PACKING FOR CAMP

by F. Solomon

Now the truth of the matter is that I am not actually packing for sleepover camp. Even when I went to camp as a child, I went to day camp so I got on a bus to and from.         I am packing ideas for Camp NaNo. Now NaNoWriMo (aka National Novel Writing Month), I have done and won for six years. When I got my Winner's email and saw Camp NaNo, I signed up right away. I choose not to have bunkmates, and I am just absorbing life so on August 1 I can just go at it.
         I have never believed in the idea of doing an outline. My mother's mother always said never plan because it was a surefire way to be disappointed. In my own experience, I have learned never to plan an itinerary for travelling. I am getting ready to leave the country and the only thing I have been preparing is how to recognize Celsius from Fahrenheit.
         NaNo is always a trip, an excursion; and, it is to be enjoyed, which is why I absorb my life at the time, and the things and people around me influence me. The best way to write is to live.
         Whether it be taking mental or actual photographs; reading; talking; writing. It's best when you take in the world around you. Your real experience makes the story, because it always allows you to be creative, to see life in a way you usually do not.
          I just had a conversation with a woman who was very self involved but struck me as a character, and maybe she will manifest in my story. Coming from an erotic writing workshop with Rachel Kramer Bussel, gave me perspective and exercises I might want to expand upon; and, walking home from that with friends, I was telling a joke and that joke might be my first scene and get me writing in a genre I have never written before!
         Ahhh, sitting in the garden of a cafe which I usually do not do, not soaking up the sun but the life around and in me...surrendering to summer NaNo...and looking forward to camp.

Photograph by F. Solomon

SEDUCTION, SEX AND SATISFACTION

by Maria Ferrer

No, I'm not talking about last night's date or FIFTY SHADES OF GREY. I'm talking about writing. Truly!


SEDUCTION
Your eyes meet across the room; then travel up and down –what we hope is –a hot body. Attraction sparks; desire races up and down your spine. You both make a move towards the other, and thus, the seduction begins: That first look. That first move. That first spark.

In our writing, we also want to seduce our reader to our side. We want them curious, excited and eager. We want her –it’s usually a her –to look at our cover and fall in love with our hero. (Let’s pretend a leaner, more virile Fabio has been found and is draped across the front of our book cover.)

We want to titillate her enough that she picks up our book and runs, not walks, to the nearest cashier. She rushes home to be alone with our book, to turn that first page, to lose herself in our words.


SEX
The excitement builds. Alone at last. Now comes the good part. Some people keep the bedroom doors closed, others throw them wide open. Both ways are exciting and filling.

The deed is done. The climax reached. The last page turned. The Happily Ever After is ours. Mr. and Mrs. Hero ride off into the sunset and our reader is sexually satisfied and emotionally fulfilled.


SATISFACTION
Today, a cigarette may be passe, but a nice glass of wine is a good way to celebrate the satisfaction of a good read, a good night.

Satisfaction is key, because if it was good, our dear reader will want to do it again, and we certainly want to leave her aglow and asking for more.

As writers, we must seduce our readers. We must give them pleasure -- yes, sexually and artistically – and most of all, we must satisfy their need for a good story, a good romance and a happy ending. And, if she tells all her friends, that’s an extra bonus for us.♥



Maria C. Ferrer is working on a secret baby book and a romantic suspense. She also writes erotica under her nombre de pluma, Del Carmen. Her first short story, “Ride A Cowboy,” was published in the WOMEN IN LUST anthology (Cleis Press, 2011). Maria blogs regularly at http://www.rwanycblogginginthebigapple.blogspot.com/, http://www.4horsewomen.blogspot.com/ and http://www.mydelcarmen.com/.