Writing BDSM

Of course everyone has heard about Fifty Shades of Grey now. Everyone’s whispering and giggling about mommy porn… or so the media wants us to think.

Meanwhile some of us have been reading and writing BDSM fiction for a very long time.

As with anything, there is well- and badly-written BDSM fiction out there. Whether you enjoyed 50 Shades or couldn’t get past all the blushing, mumbling and tripping without rolling your eyes, I’m thrilled that at least people are READING. Reading any book, reading BDSM, reading what floats your boat.

But if you’re coming into the craze late — and honestly, maybe you want to capitalize on the BDSM hype while 50 Shades is hot and write some yourself — then there are some very important things you should know before you set out to write BDSM. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve probably made mistakes. I’m not living the lifestyle.

However, I’ve always been drawn to BDSM fiction and was writing it in some fashion before I even really knew what BDSM stood for in the first place. That interest has only grown the more I’ve read and researched over the years.

Here are a few buzzwords to consider as you write BDSM.

Sexy. I’d say the number one thing I keep in mind as I write a BDSM sex scene: if I don’t find what the characters are doing smoking hot, then my readers sure aren’t going to be interested, either.
Don’t write BDSM because it’s shocking or titillating. That might get you so far, but it’s really the sexy, emotional BDSM that will keep your readers coming back. It’s only going to be sexy if YOU find it sexy. If you don’t find heavy S&M hot as hell, then don’t try to write it. There are already plenty of authors who can write the heavy, edgy scenes and pull it off wonderfully. Good BDSM fiction doesn’t have to be all whips and chains and latex, you know. There’s plenty of room for “softer” BDSM. Find what makes YOU blush and sweat and squirm…and write that instead.

Limits. Think about what limits you have as a writer and explore them, just like a good BDSM scene will explore a sub’s limits.
Maybe you once swore you’d never write XYZ. (A little known secret:
I once swore my characters would never say the f word. Yeah, they’re still laughing at me.) Maybe you really don’t find toys sexy but you wonder what the appeal is. Sit down and explore that. How could you make this scene sexy and emotional even if you’re uncomfortable?
Exploring your own limits will add emotion and believability to the story, not to mention help you grow as a writer.

Fear. Remember that at the heart of every really good hero’s journey is fear. Fear that we’re unlovable, that we’ll be abandoned and alone, and that we’ll ultimately fail the journey entirely. Fear has a place even in the most carefully contracted and fully consensual scene. Don’t assume that only the submissive is going to be afraid, either. Dominants have a ton of responsibility and may very well fear hurting the sub, failing to satisfy the sub’s expectations in some way, or even going so far in the scene that the sub is emotionally damaged. Play on those fears…and your own… to write the most emotional scenes possible.

Power. It may surprise you, but BDSM isn’t really about sex.
In fact, some really powerful scenes can play out without a single sexual act. At the heart of BDSM is a power exchange. The submissive chooses to give power to the dominant. In this regard, the control rests entirely on the submissive. The power is hers/his entirely to stop the scene with the safe word. The dominant uses that gift of power to play with the sub, whether with mind games, humiliation in some way, or sometimes but not always, sex. Think about the power that your characters are exchanging. Think about how it feels not only to be powerless, but to CHOOSE to be powerless. What kind of person would you trust to take your power away? Who would you trust to tie you up where you can’t move a muscle, let alone protect yourself? How would it feel to have someone look up at you while completely helpless and know that there’s absolutely nothing they could do to stop you (short of uttering their safe word)?

*shivers*

Now go write that, please.

Some recommended reads, both for research and for pleasure:

SM 101: A Realistic Introduction by Jay Wiseman

Sensuous Magic: A Guide to S/M for Adventurous Couples by Patrick Califia

The Sleeping Beauty Novels: The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty / Beauty’s Release / Beauty’s Punishment by A.N. Roquelaure (Anne Rice)

The Dom’s Dungeon by Cherise Sinclair

Other websites to consider:

http://www.kinkacademy.com/home/profile/?user=6
http://passionandsoul.com/
http://fetlife.com

~ * ~
Joely always has her nose buried in abook, especially one with mythology, fairy tales, and romance. Find her on her website, Twitter, and Facebook.. Be sure to check out her freereads!

YOURS TO TAKE, The Connaghers #3, releasing May 8th from Samhain Publishing

Joely has graciously offered one ecopy of Yours to Take to one lucky commenter. Just let us know what your favorite BDSM read is, or what interests you about the BDSM genre. Giveaway is open internationally and ends May 15th. Good Luck!

Guest Post & Giveaway with Joely Sue Burkhart is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery has entertained millions of readers with her witty and emotional stories about women and the relationships that move them. Susan is honored by enthusiastic readers who say that her books make them laugh, make them cry, and make the world a happier place to live. Susan lives in Seattle with her husband and her tiny but intrepid toy poodle. She’s there for the coffee, not the weather.

Susan’s latest book is BAREFOOT SEASON, the heart-wrenching story of two wounded women who heal their friendship – and find love with two fabulous men – over one long, lovely summer on Blackberry Island, Washington. BAREFOOT SEASON is the first book of Susan’s new Blackberry Island series of women’s fiction novels.

Susan, what made BAREFOOT SEASON a story you had to tell?

I find female friendship endlessly fascinating. I feel very blessed to have several strong, supportive friendships that have endured for years. We celebrate each other’s successes, grieve for each other’s losses, nurture and praise and lecture – whatever is called for at that moment. I know how strong friendship between women can be.

But friendship can also be fragile.

One day, I asked myself, What if you and your best friend fell in love with the same man… and then he chose her? Could you be truly happy for her when your heart is breaking? What would you do if he then came to you – this man you both love – and told you that he made a mistake, that he should have chosen you? Could you turn him away? From this spark came BAREFOOT SEASON.

As children, Michelle and Carly were as close as sisters, running free on Blackberry Island. Now, ten years after their friendship was destroyed by love, they’re forced together again by circumstances to save the Blackberry Island Inn.  Along the way, they’ll each find love with two great men and the sense of family they’d been missing for so many years. I do love a happy ending!

BAREFOOT SEASON is the first book of your new Blackberry Island series. What can you tell us about Blackberry Island, both the books and the place? 

On Blackberry Island, life is sweet and the happy ending is guaranteed! I’m a firm believer that life is better with romance, so you can rest assured that the women on Blackberry Island will find love with men who will make your toes curl. The Blackberry Island books will also allow me to explore other relationships. We women often define ourselves by the relationships in our lives. Not just by our romantic relationships, but by our friendships, our relationships with our mothers, our children, our bosses, our neighbors… For us, it’s not so much “what do you do?” as “whom do you love and who loves you back?” that determines how we feel about ourselves. It’s nice to stretch my wings a little to write about some of these other defining relationships, as well.

Blackberry Island is a quaint island off the coast of Seattle, a popular weekend escape for Seattlites who want to get out of the city. You can get to the island either across Getaway Bridge or by ferry. Locals are friendly hosts, happy to direct you to one of several wineries on the island, the daisy fields that have made it the Daisy Capital of the West Coast, and the Puget Sound Crane habitats. You can learn more about Blackberry Island at www.blackberryisland.com. And yes, it’s fictional, but it’s real in my heart, as I hope it will become real in yours!

BAREFOOT SEASON is more of a women’s fiction, then, rather than a straight romance. Are you moving away from writing romance?

Absolutely not! I love romance. There is still nothing more exciting to me than watching two people fall in love. I adore the first kiss, my heart always sinks when things are at their darkest and it looks hopeless, and I am as thrilled as ever when love triumphs in the end. My next romance will be SUMMER DAYS, book 7 of the Fool’s Gold series, which will land in stores on May 29. Well, that’s the next full-length romance. On May 1, I’ll release ALMOST SUMMER, a Fool’s Gold ebook novella. Then there will be two more Fool’s Gold romances in July and August, plus a Christmas gift-sized hardcover in October called A FOOL’S GOLD CHRISTMAS. If you’ll sign up for my mailing list at www.susanmallery.com/members/, I’ll send you an email on release day.

Do you think book clubs will enjoy BAREFOOT SEASON? Why or why not?

I do! I belong to a book club, and the books we most enjoy discussing are the books that feel like a slice of life. In BAREFOOT SEASON, the two women at the center of the story are both decent people who have legitimate reasons for feeling the way they do, which means that book club members can legitimately fall on either side of the issue that’s causing the conflict in the book.

I’m always very proud when readers and reviewers say that they really identified with the characters in my books. Those characters feel as real to me as people in real life – a fact which is endlessly confusing for my poor husband, who has to ask for clarification when I tell him about something that someone did that day. “Is she a real person?” he’s forced to ask.

I think readers will really connect with the characters in BAREFOOT SEASON. Carly is a hard-working, loving single mom. She would do anything for her daughter, including put up with the woman who betrayed her. If the inn goes under, Carly doesn’t just lose her job – she loses her home, the only home her daughter has ever known.

Michelle is sarcastic and funny and kind of crabby. I do love a crabby woman! Michelle is prickly, but beneath that prickliness, she’s loyal and has a heart that won’t quit. Wait until you meet the dog she rescues – and who rescues her.

I’ve included a readers’ discussion guide in BAREFOOT SEASON to help get the conversation started. There are even a couple of recipes! I’d be happy to chat about the book live via phone or Skype with any book club that selects BAREFOOT SEASON. Just email my assistant at jenel (at) susanmallery (dot) com to set it up.

What kind of research did you do?

In BAREFOOT SEASON, Michelle is struggling with post-traumatic stress after being wounded in Afghanistan. Since I’ve never served in the military, I wanted to be sure I got those details right, to honor the women who serve our country. I did a lot of research online, then I spoke personally with Sergeant Betty Thurman. What struck me time and again was how proud our soldiers are of what they do. Rightfully so. These are strong, resilient women. Although they are barred from certain duties, they can and do serve in war zones. They can and do put their lives on the line, and they do it because they love our country.

After I finished the book, I asked a fan of mine who has been deployed twice to read it for a “gut check.”  Did I get the emotions right, I wanted to know. She told me that she felt as if I was in her head. On top of being a soldier, she is a wife and mother to four children. She loved the book so much that she has preordered ten copies to send to her “battle buddies.”

What do you hope your readers take away from reading BAREFOOT SEASON?

Friends can become family. We’re not all lucky enough to be born with the family we deserve, but we can build a family by surrounding ourselves with loving, supportive friends.

How did you come up with the title BAREFOOT SEASON?

In the book, Michelle spots Carly’s young daughter in the back yard, barefoot and spinning in circles with her face raised toward the sun and her arms outstretched. It makes her long for the long summer days of her own childhood, when she and Carly ran barefoot around Blackberry Island. In her mind, being barefoot is closely connected with innocence, with the time in her life before she had been hurt, before she knew there was darkness in the world.

What’s next for you, after BAREFOOT SEASON?

This summer, I’m heading back to Fool’s Gold, California – the Land of Happy Endings – with four brand new full-length novels, plus an ebook novella. The titles and release dates are:

ALMOST SUMMER – May 1 (ebook novella)

SUMMER DAYS – May 29

SUMMER NIGHTS – June 26

ALL SUMMER LONG – July 31

A FOOL’S GOLD CHRISTMAS – September 25

Q&A with Susan Mallery is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

MAKING IT YOUR OWN

Hello, Bookpushers! Thanks so much for letting me take part in your Fantasy Celebration! My name is Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell and I’m here to talk to you today about a type of fantasy fiction you may not have tried before – namely, tie-in fiction.
Okay, first off – what is tie-in fiction? In technical terms, it’s fiction that “ties in” to some other media property, like a television show, movie, video game, or role-playing game. But put more simply, it’s the two entire bookcases in the science fiction and fantasy section of your local brick and mortar bookstore that are filled with Star Wars, Buffy, Warhammer and D&D novels. That’s the section where you’ll find my most recent book, The Shard Axe, which ties in to the world of Dungeons & Dragon Online (DDO).

You may have heard that tie-in fiction is nothing more than glorified fan fiction – usually from people who’ve never actually read any, or whose last foray into the field was during the Carter administration. I’ve rebutted that argument elsewhere, so I won’t waste your time with it here. Suffice to say that, when you have Hugo and Nebula Award winners writing tie-in fiction, the idea that it’s somehow of lesser quality than “original” work goes flying out the window faster than a sparkly vampire about to be caught stalking his underage girlfriend (heh).

So, now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I’d like to focus on a question raised by Bookpusher’s very own MinnChica. Namely, how does a writer make tie-in fiction his or her own? As a tie-in writer, you’re writing in a setting someone else created, often using other people’s characters and/or plot lines. You might think those constraints would leave little room for creativity and that it would be harder to put your own stamp on a story because of them, but you’d probably be surprised to learn that it’s really no harder than doing the same thing with original (i.e., creator-owned) fiction.

With creator-owned fantasy fiction, the setting, character and plot may all be yours, but you still have constraints. For example, if you’re writing urban fantasy set in our world, then your Chicago has to resemble our Chicago, or you don’t get to call it that (at least not without annoying your Windy City readers). Things like gravity and the laws of physics have to work the way we expect them to, unless you’ve come up with a logical reason why they don’t – preferably a reason that’s integral to your story. Even when you’re writing in your own made-up world, you will still have rules you need to follow, and follow consistently. If magic exists in your world (and it probably will, since we’re talking about fantasy here), then it has to follow a set of rules that don’t change from situation to situation. And if they do change? You guessed it – you have to have a reason for it. And that reason can’t be “because it sounded kewl,” either, because readers aren’t stupid. They know when you haven’t taken the time to think out how your world works, and few things will make a fantasy reader throw your book across the room faster. After all, if you don’t care enough to build a consistent world, why should they care enough to try to make sense of it? Likewise, your characters have to have believable reasons for what they do, or else they ring false to the reader and – whoosh! Book across the room.

The same constraints hold true for tie-in fiction. If, say, the heroine of The Shard Axe (Sabira) spends a lot of time in the DDO city of Stormreach (and she does), then the Stormreach in the novel had better match the one in the game. If characters can’t fly in-game, then I can’t suddenly make Sabira sprout wings and jump off a cliff to escape danger. If I do? Book, meet wall. The only real difference with tie-in fiction is that the rules writers have to follow aren’t ones that they also had to make up.

And just as the story-telling constraints are the same, regardless of whether a book is tie-in or original fantasy fiction, so too is the way in which a writer goes about making a story stand out within the bounds of those constraints. For The Shard Axe, I chose to set a large portion of the story in a part of the world that hadn’t gotten much attention, and to focus on a race that had similarly been largely underutilized – namely, the dwarves and their homeland. I chose to tell a type of story that hadn’t been seen yet – the hunt for a serial killer, complete with some courtroom drama. I chose to add elements to the story that aren’t typically considered a staple of D&D novels, like a romantic subplot and an urban fantasy-type heroine who is equal parts snark and heart.

Now, granted, I had more freedom in the tale I wanted to tell in The Shard Axe than the person who writes, say, Criminal Minds tie-in fiction, but even that person (Max Allan Collins, aka the Tie-in God) is able to make those stories his own. How?

By doing the same thing any writer does, whether they’re putting out tie-in fiction or creator-owned work. Look for things that haven’t been done before, or new ways of presenting old ideas. Mix genres – The Shard Axe is fantasy noir with an urban fantasy feel and a murder mystery at its core. Give characters motivations readers can understand, and make the stakes matter. Sabira is driven by guilt, duty and a sizable gambling debt to accept a mission she doesn’t want, protecting a dwarf she can’t forgive, in a city full of memories that won’t stop haunting her. I’m biased, of course, but that’s a storyline that I would find compelling no matter what universe it was written in.

And that’s probably the most important answer of all. How do I make a book stand out, be it tie-in or creator-owned? By telling a story I want to read. And hopefully, if I’ve followed my own advice, it’s one that you’ll want to read, as well.

BIO:

Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell is the author of the forthcoming Dungeons & Dragons Online novel, Skein of Shadows, a sequel to The Shard Axe (Wizards of the Coast, 2011). She has also written another unrelated novel, Legacy of Wolves (Wizards of the Coast, 2007), set in the same universe. Her creator-owned work includes a female-centric series of Arabian-flavored sword & sorcery stories, Tales of Sand and Sorcery, put out by Musa Publishing. The first two installments, “Shaala, Made of Stone” and “The Jade and Honey Harlot,” are available now and the third, “Both,” releases in May. In addition to her fiction writing, she is a poet, editor, engineer, Navy (Seabee) wife and the mother of three wonderful sons. She lives in Arizona in the shadow of an improbably green mountain with her family, the requisite black lab, a sizable collection of Wonder Woman figures, and far too many books. You can find out more about her latest projects here: www.marsheilarockwell.com/.

Marcy is offering one copy of The Shard Axe to one lucky winner. Just leave a question for Marcy about tie-in fantasy, or tell her your favorite tie-in fantasy book to be entered. Open internationally and ends April 19th. Good Luck!

Fantasy Celebration: Guest Post & Giveaway with Marsheila Rockwell is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

I’m thrilled to have been invited to talk about some of Carina Press’s upcoming fantasy titles. We’re actually really proud of our fantasy offerings, and I think they often just don’t get enough love, so it was hard for me to choose just a few to talk about.

I’ll start with Gate to Kandrith by Nicole Luiken, which is actually available now. This book has been released to incredible reviews from readers, including 4 1/2 stars from RT Magazine. This fantasy romance is the first part of a duology, so the story isn’t drawn out over many books, but is instead contained in just two books. The second will be released in early 2013.

Sarathena Remillus, daughter of the newly elected Primus of the Republic of Temboria, has been given a mission: discover the secret of slave magic. Anxious to escape the corruption and treachery of the capital, Sara welcomes the chance to finally prove herself far away in Kandrith, the tiny nation of former slaves.

Accompanying her on the journey is Lance, a Kandrithan to whom Sara owes her life. Lance despises the nobility, and is determined to resist his desire for Sara, despite her attempts to entice him into divulging the secret of his magic.

Soon their travels become fraught with peril, and Sara discovers she’s fallen victim to the ultimate betrayal. To end a war between two nations, she will have to make the ultimate sacrifice…

Nicole has written an incredible, intricately plotted fantasy romance with richly developed characters and an ending that will leave you both gasping and cheering. Recommended for fans of Isobelle Carmody, George R.R. Martin, Lois McMaster Bujold and Juliet Marillier.

This summer we have two titles releasing in June and July that readers of this blog may be interested in. The first is The Pirate’s Lady by Julia Knight. This fantasy romance, featuring a strong female character, continues the story begun in the now available Ten Ruby Trick. Recommended for fans of Katherine Kerr and Zoe Archer.

There’s a price on privateer Van Gast’s head. So high that Van is tempted to turn himself in for the reward, then escape with it. Escaping with full pockets is what he does best. He managed to steal a ship, a bride, a dowry, a diamond the size of a fist—and then disappear without a trace.

But this time, he can’t go very far. The woman of his dreams, his Josie, has stolen his ship and is leading him on a merry chase dangerously close to Estovan, the one place Van Gast should steer clear of…

Following that in July is the first book in Jeffe Kennedy‘s new Covenant of Thorns fantasy series, Rogue’s Pawn.

This is no fairy tale…

Haunted by nightmares of a black dog, sick to death of my mind-numbing career and heart-numbing fiancé, I impulsively walked out of my life—and fell into Faerie. Terrified, fascinated, I discover I possess a power I can’t control: my wishes come true. After an all-too-real attack by the animal from my dreams, I wake to find myself the captive of the seductive and ruthless fae lord Rogue. In return for my rescue, he demands an extravagant price—my firstborn child, which he intends to sire himself…

With no hope of escaping this world, I must learn to harness my magic and build a new life despite the perils—including my own inexplicable and debilitating desire for Rogue. I swear I will never submit to his demands, no matter what erotic torment he subjects me to…

Then, in August and September we have three urban fantasies releasing. Fans of the male/male genre will want to check out The Druid Stone by Heidi Belleau and Violetta Vane. Debut author Jacqueline M. Battisti brings us her first novel, Guardian of Bastet, and in September author Sandy James kicks off a kick-ass five-book urban fantasy series, The Amazon Sisterhood, with The Reluctant Amazon (You should check it out simply to reward it for being a series that has a planned end!)

But if you’re not willing to wait for what’s in store, I hope you’ll check out some of our already available fantasy offerings. Just a very few of our diverse collection include The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt (a Sleeping Beauty “retelling” that’s like no retelling you’ve ever read before), Should We Drown in Feathered Sleep by Michael Merriam(post-apocalyptic fantasy. With loons. Yes, loons), Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas (psst, this book just won a major award but I’m not allowed to tell you what it is yet!), Dark Vow by Shona Husk (for those of you who’ve been longing for a good fantasy with a western-type feel), the Gaslight Chronicles series by Cindy Spencer Pape (Steampunk! and you can dl one of them for freeee…) and Salome at Sunrise by Inez Kelley, a fantasy romance for which we’ve just contracted the next book!

Today I’m offering one random commenter their choice of three books from our fantasy and fantasy romance collections, including any of the books due to release that I’ve mentioned here (though you may have to wait for an ARC of a few of them). Leave a comment and tell me if you’ve read any of Carina’s fantasy titles, and what you thought. If not, tell me what’s been stopping you!

Fantasy Celebration: Guest Post & Giveaway with Angela James is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Writing fantasy is an interesting adventure. Writing fantasy romance is an even bigger adventure, primarily because creatures with strange powers get involved.

It just so happens that a lot of the books we write feature shapeshifters, creatures that hold a particular fascination for many readers. They are vicious predators who prowl the night, and we, despite all of our technological progress and centuries of civilization, still fear the darkness. It takes so little to awaken that fear – a hint of movement on the night street, a strange noise in the middle of the night in your own house and your mind conjures up all sorts of frightening possibilities. Humanity deals with danger in one of two ways: we kill it or tame it. Taming a vicious predator is appealing.

But the shapeshifters are interesting on many other levels as well. They serve as an allegory of the duality of man, a battle between our morality and our self-serving instincts. They even offer a little nostalgia, an echo of a simpler life, where mundane concerns of mind-numbing jobs, debts, and illness melt away in the forest chase under the moonlight.

Because of the shapeshifter popularity, people often ask what’s the most difficult part about writing someone who sprouts fur and grows claws the size of dinner forks. I can tell you right now: it’s not the slightly alien mindset, it’s not the balance of violence and reason, it’s the scents.

An average lupine nose has twenty five times as many olfactory receptors and fourteen times larger scent receptive area than a human. When a shapeshifter enters an unfamiliar area, he is likely to immediately evaluate its scents. Unfortunately, we’re so deficient in the scent department, we actually don’t have that many words to describe what we smell. We have to borrow adjectives from other senses.

An odor can be salty, sweet, sour, spicy – those are flavors. A fragrance can be warm, sharp, or refreshing – that’s tactile sense. A reek can be loud, although that’s really pushing it. We even steal from vision – a vibrant scent. How exactly can a scent be vibrant, I ask you? A stench can be described as revolting, but again doesn’t exactly specify what the odor smells like. We’re describing an individual reaction to the scent (and even that has tasting overtone to it) – we might as well say the scent is scary or happy.

One of the favorite tactics is to compare the scent to something else. The perfume reviewers carry this tactic to the point of ridiculous.

As with many mainstream men’s fragrances, Calvin Klein MAN is just too smooth, too ‘laundered’ and ‘well-pressed’ for my tastes

Now Smell This

“Eau Sauvage Fraîcheur Cuir (2007, now discontinued) was an interesting leather dominated interpretation of Eau Sauvage, with iris and warm spices lending it a velvety effect.”

Bois de Jasmin

Perfume.com takes it a step further:

“Paul Sebastian stops just short of the haunting dark intentions engulfing you with his Design, adding a garland of tempering elements with a soapy vibe (orange blossom, rose and jasmine) and some spice (carnation’s clove-y hint) for good balance. The insinuating base, though, full of animalistic civet, recalls vintage perfumes of yore, when women were real women and had men for breakfast.”

Black widows, FTW!

So you can see how many of my writing sessions go something like this:

“He (or she) entered the room. A cascade of scents washed over him…”

And… And… He smelled something. What the devil did he smell? He’s supposed to be fighting giant spider. What do spiders smell like? Google-google… No, I don’t want to know how spiders accomplish their smelling, I want to know what is their scent.

Scent of a spider: sex pheromone of a wasp spider identified.

Okay, I’ll take that. What does it smell like? It smells like methylcitric acid trimethyl ester. Ummm. Okay, well that wasn’t helpful at all.

In the investigators’ experiments, whenever male desert spiders were presented with a pheromone-soaked paper disk, male desert spiders waggled, vibrated and preened.

Well, that’s wonderful, I’m glad they’re doing their sexy hey-baby dance, but it still doesn’t tell me what it smells like. Aaargh!

Okay. It’s been an hour, and I still don’t know how spiders smell. Spiders. What do we associate with spiders? Dust, web, dead insects?

“A cascade of scents washed over him… … a dry disturbing odor, choking with dust and redolent of death.” Ooo, used a big word, I’m so awesome.

And that’s what it’s like to write fantasy romance with shapeshifters. Aren’t you glad you asked?

Fantasy Celebration: Guest Post with Ilona Andrews is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

First of all, thank you to the Book Pushers for being so patient with me ever since asking if I’d like to contribute a guest post. I took my sweet time getting it to them. No, like, a seriously sweet, long time. Partly because of work and home stress – if anyone’s clicked over to my own book blog lately, you’ll see a dearth of inactivity – but I also kept stumbling on what the heck to even talk about.

Then I started thinking about how my reading habits and likes and dislikes have changed over the years. I started out reading as a primarily fantasy reader. I thought about how largely the Heralds of Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey influenced me as a young reader, how its main character, a young girl named Talia and her adventures in becoming a herald of Valdemar completely swept me away. I realized that the reason I love that series so much – and I plan to reread it again this year for the upteen millionth time – is because the main character is female and she is…profound. So profound to me. She faces unspeakable horrors and comes out of it all a strong woman. And she does all of this as someone who is actively involved in influencing the plot, not simply as a character that everything happens to.

Now, I realize I’m remembering Talia through the haze of a long ago childhood love of the books she’s in, but this also made me realize how, as I’ve grown older, I truly have come to appreciate a female character with agency in fantasy novels. Agency is a term I’ve just recently come to know in regards to reading, thanks to its use on various other book blogs. That’s the term I was missing from my vocabulary soup to show why female characters had become so important to me. I want them to be strong and lead the book, not just sit back, wait for things to happen and for other characters to bring the book’s opportunities to them.

Let’s not confuse this with the dreaded TSTL syndrome, though – Too Stupid To Live, an acronym I learned thanks to romance reading, but it no less present in any other genre. I don’t care to read about any character that can’t either make a smart decision from the get-go, or at the very least can’t make a dumb error but then fix it. But often the TSTL moment is a contrived device anyway and that’s why it’s so frustrating – it’s rarely acknowledged in the characterization or plot as a dumb move.

I think female characters hauling a bag full of agency can make mistakes. They can be full of faults and imperfections and things that make a reader wince. Bad things can and will happen to them. But they have traits that balance those as well. They have the ability to think past and beyond their faults, or to find a way to turn those bad traits and situations into something useful. Those are the kinds of female characters I like. The ones that figure things out and, yes, somehow end up saving the day.

It’s amazing to me that, in our day and age, that women are treated so completely poorly in many ways still – it’s no wonder I look for instances of strong, positive and heroic fictional women to entertain me. Ones that fight hard and aren’t afraid to love. Ones who believe in something and gain respect while striving for that belief. I love it when I find them in a fantasy novel.

I was hoping maybe we could all discuss fantasy books that feature some amazing female characters. And not that the guys can’t be wonderful as well (I hold a special place in my reading heart for Harry Dresden, for example), but I felt a particular need to highlight the ladies this go around. I’ve included a small list of books I’ve read in recent years that I feel featured particularly noteworthy female characters. What are some of yours?

My list is in no particular order..well, unless What Pops Into My Mind First counts.

The Spiritwalker books by Kate Elliott – Cold Magic and Cold Fire

The October Daye books by Seanan McGuire – every single one! 

 The Dragoneye series by Alison Goodman – Eon and Eona

The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews – but of course, right?

The Rachel Morgan/Hollows series by Kim Harrison

The Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk

OK, so those are just a jumping off point – let’s hear what books you’d rec for some great, woman-empowering reading.

(And thanks, Book Pushers, for the invite and space to talk on your great blog!)

Fantasy Celebration: Guest Post with Kmont is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

When the Bookpushers asked me to write a post about my favorite fantasy books, I thought, Pshaw, that’ll be easy. I could list a dozen off the top of my head.

Warning: if you can list a dozen favorite anything off the top of your head, writing a book about your favoritest of favorites will not be easy. In fact, it will leave you torn by indecision and staring listlessly at a blank page, wondering where on Earth to start.

Of course, that’s just the thing. It’s not about Earth at all, is it? It’s about those books that take you to another world and wrap you in all the magic of what if…? while whisking you off to fantastical cities to battle terrifying monsters with breathtaking magic.

My journey with fantasy started when I was twelve years old. I stumbled across a book with a bright cover in the library, but what held my attention was the fact that there was a couple on the cover—and the woman was the one with the sword! Hey, I thought excitedly. I knew girls could have adventures too!

 And so they could.  Mercedes Lackey’s By the Sword introduced me to a world of fantasy authors who were all too ready to trample on the assumption that a fantasy novel has to start with a boy going on a journey.  I read about Del taking on the Tiger in Sword Dancer.  I read about Alanna switching places with her twin brother to become the realm’s first new female knight in Alanna: The First Adventure.

I trampled through the library, reading everything I could get my hands on. I read the Terry Brooks, the David Eddings, the Robert Jordan. But the books that stuck with me were the ones that told the stories I desperately wanted to read—the stories where the women were fierce and independent and so much more than just sidekicks or damsels who trailed along while the hero had the adventure.

And they had swords. Swords, zomg!

Over the years I’ve had a lot of favorites come and go. I’ve read and loved Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Jennifer Robberson, C.S. Lewis, Anne McCaffrey, Sharon Shinn, Tanya Huff, Robert Jordan, David Eddings, Guy Gavriel Kay, Madeleine L’Engle, Philip Pullman and many more. But the two authors who have long held dominion over my favorite fantasy authors list?

Melanie Rawn and Anne Bishop. More specifically, their Dragon Prince and Black Jewels trilogies.

These two series stand out for me as having some of the most vivid, unique and beautifully terrifying worlds I’ve ever seen. In particular, the flavors of magic are endlessly fascinating to me.  The Black Jewels series takes you to a dark, fractured world where twisted Queens hold dominion over those who dream of a better time, and the power you wield is measured by a jewel.

The Dragon Prince series introduces witches who literally weave sunlight, riding the beams of light with their minds to communicate—and spy—while dragons stalk the deserts and the High Prince seeks to destroy everything in his thirst for power.

These series are very different from each other. They’re very different from everything else I’ve read, which is one of the reasons I think they’re special. And they’re so special to me that I asked the Bookpushers to let me give away a copy of the first book in each series. (Open international, and I will do my best to get you your choice of ebook or print, wherever available and possible.)

All you have to do to enter is tell me which of the two you’d like to read and why!

Fantasy Celebration: Guest post & Giveaway with Bree of Moira Rogers is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Inspired
by Nadia Lee

I grew up in Asia, and now that I’m back here, I’ve started watching a lot of Korean dramas.  These are like soap operas or prime time shows without the season breaks that they have in America.  So if you follow me on Twitter, you might have seen me talk to Shawntelle Madison or Anne Soward about K-dramas.

Out of the numerous drama genres, I’m exceptionally partial to court intrigues.  In these dramas, if you don’t win, you die, and in order to win, many are willing to sacrifice anything and anyone, including their family, even unto the children.  And the characters often speak of the need to sacrifice the small to achieve the great.  (Unfortunately, so many characters deem family, love and other personal happinesses “the small.”)

Years ago I happened to see one in which the king had to eliminate his own son. Despite the prince’s supporters’ best efforts, the king got his way in the end.  It was heartbreaking (and horrifying), and I started thinking about what if’s.  What if the prince had been saved?  What if the king were deeply conflicted (he wasn’t THAT conflicted in the original)?  What if, what if, what if…

So that, along with two lines from an old Asian comic book (which you can read about here), got me writing The Last Slayer.  Of course The Last Slayer doesn’t have kings, queens and princes — well, not as the primary characters — but you can see a hint of what inspired me underneath the action, dragons, demigods and their cruel, centuries-long schemes.

The Last Slayer

Ashera del Cid is a talented demon hunter, but when she kills a demigod’s pet dragon, the hunter becomes the hunted. Her only potential ally is Ramiel, a sexy-as-hell demon. Now the two must work together to battle dragons and demigods…and the chemistry crackling between them.

Ramiel has his own reasons for offering Ashera his protection. He knows her true identity and the real reason the demigods want her dead. What he can’t predict is how she’ll react when she discovers he knew who she was all along…

Ashera is shocked to discover that she is the only daughter of the last slayer. To claim her destiny, she and Ramiel must join forces to face down danger and outwit their enemies. Only then will she be able to truly accept her legacy…

Where to buy The Last Slayer

Carina Press | All Romance eBooks | Kindle eBook | Nook | Book Depository | Books on Board | Kobo | Sony

[hr]

About Nadia Lee

Bilingual former management consultant Nadia Lee has lived in four different countries and enjoyed many adventures and excellent food around the globe. In the last eight years, she has kissed stingrays, been bitten by a shark, ridden an elephant and petted tigers.

She shares an apartment overlooking a river and palm trees in Japan with her husband, baby boy, winter white hamsters and an ever-widening pile of books. When she’s not writing, she can be found digging through old Asian historical texts or planning another trip.

Where to Find Nadia Lee

http://www.nadialee.net/
http://www.facebook.com/nadialeewrites/
http://www.twitter.com/nadialee/
http://nadialeewrites.tumblr.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/nadialee/

.

Fantasy Celebration: Guest Post with Nadia Lee is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Fairytales in a modern dress
By Ruth Frances Long

Some stories are timeless. They stay with us, returning again and again, and twist themselves into new shapes to hide unexpectedly, in plain sight. Much like the fae themselves, fairytales lie in wait for us, ready to pounce.

Writing always involves dipping into other stories—references, themes, archetypes. Shakespeare was a master of this, like a kid at a pick n mix, taking a story here, a folktale there, a legend or a political rumour that suited his patrons.

Fairytales and folklore are the oldest of our stories. They are quite literally the stories “folk”—the common, average person living their day to day lives—told each other. Sometimes this was to convey a warning (“Don’t go near the pond or the Green Witch will leap out and pull you in” aka “Don’t go near the pond or you’ll fall in and drown”), a moral stance (don’t be greedy/selfish/cruel), folk memory (“a funny thing happens in the sky every year or so and this is why”) or historical events (“once upon a time there was a king called Coel”). These stories are a way of explaining what happens in the world around us, our past, our values, our hopes and our fears.

Did I mention that they are old? OLD. They are stories that recur and evolve, that filter up through our collective consciousness and resonate with us. We recognise our archetypes, no matter what our background. A hero is a hero and we know them by their actions.

Why does the boy go out alone to face a dragon when he can’t possibly win? Because he will. He’s noble and true, loves his people, or maybe one girl in particular, even when he shouldn’t. Why does a girl follow her lost brother into a forest? Because she will find him and win him back, through her wits and her courage rather than sitting around waiting for someone else to do it. Why does the youngest brother or sister set out on the quest that has claimed both older siblings? Because that’s what the youngest child does in fairytales. That is the role of each of these characters.

These are things we know. Or rather, to emphasize the importance of this point—These are Things We Know. Story tropes, if you like, figures from our collective memory—the stories we tell and have always told each other, be they folktales, fairytales, or today’s urban legends. Living in Ireland there is evidence scattered across the land of a culture, who built barrows, ring forts and monuments which we no longer understand. And today, in the modern world, we can scoff and dismiss and explain away the stories of fairy forts and people living beneath the ground—the fair folk, the Shining Ones, the Daoine Mhaith. But then someone wants to dig up a mound, and there is a story about someone who went there at night and never came back. Or a tale about someone who moved a pile of stones and never had good luck again. If we forget, our stories remind us.

So many of our fairytales have been scrubbed clean over the years, recreated for ages that didn’t want to know about their darker origins. But it doesn’t take much looking to dig out the darker warnings beneath. Love is glorious—our stories tell us—but it must be won through trail and danger. Be sure your love is worth it. Prove your worth, and your partner should do the same. As time moves on, and cultures change, its worth remembering that yesterday’s ghostly highwayman is today’s phantom hitch-hiker. Re-imagining our oldest stories can shed new light on them, or perhaps that light is older than we imagine and we are just seeing it as new. Re-imaging our oldest stories is to reinvent them for our age, and to reopen the doors they hide which can let us catch a glimpse of a truth.

Fairytales resonate within us—in our stories and songs, in our culture, ancient and modern. They call to things deep inside us, things that we don’t always realise that we know. I often found while writing The Treachery of Beautiful Things that fairytales would appear out of the words I was writing, elements of old stories that were weaving their own way through my words. I hadn’t intended to put them there. They did that all by themselves. But given the type of novel I was writing, and the folk tales and fairy tales that form the basis of the world-building, maybe I shouldn’t be surprised that other things I wasn’t entirely expecting should find their way in. Like, as they say, calls to like. Part of the magic of writing is when the story seems to take off on its own and the writer finds themselves struggling to keep up. You tap into something else, something older, a pool of stories that have always been there, dressing themselves up with the clothes of a given age, reinventing themselves and appearing to us in a garb like our own. Much like those beautiful, treacherous fae. When you start to work with fairytales and folklore, perhaps you shouldn’t be surprised when something magical happens.

[hr]

A lifelong fan of fantasy, romance, and ancient mysteries, Ruth Frances Long studied English Literature, History of Religions, and Celtic Civilization in college and now works in a specialized library of rare and unusual books. She lives in County Wicklow, Ireland. The Treachery of Beautiful Things is her first novel for teens. She writes for adults as R. F. Long (The Scroll Thief, Soul Fire, The Wolf’s Sister, The Wolf’s Mate, collected as Songs of the Wolf, and The Wolf’s Destiny). Visit Ruth at www.rflong.com.

The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long (Dial, 16th August, 2012)

A darkly compelling mix of romance, fairy tale, and suspense from a new voice in teen fiction.

The trees swallowed her brother whole, and Jenny was there to see it. Now seventeen, she revisits the woods where Tom was taken, resolving to say good-bye at last. Instead, she’s lured into the trees, where she finds strange and dangerous creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with secrets of his own. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack’s help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where stunning beauty masks some of the most treacherous evils, and she’s faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice–and not just her own.

[hr]

We want to thank Ruth so much for being here today. Ruth has kindly offered to giveaway an arc of her upcoming YA, The Treachery of Beautiful Things. It’s open internationally and ends April 13th. All you have to do is comment below and let us know what myths and legends do you like the most?

Fantasy Celebration: Guest Post & Giveaway with Ruth Long is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter

Thanks for inviting me to be a guest!  I’m delighted to share some thoughts about writing fantasy with your readers.

My newest novel, Swords Over Fireshore, is the third book in the Blood of the Kindred series, which begins with the meeting of two young ælven, Eliani and Turisan. They discover they share the rare gift of mindspeech, and are called to use this talent in service of the ælven people. The morning after their handfasting, Eliani travels to the northernmost ælven realm of Fireshore to try to contact the governor there, while Turisan stays behind to deal with an invasion of kobalen (a lesser, but intelligent, species).

In Swords Over Fireshore, Eliani has found the governor but he has been taken prisoner by the alben, former ælven who were cast out thousands of years before as a result of the Bitter Wars. The alben drink the blood of the kobalen, a practice the ælven consider against their creed. After spending many centuries in exile, the alben have now returned to reclaim the capital of Fireshore, their former homeland.

Eliani’s cousin Luruthin is also a prisoner of the alben, and she is determined to rescue both him and the governor. While Turisan is racing to bring an ælven army to Fireshore, Eliani must effect this rescue without being captured herself. She and Turisan hope to be reunited despite the chaos of an approaching war with the alben.

All this grew out of a short story I wrote, “Kind Hunter,” which appeared in the anthology Elf Magic (now out of print, but “Kind Hunter” is available in my short story collection Coyote Ugly).  The germ of that story was an elf hunting a vampire, and the idea came from my pondering the similarities between those two kinds of beings. When the story was finished, I wasn’t done with the idea, so I wound up writing The Betrayal which was the first book in the Blood of the Kindred series.

Approaching that novel, I wanted to make it a fantasy with strong female characters. I’m a big Tolkein fan, but Lord of the Rings is really a guy story and the females are mostly in the background. A lot of fantasy fiction is dominated by male characters. So I created a culture that’s based on merit rather than physical strength, where females could be equal players on all levels. There’s also less physical disparity between males and females in the ælven race than in the human race, so their culture isn’t dominated by the difference the way ours is.

Speaking of humans, they don’t yet appear in this fantasy world.  I wanted to focus on the ælven, because I love elves and because they’re usually given supporting roles.  In this series, they are the stars.  The setting is many millennia in the past and humans haven’t come on the scene yet.

The ælven society is an honor-based culture so there’s a lot to live up to. While the ælven have social freedom, with that comes a lot of responsibility. Motives of greed and personal gain aren’t acceptable. It’s not all right to do something that harms someone else. The ælven have very little tolerance for misbehavior. They don’t have a penal system like ours, so serious misbehavior results in an attempt at mediation, and if that fails, ostracism: the misbehaver is cast out of the culture. Sort of like shunning except more extreme.

While at times the ælven world may seem grim, I want readers to come away with a sense of hope. No matter how awful things are and no matter how badly people behave, there is a lot that’s good and noble and beautiful in our world and its people, and the ælven world is meant to reflect this. The ælven culture reveres beauty, harmony and selflessness. In that respect, it’s a world I wish I could live in.

For readers who are interested in the ælven’s role in the modern world, I wrote Immortal and its forthcoming sequel, Eternal.  These are geared a bit more toward young adult readers. I had a lot of fun exploring how the ælven cope with our crazy human world, and the difficulties faced by potential lovers from these two very different cultures. Unlike the earlier world of the Blood of the Kindred series, this world is dominated by humans and the ælven are pretty much just struggling to survive.  And of course, the alben are still around making trouble.

Pati Nagle was born and raised in the mountains of northern New Mexico. An avid student of music, history, and humans in general, she loves the outdoors but hides from the sun.

She writes in a variety of genres, but is most often drawn to fantasy or (as P.G. Nagle) historical fiction.  Her stories have appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and in various other magazines and anthologies.

Pati Nagle still lives in the mountains in New Mexico with her husband and furry feline muse, where she loves to walk in the woods and look up at the stars.

Pati has offered one ebook copy of Swords Over Fireshore to one lucky winner. Leave Pati a comment to be entered to win. Open internationally and ends April 11th. Good Luck!

Fantasy Celebration: Guest Post & Giveaway with Pati Nagle is a post from: The Book Pushers | Book Reviews | Book Chatter