Joey W. Hill's Blog: Author Joey W. Hill

Here’s a better question. Why is it assumed a BDSM romance where the male is the submissive is about him being spanked? Or acting like a momma’s boy? Or being a door mat?

Submission is a powerful act of trust. It may manifest itself in lots of fun ways – spanking, restraints, or simply saying “yes ma’am” at the right titillating moments. However, ultimately it’s about believing the Master or Mistress will cherish and respect the gift of that submission, honoring the strength that lies at the heart of it.

Anyone else binge-watch the Alan Ritchson Reacher TV series (based on the Lee Child books)? My hand is up, once, twice—okay, maybe three times now. While the storytelling and characterization in it is awesome, did you find yourself particularly captivated by the relationship between Reacher and Roscoe? As a BDSM romance author, I latch onto power exchange undercurrents, and an undeniable one was happening. All the elements that can make a Female Dominant/male submissive relationship HOT were there.

“What?!” you say. “No way!”

Let me prove it to you, with five awesome scene examples:

ONE: THEIR VERY FIRST SCENE - The look she gives him when he’s brought in for processing, the calm, direct way she issues this ultimatum, sets the tone between them from the beginning. Whereas he’s shown nothing but contempt for the male deputies he’s “allowed” to bring him in, she immediately wins (dare I say “commands?”) his attention.

TWO: REACHER’S PHONE CALL TO HIS DEAD BROTHER’S LOVER - When she wants to talk about their shared memories of his brother, Reacher tries to end the call. Roscoe takes control of the emotional moment and refuses to let him suppress or avoid it. She also frames it in a way that shows him he needs the conversation as much as his brother’s lover does.

THREE: ROSCOE DISCOVERS A BODY IN REACHER’S TRUNK- As she is uncertain of the circumstances that resulted in the bad guy’s death, and with Roscoe being a cop, she lays out her expectations of Reacher, demanding total honesty from him to determine what kind of man she is fighting alongside.

FOUR: WHEN THEY HAVE SEX - Roscoe takes the lead, makes the decision and owns it, but then lets him take over with his strength. She’s not “acting like a man.” She’s being a Mistress, enjoying the pleasures he can give her and immersing herself in them without apology or doubts.

FIVE: HE IS PROTECTIVE OF HER - This is vitally important in BDSM romance. A male submissive doesn’t abdicate the responsibility to care for a Mistress. It’s integral to his service for her. Roscoe gives Reacher holy hell for trying to protect her in a situation where he needed to respect her abilities as a cop. However, this leads to a revelation from him that he has come to care for her, and since he doesn’t have many people he cares about, he acted in accordance with that protective drive.

There’s probably a reason I picked up on this undercurrent so strongly. One of my earliest Female Dominant/male sub stories is Natural Law. It’s about Violet Siemanski, a pint-sized female state trooper, and Mac Nighthorse, a big and muscular homicide detective. When I wrote it, I was following a feeling. I want strong heroes in my romances. Exploring how a powerful man will kneel to a woman who deserves his love and protection, and find a sense of fulfillment in that dynamic himself, is a different walk along the romance path than we usually take. Yet I find it’s equally satisfying when presented right (hence why I’ve binge-watched Reacher three times).

Think of it like a knight or palace guard, serving a queen. He is in her service, giving her his respect, honoring her commands. She has earned his devotion, protection and love. Those elements are offered by every good romance hero, so no surprise, when they are present in a Female Dominant/male sub romance, they can offer the same pleasurable sense of fulfilment.

So next time a BDSM romance where the woman is in charge crosses your path, don’t assume a woman dominating a man in the bedroom makes him less. Think of it as him having a chance to prove just how much it can make him MORE. For her.

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INTERESTING TRIVIA: Did you know Joey was a BDSM romance pioneer in the sub-genre of Dominant heroines? She believed these strong heroines and their alpha male “palace guard” submissive heroes could win the hearts of traditional romance readers. Her book Natural Law (mentioned above) was used for the summer romance reading program at DePaul University, and her paranormal Vampire Queen series (first book The Vampire Queen's Servant: A Vampire Queen Series Novel) “defies every cliché of the genre.” [Night Owl Romance].

She also recommends her most recent contemporary series, Mistresses of the Board Room, for those who’d like to explore the Female Dominant/male sub relationship in BDSM romance. At Her Command is the first book in the series.

Many years ago, when my maternal grandfather wanted to buy my grandmother a necklace, bracelet, ring or earrings, he would take his watch to the local pawn shop. He’d turn it over to the owner as collateral, purchase the piece of jewelry, and then make payments from his job in the shipyard until he could get his watch back. He did this several times during their marriage, until he died of cancer from the asbestos he scraped off the insides of the ships.

I never saw my grandmother wear expensive jewelry, but by the time I was old enough to notice that, she was in her sixties, working at the local hospital restocking the vending machines, and she had a far more casual fashion sense. But on her wall, in a collage of family photos, she had a wonderful 1940s/50s black and white of her and my grandfather. He’s gazing at her lovingly while she stands self-consciously at his side in a stylish skirt/jacket combo topped with a lovely hat.

When my grandmother passed in the 1980s, the jewelry was split up between my mother and aunt. They kept certain pieces and passed on others to their respective daughters. Amethyst is my birthstone, so my mother gave me a dainty necklace with an amethyst stone pendant and matching earrings.

Over time, the style of jewelry I wear has changed considerably, though I’ve held onto the pieces because they are family heirlooms, and it means a great deal to me that they were a gift from my mother. However, as I’ve hit my 50s, I’ve also become the type of person who doesn’t like to see something someone else could more actively appreciate languishing in a jewelry box. So recently I asked my aunt if she thought her granddaughters would like the earrings/necklace. We’re all in agreement that we want these pieces to stay in the family, and these two girls are accomplished, delightful young women who love my aunt, care for her wellbeing, and will appreciate the history of the pieces. My aunt also felt the necklace and earrings reflect the style of jewelry they currently wear.

I told my aunt I’d bring the pieces with me on my next visit to her home in Virginia, a couple months or so in the future. Right after that conversation, I went to collect the amethysts from my jewelry box. The plan was to set them aside so when the time came, I’d remember to take them. That’s where I hit a snag.

I couldn’t find the necklace!

The earrings were there, but I couldn’t find that dainty little gold chain and sparkling purple stone. However, I didn’t panic right away. At some point over the years I’d decided on a decorative use for necklaces I rarely wore. I draped them on the corners of pictures, over lampshades, or embellished the necks of vases and pottery pieces with them. Most of the necklaces were larger pendants on long chains, but large or small, I’m pretty consistent about my necklace/pendant sizes. 16-18” chains, with mid-sized pendants, usually about 1-1 ½ inches in size. The amethyst had rarely been worn because I don’t wear much dainty stuff or gold, and it was both of those things.

That was when I had a terrible thought. Had I draped the short, fragile little thing over the corner of a picture and perhaps it had fallen to the floor behind a piece of furniture? I checked, and no, I didn’t find anything. But what if in vacuuming under the furniture, it had been sucked up and thrown away in a full vacuum bag? We have a bunch of natural areas layered in pine mulch, and with seven animals and two humans routinely tracking it in, the grinding clack-clack of items being sucked up in the vacuum is routine. A tiny necklace wouldn’t even be noticed.

Hoping I was wrong, weeks have gone by with me looking for this necklace. Believe me, I have checked EVERYWHERE, not just pictures, pottery and lampshades, but also on statues, awards and figurines. I checked the pockets of every item of clothing, travel bag and purse. I have a group of stuffed figures/animals on top of a shelf in my office. One of them is the doll from Rudolph’s Island of Misfit Toys. On her wrist are the baby bracelets that Scott and I wore in the hospital. Hope leaped back to the top of my mind when I thought of her, because surely putting that amethyst on her neck would make so much sense. Yes it would--but nope, not there.

And so on and so forth. If you can think of a spot, I looked for this necklace there. I was out of ideas. Or was I?

I am Wiccan, so you’d think trying a Find spell would have occurred to me MUCH sooner. But I classify myself as a “spiritual” Wiccan, and what I mean by that is I practice very little actual spellcraft, either the more complicated kinds or simple kitchen magics. I tend to feel whatever is happening in my life is meant to be, to teach me lessons or give me certain experiences. If I have a sick family member or know that somewhere in the world needs a particularly high dose of healing or help, I will pray/channel energy for that purpose and ask that it be applied for the highest good. I don’t think of doing things to help myself with day-to-day challenges. That’s what the Lord and Lady gave me a brain, heart, will and self-discipline to do for myself.

However, I went to the Internet (the quick spellfinder, lol), and stumbled on a Find spell suggestion drawn from an old friend - Llewellyn, the publishing company from which I bought Wiccan guidebooks in my early exploration of that faith. The person who recommended this spell said she’d never known it not to work within TWENTY-FOUR hours of doing it.

So here goes – you imagine your missing item. You imagine a silver cord around it. And then you repeat this three times, applying as much energy/focus to it as you can, as you pantomime drawing that looped cord and the object toward you:

What was lost is found / With my magical cord around / Whether far or near / Come now to me here.

I also modified a recommended visualization, climbing a mountain to where a little man was meditating, and asking him “little man, where is my necklace?” He doesn’t answer, but you “leave” the thought with him, along with your thanks for his help.

I did that chant and visualization combo Thursday night before I went to sleep, and Friday morning while I was walking the dogs. During that walk I started thinking about places I could re-check, and realized I hadn’t carefully looked at the clothes hangers for dresses I took to conferences. Maybe I’d draped the necklace on one to pair it with a particular dress and had forgotten about it? So when I returned from the dog walk, I checked the closet where I keep those dresses. No luck.

I went back into my office, and gazed at the shelves where I keep my writing awards. There was the necklace, hanging on the point of my RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award.

WTF?!

I had checked those awards, that shelf, MULTIPLE times. But there it was. I felt such joy holding it, realizing I hadn’t lost my mother’s gift, or the jewelry that my grandfather had originally given my grandmother. “Wow” was the word that came to my mind. Just wow.

In my Arcane Shot trilogy, my three witch heroines are equipped with FAR more powers/abilities than your average Wiccan like myself. Yet their storyline and practices are guided by the tenets that form the spiritual foundation to the Wiccan faith. It has been awhile since I’ve been reminded of the simple pleasures/joys its practical application can bring.

So I thank the spirits—including that little man--for bringing the necklace back to me!

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Would you like to read the first book of the Arcane Shot trilogy – for FREE? Download it here – Arcane Shot

When BDSM romance started growing in popularity, what defined it was pretty clear. There would be plenty of BDSM scenes, and the good BDSM stories integrated those scenes with strong characterization and a compelling love story. The BDSM couldn’t be “tacked in.” While there were non-BDSM authors who tried to throw in a spanking or handcuff scene to capitalize on the trends at the time (not because they had a genuine desire to enhance the genre’s offerings), romance readers made it clear that wouldn't fit their definition of BDSM romance.

I mention that, to make a distinction between that issue and what I’m about to discuss. I think sub-genres evolve, expand and diversify, because readers and authors are always growing and changing. Just think about how what was considered “extreme” in earlier erotic romance is now considered “mild” or “mid-level” erotic content. In my opinion, that evolution in reader sophistication and tastes likely paved the way for 50 Shades to hit such mainstream success years later.

Then there was the introduction of sub-genres like Male/male romance, which has earned an intensely popular niche in the BDSM romance world. In fact, that popularity caused some initial problems. At a conference years back, I remember an author of gay “sweet” romance complaining that her books kept getting shelved in erotica. Since it was the early stages of putting gay relationships out there to a romance readership, it wasn’t always recognized that the purpose of a story with main characters of “non-traditional” sexual orientations wasn’t how fast they could get to the bedroom.

When I first started writing FemDomme/male sub, I wrote it as a female lover of romance wanted to read it. Bless my readers, many of you followed me down that road. Okay, let’s be honest – you followed Mac Nighthorse of Natural Law down that road, lol. So I bless him, too, now and forever. However, the point is, that book and those written by other authors with the same inclination proved yes, FemDomme could be written in a way that female romance readers enjoyed. Will it ever eclipse the MaleDom/female sub popularity? Not likely, but like Male/male romance, it earned itself a place, proving that we are not static. We grow in what we want from our BDSM romance. We follow the good stories, the good characters. The great love stories.

So where am I going with this?

In my last several books, as I’ve been dealing with weighty paranormal plots (Vampire Guardian/Arcane Chaos) and physical/mental health challenges (In His Arms/At Her Service), I realized I might be once again moving into a different permutation of BDSM romance.

In the four books I mentioned, the characters are Doms and subs, but session play isn't the main focus of the stories. They're more about how a person with that orientation lives their life outside of session, how they use that mindset to handle life’s challenges. Like Abby and Neil, both Dominants, trying to help Abby deal with her schizophrenia (At Her Service). Or Rory, figuring out if he can embrace his Master side for Daralyn, despite him being in a wheelchair (In His Arms).

I have mixed feelings about this.

My less positive feeling connects to how I feel about Lord John Grey from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. When she did his spinoff mystery, raise your hand if what you were hoping for was a male/male love story that had the intensity and depth of what she gave us so memorably with Jamie and Claire? Yep, my hand would go up first. I LOVED Lord Grey. I wanted sexy historical m/m, not Agatha Christie. That’s not a slap at Diana Gabaldon—I worship at the altar of her genius. I’m just not much of a classic mystery reader. And I REALLY wanted a hot, gut/soul wrenching love story for Lord John Grey, lol.

My more positive feeling is I like that sub-genres are continually evolving, taking character types we love into new territory, like the FemDomme example I used earlier. Time and again, we’ve been told readers “don’t want” certain sub-genres, when it turned out they really did. There was a market – we just had to get the books out there for the readers looking for it and let them know they were there.

So what do you think? Do you like a book where the characters are Doms and subs, but the overriding story focus could be a non-BDSM related conflict? Where the D/s shows up in various ways (including the bedroom), but the story doesn’t revolve around it? (Again, NOT to be confused with tacking BDSM into a non-BDSM story to give the story spice.)

My goal is always to give my readers a keeper shelf book, which means writing something I would want to put on my own keeper shelf. So I’ll follow my muse, whether it takes me to a more BDSM-centric romance, or one like I describe above. But I am curious, would someone picking up At Her Service or Arcane Chaos, both of which include an Amazon keyword tag of "BDSM romance", feel they’ve been misled? Or would they see it as a different kind of journey with BDSM-oriented characters?

I welcome your thoughts.

Have you ever been reading a good story and a character will have a moving insight that says something you weren’t sure how to say yourself, but bam, there it is? Well, look in the mirror. Because whether you knew it or not, the author pulled it from you.

An author’s earliest work usually starts with her own reflection in the mirror. Over time, over the telling of stories, that mirror becomes a window, to connect to the emotions of others, to give the author’s insights a broader scope and deeper characters. That’s where the story “takes off” and tells itself, because the more the author lets go of the “I” in the work, the farther and deeper it can go.

In college, I was with someone for two years. It was the longest relationship I’d had up until then. We were both emotional messes. But in the long run, it was him who realized we had to break up. Love is fake. That’s the cynic’s viewpoint, right? Just a chemical reaction. It would actually be far less painful if it was. I could not give up on the relationship because I lacked any ability to do so, no matter how unhappy I became. So he broke it off, because he couldn’t stand how miserable I was any longer. Because he cared about me. Loved me.

Why does love succeed? Why does it fail? Or rather, why do we fail to live up to our hopes for it? The deeper an author writes emotionally, the more we’re trying to answer universal questions like that, to see the path through, or how to keep on the path.

Maybe when we don’t have hard questions left to answer about love is when we stop writing about it. When I meet an author who writes love stories who stopped writing for that reason, I’ll let you know.

We like to talk about the elements of writing, what drives it, the ideas that spark a story, but for the long game, there are things that drive it that reflect your struggle to live your best life—whatever that means—and to understand everything about life you can. That thought takes me back to one truth, an element in almost every great success story. Those who succeed, show up. And love (as well as writing – aren’t they the same thing, lol?) is all about showing up, through good, bad, apathy, disappointment, pain, numbness, etc.

And when you dig deep enough, you get this (from the amazing book Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid):

It was such a rush, singing like that. Singing a song that I felt in my heart. I watched the people at the front of the crowd listening to me, hearing me. These people from a different country, people I’d never met in my life, I felt connected to them in a way that I hadn’t felt connected to anyone.

It is what I have always loved about music. Not the sounds or the crowds or the good times as much as the words—the emotions, and the stories, the truth—that you can let flow right out of your mouth.

Music can dig, you know? It can take a shovel to your chest and just start digging until it hits something.

The more I’ve read, seen, heard, felt and learned, the more I’ve realized stillness, quiet, is the answer to most things. To finding the answers. Listening, maybe occasionally asking the right questions, or the questions that come to you when it’s time, but mostly it’s being quiet, as witness.

There’s very little you can stop or change in people’s actions at the moment in time they’re saying or doing it, but what’s carried forward, that’s when something may or may not happen—when you see the story take shape and go where you wistfully hope it can. Where the mirror reverses and the story’s happily-ever-after can reflect life, because the kernel of it was THERE in real life all along.

Because that’s where the author found it.

Want to test an author or a reader’s blood pressure? Talk about censoring books. Three things came together in the past week, inspiring me to choose this as a blog topic:

First: I saw an article about banning a particular book from a school library. I have not read the book, but it seemed to be about teaching kids to be comfortable with their bodies and sexuality. The contentious issue cited (though there might be more than one) was the book has a picture of a naked woman in it, studying her genitals.

Second: The same week, a small social media firestorm happened over an award-winning romance that depicted a historical event in a way some people felt was incorrect and disrespectful to its victims. The organization that provided the award was getting flak for it.

Third: I have been reading a book (Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America from the Culture of Contempt by Arthur C. Brooks) that talks about how destructive it is to handle conflict with the weapon of contempt. Because I am an author, this quote in particular stuck with me: “By defining ourselves in terms of unbridgeable differences (political affiliation, etc) we put our common human stories out of reach for those who disagree with us. Likewise, by defining those with whom we disagree as nothing more than a set of disembodied characteristics (again, political affiliation, etc) we put their humanity out of our own reach.”

In my author capacity, I go out of my way to be non-political. However, like most everyone, I am trying to cope with the divisiveness, anger and helplessness causing strife in our countries, communities, families and friendships. When I stumble on a quote like the one above that connects to stories and their importance to our quality of life, how we live our lives, it gets me thinking.

When I saw the flurry of social media reactions to the two books, I wondered how much of those posts were driven by confirmation bias on either side, versus a firsthand examination of the books. Testing this out for myself, I checked out the romance. I’m familiar with the historical event in question, and I’ve read several different scholarly treatments on it. At least where I am in the book so far, the hero’s viewpoint on it was based on assumptions similar to those shared in the time period (he didn’t have the benefit of hindsight we do). He also seemed to be struggling morally with what had happened. We’ll see where it goes from there. As of yet, it hasn’t elicited any strong feelings from me.

That said, I have no problem with someone being offended by it or thinking the topic should have been handled differently. What concerns me is when public opinion is so vitriolic it discourages free, respectful and open discussion about a book’s content. That’s usually the way censorship and book banning/removal get their foot in the door. There’s an awesome quote from the play 1776 that reflects my thoughts on that: “In all my years I ain't never heard, seen nor smelled an issue that was so dangerous it couldn't be talked about.”

Stories communicate ideas in so many wonderful and diverse ways. When an inordinate amount of time and effort is spent trying to remove access to ideas, my alarm flags go up. Now, that said, there is no strong opinion I hold that doesn’t start with a hard look in a mirror. What do I mean by that?

I recently read a book where I disagreed with the beliefs in it so stringently, I told a friend I wanted to drown it in a bathtub so no one could be exposed to the ideas. But I did not, because prohibiting information from reaching people is saying, “I know better than you. I have the right to decide for you, what you can read, what you can think. You’re not smart enough to know what’s right – I am.”

And to reframe a fabulous line from Jamie Fraser in Outlander, when he saved Claire from the judges at a witch trial: “And if you're tellin' me that ye consider your own authority to be greater than that of the Almighty, then I must inform ye that I'm not of that opinion, myself.” [Er…please ignore my husband’s assertion of how often I say I’m right and he’s wrong – spousal arguments are exempt from this discussion, lol.]

If I support the free and respectful debate of ideas and differing opinions, then I have to reflect that in my behavior, no matter how I feel about a story. I can’t stand back and do nothing when a book I dislike is pulled, banned or condemned, and yet vociferously oppose the same thing happening to a book whose ideas I like. Inaction is as much a statement as action.

If I don’t like a book, I’m not going to recommend it to anyone. End of story (no pun or threat intended - grin). If I want to talk about why I don’t like it, I’m going to give other people the chance to express their opinion and not personally attack them for that differing viewpoint.

I write BDSM Romance, a genre that some believe supports a lifestyle that is immoral or deviant behavior (whatever that means). Far more people held that opinion decades ago than do so now. That’s because books like mine started reaching more people. They had the opportunity to learn about it, ask questions, make up their own minds. In short, an open dialogue started happening.

So going back to that historical romance – how much more productive and interesting a dialogue would occur if we had a respectful interchange on why the author chose to present the event the way she did? Get the chance to hear her thoughts. She might not agree with why some people are upset, but I’m willing to bet if that discussion happened, it would result in everyone feeling more enlightened by the discussion. Especially if we made a sincere effort to hear one another’s stories/viewpoints, rather than treating one another with ideologically driven contempt. Understanding is often far more important than agreement.

Years ago, someone sent me an email about a side character in my book Natural Law, a nurse who helped Mac and Violet during a life-threatening crisis. The reader was upset because she felt I’d presented a racist stereotype of the nurse. I explained that the character was based on my mother’s grateful description of the labor nurse who helped deliver me. As soon as that was clarified, she felt much better, because she realized my description of this character had not been driven by what she’d assumed it was. In short, we connected and had a discussion, person to person.

At book conferences—wonderful immersion events for authors and readers--we talk about stories, reading, characters, family, emotions, how we go through life. Our ideologies, the things that can divide us, aren’t how we define ourselves at these events. We connect to one another, regardless of our differences in backgrounds, orientation, etc, on what the stories make us feel, the joy and thoughts they give us. I love that, because it tells me we are SO much more than our differences. As this book Love Your Enemies says, the “why” of who we are is so much more unifying than the “what.”

And the “why” makes for a far more interesting story, about every one of us.

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Did you know that the BDSM GoodReads group is featuring Vampire Guardian as their August Book of the Month? Go Join the Group and the discussion - Link here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/..."

Pleasure reading isn’t an indulgence for a romance author. It’s a vital part of keeping our own writing fresh and always improving. I think the reasons are both practical and spiritual. The practical part is clear enough. Doing everything I can to improve my craft means internalizing good writing styles of other authors. It comes through in my own writing as I strive to emulate those elements in my own voice.

The spiritual part is harder to quantify, but its presence in my writing is unmistakable (as is its absence). Either the story has heart, or it doesn’t. The voice comes across either genuine or formulaic. Consistently immersing myself in books that are full of that heart helps me find it when I’m writing my own work. When I read a great book, the joy of creating a great story, of wanting to do the same, fills me up and overflows into my scribbling pen or tapping fingers.

I fight off a variety of creativity-draining gremlins when crafting a story, so having that heart strongly pumping during the writing process is essential. I didn’t realize that straightaway. A few years ago, I was so busy writing, I got away from reading. I mistakenly assumed “pleasure” or “leisure” reading was something that I’d do when I “had time,” as a reward to myself. Then I noticed my writing started to feel a lot like sex without foreplay or connection. There was just not enough lubrication or interest to make things go the way I wanted them to go. Being an erotic romance author offers great fodder for memorable metaphors, lol…

Anyhow, soon as I started reading again, making time for it, things improved exponentially. And what a wonderful “requirement” for a job – I MUST read great books. Ha! Truly, reading good books is the best personal and professional decision I make. No matter how busy I am, my day starts and ends with reading of some kind. There’s an ongoing stack on my kitchen counter (during breakfast) and by my bed (before going to sleep). A side benefit of being in my 50s, where it takes longer for me to get to sleep, is I get more reading time.

People often ask me how I choose what story to write next. It is always muse-driven. If she isn’t interested in writing that story right now, I put it on the backburner and figure out which one she is. Sometimes reader demand, market recommendations and the muse agree. Often, they don’t. Which is why my husband (in his opinion) is not the kept man of a multi-millionaire author, but merely the semi-pampered second income spouse of a midlist one (grin).

My reading choices for “pleasure” reading follow a similar process. They are entirely what catches my attention in that moment when I finish one book and look for what to read next. I let my reading muse guide me the same way my writing muse does, because where that “book muse” guides me is usually into the headspace I need for my next story. Sometimes what I’m reading also helps me personally, pulling me out of a quagmire in my head. That’s very relevant to good writing as well, because it’s tough to write a love story when you’re in a bad place emotionally.

These past couple months, while I’ve been busily writing Vampire Guardian, I have found some WONDERFUL books. I’m going to post reviews on GR, Amazon and Bookbub for them. However, since I’m here among fellow booklovers, let me briefly tell you why I enjoyed three of them in particular.

Lord of Scoundrels by Loretta Chase: Some time ago, a friend of mine told me her son was assigned this romance as part of a college English class. The professor wanted to expose her students to well-written romance. First, serious KUDOS to that professor for helping dispel the snobbish myth that romance is trash writing, and second, for engaging the interest of both male and female students in the genre. My friend said her son told her, “Wow, Mom, it was really good.” Which tickled me a dozen ways to hear.

I finally had the opportunity to read it myself, and yes, WOW, it is great. If you are a Julia Quinn/Bridgerton fan, it is in that vein of historical romance (probably why she did a cover quote for it, lol), and it is so beautifully done. Tropes are tropes. Every genre has them, and the reason they do is because when they’re done right, we love the way they’re told. Lord of Scoundrels has the broody, broken hero and the spirited strong heroine, who quickly become living, breathing people. I was in Lord Dain’s corner, aching for his healing within the first chapter. And Jess grabbed me with their first encounter in an antique store, over a bawdy pocket watch.

A Charm of Finches by Suanne Laqueur: Her Venery series are more family relationship stories that straight out love stories, but the entirety of the books are about the strength of love to overcome. And this second one has a serious male/male love story focus. I had read An Exaltation of Larks, the first book in the Venery series, some time back, and it was incredibly good. Because it was so powerful, I didn’t immediately dive into Charm of Finches, and I’m so glad I gave myself the emotional space to really experience this story fully. Oh, Javier and Stef. I never realized how sexy a man taking off his rings before coming to bed could be, lol. Add the silver fox aspect and the tattoos, and I was just about as besotted with Stef as Javier was.

But beyond that, there’s Geno’s story, the young man whose healing becomes as important a part of this as the love story between Stef and Javier. No holds barred look at what it would be like for a young man to have to find his way after being brutalized in a child pornography ring, and I give Suanne serious props for how she drew us into Geno’s heart and soul for this struggle. YES, there is a light at the end of that tunnel and a happily-ever-after, so hard-won you have to cheer for him, for all of them, because of how a broken soul can triumph with the help of love and an unconquerable spirit. Read both books. They are SO worth it. I’m looking forward to reading the next one, once I recover from this one!

Now, third and final, Nalini Singh’s Archangel series, starting with Angels' Blood. I know, there are over a dozen books in the series, so some of you are saying, “What?! You’ve never read these?!” It was my own fault. Years ago, I read one of the Psy-Changeling series as my first Nalini book experience. Sci-fi romance reading almost never grabs me (no fault to Nalini’s excellent writing at all). TV and movies, yes, but mostly what they call “space opera,” romantic, character-driven stuff. For instance, Firefly is one of my favorite series, and I’m a big fan of the first Guardians of the Galaxy, Passengers, the Chris Pine Star Trek movies, and I loved Star Trek Next Generation.

Sci-fi romance has just never been my jam. Almost as soon as I see the word “space” on a back copy, you’ve lost me. Can’t help it and can’t really explain the reasoning behind it, since even though I’m not a science or math person, good sci-fi romance usually does make the relationship the central story. I think it’s about that weird threshold each of us romance readers experience – we know what sub-genres we do and don’t really like, and it takes a lot to get us to check out a book that falls under one that doesn’t really grab us. However, if I get enough recommendations from readers who read and enjoy the type of stories I do, I will give it a try. Which is why BloodWind by Charlotte Boyett-Compo is on my shelf, and the earliest BDSM romance that helped me identify the genre I wanted to write was a sci-fi short by Angela Knight called “Roarke’s Prisoner" (published in Red Sage's Secrets Volume 2). Oh, another side note - Infernal Desire by Angela was another short but delightful read during the past couple months - love her humor, world-building and steamy couples - grin.

Regarding genre/trope preferences, I see that trait in my own readership as well. With 50+ books, both contemporary and paranormal, as well as a lot of different Dom/sub relationship dynamics, I have a lot for readers to choose from. Readers who enjoy my writing to the point they’ll follow me no matter where I take them (bless you!) will often convince other readers to mix it up. Because my work, regardless of genre, has a similar focus/tone, I do have a pretty high percentage of crossover readers who initially claimed they’d never step over that threshold. But there is a percentage who just do NOT want to read about vampires. Or male/male. Or Female Dommes. And I GET it. It is pleasure reading, leisure reading. About relaxation, enjoyment. Escapism. Not cramming for a final that’s going to determine your entire future, lol.

And on that very delightfully related note, back to the Archangel series. I have been enjoying the bejesus out of these books. I just finished the third one, and am about to start the fourth with Dmitri. And I was very happy to see Nalini unveil the stunning U.S. cover for Book 14, Archangel's Light, which looks like it’s going to be a male/male (I hope, I hope!), and about one of the side characters I like the most, Illium. The first three books had that Roarke/Eve feel of the early JD Robb books (which I also adore), and the right mix of the early Anita Blake/Jean Claude dynamic, throwing in flirtatious reverse harem hints with Raphael’s devoted “Seven,” without being reverse harem. She and Raphael are very monogamous, which works for me (I’m not opposed to reverse harem in the least, but for this series, that monogamy works very well).

So going back to the beginning, where I mentioned authors taking elements of great books we love and spinning them out in their own unique way, Nalini took the best elements of various series I love and crafted a wonderful escape fantasy/romance series. I’m hooked and hope to continue to be so through the next nine books and wherever she takes us after that.

During this same time (talk about cramming for finals) I’ve also read books about race relations (a friend’s recommendation to broaden my horizons) and schizophrenia (for the next book I’m writing, where the heroine is struggling with that mental illness), so there is a very strange soup whirling around in my brain these days, lol. Angels, politics, men with sexy tattoos, grand balls with the ton…

No telling where that soup will take me in my next book, but I’m looking forward to the adventure. Hope you all are finding good spring reads as well! Oh, and be sure and look below the asterisks – one of the full-length standalones in my Vampire Queen series is FREE until June 15, in anticipation of the release of Vampire Guardian.

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Vampire Instinct is FREE at all vendors until June 15! Author recommended as the best series book to “prep” for the upcoming release of Vampire Guardian, book 17 in her popular Vampire Queen series.

You know those weekend getaway visits with friends where you talk about everything? During one of those, years ago, I remember the subject of crying came up. The question posed was “how often do you cry?” One of my very stalwart friends who said she rarely if ever cries was astounded to find out I cry once or twice daily.

Most people reading this live a life that’s above the two bottom levels of Maslow’s pyramid – meaning you have food, shelter and a life mostly free of imminent danger. That goes for me, too. Which is one of the reasons I’m able to be an author. It’s very hard to have creative pursuits when you’re starving or in fear for your life.

I’m headed toward a point, but I need to offer four seemingly random insights to get to it. Bear with me, and apologies if they’re things I’ve expressed before in other posts.

INSTANCE ONE – the comment about Maslow reminds me of a man who attended elementary school with me. I ran into him years later, when I was working a white-collar job with a utility company and he was working with the custodial staff. He mentioned he’d tried to go to community college. He’d study in a closet, because the gunfire in his neighborhood would so worry and distract him. Since that chance meeting, I’ve often hoped he was able to try college again or ended up in a better situation, but at that time his circumstances had derailed him from that path.

INSTANCE TWO - Many of you know I was active in the animal rights movement in my twenties, and I have been involved off and on in supporting animal welfare/rights activities since then. So many causes work to help others, and I believe we each get called to the causes that speak most deeply to us. It’s a sign of the wisdom of the Powers-That-Be that the call is different for all of us, because the need for comfort, care and justice comes in many forms. The animal welfare/rights cause was the one for me, and it’s often overwhelmed me with sorrow and despair at how we (including me) rationalize unspeakable cruelty in the name of food, science, entertainment and sport, against those who have no defense against us.

INSTANCE THREE - The heart has an endless capacity for love. I believe that, which is why I couldn’t say that this or that person has half of my heart or my whole heart. There’s always room to love more. But I can say, easily, that the two people who have the largest claim on my heart are my mother and my husband. My mother died in 2011, an event that affected me profoundly. My brother and I were her primary caregivers in her final months, and she died at home, with us in attendance.

INSTANCE FOUR - I love stories in every form; books, movies, TV, it doesn’t matter. But when I saw The Greatest Showman, it had been a VERY long time since I’d seen a movie where I wanted to walk out, buy another ticket, go back in and watch it all over again, right then. I’ve probably watched it a dozen times on DVD. I miss the incredible way the movie sound system amplified the drumbeat of many of the tunes, but I’ll put a home movie theater on my wish list if I’m ever a millionaire – that would be hell and gone from those bottom two rungs of the Maslow pyramid, lol. I cry every time I watch the movie, as an act of joy. Joy that a story came together so beautifully, so creatively, with so many inspiring messages of hope, caring and love.

WHY DID I TELL YOU THESE FOUR THINGS? It goes back to the daily crying thing. When I cry during a wonderful story like Greatest Showman, I feel all the reasons I cry come together – for the things I’ve lost, moments I’ve despaired, the horror I feel about how we treat others, as well as for the joy about every one of the many blessings of my life. I feel this way every time I read an amazing book or see a great play. I also feel that way when I see how different every sunrise and sunset is, when my animals make me laugh, when my husband surprises me with an act of love and kindness I didn’t expect, or when I hear about a victory one of my friends or amazing readers has experienced.

I also cry at the pain we (including me – maybe especially me) cause ourselves, the way we lose traction in our relationships with friends, family, the world around us. How we get disconnected, confused and lost in our personal story going through life. How often I just don’t know the solutions or how to fix the things that bother me the most.

I’ve heard a lot of feedback this year about how much this year sucked. But this year merely amplified so many of the underlying worries and fears we have, challenging us in ways they maybe never have. Those worries and fears didn’t change – fear of death, of illness, of loneliness, of losing what we have, of losing our freedoms, of losing our moral compass…and you can add to that list. How did we handle that? Were we proud of how we behaved, or is there room for improvement? Like any of my stories, there’s always room to tweak and edit and polish and make the story better.

Coming back to Maslow. If you are one of the lucky ones who has lived 98% of your life above those two rungs, I don’t think there is such a thing as having a 100% bad day, week, month or year. There is simply the challenge offered to us by the fates every day to learn how to overcome our fears, our worries, the outside challenges of life, to appreciate the world and blessings we’ve been given even more. To try and do what we believe in our hearts is the highest good, without taking those choices from others because of our fears, worries and missteps.

The Man Who Invented Christmas is a wonderful movie. It also does a great job of accurately reflecting the writing process. Particularly how writing is a continual act of self-exploration, if you’re doing it right. This doesn’t mean that what we write is biographical. It means that in order to get into who our characters really are, we have to explore our own selves, soul deep. Every situation, every experience, is a chance to look in a mirror, where I see my own reflection, layered over everyone I’ve ever met who has figured into my writing growth. Things like the four instances I noted above have contributed vastly to the depth of my writing and how real my characters can become to my readers.

I wish all of you a wonderful close of the year and many blessings in 2021, as well as many opportunities to figure out how to be the best version of yourself you can be, surrounded by the love of those who care the most about you. I think the hardest thing in life to do is this: rather than considering life a journey toward what’s good and worthwhile, we find and create that good every day. We roll our eyes at the clichés like “life is a journey, not a destination,” but knowing that, hearing it, versus actually doing it? The doing is the biggest challenge of all.

Merry Christmas! God/dess bless and guide us all.

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Submissive Angel is available! Take a break from the Christmas chaos and enjoy a feel-good 250 page M/m Christmas read for 99 cents! 180 page additional novella included with original 2013 short to tell the REST of Robert and Ange's love story.

Since I’m releasing a MM Christmas story on December 15, it’s appropriate that I just finished the first full length FF story I’ve read, The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite. I enjoyed it thoroughly and I’ve posted the link to my 4-star GR review of it at the end. However, what I wanted to share here was a thought-provoking quote from the author, relating to writing LGBTQ romance in a historic setting:

“Ultimately, the modern reader is my priority. I am not writing for people in the 19th century; I am writing for people in the present moment, who have a lot on their minds and who are looking for a way through. Sometimes we have to practice imagining a better world than the one we’ve inherited. Sometimes we need somewhere safe to practice hope, before we try something world-changing in our own lives. Fulfillment we can give you. Happy queer people, making choices that matter to them, even if those choices are sometimes constrained. Happiness, in spite of anything. In spite of everything.”

I discovered this comment when I was mulling over whether some of the situations proposed in her story were realistic for the time period. Which in turn brought my thoughts to the 2019 movie The Aeronauts.

This movie was about an actual historic event, meteorologist James Glaisher’s achievement of the highest altitude reached by a human in 1862. I was highly disappointed the movie makers decided to create fictional character Amelia Wren to accompany him. Why? There was a real-life person who went with Glaisher, helped him with his achievement AND saved his life on that trip. Henry Coxwell.

The Aeronauts is not a historical romance. If it was, Henry would have been the one in that basket with James, because the best authors in historical romance respect the history they’re researching. My excellent high school world history teacher transformed my interest in history into a lifelong love, but that love first took root due to the historical romances I was reading in middle school. Because of what I read in the pages of those books, I spent time in the library learning far more about particular figures and events in history, who in turn eventually inspired some of my own storylines.

Now, someone might be saying, “OMG, doesn’t Joey realize how historical romances bend the lines?” Yes, she does. But there is bending with respect, versus outright breaking. And the authors whose work thrilled and inspired me not only knew about that, they took it as a point of professional pride to straddle that delicate line. To not do so would have been the same as ignoring any other story weakness, like changing the main character’s personality mid-stream for no obvious reason, or leaving a million typos uncorrected.

Let’s take Diana Gabaldon, who does an incredible level of research for her Outlander books. Jamie and Claire have appeared alongside real life figures in history, but DG obviously takes great pains to ensure the appearances of those real life people align with what is documented about them, using it as a guide for any fictional license she takes with them. She respects the history while integrating it beautifully with the unforgettable love story and journey of Jamie and Claire. And if there are any deviations or large leaps, she includes author’s notes explaining them. She informs readers what is truth and fiction, where she took license and why.

She’s not alone in that. For instance, in one of my favorite historical romances of all time, Once in a Blue Moon by Penelope Williamson, the hero is involved in the evolution of train engine technology. At the end, Penelope Williamson includes a helpful note delineating fact from fiction, which gives credit to those who inspired her fictional character.

In my book Vampire's Embrace, the WWII Bangka Island massacre was a pivotal event. In history, Vivian Bullwinkel is the only nurse survivor. She is mentioned in my book, along with other actual figures of the time, respecting their place in that history. My fictional heroine was another nurse survivor, unreported because of the circumstances of her rescue (by our vampire hero).

Now, back to Olivia’s book. She did something a little different, as her quote suggests, and it worked. I didn’t feel Olivia’s suggestion of “imagining a better world” ran into the same troublesome waters as The Aeronauts. She proposed that Lucy and Catherine could have accomplished the scope of what they did in The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics, while still straddling enough of the realism of that society in a way that kept it from becoming too incredible. That takes some writing talent to do, and I think Olivia Waite accomplished it very well.

And she did it (I believe) without apparently diminishing or eradicating the historic accomplishments of others to elevate her characters. The push to include more diverse characters in all storytelling mediums is undeniably a good thing, as this book proves. But like anything else, I think it should be done with care that we’re not dis-including those who are supposed to be in the picture for their own accomplishments and talents. Otherwise we’re guilty of the same thing as what we’re trying to rectify. Pushing someone down to elevate someone else isn’t The Way (a Mandalorian reference there, sorry, lol).

History is undeniably a form of storytelling. We all know the saying “history is written by the victors.” However, it still comes with its own requirements that authors tell it with as much of the truth as they can research and verify, and where they can’t, or they meddle with it for the sake of the story, that needs to be made clear.

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree, or have a different perspective you want to share?

Here was my GR review if you want to see what I thought about The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics. Thank you to the reader who recommended it to me!

My GR review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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Interested in a feel-good, LENGTHY (250 pg) M/m Christmas read for 99ct? Submissive Angel comes out December 15! This is the two-part story of Robert and Ange, answering all the questions their original short novella raised in 2012. Can the vintage toy store owner uncover the tragedy hidden in his beautiful danseur’s heart, and heal it so they can move forward together as Master and submissive?

Oh, and a bit of story trivia - that same world history teacher I mentioned above was the first gay man I met (knowingly). And he inspired one of my support characters in the upcoming Submissive Angel!

A few years back, the fabulous author Desiree Holt had a great idea that brought together my vampires and her cowboys. Nightfall became a standalone title in my Vampire Queen series.

“A female vampire walks into a bar…” sounds like the start of a party joke, but when Selena walked into the bar and met Quinn, the alpha male cowboy who owned the bar and seriously needed a manager, it became intense and erotic pretty quickly. Especially when Quinn realized he’d finally found the woman with whom he could embrace his closet sexual submissive side.

Now, Desiree is the only writer with whom I’ve co-authored a book. I’m a pretty solitary kind of creator. Translation: Anal perfectionist with my own way of doing things that can drive other people insane – just ask my husband. I wasn’t sure if we’d be friends when it was all over, but it turned out to be a wonderful experience.

Recently, I spent the day with her on her FB fan group, Desiree’s Darlings, and we did a Q&A with each other about the book. It was SO much fun, I decided to share it with you all as a blog post. Hope you like it, and your comments/further questions are welcome. If you have any for Desiree, I’ll give her a heads up, never fear, so she can provide additional answers.

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JOEY TO DESIREE: I know we ping-ponged scenes back and forth and had a lot of overlap, but was it ever difficult to write Quinn as a submissive? Or Selene as a Domme? What I’m really asking is if you fantasized about him taking the reins once or twice? And if you did, feel free to share details, lol. Selene won’t mind – she’ll punish him for YOU having the thought – ha!

DESIREE’S ANSWER: First, since I always write alpha males, it was a challenge for me to make my alpha male a sub, even though he resisted at first. But his craving for Selena became an obsession. Getting into his head was the biggest challenge for me and yes, every so often I would say, Wait! Maybe he turns the tables on her! But then I’d go to bed and dream about Quinn’s naked body restrained on the bed, wrists and ankles manacled, sweating with a combination of desire and fear, and I wanted to take her place in that bedroom!

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DESIREE TO JOEY: What gave you the inspiration for Selena? Did you imagine the scenes before writing them? And how did you feel about her taming this big alpha cowboy? Did you want to be the one punishing him?

JOEY’S ANSWER: Up until our book, all the vampire heroines in my Vampire Queen series had been powerful political figures – Lyssa, my vampire queen; her friend Danny, who was a Region Master; Anwyn, who was the Domme owner of Club Atlantis before she was turned…etc. I really had no “working class” female vampires. When Quinn ended up needing a bar manager, it was the perfect opportunity for me to write that kind of heroine. I liked the idea of exploring the differences for a female vampire having to earn a living elbow to elbow with humans (who don’t know that vampires exist). I also liked the chance to think about how her relationship with a servant would differ. Could she could allow herself to be more vulnerable and intimate with her male servant than a female vampire more in the political eye of vampire society, where human servants are viewed as inferior/property?

As far as being the one punishing him (grin), in real life I don’t have a switch bone in my submissive body. However, when I write, one of the many things I love about the process is the ability to step into the shoes of the characters and try to channel what they’re feeling, wanting, needing. So when I stepped into Selene’s shoes in those scenes, I joined her in the pleasure of restraining Quinn, punishing him, and feeding off his willing submission to her demands, balanced with that strength and protectiveness that never diminished when it came to his feelings about her.

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JOEY TO DESIREE: What’s your favorite scene from Nightfall and why (if you can answer that without spoilers – grin)?

DESIREE’S ANSWER: I have to say the second time he and Selene are together, when he begins to fully embrace the role of a sub, even as he battles with it. I especially loved it when she…oh, wait! You have to read the book to find out!

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DESIREE TO JOEY: What part of the book did you find the sexiest (and also without giving anything away!)

JOEY’S ANSWER: There were a lot of sexy parts I really enjoyed. I tried to choose one, but I couldn’t (grin). However, I’m the kind of reader and writer who really likes the subtle moments. For instance, when she first visits the bar and Quinn is dealing with an employee stealing from him. His temper takes over, and he throws him up against the wall near her table…

“Reaching out, she hooked her slim fingers in Quinn’s jeans pocket, giving his hip bone an intimate stroke. She tilted her head, a subtle shift toward the door that said volumes. He’s not worth it. Kick him to the curb and be done with it.

The fingers in the pocket is a way of drawing his attention, settling him down, taking control and sensually teasing him at once. A fabulous subtle moment that gives me shivers for all the possibilities it suggests about where the story is going to go between them.

Then there’s the zinger at the end of HER job interview, when she tells HIM, her future “boss”: “Condition number three. You’re one of my employment benefits. And that starts right now.”

That’s a teeny bit of spoiler, but since it happens pretty early, and I assume everyone realizes they do eventually have sex, I hope it’s okay (grin).

And then later on in the book, there’s quite a memorable scene involving riding tack…ooh, and chocolate cake…and… I’ll stop now.

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JOEY TO DESIREE: What did you like the most about co-authoring together? (though if you want to say, holy God, when it was FINALLY over and I was away from that anal retentive woman, that’s fine, lol)

DESIREE’S ANSWER: I LOVED IT! I learned so much from you, especially regarding the emotions involved with each scene and each action. And everything you wrote gave me ideas for other scenes. Truth to tell, I kept waiting for you to say, I’m writing a book with this idiot? Holy shit! But I loved the give and take of ideas and how our visions came together.

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DESIREE TO JOEY: I have written with other authors before, but I know you had not. What did you find the hardest and what the easiest? (And saying, Damn! Will this woman ever learn? Is perfectly okay!)

JOEY’S ANSWER: The easiest thing was working with you. You were so laid-back about the process, willing for the flow to be very organic and flexible between us, rather than drawing hard lines between who wrote what, in terms of the characters and storyline. I think we talked about the fact that for both of us, the most important thing was writing the best story possible, and that might have been why we didn’t have difficulties writing together. Ego or territoriality wasn’t a factor, for either of us.

The hardest was overcoming the initial worry that it would ruin our friendship, because I know what it’s like working with me, and I tend to get very single-minded in how I want a story to be shaped. But as things unfolded as noted above, I realized the worry was unfounded. Thank goodness!

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JOEY TO DESIREE: I know your paranormal is mostly shifters. I don’t think you’ve ever written a vampire hero/heroine. If I’m right about that, why is that? The funny thing is, until a few years back, I had never written an animal shifter book, and to date I only have the one (Vampire’s Soul), so it seems like we have a mirror image thing going on there; you writing shifters but no vampires, me writing vampires but no shifters.

DESIREE’S ANSWER: Kind of a long answer. When I lived in Texas, my late husband and I were out at dinner one night and there was a man sitting a few tables away from us (this was outside) with a magnificent animal sitting calmly beside him. I asked him if it was a wolf and he said no, it was a blue heeler, but he knew a man who had a wolf on his property. He had rescued it, injured by a trap, and had a permit to keep it. He connected me with that man, and I got to visit him and watch the wolf in action. I fell in love. Then, when my younger daughter suggested I write a series based on the Chupacabra legend, it seemed natural to make the heroes and heroines wolf shifters. After that I was addicted. I just never had that connection with vampires.

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DESIREE TO JOEY: Let’s turn the table. You have never written shifters, so what got you addicted to vampires?

JOEY’S ANSWER: I first fell for vampires thanks to Chris Sarandon in the original Fright Night. Particularly that dance scene with Charlie’s girlfriend, where he took control of her and did that sexy dance. Soon after, there was Laurell K. Hamilton’s Guilty Pleasures, her very first Anita Blake book. I was quite obsessed with Jean Claude, with no real understanding why, until Richard climbed out of his bed in a later book, after serving as his “blood apple.” In Fright Night, there was an intriguing dynamic between Chris and his male servant that I also found intriguing.

Suddenly, I was focused on the mystery of the vampire-servant relationship, the Dom/sub potential, and how that would come about, what would inspire that bond.

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JOEY TO DESIREE: Who’s your favorite secondary character from Nightfall that you’d like to have his/her own book?

DESIREE’S ANSWER: I’d have to say Maria., the barmaid. I’d love to see a Master show up at the bar, be taken with her and slowly introduce her to the pleasures of submission. Imagine putting yourself in her place the first time he… Oh, well, that’s for another book! *wink*

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DESIREE TO JOEY: You don’t usually write about cowboys. Did you find it hard to develop Quinn in the chapters you wrote?

JOEY’S ANSWER: In places, yes. That was why I was very glad you were able to take the lead on his character and fill in the gaps/polish the places on his character development. I didn’t have problems during the scenes that were about how he felt about Selene, or his struggles with submitting to Selene, embracing that side of himself. However, when it came to him being a cowboy, running a ranch, that kind of thing, I really didn’t have a lot of knowledge or understanding of his mindset. Real life cowboys, a great deal of their lives have to do with raising animals for meat, treating animals as a crop, so to speak, and I’m a vegetarian, so it wasn’t a world I had a lot of familiarity with, lol. But I wanted him represented correctly, as who he is, not through my less comprehending lens. So thank goodness you were able to give him the authenticity I could not!

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Hope you enjoyed spending time with Desiree and me! You can click this link to Nightfall to check out Quinn and Selene’s story at your preferred vendor.

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If you’re more of a contemporary reader, want to read one of my full-length standalone books for FREE? Worth the Wait, a book in my Nature of Desire series, is FREE until September 30! The hero is a sexy roofer who’s also a rope artist, and his 40-year-old heroine is an erotic theater manager (smile). Just click on that title link to go to your preferred vendor and the book will download for free (Nook users, use coupon code BNPJOEYFREE).

So, it’s 1981. I’m 14 years old, and steeped in the glorious age of bodice ripper romance. I already have aspirations to write my own, and am penning wildly romantic and highly unlikely scenes during my school classes. I pass the pages under the desk to my eagerly waiting friends, my first critique group.

Around that time, Valerie Sherwood releases Bold Breathless Love, the first of her historical romance Love series. The beautiful and sensual Imogene is tossing her bodice whisk off the parapets and planning her life and love with a copper-haired Englishman. Yet bad things happen, her lover is dead (she thinks) and she ends up in the hands of a dangerous pirate captain, known as the best blade in the Caribbean. Without her Englishman, she is ready to end her life, give up on everything, but our pirate captain is having none of that. He loves her and refuses to let her die. So he keeps her in his cabin and ravishes her over and over and over (and over) to give her the will to live. Which of course works. It’s a medical fact - constant orgasms DO cheer people up.

In addition to bodice rippers, I also loved romantic pirate tales (Errol Flynn and Tyrone Powers, anyone?), so this book had it all. However…even then, when I had no idea why I loved those ravishing scenes so much, there was this little niggling feeling in my heart and creative mind that said this story stopped short of being everything it could be. Which is no criticism of the amazing Valerie Sherwood. If she’d written it then the way I wanted it to go, it would have been pulled from the shelves, lol.

We had to walk before we could be suspended with rope and spanked.

So over the years, as I dove into writing BDSM romance and explored Dominant/submissive relationships, as well as the idea of love stories that included more than just two people, this historical romance stayed in the back of my mind. Could that captain have been just a little more dominant and demanding? And instead of Imogene ultimately having to choose between these two charismatic men, couldn’t she figure out a way to have them both? Did the first guy have to end up falling short, get diminished, so that we could accept her ending up with just one of them? And could the pirate part be an even bigger part of the book?

Enter Sea of Ruin by Pam Godwin. Thirty-nine years, and this book was EVERYTHING my subconscious wanted that 1981 book to be. I won’t gush too much, because I’ll let slip a couple really big spoilers that made an incredible storyline even more so. I will say, when one of the major twists in the book happened, my reaction was something along the lines of “OMG, I cannot BELIEVE I didn’t see that coming.” It was brilliant and amazing.

An intense love story, great characters, and the historic romance feel of the book is right on target. In Sea of Ruin, you can feel the sea foam hitting your face and the decks move under Bennett’s feet. The sea battles are right up there with Horatio Hornblower and Jack Aubrey. In short, it’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, meets the best qualities of an intense, emotional threesome erotic love story.

Btw, when you start reading it, for a chapter or two, you’ll think, okay this is a nice historical pirate romance, but I’m not seeing what Joey’s talking about.

Trust me. Keep reading.

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I know it’s been a while since I did a blog post on GoodReads. I apologize for that! However, I had several posts on other people’s blogs you all might like. My readers’ input helped develop two of them, which made them far more interesting than if they'd merely been concocted by me, lol. I’m listing the three of them below if you’re interested in seeing what they were about:

Doms vs Dommes – Why the Double Standard? A look at why female romance readers react differently to Female Dominants in romance versus Male Dominants (posted at Smexy Books).

Erotic Romance Recommendations – Romance Rehab asked me for my best recommendations on erotic romance. I pulled in my readers to help me list out some of those they (and I) felt were the best way to go, depending on the particular interest of the reader.

Gay For You in Romance Fiction - A discussion of Willow’s character in Buffy the Vampire led to this post, where we examined the “Gay for You” trope that happens in m/m erotic fiction.