Mission possible

I know one of the reasons I've been hesitant about writing my stories, is that I've had to reconcile my strict fundamental upbringing with my less then rated PG-13 imaginings.  Good church girls don't write dirty stories.  But I had a situation unfold in the last few hours that is helping me with that little issue.

My best friend popped into my chat box hysterical.  I truly thought that she was suicidal.  I felt so impotent.  I'm over 3,000 miles away from her.  If she was going to do something stupid, there wouldn't have been a damn thing I could have done about it.  Then she told me what was wrong.

She'd caught her man pleasuring himself with the help of a little Internet porn.  She took it as a personal attack against her ability to satisfy him.  I fell out.  She could not be serious.  She was yelling and screaming because he was jerking off!   I couldn't wrap my mind around that one.  This woman is so beautiful I used to feel invisible walking next to her.  Yet, she was the one with all these insecurities that I'm sure were based in her imagination.  It never occurred to her that he might just want an uncomplicated orgasm.  That he might just enjoy touching himself.  There had to be something wrong with her, for him to do this madness.

But then I began to really think about it.  How many woman really see themselves as sexual beings?  How many of us take the time to learn to pleasure ourselves or know how to articulate our desires?  How many of us bring our fantasies to our sexual partners and give them life?  How many of us secretly think our darkest desires are somehow perverse?  I image way to many.

Which got me to where I am now, rambling into this computer.  What if, what I do is not so much corrupting upstanding citizens, but educating them?  What if, through one of my tales a husband will try something that brings a spark back to a dying space?  What if, my stories give a new mother comfort and pleasure, when her husband is away providing for his family?  What if, someone single reads a line that causes her to leave a jerk alone and wait for a good guy to come along?  What if, a woman embraces her sexual preferences as good and normal because of me?

I may write the great American novel.  May dabble into genre I haven't even thought of yet.  But for now I am Portia de Moncur, writer of erotic romance...and I'm embracing that a little more every day.

What was I thinking

My Evil Self-Editor

It is possible ;-)

Here it is Day 16 of NaNoWriMo and I am beyond behind.  I didn't realize that I had this evil little self-editor lurking in my psyche.  He wants me to reread and rewrites sentence after sentence, just because they are stiff or cliche.  Wants me to stop writing to check on historical facts,  from multiple sources, no less.  Wants me to force my poor husband to help me figure out if you can suck a boob AND play with a coochie while a woman is laying on top of you.  Either I have to learn to turn him off...or I may oops up and turn out a fabulous piece of historical erotica.

Who needs a Muse...my literary Fairy God-Father speaks French

Well, here we are at the end of day 3 of NaNoWriMo and I am only at word count 2189.  I should probably be feeling guilty for being so far behind, but I'm not.  I may not have been writing, but I think my time has been well spent.

First of all, on Monday, the NaNo servers crashed.  No one was able to get on until late that evening.  But I knew I was going to need cheerleaders, so I created a group on Facebook.  At first it was just unpublished writers like me getting together to bond.  But then I noticed that some of my favorite authors were also NaNoing.  Of course, I had to ask them to join my merry group of writers, to make sure we were doing it right.  It wasn't until much later, that I realized that many of my "friends" were writers of erotica or steamy romance.  Needless to say, I'm starting each day with prayer, that they will behave.



 Mon Dieu littéraires Fairy-Père



Then, I realized that a friend actually lived in France.  I sent him a message, asking if he would read my French dialogue, to make sure that Google Translate got it right.  He said  but didn't really know how helpful he would be.  Neither did I until this morning.  He messaged me first thing and asked what he could do today.  I replied that he could talk dirty to me.  I wanted to know how a real Frenchman, in 1810 would seduce a young woman.  He was quite helpful.  I began to write.  Before long I came to a part in the scene where a door is opened to the outside.  I again messaged him to find out if there were any spring smells unique to Paris.  He wrote back  that the smell of fleur d'oranger was amazing.  Instantly, I had sensory data to spice up my story.  It is truly like having my own personal Literary Fairy God-Father.

Then I was able to set up my online writing critique group.  We aren't going to do much until after NaNo, but starting in December, we will have a place to post and critique each others work...I am so excited.  Again, it is mostly newbies and indie writer's, but enough "real writers" will be around to offer guidance.

I finally got to the part in the scene where poor Vivienne is supposed to be ravished by the evil Lord Fournier.  I'd been dreading having to get her out of what I imaged to be layers and layers of period clothing.
You have no idea how ecstatic I was to find out that fashion in 1810 Paris was not that complicated.  More importantly, ravishment could be achieved by any able-bodied healthy male.  Woo, whoo...

But back to my 2189 word count.  It took me two days to get to 1,000.  I kept changing words and adding words but the scene just didn't feel right.  There should be medication to reduce the need to self edit.  This morning I tried something new.  I wrote out all the dialogue and then went back in and added the action.  I wrote over 1,000 words in about an hour.  It didn't hurt that it was a sex scene and there was a soft rain falling outside my window...but I digress...

NaNoWriMo

I f you have been following me for more than five minutes, you know that I write contemporary erotic fiction.  What you may not know is that I am participating in this year's National Novel Writing Month project.  Writers from all over the world have been challenged to write 50,000 words in 30 days.  For someone like me, with a hint of ADD and a hectic life, I think this is the perfect challenge.  Hopefully, I will have a good chunk of a novel completed when December rolls around.

Anyway, I have always wanted to write a historical piece, but have had a hard time thinking of a story line that had a sexy love story with slavery as a backdrop...but never doubt my inner freak...I think I've come up with some pretty juicy ideas.

My Lover's Keeper is set in 1810 New Orleans.  It will show the role of race on love and friendship.  It follows 3 women, Vivienne, a French heiress; Lisette, a kept mulatto woman, and Suzanne, a sassy African slave.  Each of them is strong, in their own way, but together, they are lethal.

Suzanne Baptist

Lisette Boudois

Vivienne Arceneau

 
I always start by getting a picture that matches my vision for my character.  Today, I spent most of my time, on character sketches for both major and minor characters.  Also worked on the entire plot outline and individual chapter outlines by scene.

I didn't think I would ever write historical...but it's coming together.

Oh, and a side note...I added a link to Good Reads...add me as a friend, I'd love to know what you are reading.