November 14th, 2009 — Writing Tips
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For this article we're going to skip over the titillating parts about raging tumescence and disintegrating virginal barriers otherwise known as land of frankness and euphemisms. We won't be discussing weeping fluids, honey, dew, or the elixir of love. We're doing this American and bypassing all foreplay and going straight for the mechanics of making love/having sex.
Word choice says it all; how an author is feeling about their characters, what the characters are feeling, and what the readers will get from experiencing the passion vicariously. Compelling vocabulary attracts the reader and continued use keeps them involved while the use of bizarre or crass diction yanks readers out of the zone so fast it'll make the ink fly right off the page. Not good! How do you prevent that? Application of the appropriate kind of words! Well... that and variety! This is why I urge writers to make lists.
I've compiled my own list of terms and presented them here for the express purposes of sharing and expansion. Below you'll find a series of alphabetized words used in describing the physical movements and actions of mating by both men and women in literary sex. For the purpose of this list they are all presented in present participle form or aka the verb coupled with an ing. Of course in practical application they will have to be conjugated to the right tense.
Thrusting
- Breaching
- Burying
- Driving
- Easing
- Entering
- Feeding
- Filling
- Fitting
- Flexing
- Forcing
- Fucking
- Gliding
- Impaling
- Invading
- Joining
- Lunging
- Mating
- Mounting
- Moving
- Nudging
- Parting
- Penetrating
- Piercing
- Pinning
- Plowing
- Plunging
- Pressing
- Probing
- Prodding
- Pumping
- Punctuating
- Puncturing
- Pushing
- Ramming
- Riding
- Rocking
- Rooting
- Rutting
- Seeking
- Settling
- Shoving
- Sinking
- Slamming
- Sliding
- Slipping
- Spearing
- Stretching
- Stroking
- Stuffing
- Teasing
- Twitching
- Undulating
- Working
Opening
- Absorbing
- Accepting
- Arching
- Blooming
- Blossoming
- Clamping
- Clasping
- Clenching
- Clinging
- Clutching
- Contracting
- Cradling
- Drawing
- Enclosing
- Engulfing
- Enveloping
- Flowering
- Gathering
- Grasping
- Grinding
- Gripping
- Guiding
- Holding
- Hugging
- Inviting
- Keeping
- Locking
- Melding
- Melting
- Milking
- Molding
- Parting
- Pressing
- Pulling
- Pulsing
- Quivering
- Reaching
- Receiving
- Robbing
- Seeking
- Squeezing
- Taking
- Throbbing
- Trembling
- Tugging
- Urging
- Widening
- Wrapping
- Yielding
While this list is fairly comprehensive, it is by no means complete. That said, what words would you add? What have you come across on your own reading and writing adventures?
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Originally posted 2009-03-17 05:41:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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September 28th, 2009 — 1 Star, Arabia/Middle East, Book Review, Bride Stealing, Category, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, Great Britain, Interracial, Kings, Princes, Sheiks, Chiefs, Mistaken Identity, Sheik/Desert, V-Z
How can I put this lightly? The novel was crap. How terrible? Really terrible. I could break down the awful for you (warning this is the whole plot and is full of spoilers):
Heroine to self: My brother is in prison and only the Sheik can help.
Hero to self: Next time my baby half-brother is getting his own wife.
Heroine and Hero lock eyes – every sane thought drops from head.
Heroine to self: I’m so hot and bothered.
Heroine aloud: You can’t do this to Andy!
Hero to self: I’m so hot and bothered. That apron is hot. She must be maid and lover to Andrew – so jealous.
Hero aloud: I can do what I want!
Insert massive make-out scene that gets interrupted by father.
Hero aloud: Meet me at my hotel at eight.
Later at hotel Hero and Heroine getting it on and right before anything good happens…
Heroine aloud: More!
Hero aloud: We have all night!
Heroine aloud: And for the rest of our married lives.
Hero freezes. All action stops.
Hero aloud: WTF?
Heroine aloud: But- but you told my father you wanted to marry me – that by marrying you, my brother would go free.
Heroine to self: Marrying you would be no hardship… meow.
Hero aloud: No I didn’t. My stupid moronic half-brother who’s going to be dumb enough to fly his helicopter into the sea in three chapters is going to marry you. I am the Sheik of the neighboring country and you’re a gold digging witch.
Which boils down to the Hero kidnapping Heroine upon arrival into his brother’s country for her ‘protection’ that then leads to the half-brother is dead news and of course this leads to the Hero saying, ‘Same deal. Marry me instead.’ Poor Heroine is confused but the sex clears her head and they decide to get married until she can’t go through with it unless he loves her (I totally thought it was going to be the whole I can’t have babies, because another neighboring sheik/wife couple showed up and the wife was pregnant). Hero tells Heroine he loves her. Heroine is happy, repeats the same sentiments. The end.
Honestly? Why are stories with Harlequin such a crap-shoot? Most times they’re just meh… average. Sometimes you get lucky and they’re great. However you’ll stumble upon one of these and are like WTF? Why am I still reading this BS? How did this get published?
Rating: 1 Star
Originally posted 2009-01-26 05:12:32. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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July 14th, 2009 — Beauty and Fashion, Book Intro, Contemporary, D-F, Guest Blogger, Lawyer, United States of America
By Marie Force, guest blogger.
Thanks for having me today and for the lovely review of my second book, Love at First Flight. I’m so glad you enjoyed the flight! I thought it would be fun to give your readers a taste of the book with an excerpt that’s never been made public before now. Enjoy!
As they left Baltimore and all their troubles behind, Juliana began to relax.
“How long will it take to get there?” she asked Michael.
“Six or seven hours, depending on the traffic on the Jersey Turnpike, the Cross Bronx Expressway, and in Connecticut, which is always the worst.”
“Do you usually fly or drive?”
“I fly because I never have much time, but I prefer to drive.”
“If I had this car, I’d prefer to drive, too.”
“Want to?”
Her eyes widened. “Really?”
He pulled over. “Really.”
Juliana clapped her hands with glee and jumped out of the car to change places with him. Once in the driver’s seat, she put on her seatbelt, shifted the car into first gear, and hit the gas.
“Jesus!” he said, gripping the armrest with alarm.
Juliana smiled at him. “Hold on to your hat, baby.”
“I’ve never gotten to Connecticut this fast—ever,” Michael said just over three hours later. “How about giving me a turn?”
Juliana smiled. “Nope. I’m having too much fun.”
He cringed when she darted between two semis. “You’re stressing me out.”
“Don’t look.”
“The way you’re changing lanes, I’ll puke if I close my eyes.”
“I never knew you were such a wimp.”
“You weren’t calling me a wimp last night.”
Snorting, she glanced over at him. “Just a tad bit full of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Watch the road!”
Cruising along the southern coast of Connecticut, Juliana confessed that she hadn’t been to New England before.
“Never?”
“Nope. We didn’t really go anywhere when I was growing up. A daytrip to Ocean City was a big deal.”
He reached for her hand. “You didn’t have an easy go of it as a kid, did you?”
She shrugged. “It was what it was. Most of the time, it was just my parents and me since the next oldest—Vincent—was eight years older than me.”
“And your parents were unhappy together?”
“That’s putting it mildly. They fought like cats and dogs—when my mother wasn’t loaded, that is.”
“Your brothers and sisters weren’t around?”
“Not unless they had to be. They all moved out as soon as they turned eighteen.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Well, by then my father was heavily into his ‘extracurricular activities,’ as my mother called them, and she was hitting the bottle pretty hard. I just felt like I needed to be there with her.”
“So how did you end up moving out?”
She glanced over at him and then back at the road.
“Juliana?”
“Jeremy kind of put his foot down about it. He hates the way my family treats me, so he insisted I move out of my mother’s house and in with him.”
“He insisted?”
“He gave me the push I needed to do something about a bad situation.”
“Like an ultimatum?”
“Of course not.”
“I’m sorry.”
“He didn’t give me an ultimatum, Michael. It wasn’t like that.”
“It’s none of my business,” Michael said, looking out the passenger window.
Juliana tugged on his hand. “Hey. Don’t check out on me. What’re you thinking?”
“I forget sometimes that you’re not really free. Then I’ll remember all of a sudden, and it just kind of hits me right here.” He ran a hand over his gut.
She sighed.
He looked over at her. “What am I going to do if you go back to him?”
“Can we not do this?” she pleaded. “I don’t have to make any decisions today, tomorrow, or even the next day. Can we just be together for now?”
He studied her for a long time before he answered. “I guess we can do that.” Kissing her hand, he added, “For now.”
Have you ever been impossibly torn between two men? If so, how did you decide which one you belonged with? I’ll give one copy of each of my books—Line of Scrimmage and Love at First Flight—to two different people, so leave a comment for a chance to win! Already read Line of Scrimmage? Just let me know.
If you wish to discuss all the rules I broke in Love at First Flight, join me Monday, July 20, at 7 p.m. EDT on my blog (http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com) for a Book Club discussion. Warning, there will be spoilers, so make sure you read the book before the party! I’ll be giving away some great prizes to participants.
Once you’ve read the book, come by my website at www.mariesullivanforce.com to find out how to enter the contest for the Love at First Flight Grand Prize gift basket. I’ll accept answers to daily questions about the book through July 15. The winner will be announced during the July 20 Book Club Meeting.
Buy: Love at First Flight
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April 8th, 2009 — 1 Star, Acting, Contemporary, G-I, Guest Reviews, Journalism, United States of America
By: Cara Lynn, guest reviewer
Some Nerve by Jane Heller promised to be an interesting book, but it turned out to be less than I had hoped for.
The cover looked intriguing, but alas, the story could have been summed up in about 10 pages.
Plus it is quite dated, printed in 2006, and opening with Britney Spears pregnant with her first child. It shows how careful one should be in including various trivia, even if the book is about the fictional Ann Roth, who writes about celebrities.
When Roth's boss demands she go for the main man, the big get, Malcolm Goddard who refuses all interviews and thinks the worst of interviewers to the stars, she has every intention of being the killer journalist her boss expects.
Alas, she is afraid to fly. Goddard knows this too and says he will accept the interview only if she does it aboard his plane.
She can't do it.
She is fired and goes back to her family, where Goddard ends up hospitalized to avoid the paparazzi. She, in turn, decides to become a candy striper in order to get close to him and get a story.
Of course, they fall in love. Goddard doesn't recognize her. She doesn't tell him at all. He thinks she is honest. She wishes she were. Someone sends her story, not her. But all ends well in the end.
There is humor, some laughs out loud, but for the most part this book details again and again and again and...you get the idea...about her fear(s). I ended up skipping huge sections of it except for a sentence here and there.
And there are some decidedly unlikeable characters and situations in the book.
I give it a 1.
I will read at least one more of her books.
If you would like to write LRP a review, we would love to have you. There are many romances and only me to review. Your participation would greatly help out LRP's growing archive. Look here for submission guidelines.
Originally posted 2008-07-10 05:18:22. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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