The Cover for Streetwalker

I just got this last night, and I am so excited. I am grateful for all the work of my editor, Sascha Illyvich, for Sizzler Editions (an imprint of Renaissance E Books), and my publisher, Jean Marie Stine.

Here is the cover for the first book in my "Sex Sells" trilogy. Streetwalker is coming out late this week and will be available on Amazon for your Kindle.

Carrie is a smart woman with a dark past and more than her share of heartache. Determined to retire early from hands-on sex work, she uses her skills as an exhibitionist to bargain for partial ownership of a high-end, brownstone bordello in New York City with the erudite, handsome and powerful Harlan Ledbetter.

 

But even though she's only 22, Carrie's already been in her line of work far too long. Besides the fact that sex has been little more than Work for most of her adult life, Carrie also has to contend with painful memories of abuse at the hands of her stepbrother. Could sexuality ever truly belong to her? Could it ever become something she would want?

 

Harlan, meanwhile, certainly wants more than a business partnership with this stunning woman – and the feeling may be mutual, if Carrie can let herself want him as much as she fears she does. But she has a long way to go before she can give her heart and body to a man willingly. How will she get there? If there's one thing Carrie has learned, it's how to negotiate. She has a feeling this skill will come in handy with Harlan in more ways than one.

Carrie approaches Harlan with a unique business proposal – one that offers more than just a way to run their bordello, but a whole new outlook on life, sexuality and love. Intrigued, he takes her on...

 

Streetwalker is Part One of Angelica French's exciting new "Sex Sells" trilogy.

 

 

Deep into Edits

I got it! My editor, Sascha Illyvich at Sizzler Editions, sent me edited manuscript for Streetwalker.

My turn now to work on it again. It feels so real now that this is happening. Which is not to say it's easy.

I knew there were two scenes that could cause me trouble. Turns out there were three.

One scene is a retelling of sexual abuse over years of an underage character. That one might fly, since it's a retelling, but the editors will have the final word on it. I consider it critical to defining who the character is and why she did what she did. Can I salvage the intent and lose the explicit descriptions? I don't know. I am still pondering how I'd do it. The horror needs to show through.

Another scene, bestiality, I knew would get bounced. I'm okay with that. I was prepared for it, so I am re-writing it with an auto-eroticism scene featuring Ben Wa balls, two-entry dildo, butt plug, and Sybian saddle. That should do it, plus it is always more fun (for me) to create than to edit.

The third scene was a surprise no-go. Or rather, it needs modification. Who knew rape and torture were no-no's in erotic romance? Sigh. That one can be fixed with an earlier entry (so to speak!) from the hero onto the scene. I think it will lose it's punch, but, hey! Editor, I will do whatever you want!

I did the easy stuff first, word/sentence-level changes. So off to work some more magic so you will have a chance to read Streetwalker sooner rather than later.

Come back for the cover reveal and an excerpt from Streetwalker to get you interested in Carrie and Harlan's story.

Waiting

The life of a writer is filled with episodes of waiting in between periods of frantic composing and revising. No one ever mentioned that in any job description I read.

Write, write, write. Send off to critique group members. Wait, wait, wait.

Revise, write, revise, write. Send off to beta readers. Wait, wait, wait.

Revise, write, revise, write. Send queries to agents and/or editors. Wait, wait, wait.

Write something new. Write, write, write. Still waiting on query responses.

Send something new to critique groups. Still waiting on query responses. Waiting for critique group feedback.

Joy, joy, joy. Send full ms. to agent or editor. Wait, wait, wait.

Let me fast forward here to the signed contract. First draft is being edited. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

This time the wait is different. You’re under contract. It’s going to happen. This time, though, the wait means someone else is deciding what works and doesn’t work, what should be cut, where you need to add material. This time it’s not a critique group or beta reader. This is for real.

I am in the waiting game with editors for two manuscripts. I can’t help myself. I check hourly (for weeks now, mind you!) to see if the manuscript is back on my turf ready for me to take another whack at it.

I am terrified. What if what I am asked to do is beyond my scope? What if I can’t add more dramatic tension or tie subplot lines into the main plot? What if . . .?

So I wait. Not knowing. Worried.

Z is for Zodiac

[Cue music]

The party’s over.

It’s time to call it a day.

 Or, rather, call it a month. This A-Z April Challenge Blog Hop has been fun. I hope you’ll pop back from time to time to see what else I’m up to. And don’t forget: Look for Angelica French’s first novel, Streetwalker, out from Sizzler Editions in a very short while. On to Z!

“What’s your sign?” The classic pick up line from the 70’s has become not so much an icon as a punchline. Sleazy guys in sleazy movies think it a cool way to show the girl at the bar they are interested in her. They often follow it with a line like, “Mine is penis rising.” Har-de-har-har. What a laugh. NOT!

Like any of those sleaze bag guys have ever done any research into the character traits associated with each sign! Now, whether or not you believe in the zodiac and astrology matters not a whit. If you’re a novelist , like me, A LOT of your readers do. Otherwise, the daily paper wouldn’t print horoscopes, and you couldn’t get horoscopes delivered daily to your e-ddress.

To a reader who follows astrology even a little, you can send a message about a character in your story by identifying the zodiac sign. For example, in Mission Impastable (about to be published by Oak Tree Books), Rita is a Cancer. In-the-know readers will figure she is moody and mercurial. They expect her to be very emotional and prickly. She is a clinger who has trouble letting go. I now have a blueprint for how Rita will respond in situations I place her in. See how easy that is.

I have a file in my novels folder on the zodiac and astrological signs: what they mean, who the signs are compatible with, and who they are incompatible with. [Apologies here to Sunny Frazier who writes great zodiac mysteries published by Oak Tree Press. She’s the real deal, and I just dabble in the on-line level of knowing! Seriously, check out Fools Rush In and Where Angels Fear. ]

I refer to the sign charts to find traits for my characters to build consistency of actions and motivations. For example, Cancer is a “personal” sign, meaning she is more aware of and interested in herself than in others. She is always seeking reassurance and secretly wants to feel safe financially, emotionally, and romantically. That segues beautifully into her role and how it plays out in the book.

One question on one of the character interview forms I use with my characters is, “What’s your astrological sign?” This is a great question. How well do you know your characters?

Read the zodiacal descriptors and pick the one closest to your character, then tighten up the character by explicitly including more of those traits in the story action. Be consistent with the trait building and your characters should have interesting interactions with others.

Make your antagonist someone with an oppositional sign to create tension and conflicts arising from opposing strengths and limitations. Make the best friend/ally someone with a compatible sign that helps complete the protagonist. Each can bring different strengths to the relationship.

Another way to use the zodiac is to read the descriptors and start doing character sketches without a book in mind. Getting some great master characters developed could lead to a book problem. What happens when an emotional Cancer and a cool, collected Taurus meet? Can they fall in love? Will they complement one another’s strengths or will they tear one another apart? Are their odds so at cross-purposes they cannot work together?

It’s your book. What will happen? Can’t wait to read it!

Y is for Yin and Yang

Yin-Yang

Yin-Yang. Yin Yang. Yinyang. You’ve seen it written many ways. The symbol is one of the most recognizable in the world. But what in the heck is it about?

As an author looking to create interesting characters, I am always on the hunt for character analysis strategies. [Read tomorrow’s blog for another tool I use.]

First a superficial intro to yin-yang. Yin-yang comes to us from the Oriental religious tradition, Taoism. It was later adopted into Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism.

Yin-yang deals with the two cosmic forces, basic forces, of the Yin (female; moon, some say earth; cold; darkness; absorption; passive) and Yang (male; sun, some say heaven; hot; light; penetration; forceful). You can tell men designed this concept, can’t you?

The yin-yang symbol is the ideal, a balance of the forces. White represents enlightenment and black represents ignorance. So, one could say, in all knowledge there exists ignorance, and in all ignorance there is some knowledge. Now that makes for some interesting book characters!

The dualities exist in real people, but too often we have trouble writing multi-dimensional characters. While in common parlance, folks often equate yin with good and yang with evil, that is not part of the philosophy. Rather, and rightly so, yin-yang is who we are as indivisible entities. Yin and yang are meant as complementary, not oppositional, to one another.

As an author, I have my protagonist. I want her to be a certain way. It’s easy to find her positive aspects. I like her, of course. So her yin, to be believable, should be what is oppositional to her finer points.

Let’s say she is driven to succeed, but she has this procrastination streak when she thinks things will be uncomfortable. She also is caring and supportive, but feels taken advantage of by some family members and is about to cut them off.

Her antagonist, on the other hand, can be quite an interesting foil if his yang pushes things through, forcing her to act when she needs to delay. He could manipulate family members to push her buttons. But his precipitous nature might cause him to make mistakes.

See how one could cast oppositional traits for oppositional characters?

You can do the same thing with characters on the same side. I tried to do that very thing with Carrie and Harlan, heroine and hero in my erotic romance, Streetwalker (published this year by Sizzler Editions). Carrie and Harlan not only have their own yin-yang thing going, but when the two are together, they create an encompassing yin-yang and the harmony completes both of them. At least for a while, until their world is shaken and they need to readjust their elements.

Look at your characters. Are they multi-dimensional? If not, consider how to deepen them with yin-yang. If nothing else, it gives you another interesting topic to present in all those interviews you’ll be giving.

X is for X-Rated: Erotica and Erotic Romance

I did a whole blog post on this earlier, but it has more import now that Streetwalker is about to be released. My family will have a member who writes smut. In their eyes. I’m okay with that. For many people, X-Rated stuff just isn’t what they enjoy reading (though they may enjoy doing!).

 

To me, the range of sexual experiences that partners engage in is varied and incredibly powerful. When I write about those experiences, I write erotic romance. Hey, I’m a farm girl. Sex is normal, natural, wonderful. Why not try to describe its richness?

 

Some call what I write smut. Some call it porn (rather harsh, I believe, for my work).

 

Smut is “obscene or lascivious” writing (dictionary definition). Okay, maybe I write smut--of the lascivious sort (luscious sounding word, that!), but I take exception to obscene. By whose definition? It often comes down to those connotations and denotations of word meaning.

 

I write erotic romance because for me the relationship and the character arcs are the most important parts of the story. The sex is hot and frequent, but it is in service (so to speak!) to the relationship/character arcs. My books have either an HEA or HFN ending.

 

Others write erotica. I have no problem with erotica, though I don’t read as much of it. Because erotica is more about the sexual arc of a character or characters than about the relationship between them, I don’t find it as interesting. There is relationship stuff in the story, but it is subservient to the sex. I, myself, would call the 50 Shades books erotica. You may disagree. Okay.

 

The dictionary also distinguishes pornography for us. Porn is material “intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings.” That sounds right.

 

Porn? I find it boring. How many sexual contortions can the author get characters into while displaying a panoply of parts? Ho hum! Not that I find sex boring. Nope. I just love that sexuality is part of the healthy human psyche.

 

We farm girls make good sex partners! X-Rated??? Pretty much anything goes! Yee haw!

W is for Window

“The eyes are the window to your soul.” (attributed to Shakespeare, Da Vinci, English proverb, and countless others!)

 

“Rear Window” (the Jimmy Stewart movie)

 

“Window of opportunity.” (comes from the space program who coined “launch window”)

 

     Etymologically, the word window is from Old Norse vindauga, “wind eye”. (Can you hear how that morphed over the years to “window”?) Apparently, they cut holes in the roof for ventilation and light. The wind eye eventually was covered with glass, but it retained its original name.

     Now that does help interpret better the phrases this post began with.

     A window is a sign of trust. People can see in. It’s not as solid as a door or wall. It invites exploration beyond the location of the viewer.

     And is that true of your soul. Do your eyes invite people in to explore who you are, what you value, and what aspirations you have?

     In “Rear Window”, Jeff (played by Jimmy Stewart) is a wheelchair-bound photographer. He is drawn into the drama being played out in an apartment across the way as he observes the occupants. A photographer has a special eye or way of seeing, so I’m sure that choice of occupation wasn’t coincidental. The window tableaux engrossed him so that the events in others’ lives became more concrete than those in his own. His window, looking into their window, was the eye to the souls and secrets of strangers.

    On a whole other tack, the expression, “window of opportunity”, demonstrates how windows open up possibilities, options, and, well, opportunities. The window allows a vision of what could be, especially if acted upon quickly. This phrase implies an urgency of decision-making, a pressure to act.

     In the books we write, authors use metaphors and phrases (sometimes even the tired, trite ones) because they communicate much in a short burst. The eyes are often highlighted in descriptions because humans notice them so much. The urgency to act quickly and open windows to possibilities is behind much of the plotting.

     Are there phrases you see being incorporated in your stories or the stories you read?