THE SIREN Takes Over Boyfriend of the Week

Today I have a special treat for you. Tiffany Reisz is back, giving us ALL the boyfriends from her debut novel THE SIREN . If you haven't read this book yet, what are you waiting for? It's gorgeous and dark and beautifully written. Plus hello, it has all these delicious men in it. Really, this isn't because she's a friend, her book is amazing. This story convinced me I could enjoy erotica and not just erotic romance. (Yes, there's a difference.) 

THE SIREN has been early-released in ebook, so you can get it now. The paperback will be out in July.

Now over ot Tiffany and her men--oh, and fair warning if you're at work, Tiffany's excerpts are 18+.

Boyfriends of the Week - The Siren

Hi Friends and Fellow Man-Lovers! 

Once again Roni’s bad judgment has gotten the better of her and she’s allowing me to run roughshod all over her blog. I’m not here for the Boyfriend of the Week post. I’m here for the BoyfriendS of the Week.

That’s right. BoyfriendS. Plural. It’s the week of THE SIREN (my full-length erotic women’s fiction debut), and I brought all my men with me. 

At a recent writers’ conference, my agent described THE SIREN as a book with a hero, a heroine, another hero, another hero, another hero, and another heroine. Pretty accurate assessment. After all, THE SIREN is merely book one in an eight-book series called THE ORIGINAL SINNERS. I need a whole lot of sinners if I’m going to fill up eight books. 

THE SIREN is the story of Nora Sutherlin, a quirky and beautiful Dominatrix and her rich and powerful lovers and clients. She’s also an erotica writer on killer deadlines and the world’s sexiest editor is cracking the whip. On top of that, she’s got a nymphomaniac Frenchman for a boss, an all-American, virginal teenage boy for an intern, and you don’t even want to know who she’s sleeping with. 

Oh wait. Yes, you do.

Let’s meet our boys, shall we?

Hero #1

Zachary “Zach” Easton

Occupation: Uptight editor of literary fiction

Hobbies: Being British and mean to his writers

“You do realize that working with you could be bad for my career,” Zach said. “I do literary fiction, not-”

“Literary friction?” 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this.” Zach shook his head.

Nora leaned in close to him. He was suddenly and uncomfortably aware of the long, bare curve of her neck. She smelled of hothouse flowers in bloom.

“I can.” She breathed the words into his ear.

Hero #2

Wesley “Wes” Railey

Occupation: Full-time College Student, Part-time Babysitter to a Writer

Hobbies: Horseback riding and trying to get Nora to behave for five whole minutes 

“It's okay,” he said a little breathlessly. He curled up around the pillow and pulled his legs into his chest. “It's just, you're, I’m…”

“Turned on? I know you are. You’re accent gets thicker when you get-”

“Nora, please.”

“You can tell me, Wes.”

“Yes,” he confessed. “Very. I'm sorry. Just give me a few minutes to think about my dead grandmother and I'll be okay.”

“Can I help you?”

“I don't think so. You never met my dead grandmother.”

Hero #3

Griffin Randolfe Fiske

Occupation: Trust Fund Baby

Hobbies: Causing trouble, getting tattoos, lifting weights, going to rehab, flirting with everyone.

“Blowjob on a British guy?” Griffin asked with some concern. “You're a braver bitch than I. No offense,” Griffin said turning to Zach. “I have a foreskin phobia.”

“Zach's Jewish,” Nora said.

Griffin nodded his approval. “Mazel tov.”

Hero? #4

Kingsley Edge (not his real last name)

Occupation: Clubowner and King of New York’s Underground BDSM Scene

Hobbies: Seducing women, seducing men, being French and attractive, shopping 

“Miss me?” Nora asked.

“I miss you. My bank account misses you.”

“Your bank account is bigger than the G.D.P. of Luxembourg, King.”

“Oui, Maîtresse.” He took a bigger swig of his drink. “But Luxembourg is such a small kingdom.”

Hero #5

Søren

Occupation: You’ll have to read the book to find out.

Hobbies: Playing piano and mindfucking anyone who tries to get in-between him and Nora

“You know her that well, do you?” Søren asked, turning to face him full on. “Before tonight she scared you, didn’t she? Her fearlessness, her brazenness, I’m sure it’s terrifying at first. Foreign to those who lead the proverbial life of quiet desperation as I imagine you do. She scared you with the sheer force of her life and being. But now you look around and think her courage is merely a byproduct of her damage. You imagine I abused her, changed her. And you would save her, as Wesley imagines he can? You would be her knight in shining armor? Yes, before you feared her and now you pity her. I assure you, Zachary, you were right the first time.”

---

 Tiffany Reisz lives in Lexington, Kentucky with her boyfriend (a reformed book reviewer) and two cats (one good, one evil). She graduated with a B.A. in English from Centre College in Danville, Kentucky and is making both her parents and her professors proud by writing BDSM erotica under her real name. She has five piercings, one tattoo, and has been arrested twice. 

When not under arrest, Tiffany enjoys Latin Dance, Latin Men, and Latin Verbs. She dropped out of a conservative southern seminary in order to pursue her dream of becoming a smut peddler. Johnny Depp’s aunt was her fourth grade teacher. Her first full-length novel THE SIREN was inspired by a desire to tie up actor Jason Isaacs (on paper). She hopes someday life will imitate art (in bed). 

If she couldn’t write, she would die.

Thanks, Tiffany! Whew, alright, so which hero are you going for? I have a bit of a thing for Wesley, but Tiffany makes all her heroes interestiing so it's definitely a hard choice. :)

Made of Win Monday: Reading Binges

This is going to be a quick post since it's Memorial Day and I know many of you are out eating barbecue and hanging out by the pool. But yesterday I had a glorious day of doing nothing but reading. I read an entire novel and a novella. I binged. And it was lovely and totally made of win.

I knew RT Magazine's list of 50 books for 50 Shades alternatives was going to get me in trouble. :) (Here's the list if you're interested. Crash made it on there too!)

And in case you want to know what books had me glued to my Kindle, here you go. These were both new to me authors. Both were fab...

Sheltered by Charlotte Stein

Adored this story. Such a sweet hero and sexual tension that will melt your e-reader. Ignore the cover, that's not how the characters were described. 

Evie has lived her entire life under her abusive father’s thumb. He controls everything. Where she goes to college, who she sees, what she does. But when she meets Van—a punk who shows her how different life could be—she realizes how much she’s been missing.Van offers her excitement, protection, love…and most of all, sex—even if he’s at first reluctant to give her all the things she’s been craving. She wants to explore this new world of arousal and desire, but Van is only too aware of how fragile she is, how innocent…And how much is at stake, when their love is forbidden.

Willing Victim by Cara McKenna

For the past couple years Laurel’s been coasting, hiding in the backseat while her life drifts off course. Then one summer afternoon a tall, built bruiser named Flynn strides in and steers her straight into an infatuation she never saw coming.Flynn introduces Laurel to things she’s never imagined—to the violent but exciting realm of the underground boxing circuit, to rough sex and even rougher role-playing, and to an attraction she craves even as it intimidates her. As Flynn invites her deeper into his world and his life, Laurel has to make a choice—let fear keep her holed up where it’s safe, or take a chance and fight for the man who makes her feel more alive than she’d dreamed possible. Reader Advisory: Although all sex acts are 100-percent consensual, Willing Victim contains role-playing scenarios that may upset some readers who are sensitive about rape, even in a simulated capacity.

So here's to days where you get so lost in a book you can't stop...and don't have to!

Anyone have a book binge lately?

Testing Your Opening Scene - 5 Steps #atozchallenge

Photo by Tawheed Manzoor (click photo for link)This weekend I had the privilege of critiquing a few opening pages for two friends (along with revising my own opening scene). And as I was critting/revising, I was reminded just how hard it is to work everything you need to in that crucial opening scene without weighing it down with things like backstory.

It's a very delicate dance, getting that opening scene just right. And it's an important one because those first 5-10 pages may be all you have to impress an agent...or later on, a reader. So even though every page of your book deserves a critical eye, the opening needs to be honed and molded to near perfection.

One of my favorite writing books is Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time by Jordan Rosenfeld (If you don't have it, get it. The book breaks down the elements of a scene and also goes over types of scenes--dramatic/contemplative/action/flashback etc.) Anyway, the book also has a great litmus test for what needs to be present in an opening scene.

This doesn't cover everything like what NOT to put in an opening scene (loads of backstory, endless setting descriptions, having your character wake up for the day, having your character looking in the mirror to describe herself, etc.)

But below are the basic components. 

Litmus Test for Your Novel's Opening

I'll put my novella, STILL INTO YOU (releases June 3), to the test as an example.

1. A challenge to your protagonist's status quo.

My hero realizes that he and his wife skipped their usual, unstated appointment to make love. (They've been married, have children, and have settled into a routine of a certain night once a week.) Instead of being with each other, they'd chosen to watch Letterman and he hadn't even noticed until the next morning

2. An antagonist for your character to encounter. (Doesn't have to be THE antagonist.)

Though there is a human antagonist eventually in the story, the real antagonist in the opening scene is the looming threat of the marriage failing.

3. Introduce your protagonist's immediate intentions.

My hero intends to do everything in his power to keep his marriage together. He still loves his wife and is going to prove that he's still the man for her. 

4. A glimpse into your MC's history/personality/motivation.

I always try to open with a "glimpse into ordinary life". A BRIEF glimpse. In this case, we see the couple getting ready for work--talking, but it's stilted, routine, distant. You see the hero trying to get his wife to talk about the previous night but she's on autopilot trying to get out the door.

5. The protagonist makes a decision that leads immediately to more complications.

Seth, the hero, decides he's going to show his wife that there is still something between them besides mutual respect. He's going to go to his brother-in-law, Jace (from CRASH), for help. Seth's initial plan is pretty mild, but it's going to lead to something much bigger (and of course, more complications.)

Therefore, even though my opening scene is only the jumping off point of the story and doesn't introduce the broader hook, it's the setup of the plot and enough conflict and action to whet the appetite to keep turning the page (hopefully!) to see how much more complicated things are going to get. 

These five points can't also be recycled and used to test out your Act 1 (or the first 1/3 of your book). Act 1 mimics this structure on a broader level. 

And once you embed this structure in your brain, it will eventually come naturally without even thinking about it.

So what do you think? Are these components a good summary of what you like to read/write in an opening scene? Think back to your favorite books or movies, do they follow these guidelines? Can you think of any other "must haves" in an opening?

*This is a revamped post from 2011

Question: Book Series/TV Show You Wish You Could Experience Again for the 1st Time #atozchallenge

Photo by Nina Matthew Photography (click pic for link)For those of you who aren't familiar, the RT Convention is not necessarily a writer's conference--it's a readers convention. So a good portion of the attendees are not writers, they're fans. This gives a whole different feel to the convention, and it's a lot of fun to see the enthusiasm of readers interacting with their favorite authors.

And this past week I had the pleasure of attending a panel given by a group of paranormal authors including Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood series), Jeaniene Frost (Night Huntress series), and moderated by Richelle Mead (The Vampire Academy series). Now I'm a big fan of both the Sookie Stackhouse books and The Vampire Academy, but I've never read Jeaniene Frost. So when fans in the audience would whoop and clap when Jeaniene mentioned something about certain characters or books, it made me want to read the books. Clearly, they must be good if people are so passionate about them.

And that got me to thinking--wow, there's this whole great series I've clearly missed out on. But now I get the lovely opportunity to experience these books as a series "virgin". It will all be new to me and I hope that when I do get a chance to pick them up, I feel as rabid as those fans in that room did.

It also got me to thinking about which books and TV shows I wish I could go back in time for and re-experience again because that first time was so, so good. You can always re-read something, but it's never quite like that first time when everything was new and unexpected, when your emotion was fully invested in it.

So I want to know which series or TV shows have given you that "wish I could go back again" feeling.

Here are some of mine...

The Sookie Stackhouse books

The Vampire Academy books

Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments Series

The Wrinkle in Time books by Madeleine L'Engle

Diana Gabaldon's Outlander

TV Shows (I don't know if some of these would be the same now or if they just hit me at the exact right time in my formative years):

Dawson's Creek

Friends

My So-Called Life

Lost

Alright, those are a few of mine, tell me some of yours. Share with us what series we MUST read or show we MUST watch. Which do you wish you could go back in time and experience again for the first time?

A is for...An Ordinary Girl - #AtoZchallenge

I know I'm super late on today's post since it's the first day of the A to Z blogging challenge. But I've been at a conference all weekend and literally have been away from the computer for three days.

So since today is "A", I wanted to pass along a great book I read last week called An Ordinary Girl. I love, love, love an angsty, super emotional erotic romance and this one sucked me in. I read the book in a day and believe me, I didn't have time to be reading last week. But I couldn't put it down. There were lots of layers to the story and characters, and of course, it was hawt. :)

And when I come across one of those books, I'm compelled to share. So here you go:

Blurb:

Ash is an ordinary girl, leading an ordinary life, but behind her smile she hides a secret so damning she’s sure no one could ever love her. Noah is a war photographer who’s come back from Afghanistan with a secret so dark he can’t escape its smothering grip. 

Both need redemption. Ash looks for it by making people happy. Noah seeks it under the whip of a Dom. They’re damaged souls, drowning in guilt, unable to escape the legacies of their pasts. Then their worlds collide in an explosion of fireworks so strong it singes not only them, but those around them. It’s said love heals all wounds, but sometimes before love enters the heart, the intense fire of passion has to burn a path, lighting the way.

Have you read anything lately that you couldn't put down?