The Four Horsewomen of the Metropolis

SHAKESPEARE’S INSPIRING LOVE SCENES

2012-02-14T01:38:00.000-08:00

By Lise Horton

Like a Costco of love scenes, Shakespeare has something for everyone. While there is no sex on the page, there is plenty of innuendo. Some rowdy, some sly, some witty, love scenes of every flavor abound from passionate, lusty, or dark, to outrageously funny, poignant, or earnest.

Shakespeare’s lovers are virginal youths, gods and goddesses, attractive opposites, and murderous spouses. The wonder of Shakespeare’s characters in love, coupled with his brilliant language – that can be bawdy, or transcendent – is something you will be struck by again and again. You’ll never fail to find gems within his work that will inspire your own creation of both evocative love scenes and rich characters.

Revisit the most famous, and oft-quoted, of his plays – “Romeo and Juliet” – and you’ll be wallowing in romance, desire, and rapturous words of love. He captures with eloquence the youthful energy and passion of the pair. Witness the speeches of Romeo and his Juliet where their impatience and lust are so evident. Romeo’s famous Act II, Scene II speech “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks, It is the East, and Juliet is the sun.”, conveys his emotions and hormones running amuck. And Juliet, as she awaits the return of Nurse, her agitation blatantly clear, bemoans, “O, she is lame! . . . Had she affections and warm youthful blood, She would be as swift in motion as a ball;”. Later, the all-encompassing power of her love is laid out for the reader in Act II, Scene II with its stunning conclusion:

“…Come, gentle night, come, loving, black-brow’d night,

Give me my Romeo; and, when he shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night,

And pay no worship to the garish sun.

O, I have bought the mansion of a love,

But not possess’d it; and though I am sold,

Not yet enjoy’d. …”

On the opposite end of the love scene spectrum, you have the witty adult banter replete with sexual innuendo, foreplay if you will, between Kate and Petruchio, in “The Taming of the Shrew”. This famous meeting is a terrific example of Shakespeare’s bawdy bent (Act II, Scene I):

             Kate: If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
             Petruchio: My remedy is then to pluck it out.
             Kate: Ay, if the fool could find it where it lies.
             Petruchio: Who knows not where a wasp
                      does wear his sting? In his tail!
             Kate: In his tongue.
             Petruchio: Whose tongue?
             Kate: Yours, if you talk of tales; and so farewell.
            Petruchio: What, with my tongue in your tail?
                     Nay, come again, Good Kate,
                     I am a gentleman.
            Kate: That I’ll try.

For the author crafting love scenes, reading the plays of Shakespeare provides a bountiful wealth of inspiration.

In addition to his plays, there is also the breathtaking beauty of his poems and sonnets – rife with intense romantic emotions. Perhaps the most famous, Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”) presents a lover’s litany to his lady of all her beloved characteristics. But my personal favorite never fails to choke me up. In a few short lines it expresses the all-encompassing power of love:

When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes,

I all alone beweep my outcast state

And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries

And look upon myself and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd,

Desiring this man's art and that man's scope,

With what I most enjoy contented least;

Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising,

Haply I think on thee, and then my state,

Like to the lark at break of day arising

From sullen earth, sings hymns at heaven's gate;

For thy sweet love remember'd such wealth brings

That then I scorn to change my state with kings.

To paraphrase Portia, I rest my case.

P.S. Of course, among the canon of dramatic literature, lovers and love scenes abound. For other tastes, you might try:

“Danny and the Deep Blue Sea” – a great exploration of post-coital emotions by John Patrick Shanley

“Talk To Me Like The Rain and Let Me Listen” – a lyrical outpouring between 2 lovers exposing their deepest longings, by the master, Tennessee Williams.

“Frankie and Johnny In The Claire du Lune” - Terence McNally’s quiet exploration of two strangers, hesitant, ordinary, who succumb to loneliness and longing. This is an exquisite, passionate play, as lilting as the song title it references.

“Fool For Love” – Again, this Sam Shepard play is sizzling with erotic tension and action between the two incestuous sibling lovers.

“Desire Under the Elms” – Like some other plays of Eugene O’Neill, “Anna Christie” and “A Moon For the Misbegotten”, “Desire”, with its theme of forbidden lust and love, is a deep and dark exploration of the human heart.

One of the most tortured pair of lovers in all of dramatic literature is Tennessee Williams’ very own Maggie the Cat and her husband Brick. The dynamics of familial pressures on a couple, Brick’s tormented secrets, and Maggie’s unrequited lust for her handsome husband are brilliantly explored. And perhaps the universal desperation of lovers can be summed up in Maggie’s classic speech:

“You know, if I thought you would never, never, never make love to me again – I would go downstairs to the kitchen and pick out the longest and sharpest knife I could find and stick it straight into my heart, I swear that I would! But the one thing I don’t have is the charm of the defeated, my hat is still in the ring and I am determined to win! What is the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof? I wish I knew . . . Just staying on it, I guess, as long as she can . . . Later tonight I’m going to tell you I love you an’ maybe by that time you’ll be drunk enough to believe me….”♥

Lise Horton is the new RWANYC Chapter President. She is currently writing in her two favorite genres, and keeping abreast of the fascinating changes in the world of publishing. Find out more about the industry on her blog, The Publishing Game, http://publishinggame.blogspot.com/. You can also visit her at http://www.lisehorton.com/.

WRITING TIP: How to Write a Love Scene

2012-02-10T04:01:00.000-08:00

From Del Carmen

With Valentine's Day around the corner, what better way to celebrate the day, the month!, the romance of it all, then by making love, physically and mentally.

Here is my writing tip on How to Write A Love Scene.

The secret.....always incorporate the five senses – touch, smell, taste, sight, hearing – to paint a full picture. Using all the senses heightens the sexual tension and makes for a better seduction and surrender!

Del Carmen’s “Ride A Cowboy” was published in the WOMEN IN LUST anthology (Cleis Press, November 2011). It was reprinted by Penthouse in their February 2012 issue. Visit Del Carmen at http://www.mydelcarmen.com/.

DEFINITIONS OF ROMANCE

2012-02-06T01:15:00.000-08:00

by Del Carmen

You want to write a romance, but do you know what kind? And, yes, Virginia, there are lots of different kinds of romance. Here are some of the basics.

FORMAT

There are two recognized formats – series or single-title romances.

• Category romances are novels that are distributed in a sequential numbered series every month. Think Harlequin. They are the King in series/category romance. For example, Harlequin Presents, Desire, Blaze, etc.

• Single-title romances are just what their name implies – they are released as single books.

SUBGENRES

Now for the fun part--your genre. The main plot of course is boy-gets-girl and they live happily ever after, but setting, plot elements and even tone also helps to define and differentiate genres. And, nowadays, you can even mix and match.

• Contemporary Romance. Set in the “now,” in present time. Includes everything after WWII / 1945. (Note: Some publishers consider anything after 1900 a contemporary. Always research publishers before submitting.)

• Historical Romance. Just want it says, historical; novels set before WWII. These can be medieval, Regencies, Regency Historicals (yes, they are different), Westerns, Pioneer, Indian, Victorian, etc.

• Paranormal Romance. Everything from time travel to vampires to dragons to fairies to angels.

• Young Adult Romance. These are novels geared toward young adult readers, usually 14+. Think TWILIGHT, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES.

NICHES

Within all these subgenres are more subgenres, a few which have become their own category. Below are a few of the more prominent examples:

• Inspirational Romance. Religious or spiritual beliefs play a big part in these novels and in the romantic relationship. Christian and Amish novels are included in this category.

• Regency Romances. Are romances written specifically during the Regency period of the British Empire. These have specific mannerisms, language, style. Think Jane Austen. Think Signet Regency Romances.

• Regency Historical Romances. These are also set during the Regency period, but they take liberties with the mannerism and language of the Regency period, and are wider in scope.

• Medical Romances. These were the original romances where the hero was always a doctor and the heroine a nurse or secretary. They are still popular.

• Romantic Suspense. These romances have lots of mystery and thriller elements in the plot.

• Novels with Strong Romantic Elements. These are novels that have a romance in them, but the romance does not headline the story. Nor is the HEA a guarantee. For example, BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY.

• Erotic Romances. Are romances that leave the door wide open and allow the reader to “watch” what goes on between the sheets, in the backseat, in the pool….well, you get the idea. These are both naughty and nice.

QUICKIES

And, if you are scared to write a 80,000-word manuscript, you can always start small. Consider writing a short story in any of the genres above, or maybe try your hand at a confession. Writing these can help hone your craft and keep you motivated. Good luck and Happy Writing.♥

Del Carmen is the sexy alter ego of Maria Ferrer, who is looking forward to exposing more of herself. Visit her at www.mydelcarmen.com.

Reading Lolita

2012-01-15T05:58:00.000-08:00

by F. Solomon

It might be surprising that I am just reading Lolita for the first time, to others and to myself. I have spent so much of my life frequenting bookstores that I know authors and books that I have not read simply because they caught my periphery. I knew who Anais Nin was even before I started reading her because she was close to Nabokov. I purchased Lolita years ago; it was on my ambitious pile of to-read books--a tiny Tower of Pisa in my place--that I have not get around to reading. Inspired by my friend, my used copy purchased for practically nothing was carefully removed from the pile.

Talking with him about the The Pregnant Widow which he had loaned me, he mentioned that he could not finish Lolita. I had to know why so I have been reading the book for a few months. Not because it is a bad book, but because editing occupies most of my reading time. I am an Acquiring Editor of erotica for Ravenous Romance.

The Pregnant Widow marked the return of me as a reader, and Lolita has cemented my return to reading for pleasure. Once when I was in college, I was told that you could tell New Yorkers because they are the only people who read so avidly on the train. I cannot deny it. It is not very often that I read at home, but I have always love to read on the train going to and coming from school or work. Sometimes a book might be so good that I do have to read bits at home, but for the most part nothing like squeezing between two strangers on the train and reading a novel so good you miss your stop!, which happened to me with a Kathleen E. Woodiwiss’ novel, Forever in Your Embrace. This was right after 9/11 so it was hard not to think about what was going on but that book was able to keep me so rapt...there is nothing like reading a novel that engrosses.

Nothing like reading for pleasure or editing good erotica, except writing yourself. I have been doing so much reading I have wanted to...but in ways have abandoned writing. This post is one of the few things that I have written unless you count my tweets and how many words are in tweets?! I did some free writing and that felt like a luxury, like I should have been reading something instead! Writing for me is like breathing or bleeding though--necessary for life. I do not berate myself anymore about writing or not writing. It is too much a part of me, it will be….

It was completely pleasurable today on the train out of the cold and squeezed next to just one stranger reading Lolita, which I have been careful not to talk about because I am not done with it. Will need another post called Finishing Lolita when I am done....

photograph by F. Solomon

RESOLUTIONS, GOALS, TO-DO LISTS

2012-01-03T04:06:00.000-08:00

By Maria Ferrer

It's a New Year. A time for joy, for peace, for goodwill, for resolutions.

But resolutions are easily broken. Heck, it's a tradition to break them, and yes, Virginia, the sooner you break them the more points you get. Hence, I don't like the word or the idea of "resolutions." I prefer goals or, my all-time favorite, to-do lists. I get orgasmic if I can cross something off a list. Ooh.

So I've compiled my to-do list for 2012. The "trick" to a good to-do list is to be specific, to be realistic and to keep it short. For example:

1. Get up one hour early on weekdays to write or revise manuscript.

2. Have new pages for Critique partner every other week.

3. Attend monthly RWA Chapter meetings to network and energize.

4. Submit short story / enter contest every quarter.

Short, sweet and to the point -- and better yet, these items are achievable and affirming to the Writer within. And, isn't that the whole point of New Year's Resolutions?

What's on Your to-do list for 2012?

Maria Ferrer writes erotica and contemporary romance. She's published in one and hopeful on the other. Visit her at http://www.mydelcarmen.com/ and www.4horsewomen.blogspot.com. (This article also published by the RWANYC at http://www.rwanycblogginginthebigapple.blogspot.com/.)

HOLIDAY CHEER!

2011-12-08T12:02:00.000-08:00

From our corral to yours, Happy Everything!

Ride the Wave of Success

2011-11-20T15:31:00.000-08:00

by F. Solomon

One of the coolest things about this blog is that you do have four writers here, and a writer is a person who writes, which is a definition that has been given to me at moments when I doubt that I am a writer (even though I am in the midst of working on NaNoWriMo and that means that I have been writing!).

The three other horsewomen have been writing as well; and it is with a great deal of pleasure that one of us has made it into the creme de la creme! It is always with great anticipation and with supreme satisfaction that Rachel Kramer Bussel's erotic anthologies fall into my hands. Women in Lust, her newest anthology from Cleis Press, has been awaited with greater anticipation and even more pleasure because a horsewomen is in it!

The story “Ride A Cowboy” is one of the sexy stories in the Women in Lust anthology, and boy is it ever. Remember being a child and looking for all the good bits? Well when you read a story by Del Carmen you do not even have to skim a bit, she just delivers the goods!

From the explicit intention given in the first sentence, you are ready for the ride that Rita and Nate are about to go on. Instant chemistry, the tension, the electricity. And the first draft of it, which the infinitely feminine and ladylike Del Carmen asked the rest of us to read -- was practically perfection. Even though it was her first time writing erotica, she definitely did not stay a novice for long! The precision with which she went about it -- writing erotica like mad--and getting it done on time and sent out for possible publication in a RKB anthology was rewarded. “Ride a Cowboy” was bought and is now published.

I have had the pleasure of having another talented friend get into a few RKB anthologies and...the joy that fills all of us to see a Horsewoman get in is triple!

Ride, Horsewomen, ride indeed. We are happy to ride along with our very talented Del Carmen, whom you will keep seeing more of.

To learn more about the Women in Lust anthology or Del Carmen, please visit the following sites: http://womeninlust.wordpress.com// and http://www.mydelcarmen.com/.

READY, SET....WRITE!

2011-10-31T06:45:00.000-07:00

by Maria Ferrer

November 1 is D-Day. The first day of National Novel Writing Month aka NaNoWriMo. And the challenge is on – 50,000 words in 30 days.

The secret to winning this challenge is to write, write and write some more.

Don’t think.

Don’t edit.

Just write.

Write whatever comes into your head --- dialogue, narrative, lists, et al. If your character is thinking of a song, of a poem, of a blog post, then write it out. It will keep your writing juices flowing.

Remember that EVERY word counts.

Don’t cross out any words.

Don’t delete anything.

Just write.

And, don’t stop to do research or track down references. Make a note in your manuscript that you have to research this and that and keep writing. You can do the research later.

You want to write as many words as possible every day. The mathematical formula states that if you write 1666 words a day, you will reach your goal of 50,000 in 30 days. But let’s be realistic, some days you’ll write 1666+, others you’ll write 166.

It doesn’t matter how many words you write per day. It only matters that you make the 50,000.

So, don’t get discouraged.

Remember that every word counts.

And write, write and write some more.

Good luck. Happy Writing.♥

READ Maria's "10 Easy Steps to Prepare for the NaNoWriMo" by clicking here.

Maria Ferrer has entered the NaNoWriMo four times and has won twice. She's looking forward to her third win. Maria has shared this article with her RWA chapter as well. The more the merrier is her philosophy.

PREPARING FOR THE NANOWRIMO IN 10 EASY STEPS

2011-10-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

By Maria Ferrer

You are a writer. Like the Girls Scouts, you must be prepared for when inspiration strikes.

Inspiration is arriving on November 1st. November is National Novel Writing Month (aka NaNoWriMo). The challenge is 50,000 words in 30 days. Here are 10 easy steps to help you prepare for the big NaNoWriMo launch:

1. Stock up on chocolate. Cupcakes and champagne work just as well.

2. Throw away all the red pens in the house. If you are using a computer, throw away all the ink cartridges. No printing, no editing. Editing is not allowed at any time in the next month.

3. Clean the house now, because household chores are a no-no in November. You need your time to write. Unless of course, you need to clean to be inspired. Then don’t clean now; let the dirt accumulate until you need inspiration.

4. Buy lots of cereal, spaghetti cans and TV dinners. The family needs to eat; You have the chocolate.

5. Buy fat notebooks and lots of pens and pencils. If you are techy savvy, buy your netbook / iPad/ computer now. Work out all the kinks and make sure you know where all the power cables are.

6. Mark your territory now. Fill it with your writing must-haves. For example, around my writing spot I have the remote control for the radio/CD player; a coaster for my large bottle of water; a paper block and Donald Duck mug full of pens and markers. The other junk on the table doesn’t bear mentioning.

7. Buy a big “DO NOT DISTURB” sign for your door. A big pit bull works just as well.

8. Keep the boy toys handy. Sex is research. Costumes optional.

9. Register at the NaNoWriMo website by October 31: http://www.nanowrimo.com/.

10. Buy more chocolate. You are going to need it!

REMEMBER: You are a writer. You can do it. Join me. ♥

Maria Ferrer has entered the NaNoWriMo four times and has won twice. She prefers her chocolate with peanuts and Veuve Clicquot champagne. Maria has shared this article with her RWA chapter as well. The more the merrier is her philosophy.

COMMENT: Do leave a comment and let us know if you are entering the NaNoWriMo this year. If so, tell us how you are preparing for the big event.

SEPT 18: BROOKLYN BOOK FESTIVAL

2011-09-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

Join us in supporting our friends at the Brooklyn Book Festival on September 18. It's at the Borough Hall station. For directions and list of events, visit http://www.brooklynbookfestival.org/.

Visit the Big Heart Writers booth and meet the following authors:

10:00 am -12:30 pm

       Jean Joachim

       Christina Conroy

       Allie Boniface

12:45 - 3:15 pm

       Long Island Romance Writers of America

       Mingmei Yip

       Tara Haff

3:30 - 6:00 pm

       Hope Tarr

       Leanna Renee Heiber

Rain or Shine, Join Us.

REMEMBERING SEPTEMBER 11

2011-09-11T21:31:00.000-07:00

By Maria Ferrer

I remember hearing the news from a train conductor as I was riding in to work.

I remember coming out of the train station to find an empty coffee kiosk and people gathered at the corner.

I remember the anger that someone would dare bomb us again.

I remember the pride in knowing the towers were hit but hadn’t fallen.

I remember the black cloud of dust roaring in anger across the sky as first one and then the second tower fell.

I remember the shock, the pain, the fear, the debris, the soot and the long walk home through darkness.

I remember the phone calls from family and friends anxious to know my status.

I remember my own calls to family and friends eager to know theirs.

I remember the lost.

I remember the heroes.

I remember the search posters that papered everything and everywhere.

I remember the roll call.

I remember the two beams of light soaring into the skies on the anniversary.

I remember that I’m proud to be an American.

I remember that there are still men and women fighting for our freedom.

I remember to thank God that I am here and my loved ones are safe.

I remember that I must live each moment as it were my last.

I remember.

Do you?

Close Encounters of the Chocolate Kind

2011-08-19T13:51:00.000-07:00

by F. Solomon

Deleting the "Sent From My iPod" message that automatically appears on the bottom of e-mails I send, while juggling a Clover-brewed Grande Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee from Starbucks, so I can begin this post on the train, you would think I forgot where I had been....

Tonight was my prelude to even more encounters of the chocolate kind; tonight was my Yoga + chocolate class at Pure Yoga West. Pure, reputed to be the best yoga in the city, did not disappoint, and I am certain I have never been in a sexier yoga studio. Plush seating and Eastern symbolism were rampant, but I chose to settle on my mat in the empty studio way before the class started to embrace the entire yoga experience, especially the quiet beforehand....

The class was led by Dave Romanelli, whose mantra is not to get caught up in things that interfere with enjoying life--enjoy the moment. I connected with him on his website, where he explained missing a crucial moment at a ballgame when he left early to get home earlier--what was the rush he questioned? His class was very intense, as I read online it would be. My body is still responding to the poses he had us hold as he told anecdotes. I am thinking these poses are challenging-- has he forgotten about us during the anecdote?! No, he was connected with us at all times, challenging, pushing. At one point, he said not to be mad at him, that we could get out of the pose at any time, as well as the fact that happy people are perfectionists and lazy people generally are not happy. My cross training in different types of yoga helped develop my stamina so even when it burns--as Dave said some poses would--I held up pretty well.

As this amazing class wound down, the sensory overload kicked in! Dave came around and rubbed a special therapeutic lavender oil on us that he gets from Arizona. I keep lavender at work on my desk so I felt very at home. (I just sniffed my arm and it is still redolent with lavender oil.)

Then the cherry on top, indulgent pieces of Vosges Haut Chocolate, which is amazing. As Dave pointed out, we are lucky enough to have storefronts in the city. My last two trips to the Met were punctuated by trips to Vosges Upper East Side location. Eating them the way the package instructs, while having it described to us outloud and the chocolate's notes dancing on my tongue...my eyes closed...ahhhh...
My body and tongue remain stimulated by yoga plus chocolate, and it is only the beginning--stay tuned for another encounter of the chocolate kind coming soon....

Photograph by F.Solomon

The Myth of Being A Writer

2011-08-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

by F. Solomon

Often being a writer, or being introspective about myself as a writer, usually involves me thinking that I do not write enough, and beating myself up about time that I could have been writing and was not. Thinking that if I prioritized time that I could really finish something. The story that I have been writing in three states and still am not sure if I am in the middle or what is going on....

Enter my friends, who romanticize me being a writer and I have to admit that being a writer for me is like having a bit of fairy dust on everything I touch, taste, see, smell or hear. Everything can be inspiration, I really am a sponge. And my friends--my non writer friends--act like I really am a fairy. It is a charmed existence.

Wandering in museums, a friend of mine sends me an e-mail of a couple in a black and white photo. Surely this couple would have, in our modern times, described their relationship on Facebook as it seems complicated given the caption beneath the photo, and indeed the photo was worth of a story, something that I could make up!

And so there I am in the International Center of Photography looking at their amazing Elliot Erwitt exhibition with the cool black and white photo sent from my friend. The same friend who allowed me to lead as we were walking streets in Chelsea and I am taking photos as I go for the story that I have dragged through almost four states now.

A co-worker of mine tells me "train stories" to inspire me. Today's story of a woman telling the very intimate details of a one night stand did inspire me. Many of her stories have inspired me; plus, I have my own train stories. I watched a couple last week on the train; well, I assume they were a couple. His very avid approach to her. Her train leaves as she looked at him; resisting a kiss and then very definitely accepting, and then kissing him! I was mesmerized and am sure that that scene will come back to me at some later time.

A conversation with another friend, in which I told him something that he thought was surprising, led him to accuse me of making up a word! I said I am not making this up, and he said that I was a writer; he just assumed that I made a lot of things up. Him saying to me that I am a writer, just accepting that even when I have told him of my struggles, gets to me. He still sees things and tells me about them so that I could make up a story about this thing or that. His stopped telling me about himself; saying he did not want to see his reflection in a story of mine. Which I would never do...

...but I do absorb a lot. Writer goggles on, everything is fodder. Everything has a bit of fairy dust and sparkle. I am so thankful for the gift -- to see a story, to know how to "feel" a story.

Anais Nin said we write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospection. As a writer I am greedy for experience and blessed for that. Being a writer opens me up as a person to life -- a bud that is never tight --, and I am thankful.

Photograph by F. Solomon

RWA READERS FOR LIFE LITERACY AUTOGRAPHING

2011-08-07T16:12:00.000-07:00

By Maria C. Ferrer

493 authors participated in the Romance Writers of America’s 2011 Readers for Life Literacy Autographing on Tuesday, June 28, at New York’s Marriott Marquis Hotel.

I wanted to be a part of the event so I volunteered to help setup the literacy autographing. I set out books, books and more books; organized some of the chapter baskets/totes for the raffle; put out the RITA finalist banners, etc. At 5:00pm, authors started arriving to find their seats and put their own touches to their seats – pens, bookmarks, posters to name a few. At 5:30pm, the doors opened to the 2000+ romance fans waiting outside, which comprised of RWA members, conference attendees and the general public.

And then organized chaos reigned. The first person on line arrived at 9:30am for the 5:30pm event. Is that a Romance Fan or what?!

One big lesson I learned from watching the authors is to be prepared with lots of promotional materials. Remember, that writing is a business, and you are your own Publicist. So an author needs to put herself out there and make her materials stand out.

Best promotion I saw – a man wearing a t-shirt that read: I Sleep With The Author. He claimed he was the inspiration for pages 274-277!

Best promoter – Caridad Pineiro. Boy, was she prepared. She had bookmarks, pens, flyers, excerpts, a banner for the table skirt and her laptop to run her book trailer. The video stopped people in their tracks and generated a few sales, and isn’t that the name of the game – to sell?

At the end of the evening, authors were ready to stop writing and start partying; Readers were ready to start reading; and RWA raised $47,000 for literacy. ♥

Maria C. Ferrer is a meeting planner by day and a romance writer by night. One of her short stories was published by Star magazine. Currently, Maria is working on a secret baby book and a romantic suspense. She is also the founder of The Latina Book Club, which just won the 2011 Favorite Literature Blog Award from Blogs by Latinas. Visit Maria at http://www.4horsewomen.blogspot.com/ and at http://www.latinabookclub.com/.

This article was first published in the RWANYC blog at http://www.rwanycblogginginthebigapple.com/.

Mobility

2011-08-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

by F. Solomon

Originally, my blog post was going to be exclusively about the phenomenal Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which is life altering as I told many friends and people who asked -- even my yoga instructor because I was wearing my Savage Beauty t-shirt in class. Mind you it was not life altering because of the two-hour wait to get in. I found it amusing actually that there was a brochure that helped you landmark art on your way to the entrance--including the staggeringly gorgeous Joan of Arc and an equally stunning painting of Salome both made more beautiful as you realize you are almost in! Gothic, sexy and intelligent is all I can say about the McQueen exhibition. It is almost over so you HAVE to go!

I then also saw the new Talk to Me Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. MoMA's innovative and cutting edge created an exhibition that is enhanced by using your mobile device...which was where I got really distracted, fiddling with my iTouch and looking at pieces like this one by the Japanese artist Sputniko.

After leaving MoMA, I headed downtown to two of my favorite natural food stores, Integral Yoga Apothecary and Integral Natural Yoga Foods. I was scooping up wakame and poring over natural and raw chocolate when I realized I did not have my iTouch with me. Now I am not the owner of a cell phone, so it's the iTouch I touch the first thing when I get up in the morning. I satellited the store because, as the deep sense of loss filled me that my iTouch was not with me. Blindness comparable to that described in Black Sabbath's Snow Blind came over me as I retraced my steps over and over. I just could not believe that my beloved mobile device was separated from me. I became lachrymose...then a bit of clarity. I asked a clerk in the store if I could please use a computer in the store to utilize Find My IPhone. The clerk smiled at me and said it's up front.

Reunion. My iTouch was there and I felt clarity reenter my existence.

I had not left the store because I so believed it would turn up. I returned over and over to the wakame, where I thought I had dropped the iTouch so I knew it was in the store somewhere. When I had interacted with it in the Talk to Me exhibition, it was not fathomable to me that it would not be with me.

I am very attached to my iTouch. I know, but that is the world that we live in and I embrace it. Especially since I found it! And additonally it enhanced my view of basic humanity. Someone saw it and returned it, which is beautiful and I am so appreciative...it is why I have never been a jaded New Yorker. I believed especially in the good of people in a natural foods store next to a yoga studio!

Om.

NYC: SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK(ING) LOT

2011-07-29T04:20:00.000-07:00

by Maria Ferrer

To be or not to be, to go or not to go…..GO!

This was my third performance at Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot, and yes, it was in an actual parking lot. The production was fun, adventurous and inspiring. I’ve seen “Hamlet” at least five times; I’ve even read it twice; and yet there were still new things, new nuances I caught last night.

Alessandro Colla was mesmerizing as Hamlet and Amanda Dillard made a wonderfully tragic Ophelia. The whole cast was amazing. Hamilton Clancy did an excellent job as producing artistic director.

The stage consisted of three gossamer curtains, two small sitting benches, some bottles with dry flowers inside and a couple of blackened skulls. The actors wore every day clothes. For example, last night Hamlet wore jeans, t-shirt and cross trainers, all in black. His mother Gertrude had on a well-fitted ivory dress, knee-length with a colorful Chinese parasol; the usurper King sported slacks and an army jacket with tons of medals; and the poor Ophelia looked like a fairy princess in a strapless, filmy white dress and flowers in her hair.

Simple set, simple clothes, but the Bard’s own words. The mix of old and new worked beautifully. And though the stage lights were provided by ConEd and the theatre seats were garden chairs, the production was compelling and the characters full of passion – Shakespeare at its best.

Heck, for all we know, THIS was probably how the original plays were staged at the Globe for the masses of people in times of olde. And, the best part of last night’s performance….it was FREE! (Donations welcomed.)

I heartily recommend watching Shakespeare in the Park(ing) Lot. The performances are the best for Off-Off-Really-Off Broadway. Hamlet runs thru August 13; Thursdays thru Saturdays, at 8:00pm at the municipal parking lot on Ludlow and Broome Streets (take F train to Delancey). For more information about the company and their full schedule of their 20th Season, visit http://www.drillingcompany.org/.♥

Press photos from Google Images.

THANK YOU....WITH A KISS

2011-05-30T05:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day.

Thank you to all the Men and Women fighting for our freedom.

May God bless you and bring you home soon.

That will certainly be a day of rejoicing and dancing in the streets.

Kissing too.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

2011-05-06T04:08:00.000-07:00

This Sunday is Mother's Day. We wish you and yours a wonderful day. And for a little fun, here are some famous Mothers. Can you identify them?

Hint: she had a whole "bunch" of kids; his and hers.

Hint: her house is "white."

Hint: Antonio Banderas has her number.

Hint: You can call her "Lara."

Hint: Her son just got married.

Hint: She was a mother to millions.

Answers: Florence Henderson of "The Brady Bunch;" First Lady Michelle Obama; Actress and Producer Salma Hayek; Actress and Ambassador Angelina Jolie; the former Princess of Wales, Diana; and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Mother Teresa.

Happy Mother's Day!

ROYAL WEDDING CHEERS

2011-05-01T19:10:00.000-07:00

It's official....there is one less Prince Charming available. Alas. But, we can't help but wish Kate and William well. They look well suited and homey together. Three cheers for the happy couple.

The Royal Kiss

TOP 10 REASONS TO INTERRUPT YOUR WRITING

2011-04-19T22:06:00.000-07:00

by Maria Ferrer

1. The toilet has a ring bigger than your wedding ring.

2. You have no more clean underwear.

3. Your dog is eating the cat food.

4. The dust bunnies under your bed are rioting.

5. You need to write down the lyrics to Justin Bieber’s latest song.

6. Charlie Sheen needs more friends on Twitter.

7. The last episode of General Hospital is on.

8. The cat is sleeping on the keyboard.

9. Your muse is out getting a pedicure / manicure.

10. Your significant other wants to play house.

COMMENT: Can you come up with other excuses not to write? And do let us know how you get back in the mood to write?

Maria Ferrer is a champion procrastinator. However, she has managed to finish one book. Now, if she could only find the time to edit it and submit. But alas, there’s a new Gerard Butler movie at the theatre she’s late for.

FAVORITE ELIZABETH TAYLOR FILM

2011-03-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Taylor died on Wednesday.

She was sensuality personified. Her talent, her roles and her men all made her a legend in Hollywood and the world over.

I've been trying to think of my favorite film of hers, and there are more than plenty to choose from. I'm going to go with "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."

She was brilliant in the role. Sensual. Sultry. Needy. Greedy. Fascinating. Vulgar. I loved it. Of course, Paul Newman wasn't bad either.

COMMENT: What is your favorite of Elizabeth Taylor's films?

by Maria C. Ferrer

HAPPY SAINT PATRICK'S DAY

2011-03-17T03:36:00.000-07:00

Everyone is Irish today.

Click here for all a list of Irish Pubs worldwide.

And here is an Irishman to enjoy. (Remember, we are all Irish today.)

Happy 100th Birthday!

2011-03-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

March 8 is International Women's Day.

This day has been celebrated for 100 years! It's sponsored by the Women's Information Network. It's all about protecting and enforcing women's civil rights all over the world. For more information about the Day's celebrations, the group and its resources, visit http://www.internationalwomensday.org/.

And in honor of International Women's Day, take yourself and a friend or your sister or your Mom or your Abuelita to lunch. Heck, have a party and take them all, just make sure the menu is "international."

Happy Day, everyone!

Jane Russell Dies

2011-03-01T19:39:00.000-08:00

She may have been regarded as Marilyn Monroe's other half in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," but Jane Russell was a sultry, sensual, full-figured goddess in her own right.

Jane was discovered by Howard Hughes and starred in his movie, "Outlaw." From there, Hollywood was her playground. Jane played opposite many handsome leading men. Unfortunately, at 30, she retired as she felt that the best roles were only going to young actresses. No matter. Jane was not forgotten, and she continues to be the embodiment of sexy.

RIP, Jane. (Say hi to Marilyn.)

RIP, Jane.

GOTTA HAVE IT! (review and book trailer)

2011-02-21T19:53:00.000-08:00

GOTTA HAVE IT: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex
Edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Cleis Press

Short, Sweet and Totally Sexy.

Rachel Kramer Bussel

How do you measure time? You don’t feel it passing, because time has ceased to be measured in seconds or minutes or hours. Instead it is counted in the ticktock of heartbeats, in the pendulum swing of thrusts, on the sudden high-pitched cry that bursts out like a cuckoo from a well-wound clock.

“Tme” by Cecilia Tan

Do you have time for a quickie?

That is the question that Editor Rachel Kramer Bussel asks – and answers! –with her new anthology, GOTTA HAVE IT: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex.

These stories are “short, sweet and totally sexy.” They are also bold, passionate and lusty. Most are only about two pages long but as Ms. Kramer Bussel states: “readers don’t need long to get drawn into the drama, tension and lust.”

The cover is as hot as the stories – risqué and all about satisfaction.

You have strangers meeting on trains (“Over His Shoulder”); lovers experimenting with new technique (“The Tipping Point”), new positions (“Anal-Yzed”); and married couples rekindling their passion (“Time”). You have a devoted fan who wins five minutes in the bed of his favorite porn star (“Lucky Number Fifty-One”); a divorcee who celebrates her freedom with someone totally different (“Independence Day”); and a school teacher much sought after for extra credit (“Genesis”).

The tales are mostly about heterosexual couples, but there are plenty of F/F and M/M stories as well. The authors include, Tigress Healy, Daniel Burnell, Cecilia Tan, Cate Ellink, Maximillian Lagos, Vampirique Dezire, Donna George Storey, Lolita Lopez and Robert Peregrine.

What else can be said of this anthology? You Gotta Get It! Happy Reading!

To watch the trailer for this book, click here.

DISCLAIMER: This book was provided by the publisher. The review is all mine.--mcf

Happy Valentine's Day!

2011-02-14T09:58:00.000-08:00

From our corral to yours.

SEX IN A CAN

2011-01-24T06:32:00.000-08:00

By Maria Ferrer

It was an ordinary supermarket. I just needed some ginger ale for a scratchy throat. Imagine my surprise when I ran into this display of Brisk Ice Tea cans. They were posed just this way. I don’t know if it was deliberate or just a coincidence. All I know was that the cans stopped me in my tracks.

The lineup.

The passionate face.

The sensuality of it.

So I pulled out my trusty Black Berry / Camera and snapped away. In hindsight, I should have brought one of the cans homes with me, but the mystery is all the more appealing this way.

I don’t know if it was a portrait of a singer, an actress, a woman in the throes of death or even the “little death” (aka orgasm). All I know is that it fueled my imagination and got the creative juices working overtime. Here are some of my plot ideas:

How about a singer at the cusp of stardom? She can name her price but will fame take her away from all she loves?
How about an actress at the top of her game, who is bored and reckless enough to get involve with a bad boy on his way down?
How about a dead woman? What secrets died with her or did they?
How about a married woman with too much time on her hands and a friendly stranger?

The plot lines are endless. But I must give each story the same degree of sensuality I see in that face. Who knew that sex could come in a can?

DO LEAVE A COMMENT. Let us know where you find inspiration and how hot you like your stories.

Portrait of a Woman Trying to Read and Write

2011-01-14T07:27:00.000-08:00

by F. Solomon

I fell asleep during sex.

That is I fell asleep during a sex scene in a novel I was reading. I am not going to say what novel I was reading, but I will say I could not connect with the character at all, and it was not pleasing so I abandoned the book--typical Gemini. Amidst all this astrology controversy, I am happy to report that the possible realignment of signs made me even more of a Gemini and not just on the cusp like I am.

So I put the book down. I like romantic erotica best or at least sex that makes sense. Honestly I cannot say that the sex in this story was gratuitous, but I did not care about it. Especially the names of body parts that were given. Spare me.

I was on the train and saw a woman reading Dark Rapture. I love old pulp novels with their titillating (for then) titles and story lines. Her book did not look like a recent acquisition either--I could smell the moldiness of the pages, feel the crackle of the pages that tore as she turned them. The reader was dressed rather retro as well, much like the Kramskoi mystery woman that accompanies this post.

"She sought possession of him, but became his slave instead!"

I read from across the train, happy for my 20/20 vision. I heard someone say that women liked to read historical romances because they like to imagine themselves needing a man in that way, to have a hero to save them. It is their fantasy. I do not dislike historicals, but I like women being able to wear less clothes--I have no energy \to read how long it takes to undress each other in those. So if that is the fantasy, why are novels written like that? Then, I thought to myself, it is someone else's fantasy to be someone's slave and those novels were written to that end.

Fantasies are subjective. I am sure that there are people who would have lapped up the novel I put aside. Maybe it would have grown on me as well. My mom put Kathleen Woodiwiss' The Wolf and the Dove aside, because it did not immediately grab her like Shanna had. She read the book over and over years later, lamented that she had not picked it up earlier so she could have read it more. She'd lay on her stomach reading that book with its crimson edges that almost always tore as she turned the pages, and when I was a teenager she gave it to me to read. No other cover of The Wolf and the Dove will ever be the same for me if it is not that crimson edged book with its orange red cover that I lie on my stomach reading...the fruit does not fall far from the tree.

I read to be inspired, I read what I want to write and I would not have written the novel I was trying to read. The one I started on the train this morning I most likely would not have written either. Reading and writing are commitments. It is about what you want to see, what you can connect with. I read a lot on the train, maybe the sound of the train rushing is the perfect backdrop to a racing mind. It takes a lot for a book to hold me captive, I am not easily enslaved.

When I cannot find what I want to read in print, should that inspire me to write it myself? Or manipulate my trusty mobile gadget --filled with apps-- that can support me writing a novel on it, even take notes for the outline? Maybe.

Maybe I am too far to catch myself sometimes...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2011-01-02T19:15:00.000-08:00

From our "corral" to yours.... Happy 2011!

PASSION

2010-11-15T01:34:00.000-08:00

By Maria C. Ferrer

I am no longer Maggie—I am the kiss, I am the sensation, I am longing and lust and need and something that might be love. --- from “Lingua Franca”

Love may make the world go round, but it is Passion who is in the driver’s seat.

Passion that explores. Passion that pursues. Passion that conquers. Passion that launched a 1,000 ships.

As editor and author Rachel Kramer Bussel states: “ Passion. It can mean greed, desire, love or simply, emotion.” And all these are celebrated in her new anthology collection, PASSION: EROTIC ROMANCE FOR WOMEN (Cleis, November 2010) – 20 stories by such celebrated erotic romance writers as Saskia Walker, Donna George Storey, Portia Da Costa and Jacqueline Applebee.

For me the story that best summarizes this anthology is “Rekindle” by Kathleen Bradean. After 16 years of marriage, this couple is in a rot, the sex routine but a special birthday wish and a lot of passion rekindles the spark in their marriage.

“I’m marking you on my heart,” states the wife and lover. “I’ve grown too accustomed to you. I want to get a fresh perspective so that I can feel every nuance over again, like a jazz interpretation of a classic song. I want to fall in love with who you are now.”

Love may keep them together, but it is Passion that will remind them why and have them falling in love all over again.

For example, passion is what drives a policeman to call in a few favors so he can get stranded with his lady love and convince her that the “Third Time’s the Charm.” Passion has a chivalrous knight rescue the fair princess and then devour her completely. Passion is what gets two “horny workaholics” to connect on a dark road, in the headlights. Passion is what keeps an efficiency expert organized and prepared even when dealing with girl trouble, and what makes a cowgirl, who loves riding wild things, realize that the hot sexy bull rider at her side doesn’t want to tame her but race alongside her.

Passion is what puts the romance back in sex, and that is just what this anthology is all about. From the couple in “Big-Bed Sex,” who find the bigger the bed the better the sex to the down-on-their-luck couple in “Crave You Close,” who fall on hard times but their love and passion keep them together to Rachel Kramer Bussel’s own story, “Five Senses,” where even the hottest sex becomes routine until this couple purposely engages all their senses and are “sore in a good way.”

I’ll end with this quote from “Rekindle:” Any long term relationship took work, but keeping the magic between us felt more like play. The real trick was remembering to take time to do it.”

What is the Passion in your life and are you taking the time to pursue it?♥

To watch the PASSION book trailer, click here.

NOTE: This book was provided by the author, but the review is all mine.---mcf

/

Monuments to War and Love

2010-11-09T01:00:00.000-08:00

By Lisbeth Eng

My recently published World War II romance novel, In the Arms of the Enemy, presents two conflicting themes: love and war. In fact, I had once considered the title In Love and War for my novel, reminiscent of Francis Edward Smedley’s famous quote, “All’s fair in love and war,” but then discovered that was already in use as the title of a 2001 Hallmark Hall of Fame World War II movie, set, like my novel, in Italy. (A pure coincidence – I didn’t even hear about the movie until after I had finished the first draft of my book!) I know that titles cannot be copyrighted; I could have called my book Alice in Wonderland had I wanted to, but didn’t want my title so close to a work (in this case a film) with the same setting and similar theme (romance). I credit my late husband Kenny for coming up with In the Arms of the Enemy. I rather like it, even though at least one other romance novel has the same title. (I didn’t find that out until years later, either.)

But let us return to monuments. It has recently struck me how many monuments there are all over the world dedicated to wars, or at least to those who have fought them. I live in New York City and have the pleasure of frequent walks through Central Park. I can’t tell you how many war monuments there are, but I have encountered several in my travels.

“The Seventh Regiment Memorial of 1861 – 1865” is a handsome, lofty tribute to the fifty-eight members of that regiment of the New York National Guard who gave their lives “in Defense of the Union”, or so it says on the stone pedestal. I have passed this monument many times during walks through our lovely municipal park, sometimes even on my way to work. Recently, I stopped to take a closer look.

Standing atop is the stalwart bronze figure of a Union soldier, his rifle at the ready, staring off into the distance. I wonder who posed for the statue. Was he an actual soldier or an artist’s model dressed in an Army uniform? What is he looking at? Is he merely standing guard? Is he thinking of his lost comrades or is he one of the fallen himself, perhaps reflecting on his short life and the loved ones he left behind. Maybe he is contemplating his enemies, Confederate soldiers who fought and died for the cause they believed in. On each of the four sides of the base are bronze medallions, emblazoned with the words “Pro Patria et Gloria.” I have never studied Latin, but with my knowledge of French and Italian I am able to decipher a rough translation: “For country and glory.”

Another famous statue (in Grand Army Plaza, near the southeast entrance to the Park) is that of Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman, astride his mount, blazing in gilded-bronze and led by the winged female figure of “Victory”. Foreign warriors honored in stone or bronze throughout the Park include Polish patriot King Władysław II Jagiełło and South American military and political leader Simón Bolívar.

Not all statues in Central Park are warlike. There is the lovely “Angel of the Waters” at Bethesda Fountain, as well as figures of William Shakespeare and Hans Christian Andersen. The Park possesses a representation of Alice in Wonderland and a statue honoring the canine hero “Balto,” dedicated to the sled dogs that led teams through a snowstorm to deliver medicine for a 1925 diphtheria epidemic in Nome, Alaska.

But does Central Park have of a monument to Love? Outside the Delacorte Theater stands a bronze sculpture depicting Shakespeare’s famed lovers, Romeo and Juliet, entwined in an embrace. As a romance writer, as well as a woman who believes in the power of love (and who is not so enamored of war), I am grateful for that.

In Verona, Italy, the setting of In the Arms of the Enemy, a bronze statue of Juliet resides outside one of the popular tourist attractions of that city, the “Casa di Giulietta,” alleged home of Shakespeare’s heroine. I have been to Verona and have seen this statue and the crowds who pose to have their pictures taken beside her. It is considered good luck to touch her right breast, and that particular part of her anatomy is a shinier bronze than the rest – likely from the caresses of thousands of hopeful lovers (or superstitious tourists!).

I did not choose the city of Verona as the setting of my World War II romance novel because of Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers. I chose it because during the period of the war in which my novel takes place (late 1944), that was the actual location of German military headquarters in Italy. The romantic connection is sheer coincidence. And I promise that the hero and heroine of In the Arms of the Enemy enjoy a far happier ending than do Shakespeare’s tragic lovers.

BIO: An English major in college, Lisbeth Eng has also studied Italian, German and French. Lisbeth is a native New Yorker and has worked as a registered representative in the finance industry for the past 25 years. Her first novel, In the Arms of the Enemy, is available in e-book and paperback at The Wild Rose Press. Lisbeth invites you to visit her at www.lisbetheng.com.

No Guts, No Glory: When The NaNoWriMo Going Gets Tough

2010-11-08T09:54:00.000-08:00

National Novel Writing Month. 50,000 words in 30 days. Now THAT’s what I call a challenge. Good thing challenges turn me on. Get me going. Rev my writer’s engine. But on the other hand, engines are prone to break-downs and there’s a stop light on every corner, it seems.

Right now I’m stalled on the side of the road, flashers blinking, with no NaNo AAA in sight!

For several years I’ve done NaNo, start to finish, loving my story and racing to the 50,000 word finish line, no problem. One year, though, I hated my story after a week, and dumped it in favor of a whim. And I didn’t get the NaNo checkered flag that year. Things fizzled and I went into a funk and it ended there.

This year is starting to take on that Groundhog Day-like quality, and I am finding myself hard-pressed to keep my NaNo “no guts no glory” energy in high gear. I started with a contemporary, category story idea that I’d plotted out in advance. After 2 days, nuh-uh. Wasn’t giving me that old spark. SO I switched to an erotic wild, wild west historical that I’d had rambling around in my head for a while.

Too much research. I was writing but I knew full well that I had places, language, historical facts wrong, wrong, wrong. Like I had sand in my gas tank, I ground to a halt.

After a weekend of ZERO words, this morning I tossed THOSE pages (over 4,500 words) and have gone back to square one, to start again. This time I’m hot and heavy about my erotic thriller – one that I have been plotting and researching and doing character work on for six months (even though I had the niggling suspicion it was too complex for NaNo). BUT - It feels good. It feels right. I’ve already done the research I need to write fast; and it is erotic romance, which is what currently blows my skirt up, creativity-wise.

What do I NOT have?

The first 7 days of November that are already gone, baby, gone.

So, here’s the challenge: Can I do it? Can I catch up? Today’s minimum total (at 1,666 words per day for 30 days) leaves me 13,328 words in the hole. Now, I’m a fast writer. I’m totally into my story: I despise my horribly villainous, psychologically manipulative serial killer and his sadistic, sociopathic minions. My hero and heroine are hot, sexy, dark, troubled, courageous and driven. And the uber hot sex that is to be blended with the danger makes for a perfect match.

But there’s this little thing called life that keeps cropping up. Long, hard days at my day job. Nights of errands and chores at the old homestead (I KNOW, NaNo is the month to let it all slide, but when you have caretaking responsibilities, well, some things just have to come first). I cram my writing into my commute (3 hours daily, round trip on train and bus). I write during my lunch hour (when I can take it). (Which adds another wrinkle to this writing race – I write long-hand a great deal of the time and then have to transcribe onto the computer; which means duplicated effort for the same output BUT I can’t lug my laptop around without getting my back out of whack.) And I’m still holding out great hope for my nights – fingers crossed that they are uneventful and uninterrupted and that my Mother’s snarky mood dissipates sooner, rather than later.

Everyone participating in NaNo has a bugaboo that gets them all worked up, stymied, stumped or depressed. An internal editor who makes that Prada-wearing Devil seem like Mother Theresa. Family responsibilities that suck the life right out of you. Too many demands from the job that keeps a writer in WiFi. Physical ailments, and even the negative feedback from friends and family members who, maybe, just don’t “get it”, and don’t hesitate to tell you it is a waste of time. Maybe the no-holds barred writing style is not YOUR style. Your plot isn’t holding together, your research isn’t sufficient, you hate your characters, a different story is tickling your cerebral funny bone.

Each problem is like a big old speed-bump on the NaNo highway.

But I’m nothing if not up for the challenge (whether I’m am up TO it, will be determined). So I’m forging ahead. I’ll let the support and enthusiasm of the wild and crazy NaNo’ers buoy me up. I’ll set my alarm for 15 minutes earlier to jump start my day. And I’ll turn a blind eye to the dust bunnies and worry about a healthy diet later AND I’ll say a little prayer for me.

If you are afraid you’re backsliding, or having a rough time of it, you aren’t alone! Keep your nose to the grindstone, your shoulder to the wheel, and think of me. Toiling away amid the dust and unwashed laundry as I frantically try to commit murder, have my protagonists fall in love while heating up the sheets with kinky sex, AND catch a serial killer!

By 11:59 PM, on 11/30/10, in 50,000 words or more.

AND WE’RE OFF!

2010-11-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

By Maria Ferrer

National Novel Writing Month starts today. Are you ready to Nano?!

Join me. It’s just 50,000 words in 30 days. That’s 1,666 words a day – about 6 pages a day.

I did a quick survey of my NaNo Buddies and there were no surprises.

• Most of us are using a laptop or desktop computer to write our story. It helps keep a better word count. Of course, we reserve the right to use pen and paper on the subways or the road.

• One of my friends is writing her NaNo novel on her iTouch. It is amazing how she types away on her tiny screen. And her new iTouch comes with a camera so she can even illustrate her novel if need be!

• One out of five of us made an outline/ synopsis for our story. I am a great plotter, and I need my outline to help me focus. Of course, my story doesn’t follow the outline word for word, after all, detours can be so much fun!

The main thing to remember about the NaNoWriMo is that it’s all about the writing. Try to write every day. Write every where and anywhere – on the bus to work, during your smoking break, at lunch, on the subway home, while waiting on line at the bank/supermarket/bakery.

And, you are not alone. NaNoWriMo's are being held around the world. It's as far out as India, Russia and New Zealand. And, closer to home....the NYC Regional NaNo Chapter has daily write-ins around the city and all are welcome. Maybe I’ll see you there.

In the meantime, You can still register to enter the NaNoWriMo by going to http://www.nanowrimo.org/. If you enter, do add me as a Buddy.

Good luck and Happy Writing to Us All!

Maria Ferrer enjoys participating in the NaNoWriMo. She considers it a great way to get butt to chair and pen to paper. Maria has won two NaNoWriMo’s. She’s hoping for a third win. Keep your fingers crossed.

WAITING FOR INSPIRATION

2010-10-25T11:20:00.000-07:00

By Maria Ferrer

I won a free vacation in Bermuda, which is where I was this weekend instead of at the NJRW conference. I didn’t meet with any editors or agents and I didn’t pitch my books, but as I laid on the beach, under the warm sun, the gentle breeze playing with my hair, I did think about possible plots for my November NaNoWriMo project. Truly!

The plots considered and discarded included, a murder mystery where the program director is found dead and the meeting planner-turn-sleuth discovers the killer; a sci-fi drama where the planet’s male population is dying of a mysterious ailment at the age of 25 and the red-haired princess must discover the cure before her beloved brother dies; or a tale noir where a repressed woman explores her sexual appetites. Good choices all, but too cliché and easily discarded.

This author is still in search of a plot and characters.

For people who like outlines and structure (ME! ME!), not having a plot, let alone characters, can cause severe head-throbbing trauma. For others, “no plot, no worry” is a sweet siren’s song and welcome challenge.

I am forcing myself to remain calm and sane, even as NaNoWriMo—National Novel Writing Month aka November—is pulling up to the curb and I haven’t even finished dressing. Gulp!

But I am not going to panic.

I am going to relax. I am going to pretend I am back on that Bermudian beach, my toes digging into the pink sand, with the hot sun toasting me to a nice pink, with the cool breeze combing its fingers through my hair. I am going to close my eyes and envision plots and characters—maybe a murder, maybe a mystery, maybe a medieval. Hmm. Maybe a Laird, maybe a pirate, maybe a police detective. Hmm. Maybe a jilted bride, maybe a princess, maybe a thief. Hmm.

The possibilities are endless as I wait for inspiration to settle on the beach chair next to me.

Where do you find your inspiration?♥

For more information on NaNoWriMo, visit http://www.nanowrimo.org/.
The challenge begins November 1. Good luck.

Maria Ferrer enjoys participating in the NaNoWriMo. She considers it a great way to get butt to chair and pen to paper. Maria has won two NaNoWriMo’s. She’s hoping for a third win. Keep your fingers crossed.

Researching Research

2010-09-29T12:55:00.000-07:00

Just about everyone I know in the writing community does their research on line. Now, admittedly, there is a wealth of stuff out there for the savvy researcher (who knows to beware of the legitimacy of the source - Wikipedia, for example, is a great place to start, but never ever take their word without confirming info!). And of course, even for folks like me, who love to do hands-on research, some places are too far flung or don't have the right sources in their neck of the woods. But hands-on research can be so much richer.

Which brings me to the beauty of Manhattan. Within it's boundaries you'll find countless sources for researching, everything from bondage and discipline to the history of the NYPD (bondage and discipline of a different sort, you might say).

On this 22 square mile island are found such a cornucopia of resources that a writerly girl could spend her life wandering from museum, to library, to society, to theatre, to arts organization, to club, to restaurant, to historical site. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, watching, up close and personal, can add a layer of specificity and detail to my writing that I could never hope to achieve by merely reading on line. Or seeing a photograph on a computer screen, or hearing & watching a YouTube video.

In the Tenement Museum on NYC's lower East Side, you can walk through an actual building, re-created as a tenement from the turn of the twentieth century and get an uncomfortable feel for the way the immigrants lived. Speaking of immigrants, Ellis Island offers an incredible look into the welcome those arriving got, after passing the majestic Statue of Liberty. And stretching further back in time is the Fraunces Tavern Museum of the American Revolution.

How do you describe a symphony in writing? You can listen to it on a CD or YouTube, but nothing compares to the feeling of sitting in a space at Alice Tully Hall or
Carnegie Hall or the dozens of other venues and sensing the vibration of the music, feeling the wall of sound as it sweeps out from the orchestra. My character in my WIP Torch is a singer. Where better to embrace the throbbing pulse or mournful wail of blues and jazz and hear for yourself the power of those songs than at the iconic Blue Note Jazz Club?

What about food? Try describing an ethnic dish without ever having tasted it. Welcome to the Big Apple where there is no dish, that you cannot find and sample - if you dare. Including haggis, for those of you writing those wonderful Scottish highland romances. Just wait for the annual Robert Burns Day celebrations!

The Fashion Institute of Technology has clothing exhibits. The Pierpont Morgan has literary exhibits. The Museum of Natural History has animal, vegetable and mineral exhibits. The Museum of Sex has, well, sex exhibits. And speaking of sex, if you're writing an erotic romance with some paddling involved? Where better to "research" than the club, Paddles, where demonstrations of same are yours for the price of a blush! Or you can really put yourself out there and mingle with members of the NY Eulenspiegel Society promoting BDSM on one of their "novice nights".

If the paranormal is more your thing, well, then never fear! We have the Theosophical Society founded on Madam Blavatsky's teachings, Tarot organizations, Wiccan and pagan shops, and haunted New York tours.

Short trips outside Manhattan proper to the neighboring boroughs will take you to even more great spots. Sagamore Hill of the Roosevelt Family. The Walt Whitman Museum. You can see a Scottish Highland Games at the Westbury Gardens and tour a Gold Coast-type estate at the same time. Or trek further out into Suffolk and enjoy the annual Shinnecock Indian powwow at their newly Federally recognized Reservation. Then there is The Brooklyn Botanical Garden, The Bronx Zoo, The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM to all New Yorkers) and Long Island's Cradle of Aviation museum (where one day you might find me in the cockpit of a WWII bomber plane getting a "feel", for my pilot character in the WWII women's series already underway), plus dozens more.

Beyond all of these unique opportunities to visit historical sites, view artwork, taste food, and listen to performances, there is also the glorious, expansive, New York Public Library system. It is truly one of the greatest things about New York that it supports such a vast operation, dedicated to the enrichment and enlightenment of us all.

And beyond the books, and vast collections of papers and writings, there are the specialty branches that offer even more. The NYPL Science & Technology branch is mind-boggling and for those interested in the history of performing arts in NY, the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts has everything from sheet music that can be copied, tunes that can be listened to, and varying exhibits of costumes, memorabilia and biographical subjects.

Let's not forget, either, the researcher's best friend: the indomitable NYPL librarian. They are a fount of information unlike any computer. Ask for help and you'll find suggestions, resources, clues and ideas you hadn't thought of.

So, when I launch my Gilded Age NYC set historical romance series, you can be sure you'll be seeing me, out and about, at all of the best places. The best places for research, I mean.

See you at the museums!

Foodie Confessional

2010-09-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

I was always a foodie. When my mother took me to the local pizza place, I liked a lot of garlic on my slice and instead of folding it in half like everyone else, I piled all of the cheese to the center so I could savor the concentration of its flavor. I would chew it until there was not a bit to taste.

Pizza remains one of my favorite things in the entire world. All different kinds of pizza. Whether it be the neighborhood pizzeria or something more upscale like Otto's in the East Village, I love pizza. At Otto's, I fell in love with their olive oil gelato. Sweets are my other food obsession, but that is the next part of this post. When I traveled to Connecticut to try pizza at Pepe's, all my New York friends questioned why I would leave New York to have good pizza. I am going to New Jersey soon for cupcakes as well. I have wended my way through endless New York City neighborhoods to have different culinary excursions. Any place I go in the city I can tell you where I will eat, or what place I want to try.

Will travel for food.

I think about food all the time. Anywhere I go, whatever activity, I wonder where am I going to eat before or after. Preferably after because then I have something to look forward to as I rehash whatever experience it was that I had. In the past week, I have had Russian, French and Ethiopian. I am due to have Moroccan and Indian in the next few weeks; I like all kinds of cuisine. I'll try anything. I recently signed up for Gastronauts because I really am everything they embody and I patiently wait to be invited to my first dinner!

And after dinner there is dessert...

Ahhh dessert, the thing that I live for the most. The cherry on top of every day. Chocolate is a big love of mine. I remember a quiz in Cosmopolitan to determine how sensual are you. One of the questions was which food can you not get enough of--gooey, cheesy pizza and rich decadent chocolate mousse were two of the possible answers. Honestly I could not answer because both of them create a sense of insatiability in me if they are good.

Is it the flavor, is it the punctuation that food creates around so many experiences in my life since I was a child? Is it the exploration of other cultures, or my love of novelty and trying new things? Whatever it is, food and eating and the environment I do it in are major productions, almost like theater in my daily life. Three times a day, the show must go on...

Recently I was studying up on Ayurveda, and implementing parts of a sattvic diet in mine,

getting recipes from Aparna Khanolkar's site. I read Alicia Silverstone's The Kind Diet and have implemented vegan and vegetarian aspects to my diet. My relationship with food is like any love relationship; I try things that I have never tried before. Try never to be complacent with eating the same things all of the time. Life is too short and there are too many edible things that I can try. I recently became a fan of beets which I never liked as a child and now love. Brussel sprouts and goat are my next targets. Whether I hit the bullseye or not, whether they become new favorites or not it is the experience. I am all about the experience with food.

Photographs by F. Solomon

A Unique New York Experience

2010-08-19T16:17:00.000-07:00

by Lisbeth Eng

“Isn’t everything in New York unique?” you ask. Perhaps a valid question, but in my forty some-odd years in this city, this was a new experience for me. The setting was Yankee Stadium. What could be more iconically “New York” than that?

But then reality shifted and I entered what I will call the “Alternate Baseball Universe.” Three friends had persuaded me to join them at a Yankee game. (My arm still aches from the twisting.) Now it’s not that I don’t like baseball, but being a life-long, die-hard Mets fan, this was not easy. That, and the one hundred dollar ticket price. But I later found out that the regular price for these tickets was $150 and it included food and soft drinks, so it was really quite a bargain.

I was told before I arrived at the stadium that this was a luxury suite. I had been in one once at Shea and it was quite lovely. A private room for about 25 people with your own bathroom and covered open seating facing the action. It was a playoff game in 2000 and I had gotten the ticket through my job. (Not the romance writing job, but the rent-paying job.) My co-worker and I seemed to be the only ones interested in the game and I got the feeling that the other “fans” were out-of-town business people just there for the free food. When the score became lopsided – I think the Mets were losing by seven runs – the others retired to the comfortable living-room-style suite and watched a football game (!) on the television screen provided. My friend and I remained outside in the now-empty covered seating section, leaning out of the opening, cheering on our team and trying to capture the feeling that we were actually attending a baseball game – a playoff game, at that!

Though the Mets lost that game (they went on to become the National League Champs that year – we won’t talk about the 2000 World Series) it was a pleasant experience. I enjoyed all the hot dogs, hamburgers, French fries and chicken fingers I wanted and even got a free Mets cap to take home.

But back to the Alternate Baseball Universe. Riding the D train to The Bronx, I pictured a similar setting for our Yankee game – a covered luxury suite with an endless supply of typical baseball-stadium fare and all the bottled water or soda I wanted. We had already been told beer was extra. Bummer. When we got to the stadium we had no idea how to find our seats. A lovely young woman with a pin-stripe-adorned “May I Help You?” sign pointed us toward a guarded glass door. That led to an elevator and we got off at the level for “Audi Yankees Club” – that’s what it said on our tickets.

This was not a luxury suite – it was a restaurant seating some three hundred guests! Instead of French fries and hamburgers we feasted on lobster fritters, pan-fried soft-shell crabs, shrimp cocktail as big as your hand, sautéed asparagus and very rare filet mignon with béarnaise sauce. No kidding. Oh, and there were fries – sweet potato fries. The miniature pastries on the dessert bar were as tempting as any delicacy from the finest bakery. But lest anyone feel deprived (or forget that he was inside a Major League ballpark), hot dogs were provided, along with potato chips and popcorn. The food was wonderful and gracefully dished out buffet-style by servers wearing chef hats inscribed with the famed “NY” logo.

Yet that wasn’t the weirdest part. Our seats were arranged dinner-theater style before long tables all facing the field. But between the “regular” fans and us was a huge glass picture window. Here we were, watching a baseball game from inside a hermetically-sealed, soundproof, climate-controlled restaurant. We couldn’t even hear the National Anthem (we stood anyway since they piped in the soundtrack) or the roar of the crowd. It was like watching the game on a humongous TV screen, and to underscore the TV-like ambiance, the play-by-play telecast of the entire game was piped in, too.

We were attending a baseball game…but it didn’t feel like it to me. During particularly exhilarating moments – the scoring of a “go ahead” run or a breathtaking defensive play – excited fans are often moved to high-five the complete strangers seated near them. Yet this would have felt unseemly within the sophisticated milieu of the Audi Yankees Club. We were there at a ballpark, but not really there. All the action unfolded before us but we were removed from it. Part of the experience and much of the fun of attending a baseball game is to be among the other fans, not separated from them by glass. Fans are collectively referred to as the “tenth man”. We are part of the game and our “root, root, rooting” for the home team helps spur them to action. Sequestered within our opulent isolation booth, we became observers, not participants.

I don’t regret my expedition into the Alternate Baseball Universe of the Audi Yankees Club. (Yes, there were brochures hawking the luxury autos on a discreet rack near the exit.) The food was wonderful and the company agreeable. It just wasn’t an authentic baseball experience.

Now, this is where I usually make some obscure connection from my blog post to my upcoming World War II romance novel. Hmm…. World War II… war…. Well baseball is a little like war…. Ok, that’s a stretch. So I’ll just refer you to my website at www.lisbetheng.com for more info about In the Arms of the Enemy, coming October 1 from The Wild Rose Press. See, I can write a blog post without gratuitous, blatant self-promotion!

Oh, and in case you’re interested, the Yankees lost.

BIO: Lisbeth Eng is a native New Yorker who works in the finance industry by day and plugs her soon-to-be-released World War II romance novel In the Arms of the Enemy every chance she gets. Visit her at www.lisbetheng.com.

FAST GIRLS

2010-08-15T00:12:00.000-07:00

by Maria C. Ferrer

“Fast is a (Sexy) State of Mind” ---Rachel Kramer Bussel

Fast Girls.

You know who I mean. Those women who are always dressed to the nines: their skirts a little too short, their blouses a little too tight, their cleavage a little too exposed. Their eyeliner is black and sharp, their lipstick bright and confident, and they walk with the greatest of ease on towering heels. Men flock to them, take them home and call them the next day.

You see them at work, on the trains. You remember them from high school, college where they seemed to know something you did not. They still do.

If you haven’t guessed, I was not a “fast girl” growing up. I wasn’t a wallflower either, as I preferred the label, G.D.I. -- God Damn Independent. But, I dreamed. I wanted to send up a signal and have Billy Joel throw me a line but Catholic guilt was better at stamping out hot-blooded passion than a cold shower.

Now as a grown woman, I AM a Fast Girl in that I am in control of myself, my body, my desires and, especially my reading material. I just read FAST GIRLS: EROTICA FOR WOMEN, edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Cleis Press). It’s an excellent collection of short stories about strong, confident women in control of their sexuality and their fun.

Like Tracy, in Kayla Perrin’s “Temptation,” who at 37 isn’t afraid of getting it on with a 20-year old stud with the hots for her. Like Kirstie, who makes room in her dorm shower for three extra guests in “Communal” by Saskia Walker. (Talk about conserving water!) Like “That Girl” by Cherry Bomb, who offers no apologies for being promiscuous because she enjoys being “hot and spent, tangled between sheets, skin on skin….”

Even in their submission, Fast Girls are in control for nothing will happen without their consent. Take Claire in Rachel Kramer Bussel’s “Whore Complex.” Her lover Adrian treats her like his private whore, and she allows it. She even allows him to offer her services to others. Why? Because Claire enjoys the rewards just as much as he does.

And, finally, how about a good-girl Fast Girl like the heroine in Charlotte Stein’s “Married Life”? This wife is horny and frustrated by her missionary-position-once-a-month husband. She wants sex and she wants it now, but no one will do but her hubby. So when she discovers her husband is a closet hedonist, there is really only one thing to do -- punish him, wickedly!

Yes, Yes, Yes!!!

As Rachel Kramer Bussel states in her introduction to FAST GIRLS: EROTICA FOR WOMEN, “Fast is a (Sexy) State of Mind.”

Fast Girls are bold, free, confident and in full control of their lives and their beds. Fast Girls doesn’t mean naughty or slutty…unless they want it to. Are you a Fast Girl?♥

LINKS:

For more info on the book and its editor, click here.

To order from Amazon.com, click here.

Maria C. Ferrer enjoys reading all about fast girls, daring men and deep, dark, mouth-watering desires. If only her life were full of the same. There’s a New Year’s Resolution waiting to happen!

I Need A Hero!

2010-07-15T14:53:00.000-07:00

Why I Write & Read Romance
Lise Horton

In recent days the gossip-ravenous media has latched on to the latest Mel Gibson saga. There’s been his long-reported history of over imbibing, fisticuffs and DUIs. A while back there was his anti-Semitic rant. More recently the revelation that this member of an extreme Catholic sect, husband to Robyn and father of seven children with her was being divorced. Fast upon the heels of this was the exposure of his extra-marital affair with the beautiful, much younger, Oksana Grigorieva and the ensuing love child (kid # 8).

Now the latest. Lurid, downright ugly tapes have been released and are being listened to and reported on in every news outlet available. Racist, sexist, violent, threatening and lewd screaming at the mother of his child who alleges that Gibson also hit her and threatened her with a gun, in the first case while she was holding the baby in her arms. A restraining order is in place and the entertainment trades reported that his agency, William Morris Endeavor has removed him from their roster. Which, I assume, means they fired him.

Add this to the cacophony of other news of men behaving badly. John Edwards, Al Gore, Tiger Woods, Charlie Sheen, Chris Brown, Mark Sanford, Elliot Spitzer, and those are just the guys who’ve been leaving broken hearts hither and yon. How about the truly abhorrent cases of mad love like Scott Peterson, Brian David Mitchell, Josef Fritzl, Bruno Fernandes? Every day’s headlines bring more horror, betrayal, disappointment (and don’t get me started on the likes of Bernie Madoff, Ken Starr, Jack Abramoff, Scooter Libby – it isn’t just in the arena of love where guys are doing their darndest to disappoint!) It begs one to ask the burning question:

Where have all the heroes gone?

It is this tawdry state of public affairs, my readers, that is the reason I write and read romance. When this gal’s faced with a tsunami of infidelity, disloyalty, dishonor, rage, hatred, and homicidal acts, not to mention back room business double dealings and greedy shenanigans, I need to escape. Where I turn for solace from the daily grind of reality is to a good fantasy. As in a romance novel. Where a man may have a stock portfolio or a race car, fur or fangs, but he treats his woman right, he’s brave, loyal and true, and, after some good loving, a girl’s guaranteed a happily ever after.

But it’s a fairy tale, you say! My response? Darn right it is! The kind that helps me escape to a world where good triumphs over evil, where the bad guy always gets his just desserts and men don’t cheat with the babysitter, beat the crap out of their lover, or kill them and feed the body to their dog. It’s where heroes and their women battle the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune side by side and hand in hand and share smooches and a glorious, happy ending.

I’m sure that there a oodles of good guys out there, and women lucky enough to have them. For the ladies who enjoy both a good romance and a good man, congratulations on your good fortune! (Would that the press saw fit to cover everyday heroes and honorable men doing good deeds. But NOOOO! What fun would THAT be? So the bilious deluge continues.)

For me, however, I create the heroes I’d love to encounter in my own romances, and I voraciously read others’ novels about their ideal men. And there are great romances to enjoy. Entertaining stories filled with wonderful characters and terrific tales of love. There’s a genre for every taste and heroes and heroines for every sensibility, from virtuous Regency misses to kick-ass urban fantasy heroines who never let their dudes forget they are men, to the Scottish rogues and starship troopers who can make a girl’s bosom heave with a single sardonic glance.

So when I cannot stomach another exposé of a man who done his woman wrong, I indulge in romance. Rather than ponder the broken marriages, destroyed lives, damaged children and families, instead, like Dr. Frankenstein-builds-a-romance-hero, I create my own perfect men. I compile the characteristics of the sort of fella I’d like to get up close and personal with. The kind of dude who’d do my heroines justice and though they may be high maintenance, they’re never low down dirty dogs. When not penning my own, I enjoying the romantic literary fruits of other creative minds. It is how I keep from despairing over the sad state of affairs that is in my face at every turn.

Say what you will - that I’m being unrealistic, that I am turning a blind eye to the harsh truths of life. True and true. But I am certainly less angst ridden, less depressed, and more hopeful for it.

In these trying times, that’s my reason for loving romance novels.

What’s yours?

Encounters

2010-07-11T11:14:00.000-07:00

I believe that everything happens for a reason. Such as why my yoga class was canceled and I decided to indulge myself in its place by buying Apple gadgets and essential oils. It was in the store with said oils that I met a model--an alternative model who does fetish. I was fascinated. Recently I began a short story about a model who almost suffocated in a corset. I had read as Diane Kruger described in Allure magazine that feeling and it inspired me. I wrote the first few lines organically, after combining it with a piece I was working on that I had gotten stuck on. Meeting this model who told me that yes it can happen, that you can suffocate while wearing a corset if a photographer does not know what s/he is doing. She also described the beauty in what she does and how her background made her to want to make people think about expressions of their sensuality in different ways. She believes that people are creative in every other part of their lives but when it comes to sex and intimacy they are one-sighted. I read, write and watch erotica. I think a lot is learned about people in how they express themselves in that way.

I had the pleasure of spending time recently with Thea Devine about whom I am going to be doing a Bits and Pieces on, my regular column at the RWA-NYC blog. She changed the way that I think about everything with my craft. I identified with the way she described love and sex and I found my eyes wider because of her. I even got a tiny black Moleskine to write down observations that I make and--surprise, surprise--there are only sensual bits so far! Maybe they will make it into a story but they definitely show me how I see the world and what inspires me...

I am taking an art course focusing on Francis Bacon and for the most part I do not think anyone would describe Bacon as "lovely" or "sexy." When I saw my first Bacon I thought, why would anyone like that?! But I changed my mind about him. I love the rawness of his work--there is a lot lovely and sexy about him. Not even considering that a lot of his work focuses on his lover who was his muse, or that his paintings are featured in the opening credits of the Last Tango in Paris. In my art course, we were shown a Diane Ar bus photograph, which I commented on that the two people depicted could not have been a couple because they did not look happy. The instructor said to me that all couples do not have to be happy. I think my mindset was that an unhappy couple would not pose for a picture. But the idea that everything romantic does not have to be happy...When people call me a romantic the last thing they are saying about me is that I am unhappy! I am typing this post on my MacBook with the screen for Before Sunrise minimized, happy for a change that I am able to listen to it and not need to glance at the subtitles. I am fond of the ironically darker love themes in love movies from other countries. Hearing the instructor voice aloud that romance does not have to be happy, it was not that I did not know that, not that I have not explored the themes in fiction and maybe in real life...but to hear something makes it less indelible in my mind. When the fetish model told me you can suffocate in a corset, I had to reread fashion guru Polly Guerin's post about corsets!

I have been writing a lot more since then; the fairly dark love story that I have been working on is developing...which I am going to work on as soon as I finish this post. Every encounter should lead to something that can be transferred to the page or the computer screen.

TO ALL THE VAMPYRES I’VE LOVED BEFORE

2010-06-30T01:10:00.000-07:00

By Maria Ferrer

In honor of the movie release of “Eclipse,” the latest installment of the TWILIGHT series, I am releasing a list of my favorite Hollywood vampyres, including those that frighten me and those that I’d gladly stick my neck out for – pun intended.

We’ll start with Mr. Evil Incarnate – Nosferatu. That is a face no one could love and makes one run, not walk, to the nearest church.

Bela Lugosi gave vampyres class and sophistication, and the man could certainly work a cape.

But the man who can suck my blood ANYtime, ANYwhere, is none other than Dracula, aka Frank Langella. He made vampyres sexy.

It’s the eyes. The eyes – the windows to the soul – and this Dracula’s eyes say, “Come here. Don’t be afraid. I want to share love’s last kiss with you.” And because of those eyes, not only did Lucy and Mina succumb, but so did I and millions of women around the world.

In case you didn’t know, Frank Langella played Dracula on Broadway and on the big screen. To this day, his is “the” reigning vampyre on Broadway. And, not even Phantom’s award-winning Michael Crawford could knock him off his throne. Crawford’s “Dracula: The Musical” closed weeks after its debut.

Back to my list of sexy vampyres.

Jason Patric and Keifer Sutherland were two “Lost Boys” who definitely found trouble in sunny California.

Wesley Snipes brought color and martial arts to the world of vampyres. The fight between good and evil vampyres is on, and Wesley cuts right through to the heart of the matter.

The triple threat of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and Antonio Banderas in Anne Rice’s “An Interview with a Vampire” rocked the vampyre community. These vamps don’t hide. Hell, they have a stage show and flaunt their vampirism for all and sundry.

David Boreanaz as Angel in the TV series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is another hottie. Unfortunately, he turns good and there went the sex-appeal. I make no excuses. I like my vampyres hot, sexy and dangerous. The new-and-improved Angel drops from the list.

Kate Beckinsale's Selene makes the list. I’m not into women; I just wish I looked that good in leather. She is not the first female vampyre but she certainly can claim the title of Warrior Queen Vamp.

Hugh Jackman makes my sexy vampyre list. No, he’s not a Vampyre, but he is a Vampyre slayer. He’s just too sexy to leave off.

Now there is a new Prince of Darkness--Edward Cullen.

And though Bella and I are not getting any younger, Edward remains young and vibrant. I get a little frustrated with his “woe is me” spiel, but let’s face it, he’s a teenager. He will always be a teenager. Bella better be converted ASAP before she matures any further and outgrows him.

As for me, I’m waiting for Frank Langella’s Dracula resurrection. It’s the eyes, the window to his soul (Note to Edward: Yes, vampyres have souls; being damned is something else all together.)

Back to Frank’s – to Dracula’s – eyes. It’s the eyes that seduce you, that tell you that you are the one, that only your blood will give him life. Only you. He will starve without you.

And so I give in. I am his slave, his lover. His fangs are sharp against my lips, my neck. I can feel my blood rush towards his kiss. I can feel his arms getting stronger as he tightens his embrace, and all I can think to say is, Bite me, baby, one more time!

Who is your favorite vampyre? Which one would you gladly succumb to? Do tell.♥

Maria Ferrer loves watching vampyre movies. She likes her vampyres mature, sexy and a lot dangerous. Forget the bad boys; give her a dangerous man any day or night. Maria also loves to read vampyre books. Some of her favorite vampyre authors are Caridad Pineiro, J.R. Ward, Maggie Shayne and Lara Adair.

Au Courant

2010-06-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

I guess I am the one that Lise was referring to when she spoke about the fourth horsewomen who goes for the "au courant erotic literary experience."

I am a romantic; a violent one at that. I see romance everywhere. Every part of my day is a romance in the way I see things. I remember reading a scathing comment about Anais Nin in a review of her biography saying that she was writing the things that she was writing (about her erotic life and erotica) while there was a war going on and I thought to myself who were they to criticize?

There are politicians who leave their office because they want to be with a woman that they love in another country, or who get caught with their pants down, literally, and surely these are not exemplary behaviors, but it goes to show you that love and sex, at the end of the day, are the things that drive us more than anything else, no matter who we are. They are basic, human and it is the truth. I am watching Remember Me, My Love, and what I am viewing is underscoring this point. Earlier this evening I was watching The Apartment while I was moonblogging h

ere, and it as well was even more demonstrative of this point. I love it.

I see love and romance everywhere I am. I was at Nocello drinking Nocello with the other three horsewomen and there was this photograph (all the images here are Horst P.Horst). A bunch of Horst P. Horst photographs and this one (right) struck me. It is a costume from Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus, 1939. Surreal and erotic to me at the same time, apropos of Dali and the Surrealists. This restaurant had the best bread and the scent of Nocello liqueur alone is an experience--walnut and hazelnut combined! But it was the abundance of photographs that remained with me. I like erotic images as well as erotic literature. I resent that men are considered to be the visual ones because I always judge a book by its cover!

The world that we live in is designed by love and sex. It is an inevitable truth; we would not be here without one, the other or both. Women read romances on my train, to and from work every morning, from all walks of life. Erotica-- is what usually can be found in my hands. Friends tease me that I could find the erotic books in a pile--not so much on my train, but it is on the rise and people are taking it more seriously. Still not the most easily accessible genre by any means. It is kind of hard to define. I guess it is clear that I like romantic erotica for the most part, but not all of it is romantic. I like variations--I am constantly intrigued by plots that I have not seen before. I love innovation within the erotica. Right now there is a bloom for innovation with erotica, The Erotic Readers and Writers Association always inspires me because I am always learning something new from their site--there is always some twist and turn on the genre which I love.

Not sure if I am au courant as Lise gave me credit for since my archetype for erotica is Anais Nin--I read from her Little Birds at my RWA-NYC Chapter sister Rachel Kramer Bussel's In The Flesh Reading Series last year. I am as yet unpublished as an erotic writer and in a lot of ways am still honing my craft. Sometimes I write pieces that are erotic, but there is not a bit of sex. Is that possible? I think that half of what makes something erotic is the power that another person has over another person, the surrender. I think that we surrender as a part of every day life and that is why it makes such compelling fiction. The things we do for love and sex...

Sex and THIS City?

2010-06-02T18:01:00.000-07:00

by Lisbeth Eng

When I first moved from the hinterlands of Staten Island to the chic isle of Manhattan four years ago, one of my co-workers excitedly remarked, “Lisbeth will be the new Terry Bradshaw!” “Huh? Terry Bradshaw?” I replied, bewildered. What did she possibly think I could have in common with the bald football announcer? “Carrie Bradshaw!” she corrected with a laugh, and went on to explain her prediction that my new life as a Manhattan single woman would be as exhilarating, fashion-forward and sexcapade-filled as that of the fictional heroine I had barely heard of. Yes, that’s right, I have never watched even one episode of Sex and the City, nor either of the two movie versions, nor read Candace Bushnell’s book upon which the TV series was based.

I, a forty-something-year-old widow, am probably as un-Carrie-Bradshaw-like as a native New Yorker can be. I have lived in four of the five boroughs (alas, the Bronx will probably never enjoy the privilege of my residency), having spent the longest period, thirty-five years, in Staten Island, which, in case you were unaware, is part of New York City. It’s amusing that transplanted mid-westerners (among others) seem to think of themselves as more “New York” than those of us born and bred in the outer boroughs, simply because they have lived in Manhattan a few years and know all the “in” places to eat, drink, shop and pick up men. But I digress.

First a disclaimer: since I have never watched the TV show (or seen the movies or read the book) I am in no position to judge the lives of women who seem more interested in their Manolo Blahniks and cosmopolitans than in global warming or human rights abuses in Darfur. But I’ve really no right to make such a self-righteous comment. For all I know, Carrie and her friends may spend their free time volunteering at a local soup kitchen, and I’ll bet they donate last season’s Jimmy Choos to the Salvation Army so that the disadvantaged can get “back on their feet”, properly shod.

All right, perhaps I’m just jealous. I am seldom fashionably attired (for me, comfortable shoes trump high heels and pointy toes every time), and engaging members of opposite sex has always been a challenge for me, especially after I became single again at the age of forty-four. I live in one of the most exciting cities in the world – “the city that never sleeps.” Well, I sleep. Even on weekends I’m usually in bed by midnight. Nightlife? Does watching the eleven o’clock news count?

So how can a single gal living in New York City lead such a boring life? I don’t. There is more to this city than a quest for sex and cocktails. Besides world-famous museums, opera companies, orchestras, Broadway theater (not to mention off- and off-off-Broadway theater), there is a soul to this city that may not be obvious to the casual observer. An army of volunteers delivers meals to the homebound elderly and AIDS patients. Community gardeners beautify hidden corners of this concrete jungle. The socially conscious meet to strategize against pollution, political oppression, poverty and hopelessness. As for me, I enjoy the above mentioned museums, opera and theater, study foreign languages “just for fun”, volunteer for Amnesty International on behalf of prisoners of conscience and write romance fiction for self-fulfillment and for the remote possibility of selling the movie rights to my soon-to-be-published debut novel for a seven-figure sum.

Which brings us back to sex. And self-promotion. For sex and another city, how about Verona, Italy circa 1944 where a woman torn between two lovers, one her compatriot and the other her enemy, battles the Nazis? You can read about her (and her lovers) when my World War II romance novel, In the Arms of the Enemy, is released by The Wild Rose Press on October 1, 2010. In the meantime, please visit my website at www.lisbetheng.com for a preview.

BIO: Lisbeth Eng is a romance author and financial services representative (that’s how the rent gets paid) who inhabits the lovely island of Manhattan where she continues her search for spiritual awakening, inspiration, the meaning of life and yes, well… ahem…sex. Visit her at www.lisbetheng.com.

We'll Take Manhattan

2010-05-26T09:41:00.000-07:00

The Big Apple has long been the source of inspiration for songwriters the world over. I consider one of my favorites, by the inimitable Rogers and Hart, "I'll Take Manhattan", to be the unofficial "love song of New York City". Both for those of us who love this burg, and for the lovers among us. As the last line of this lovely, lilting tribute goes, "The city's bustle cannot destroy, the dreams of a girl and boy, I'll turn Manhattan into an isle of joy.". (Lyrics/Lorenz Hart; Music/Richard Rodgers/"The Garrick Gaieties 1925). A quick peek at Wikipedia's entry, "List of songs about New York City" gives insight into the popularity of this place as a musical muse. Witness, from the sublime to the ridiculous, literally hundreds of songs about Manhattan and its environs. Indeed entire musicals have been written about this place, including "Forty-Second Street", "On The Town" and "Wonderful Town". And the music captures perfectly the frenetic pace, the exuberance, the thrill, the solitary loneliness, the wonder, the mystery, the romance - there's a song for every New York state of mind (thank you Billy Joel for a most evocative theme!).

Not merely the musically minded have wallowed in our town. Painters have painted it. Photographers have photographed it. Architects have designed it. This place inspires like nobody's business.

Perhaps more than any other group, since the first boats landed, it has been a haven for writers of all sorts. From poets like Walt Whitman who roamed the streets shouting their rhymes, to playwrights like Neil Simon who captured the heart of the city and indelibly etched the image of our home for audiences the world over. From the famous brought low - Dylan Thomas drinking his last at The White Horse Tavern - to the obscure raised high like James Baldwin, Dorothy Parker, and Betty Smith - author of the perennially embraced A Tree Grows In Brooklyn. My how the written word has thrived in this tumultous corner of the world! Comedy and tragedy. Mystery and horror. History and science. Poetry and polemic. And never let it be forgot, ROMANCE!

Hence it should come as no surprise to find that today, on this very island purchased by Peter Minuet for a song and $24.00 (conversion from 1626 wampum dollars not available at this time), four intrepid writers lurk. We are of various backgrounds, ages, political leanings, talents and fashion sensibilities. And you, you lucky few, get to hang out with us as we bring home the bacon, dodge cabs, avoid subway perverts, and pursue our dreams of writing the great American romance novel.

That's right. We are romance writers. We say it loud and proud. C'mon. Fess up. You just love a good love story, doncha?

Welcome to the blog of The Four Horsewomen of the Metropolis. The metropolis of Manhattan. A tiny island with a huge heart, a fire in its belly, and a stalwart soul.

For a writer of any ilk, this is a cool place to be. For people watching - on buses and subways and City streets - to help us create great characters. For research and investigation we have libraries and museums that cover any manner of subject. Even (be still my heart), the Museum of Sex, which, naturally, is right up our, ahem, alley, though our personal writerly styles differ in dealing with those luscious pleasures of the flesh. But never fear! We'll surely have a story for every desire, be your preference sweet and low down, or bawdy and naughty.

For catching a breath of somewhat fresh air, we have parks of every sort to stretch out in and rejuvenate our muses when they weary of our work-a-day grind and need a little R&R. From Central Park to The High Line we can sit and contemplate our stories, and watch the high-flying hawks for inspiration. Or the helictopters of the NYPD. (I don't know about you, but I am VERY inspired by a man in uniform!)

There are street musicians and mimes, performance art and protests, food carts and film crews. Where else can you be a part of a Law & Order crowd scene, or bump elbows with a celebrity, sans finery, as they make their nightly trek to a star's dressing room at one of the dozens of wonderful theatres on the Great White Way? And experience it all while noshing a pretzel the side of a hubcap?

Writing is a solitary profession but in NYC we four gather together to commiserate and brainstorm and raise a glass (or three) in celebration of our triumphs and achievements. Many an evening we can be found at restaurants and watering holes like Kennedy's on West 57th Street, or Heidelberg on the upper East Side. Or perhaps we've been spied at Cancun on 8th Avenue where the margaritas flow like, well, water, and we leave weak with laughter, the waiters richer for having met us. When we need variety? How about organic food, Thai food, Italian, Chinese or a tray of sliders. A Beer at a pub, or a glass of merlot at a side-walk cafe can help us wind down. And when winding up is called for, there's a Timothy's, Starbucks or Tim Horton's on every block.

To feed our creative souls, we have other, diverse interests and pursuits. One of us loves cabaret and intimate song stylings at Michael Feinstein's or the Algonquin - where ghosts of the fabulous writers of the round table of the same name drift about the crowd. Another craves her classical fix, a third entertainment with a Latin flavor and a Fourth Horsewoman goes in for the au courant erotic literary experience. Broadway is down the street and over on the West Side. Lincoln Center is across the Park (where the Shakespeare Garden gives life to the Bard's words) where ballet, opera and symphonic delights abound. Jazz at The Blue Note in the Village. Lectures and concerts at the 92nd Street Y. And that's just the tip of this urban iceberg.

Though it is a city of millions, a diverse foursome such as we still happened to meet. Our "day jobs" are in utterly differing worlds, and we had no mutual friends. Yet we connected because of our mutual, abiding interest: Our love of writing romantic fiction and of the books that celebrate love and romance in all its myriad forms. We found ourselves together at the Romance Writers of America New York City chapter and the rest is, or will be, history.

That reason has drawn us together in camraderie, four urban cowgirls, banded together (we ride the subway, silly, what did you think?). We are an opinionated crew, and tend toward the loud and raucous. You will soon discern these disparate natures as we blog, and blather, discuss writing and publishing and romance and sex (on the PAGE, for goodness sake!). We'd love to invite you along for the ride as we share our love of books, this town and our lives and our search for success as published authors.

Stop by from time to time and get to know us. Chat with us about great romance novels and romantic fiction. Share your thoughts on our thoughts, and enjoy what we share about the business, and books, the craft of writing and the madness of a few good Manhattan gals.

We want you to think of us as your friends. But remember - if you invite us over, you'd better have lots of cocktails on hand, put the kids to bed early, and be prepared to let down your hair!

We are the Four Horsewomen - and when the going gets tough, we saddle up!