On hiatus due to wedding and honeymoon.

My bachelor part is tonight and I'm getting married on Sunday, so I shall have little time for blogging. When I get back I will post pics and details about my day!
I will be on my honeymoon until next Sunday, I'll be writing, but not blogging. Again, details will be posted!

My contest is still open.

Have a wonderful day all, and keep writing.

Yay Twitter! Contest!

I've said this many times and I will say it again. I love Twitter. I have gotten so much further with my writing career with it than without it. If you are a writer and you're not on Twitter, here's what you're missing:

1.)A fingertip on the pulse of the publishing world. There are tweets and links galore from everyone in the industry 24/7 that provide invaluable information.

2.) #AskAgent! Approximately once a month, a few literary agents volunteer their time to answer questions. Editors often jump in too!

3.) Connections to other authors. This has been my favorite. We constantly motivate each other and share our struggles. In fact, I have found all my critique partners on twitter.

4.) Contests! They are all over the place. You can win free books, critiques, and other fun stuff.

And speaking of contests: I am having one here. My 1000th follower will win his or her choice of one of these gently used classics.

1.)FRANKENSTEIN, by Mary Shelley

2.) INFERNO, the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri

3.) UNCLE TOM'S CABIN, by Harriet Beecher Stowe

4.) JANE EYRE, by Charlotte Bronte

5.) THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE, by William Strunk and E.B. White

Not only that but 2 new random blog followers will be entered, and one who leaves a comment.

On Genre Bending

For years I have been working on and off on a series that breaks so many genre rules that it isn't even funny. In the first book, most of the characters are between ages 17 and 19, which apparently is a no-no for adult romance, but I can't make it YA because they are older in subsequent books. So far I'm gonna call it an urban fantasy, though I don't know how well that'll end up working because eventually the series really begins to lean towards straight fantasy. Either way, there is a love story within every one.

This got me to thinking of other authors that broke the genre rules and made new genres. Laurell K. Hamilton, Lillith Saint Crow, and others pioneered Urban Fantasy. Amanda Ashley, Maggie Shayne, and more started paranormal romance.

Right now I'm reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and damn does it break a lot of rules. I love that it is similar to mine in that it blends urban fantasy with straight fantasy. Not only that, but the fourth novel, WIZARD AND GLASS, completely interrupts the storyline and is all back story. (I have mixed feelings about that one.) All over the place are connections to his other books, as if every story he wrote is part of an interlinked web.

Once you ignore that King is labelled a horror author, it is hard to nail down the genres of some of his stories. The Shawshank Redemption and The Body, to name a few are literary fiction, in my opinion. Really, where would The Dark Tower novels fit if they weren't written by a horror author? Fantasy? Urban Fantasy? Science Fiction? Is it a dystopian? How the hell would one query such an oddball series?

I await your thoughts.

On Anatomy and Romance Plots. Pt. 1

Today we get to talk a little bit about the female sex organs, and since they are far more complicated that even I had imagined, it won't be the first time.
For now, check out this very interesting tidbit I found:

"Contrary to popular myth, the presence or absence of a hymen in no way indicates that a girl or women has or has not had vaginal intercourse. The hymen of some girls totally disappears prior to birth. The tissue of the hymen is very thin, it does not take much tension on the surrounding tissues to cause it to stretch open. Normal childhood activities like spreading the legs widely during gymnastics, riding a bicycle, playing on the jungle gym, and masturbating can result in the hymen disappearing prior to puberty. Later usage of tampons, and the insertion of fingers into the vagina may also stretch the hymen. Some hymen are elastic enough that when a penis is inserted slowly and gently, it may stretch versus tear, so that when the penis is removed, the hymen returns to it prior shape. It appears that about 50% of women experience bleeding when they first have intercourse. This explains the common practices of getting married while a girl is menstruating, inserting a fertilized bird's egg into the vagina, and the staining of the bed sheets with the blood from a chicken when proof of virginity was required."

Quote from site: The-Clitoris.com: Anatomy of the Vulva http://www.the-clitoris.com/n_html/anatomy_of_vulva.htm#frenum


Now think of all the "deflowering" scenes in romance novels, especially historicals. Only 50% bleed? That just opens up a plethora of plot twists.

On a more serious note, it also reassures a few of us that we aren't blocking out memories of childhood rape.

And as for the "fertilized bird's egg," Ewwwww!!!

So, if you have a virginal character, she may not have a hymen. If she doesn't, how will this affect your plot? Will the hero think that she's slept around? Or will he be aware of the fact that if he's gentle, the sheets won't be gory?

Thoughts, please!