Here it is, the end of October, and NaNo is almost upon us.
I confess that I've never participated in the event before, and initially wasn't that interested. This summer, I had the fantastic experience of doing several 2 week Fast Draft challenges with a small group of authors, and for me, the results were amazing. It seems that while I suck at deadlines, when I issue a challenge to myself, I'm capable of more than I give myself credit for.
So...just days away and I haven't begun preparations yet. In fact, the project that I intended to focus on might not be appropriate. How can I write Book 4 of Bad Angels when I haven't even drafted Book 3? LOL! Oh well...
That's what the Drawing Board is for.
When I first enrolled in college, I was a pretty good student in most of my subjects. Unfortunately, I had major problems in algebra. Not math, not geometry...just algebra. Testing indicated a fairly rare and specific learning disability, and the school promptly assigned me a tutor. What I learned from her was the use of white boards and colored markers to delineate an equation. Later on, when I began writing plays, I used this same method to track scenes, acts and characters.
Let me explain some of my tricks. When I'm creating a character, or even if I'm blocked, I write the name of the problem character (or situation) in the center of the board, and then circle it. From there, I send out a line with the name of the first character that comes to mind. Then the next, and so forth. They all get their own circles and lines out to other characters. Pretty soon, there's a network that expands from that central character. It's a bit messy, but gets all the threads out of my head and into a physical context that I can stand back and look at.
Another trick I use is free association. I just sit down and think. I use a large yellow pad and set a time line for the story, and jot down all the possible directions the story could go. Or I bend the ear of a poor unfortunate listener and babble on about everything that's flooding my brain. Unfortunately, if I don't record it, most of that drifts away on the ether...
When I'm actually writing and feel the story is vague or without a clear plot, I use a variation of the Snowflake Method. I write a sentence summarizing the book. Next comes a paragraph that expands on the sentence. From there, each sentence is given its own paragraph. That's a neat trick for really pinning down your project. It also works really well to write your book's summary.
Well, hope there was something of worth in this late night post. I'm off to bed to dream about Bad Angels.
Leatherwas initially scheduled for a December release, so imagine my surprise when I got a note from my publisher Sunday night, letting me know it would be up for sale on Wednesday! Well, it was a good surprise, because the buzz on the book has been building.
Leather came about as many of my books do, because of a personal challenge. I was trying to pull heroes from unlikely sources, and to go against the 'alpha' type. Pierce Wilder is an unlikely hero: he's a porn star. And though the book is erotic romance, the majority of the sex takes place on the film set, rather than in his love story. (Don't worry, it's there too! LOL!)
Pierce Wilder has found new success playing a Dom in internet porn, but in real life, the big, butch actor is really quite soft and easy-going. He has real issues trying to figure out where exactly his onscreen persona is coming from. When his fans start calling him "Master Wilder" he is distinctly uncomfortable. As Pierce begins dating a woman he views as 'normal' he struggles to blend his vanilla fantasies with the reality of who and what he is.
Researching this book was sad, intruiging and slightly heart-breaking. I didn't exactly do thesis level research on it, but still learned more about the adult film industry than I was completely comfortable with. It also contains a brief reference to something that happened to me as an underage teen when I briefly ran away from home and ended up in the Greyhound Depot in downtown Los Angeles. I didn't realize at the time just how vulnerable I was, and later discovered that the well-meaning adults that offered me food and shelter were actually evil, dangerous people. Fortunately for me, I had a ride waiting. I saw other young people walking away with them.
This was also my first time playing with BDSM, and again, I did it "my way," treating it as a plot device for Pierce's films rather than a lift-style choice.
On a lighter note, I nick-named this book, "A Porn Star Fairy Tale" because I grew to love Pierce so much, that I wanted to give him every possible happiness by the end of the book. So the 'happily for now' ending was tweaked a little bit.
My thanks to New Concepts Publishing for taking a chance on a book that doesn't quite fit in the box. And I truly hope you enjoy it!
Toxic was a bit of a family project. I had the kernel of an idea for this story, but just couldn't flesh it out. When I was batting around ideas one day, I blurted out that I'd love to have Rico the werewolf wake up in Dr. Briony Theale's vet clinic, naked and trapped in a dog crate. From there, we got silly, exchanging wild ideas (most of which never made it to the manuscript) and just cracking of over the potential disaster of a werewolf dating a vet.
In the end, the characters came to life and the story actually kick-started a series idea that I'd been playing with for nearly a year. Will there be more Truckee Wolves? Stay tuned!
Sex and Chocolate: Toxic releases at Changeling Press October 16.
Sex and Chocolate: Toxic
Belinda McBride
There are three things that Dr. Briony Theale loves. Her job as a veterinarian, a good bar of rich, dark chocolate, and Rico, the new ranger in charge of the Wildlife Rescue center. When a casual dinner with the mysterious Rico turns surprisingly intimate, Briony realizes that she might just have a chance with him after all, if only she could lose a few pounds. It’s the ultimate sacrifice, but Briony goes cold turkey, and swears off chocolate forever.
Rico Montgomery fell hard for Briony the first time he set eyes on the curvy little doctor. Her brown hair and cocoa skin trigger cravings that he can barely control, and her fragrance is like the sweetest, richest chocolate he’s ever scented in his life. That’s a bad thing for Rico, because to a werewolf like him, chocolate is literally a toxin.
Rico can’t live with it, and Briony can’t live without it. And when a certain wandering wolf finds a bag of chocolate in the trash near Briony’s clinic, these two will find out just how toxic love can be.
“Dr. Briony, you have a call on line two.” Amy gave an impish smile. “It’s Ranger Rick from the Wildlife Rescue.” She waggled a pale blonde brow.
“It’s Rico, not Rick.”
“Well, he’s a ranger and looks just fine in that uniform.”
That he did. Briony’s belly tightened at the mention of his name. Butterflies danced alongside the slight chocolate euphoria she was experiencing. “I’ll take it in my office.”
“Sure you will. Are you guys having phone sex yet?”
God, why did she keep the girl around? It wasn’t bad enough that Amy was a smart-mouthed kid, but at the age of nineteen, she was the poster child for the perfect California beach blonde. She was tall and slender with blue eyes and golden hair.
Briony was brown. She didn’t even have the satisfaction of saying she was African American or Latino. She lived as a chocolate woman in a vanilla community. Sometimes Bree felt like the ultimate outsider, an eclectic mix of races that left her with brown skin, brown eyes, and even brown hair. She certainly didn’t have a bikini body, but she didn’t let that keep her away from the water. Part of the reason she’d moved to California’s Gold Country was the abundant outdoor life.
In the summers she spent every spare moment at the crystalline lakes and rivers, kayaking and swimming. In the winters, she explored the back country on her cross country skis. She’d grown up without money and had still managed to graduate from UC Davis Veterinary School. When Briony decided she wanted something, she gathered up her courage and went after it.
Well, all except for the man waiting for her to answer his call. She’d never found the nerve to pursue him.
Rico Montgomery. The first time she’d seen him, she’d nearly had a spontaneous orgasm. Her body wanted to have his children. She’d contemplated tripping him and beating him to the floor.
He was six feet two inches of dark-haired, gray-eyed, chiseled beefcake, and this beefcake had brains. He wore his tan uniform shirt to perfection, and his Smokey the Bear hat threw her into the most delicious fantasies of her life. But face-to-face with the man, she was a wreck.
She stared down at the blinking light on the phone. “I am woman, hear me roar.” She took a deep breath. Her fingers trembled as she lifted the handset. “This is Dr. Theale.”
“Hi Dr. Briony, it’s Rico at Rescue.”
“Unhh… hello, Rico.” Oh, that was brilliant. Just brilliant. “What can I do for you today?” Maybe a full body massage? Or hell, let’s just go for broke… a blow job? She shivered, imagining wrapping her mouth around his cock. Just for fun, she’d dribble chocolate sauce over it first. In fact, she’d like to cast that phallus of his in chocolate. That way, she could have the best of both worlds…
Briony’s head dropped to the desk, her face hot with embarrassment. This was how she acted around the man over the phone! The idea of seeing him in person just blew her dignity out the window.
“Well, I wanted to see if you could make a house call today. I’ve got an injured falcon that’s just come in.”
She could almost hear the smile in his voice. Rico Montgomery was a walking wet dream of a man. There was no doubt in her mind he knew exactly what she was thinking. He had to be accustomed to women losing their cool around him.
“Let me see, I’m short-handed today.” Briony booted up her scheduling calendar for the day. “I’m booked pretty solid for the next couple hours, but I can come out right after my last appointment… say 5:30?”
“That’d be awesome. And since it’s on your own time, dinner’s on me tonight.”
Dinner on Rico. She imagined licking gravy from his navel and stifled a giggle. “Oh, really… that’s okay…” Her chocolate-filled stomach lurched. Briony wasn’t sure if it was nausea, nerves or arousal.
“No problem, I’m on baby birds till later tonight. Gotta grab dinner sometime.”
Briony stood and paced a bit, dragging the phone cord across her cluttered desk. A pile of books crashed to the floor. “Damn! Uh… sorry, just dropped something.”
His laugh was as rich as melted chocolate in her ear. “Is pizza okay? I usually do an all meat combo. I’m a carnivore, you know.”
Damn, even pizza talk sounded sexy coming from Rico’s mouth. “Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll see you in a couple hours then.”
They made their goodbyes and Briony put the phone back into its base on her desk.
“Hot date with the ranger?” Amy was leaning against the doorjamb.
“No, an injured falcon. He’s working late too, so we’re just…”
