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Saturday 28 June 2014

What do editors look for? Alison Tyler


 Wait. What time is it? Can you believe that I’ve been editing erotic books since the early 90s? Holy fuck, how did that happen? Over the years (and the 50+ anthologies), I’ve become fairly adept at knowing right away whether a story is going to work for me. How? Simple.

1)     Catch me with your opening sentence. I’ve noticed that some writers take a few paragraphs to get started. Check your piece to see whether your true opener is lurking halfway down the page. 

2)     Proof your work. Not only for errors, but also for sloppiness. One of my biggest pet peeves is the use of word repetitions. A well-known writer subbed me a 2,500-word story in which “slip” appeared 14 times (slipped, slipping, slippery).  Nothing is that wet. 

3)     “It” is another of my sticking points. Look for “it.” Replace “it.” Grab a thesaurus if you don’t know another word for “it.” 

4)      Are your characters shouting, giggling, chortling, whispering, moaning, groaning, howling, whispering, or grunting too often? Ask yourself in the rewrite. “Said” can go a long way. 

5)     Kill me with your closure. Your last line is as important as your opener. Make me sit back and sigh with your brilliant culmination.



Now, back to the grind, at http://alisontyler.blogspot.com




Thursday 26 June 2014

A Taste of Passion - released today


A Taste of Passion (Sweet Temptation Book 1) is released today. 

Or you can try one of the FaceBook links: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Mischief-Books/186744244762441

This is the blurb: When baking entrepreneur Trudy Cole falls for celebrity chef Bill Hart, all is far from sweetness and light. Instead passion, betrayal and ambition makes for an explosive mix in the high stakes game of gourmet dining.

Trudy Cole is an aspiring chef with ambitions to own her own patisserie. When she encounters celebrity chef Bill Hart she finds the older man antagonistic but disconcertingly attractive. Sexual chemistry soon boils to an unbearable temperature and they become lovers.

But Trudy’s affair and ambitions for her own business become too hot to handle when she discovers that Bill has a wife. To make matters worse, her business partner and ardent admirer, Donny, threatens to destroy her patisserie and Bill Hart’s reputation.

At a stately home where Trudy wants to woo investors with her culinary masterpieces, the paths of all three players cross again and the heat is turned up to a much higher setting…


The following passage comes from early on in the story, when Trudy and Bill first meet:

It was only when the lights came back on that Trudy remembered William Hart was attractive. Disturbingly attractive. Admittedly, he was old enough to be her father. Taking into account the lined face and steel-grey hair she figured he was in his late forties or early fifties. But his age seemed immaterial.

            He was hot.

There was a timeless quality to William Hart that she had noticed when he delivered the seminar at her university. His diamond blue eyes shone with bright enthusiasm. His smile, set in a square and manly jaw, glinted with a boyish promise of inappropriate mischief. At the university she had thought he was physically imposing but, at the time, she had ascribed that to the fact he was standing on a podium, wearing a generously-cut suit beneath a double-breasted tweed overcoat. Now she could see his substantial presence came, not from his clothes, but from his broad and manly chest and his considerable height. From what she could glimpse beneath his white shirt and dark sport jacket, there didn’t appear to be any excess fat on his lean frame.

Her heartbeat had been slowing back to its normal rhythm.

The realisation that she was alone in Boui-Boui with the desirable William Hart sent it racing again. Muscles deep in her loins began to tingle with wanton and unbidden anticipation. She desperately willed herself to stop brooding on his handsomeness. He was likely married or in a relationship and she told herself it should be obvious that a man of his years would have no interest in her.

“This way,” he said, extending a hand.

She allowed him to hold her fingers, thrilling to his touch and hoping he couldn’t see that she was mesmerised at being in the presence of a respected idol. When he led her toward the kitchen she felt self-conscious about every step and how he might interpret her movements.

If she walked too close to him would he think she was needy or infatuated by his celebrity? If she stayed too far away would he think she had no interest in him? Or that she didn’t know who he was? Would it be less complicated, she wondered, to simply embrace him and devour him with kisses so he could see that she worshipped him?

That final idea made her smile.


It also made the muscles in her loins clench a little more hungrily.

***

For those of you who haven't yet read any of my fiction, copies of Beyond Temptation and Dragon Desire (written under the pseudonym Lisette Ashton) are currently available as free Kindle downloads from amazon.co.uk. If you get a chance to look at either of them I'm sure you'll enjoy.





Saturday 21 June 2014

Five Tips from Amanda Fox


Five tips on writing erotica from Amanda Fox

1) When writing, take breaks often to refresh and reset.

2) Exercise. It'll help get the blood flowing to your brain. And it'll prevent love handles LOL. No really.

3) Leave some things to the imagination. Not every single thing needs to be said.

4) Edit, edit, edit. Then leave the piece for a few weeks (or longer) and go back and edit some more.

5) Read your work out loud, or have someone read it to you. It's a good way to see if things flow, and to find mistakes.

Amanda Fox is the author of many pieces of fiction including 'Once You Go Black' from Cole Riley's 2011 collection Too Much Boogie. More of Amanda's writing can be found on: http://thefurfiles.com/.

Thursday 19 June 2014

A Taste of Passion - Book 1

Earlier this week I revealed the cover for A Taste of Passion: the first in a trilogy of erotic romances I'm writing for HarperCollins.



This is the blurb: When baking entrepreneur Trudy Cole falls for celebrity chef Bill Hart, all is far from sweetness and light. Instead passion, betrayal and ambition makes for an explosive mix in the high stakes game of gourmet dining.

Trudy Cole is an aspiring chef with ambitions to own her own patisserie. When she encounters celebrity chef Bill Hart she finds the older man antagonistic but disconcertingly attractive. Sexual chemistry soon boils to an unbearable temperature and they become lovers.

But Trudy’s affair and ambitions for her own business become too hot to handle when she discovers that Bill has a wife. To make matters worse, her business partner and ardent admirer, Donny, threatens to destroy her patisserie and Bill Hart’s reputation.

At a stately home where Trudy wants to woo investors with her culinary masterpieces, the paths of all three players cross again and the heat is turned up to a much higher setting…

For those of you who haven't yet read any of my fiction, copies of Beyond Temptation and Dragon Desire (written under the pseudonym Lisette Ashton) are currently available as free Kindle downloads from amazon.co.uk. If you get a chance to look at either of them I'm sure you'll enjoy.





Saturday 14 June 2014

What do editors look for? Lucy Felthouse


 Lucy Felthouse is a writer and editor of erotica and erotic romance. She likes variety, so is usually working on several projects at once. Published anthologies include: Uniform Behaviour, Seducing the Myth, Smut by the Sea and Smut in the City. The latter two are co-edited with Victoria Blisse. 

1) Read as many books as you can get your hands on—especially in your chosen genre. 

2) Learn to edit your own work—don’t risk editors being put off by poor spelling and grammar, repetition and so on.

3)  Don’t use crazy fonts. Something plain and easy to read like Times New Roman or Arial is fine. 

4) Research what editors/publishers actually want. If they give instructions for submitting to them, follow them to the letter. 

5) Be professional and polite in your covering letter. You don’t have to write much (unless it’s specified) but let the editor know what you’re sending, what it’s for (bear in mind they’re probably working on several projects at once) and the word count. You can include a bio and story blurb if you wish, but if it’s needed straight away, an editor will usually ask for it.

Find out more about Lucy’s writing and editing projects at http://lucyfelthouse.co.uk

A word from the author

 by Ashley Lister


 I had intended to take these pages down at some point but, because I keep receiving feedback from readers who tell me how inspiring these tips are, I'm going to let them go again. Thank you to all the editors, writers and readers who've supported this projects.

As I've said before, there are some genuine pearls of wisdom here and they're well worth checking out in case you missed them the first time round.