especially true in the first and last books in my popular BDSM western series, HEART OF THE WEST.

To me, one of the most attractive beliefs about the psychology behind BDSM is that the Dominant partner is driven by his/her desire to please his or her partner(s). This is true in most erotic romances with a male Dom, in that he creates settings where the participants can explore the submissives' fantasies. As a matter of fact, it's also true in most cases when the Domme is a woman. I like to think my Dominant characters have exhibited this desire in all of my BDSM romances.

 

It seems to me that the reason so many women readers love the male-dominant BDSM fantasy is that, while the Dominant controls a BDSM relationship on the surface, the actual dynamics of the relationship are controlled by the submissive. The sub sets limits as to what can and can't be explored, and he/she has the power to call a halt to a scene at any time by using a pre-established safe word. There are hard limits--things the sub absolutely will not allow--and soft ones, which may be off limits but may sometimes, in the heat of passion, be permitted. Limits, both hard ones and soft ones, change over time, as the partners become more attuned to one another.

While not many people in the vanilla fantasize over being hurt as a form of sexual play, it is very true that when a person is sexually aroused, all kinds of sexual stimulation can produce pleasure...up to a point, of course. That's why many BDSM practitioners follow "three sacred rules" about their play: it must be safe, sane and consensual. I try hard to make all my stories follow these rules, and to reveal more than just the mechanics of BDSM play when I write scenes that match each character's personality, hangups, and so on.

I just finished writing LOVERS' FEUD the first book in my new western series for Ellora's Cave. Each of the three novels goes more deeply than I've gone before into the characters' motivation to choose BDSM play, either acting out their kinky fantasies as Bye and Karen do in LOVERS' FEUD, living a 24/7 loving Dominant/submissive relationship in SHOTGUN RELATIONS, or learning not everybody who seems vanilla is vanilla in WILD CHILD, which will be book three. 

Check my blog (ann-jacobs.blogspot.com) and Facebook pages in the coming weeks for outtakes and excerpts from these hot, heartwarming novels! I'll be announcing some contests closer to the release of LOVERS' FEUD.

Happy reading!

Ann Jacobs
http://annjacobs.net
https://facebook.com/AnnJacobsAuthor
MOUNTAIN HEAT, a Blush Romance coming soon from Ellora's Cave

A Hard-Learned Lesson

You know, some situations just don’t lend themselves to kink. I learned this recently, the hard way.

I write erotic books for a living, so it should make sense that I’d be able to heat up a sensual category romance for reissue. It DID make sense with four of my five New York-published books, but the process just wouldn’t work for the fifth one, no matter how many weeks/months I spent trying to turn it into an erotic romance.

 

At first I didn’t understand why. The hero and heroine enjoyed plenty of hot, imaginative sex, way more than in most category romances. No, there were no ménages, BDSM scenes or kinky dream sequences, but that has been the case in several of my better selling, award-winning original erotic romances, as well as in my four previously revised reissues.

 

I originally proposed the book that just wouldn't turn erotic for Berkley’s limited “Quilting” series, though it was published by Kensington in its short-lived Bouquet line. The quilt-maker heroine was too innocent. The hero, a self-made millionaire seeking to rediscover his roots, was Alpha in the bedroom but a pussycat everywhere else. Worse, the story premise and setting didn't lend themselves to erotic romance. I thought about adding some kinky sex between the hero and his former fiancée…creating a hot, dream sequence between the heroine and her dead fiancé in which she didn’t wait for a wedding that never happened…making the heroine sexually repressed until the hero takes control, as in BDSM light. None of these options made sense for the characters or their worlds.

This wasn't the type of book I've been writing over the past few years. Still, I liked the story and wanted readers who missed it during its brief time in a poorly distributed category line. I'd spun wheels revising it, getting  rid of a lot of problems I hadn’t recognized eleven years ago when I first wrote the book. Because I believe my readers expect my sex scenes to be graphic and detailed, I beefed them up but tried to stay within what I thought Althea and Jared actually would do. 

The result is MOUNTAIN HEAT, a very sexy conventional romance with a folksy tone befitting a country quilt-maker and a guy searching for his long-lost roots, coming soon from Ellora's Cave. I hope  readers won’t be disappointed that the story’s not quite as sizzling as most of my more recent books. I just may write a couple more super-hot but not exactly erotic romances because I occasionally like the one man, one woman scene, even though it seems a little old-fashioned in a romance world of ménage a trois, voyeurism, BDSM, shapeshifting, and so on.

What do you all think? Do you sometimes go for erotic romance "Light", or does your taste always run more toward the no-holds-barred, completely uninhibited tales that leave you panting for your guy/toys/whatever more than sighing over the happily-ever-after conclusion of lovers whose lust is tempered by conventional, vanilla love?

I'll be picking a winner at the end of the month from all the comments posted here. Prize will be a download of the winner's choice of any of my published books, to be announced on Twitter and my Facebook page.

Ann Jacobs

http://annjacobs.net/

Follow me on Twitter: @authrannjacobs

Follow me on Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/AnnJacobsAuthor

Anatomy of an Erotic Romance

Nope, I'm not talking about hot sex scenes. They're a given. This is about putting together the skeleton of a story that will intrigue potential readers/buyers. Dare I say the word synopsis?

Let's not. That's a pretty scary word, at least to me! Let's just build the framework: the person around whom you're going to build a story--a hero if you will. What dominant impression do you want him to convey? Give him a stated goal and a plausible reason for having that goal. Then toss in a stumbling block that will stand in the way of getting or keeping whatever is important to him. Don't worry now about his hidden (inner) goals, motivation or conflict. Time for that will come later.

Now you need to give him a romantic interest. She may be the stumbling block that stands in the way of him getting what he wants, or she may be a second focal character with an agenda that's at odds with his own. On the surface, these two characters seem absolutely wrong for each other, but they'll fit together perfectly after they've grown emotionally during the story. Their strengths and weaknesses will mesh, forming a team stronger than either of them would be separately. And the sexual chemistry between them will sizzle from the first and drive a lot of the action in the book.

Okay. You've got two hot-blooded, sexually adventuresome characters (or more, although the third is usually an extension of one or the other main characters). You have to bring them together--have them do something meaningful and interesting to readers. There are only so many ways to do this, and they've been done thousands of times before. Do they come together to revenge a wrong? To find emotional connections they doubt exist? To get something of value that the other party owns?

What plot line fits your characters best? What is it that they think they want, and is there something deeper behind their stated motivations?

Forgive me for using an example that's not common to erotic romance but one that I dissected for a workshop several years ago. It shows how I built the framework of a story around two characters and a situation that puts them at odds.

Trey is a cocky rodeo cowboy who wants to win the nationals because it will prove he's the best, but the injuries he's nursing have put a kink in his plans. Enter Dinah, a sweetie of a barrel racer who wants Trey to take responsibility for their kid now that she's pregnant, because she loves the guy and believes every kid deserves a daddy. Unfortunately, settling down is the last thing on Trey's agenda. Okay. This gives me a framework for a reunion story, or maybe a semi-secret baby book.

Okay. How will I hook the reader? The announcement that Trey's going to be a daddy certainly will change his life, in spades. Since Dinah's life has already changed, I'll open in his head, with him in bed, in traction, pretty much at her mercy. He's going to balk, but since he's a hero he'll give in and marry Dinah. And she'll surprise him. He had no idea how hot a pregnant woman could be.

As Trey recovers, the real conflict develops. In spite of warnings from the doctors, he's going back on the rodeo circuit. Dinah wants a husband and father, not a vegetable or a corpse. This is a moot point until their daughter is born and Trey is well enough to practice, but when he refuses to give up his dream, Dinah leaves. Faced with losing the woman and child he has grown to love, Trey realizes they're more important to him than fame, so he goes after them and they live happily ever after.

So what do I have here? The skeleton of a story. Let me show you an exercise that will demonstrate how many directions a single story framework could take:

Trey is still our hero, but let's generalize a bit. He's not a rodeo cowboy but an arrogant warrior who wants to win the (battle/war/award/fight), because winning will prove he's the best at what he does; but he's wounded badly enough that his recovery is in question. Dinah is his lover and/or his healer who may or may not be pregnant but wants him to love her and marry her because she loves him.

In my example, I put the lovers in a contemporary setting. Generalized, though, they could fit in the Old West, medieval England or anywhere men seek victory through violence.

The contemporary setting could as easily be a courtroom such as the one in my Ellora's Cave novel, IN HIS OWN DEFENSE, where the hero is battling to win a case that will bring him fame and fortune while the heroine wants him to back off. (Incidentally, I built an entire series around lawyers as heroes—the Lawyers in Love series is on sale now until April 4, only at Ellora's Cave.)

Also in the vein of what’s on sale, the heroes could be dedicated doctors fighting against death and disease whose heroines are fellow doctors, patients or just hot BDSM lovers whose common goals are to be mastered. If you’re a BDSM fan, check out the four novellas in the Club Rio Brava series while they’re 20% off until April 4 at the EC web site.

Possibilities for stories based on a very simple basic structure are limited only by authors’ imagination, which is so infinitely variable that there’s little chance of telling the same story or creating cardboard characters—so long as the story situation and the settings mesh with the basic characteristics of the story people.

I love to hear your comments! Check out my website and be on the lookout for upcoming contests: http://annjacobs.net.