Cecilia Robert has already had success with her young adult paranormal Soul Collector series debut, Reaper’s Novice in 2011 and then a contemporary romance, Truly, Madly, Deeply, You this past year and is getting ready to find her home in yet one more genre with Homecoming, a steampunk cum paranormal adult romance. I had an incredible opportunity to ask her a couple questions, which she then indulged me to ask a lot more. This was a great chat and I think I picked her brain to the point where I could probably write parts of her first Cloaked Devices book now. =)
Even after all my blathering on about not wanting to make love on Tuesday from last week, I find myself doing it this week. Funny how things turn out. I think it is probably like that thing where you fight tooth and nail not to turn out like your mother and then you are thirty and you wake up one day and you are like, “Crap in a bucket! Most of the things I do I do the way my mom taught me to do.” My mom is a complete hoarder and I visit her twice a year and I flip so far to the other side when I come home that I frantically search my home for things I can cull from my home. So I have learned to be just like my mother, in the opposite direction.
It has been an age. I would like to say that it hasn’t been a summer lovin’ happened so fast sort of deal that has had me away. Alas, it has been a severe bout of ups and downs. There are four or five drafts in my WordPress post history, but they are either–not edited, not linked to anything or not finished. But today is my day. This is going to be a done deal. What makes me say that? Let me tell you. I have managed to do one of those things that makes me feel completely great about the world at large I woke up at 5am. I love early mornings. They make me feel as if I am the only person in the world and they make me super productive. Other than a 7am dentist appointment I own this day.
So the topic of this blog post is going to be erotica. I proudly wave my smut flag! I actually didn’t realize that there was a difference between romance and erotic romance until about two years ago. I grew up reading both and just thought they were the same thing. Some books were really hot and some were really sweet. I grew up in the country with the population of 1000 people in my town. I bought my books at a used bookstore where I would just go in and say, “Fill up my bag”, at yard sales or at the grocery store. It was just hit and miss in my head. I was lucky because a lot of time a relative would have pity on me and second hand me some subscription books to me. It was paydirt when I found a dirty one with dog-eared pages.
But today I am dog-earring authors for you. I am going to give you some recommendations for some of the bestest ones that I like the most and the series I feel deserve the plug. I had a list of twelve authors and then I tried to slim it down to authors with three or more books and then I thought I would mention both of Suzanne Wright’s series (her other series is one called Deep in Your Veins and it is fantastic, but I wouldn’t really file it under erotica.) I also thought I would sneak Jay Crownover’s Marked Men in here but when I put it in I actually realized that the post was getting way too long. (I swear Jay, I will give you lots of love in a post in the near future.)
Elle Aycart
I found the first book of Elle Aycart’s Bowen series, More Than Meets the Ink, on Amazon last summer either free or for $.99. I remember starting it at bedtime and not being able to put it down until I finished it. Then a few weeks ago I came across the book Heavy Issues and I no recollection of the first Bowen book when I started reading the second. You have to keep in mind that I have read 500 books between then and now so it’s no reflection on the first book. It didn’t matter to me in the least though because Heavy Issues blew me away. It was down and dirty from the moment I saw the first spark between Cole and Christy and I knew the the inferno was quick to follow.
Elle Aycart commands her reader to read on and want more. She has a firm grasp of sensuality and eroticism and her ability to weave a chemistry that burns bright and out of control is her specialty. She doesn’t shy away from sexual fantasy and pushes the boundaries in a way that ask the reader to play with the idea of the line between good fun and too far. And she makes it sound like there is no limit that takes you too far.
I will make the point though that after finishing Heavy Issues I bought Inked Ever After. I suddenly remembered Tate and James. I don’t remember them being as kinky as they were in the novella but I did remember their book though. I also visited Elle Aycart’s blog and I read the two little stories, Epilogue Inked Ever After & Happy Valentine’s Day from the Bowen Brothers. It’s a great series. I never used to read all the little extra parts of book series and then I got hooked. I find them to be a lot like Swedish Fish. It’s one and then the bag.
The Bowen series is a contemporary erotic series that has been reviewed on Goodreads. Elle Aycart can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.
Olivia Cunning The Sinners on Tour series is possibly one of the best rock and roll series I have read. So many out there make rockers out to be something somewhere between moody poets and party frat guys with a lot of tattoos who play guitars. Rockers are gritty, nasty, dirty talking, quickie-takin’, love’em and leave’em, forget your name, lose your number kind of guys. Olivia Cunning writes them that way. They convince you to do things that you wouldn’t tell your best friend. You might even slut shame yourself for it after, but you’d do it in a second if they asked you to do it again. That is the guys of Sinners.
If you are looking for a casual walk through an erotic book the Sinners on Tour books are not for you. These books are beautifully delectable in their explicitness. Over the 5 books many different erotic topics are traversed, from kinky exploration to mènage relations. I’m sure that people who are deeply into certain aspects of each of the specific topics may have issues with how Olivia Cunning wrote and expressed the acts and that is just too bad. Those of us who read for the joy of entertainment will be happy because it is an artform to draw the images that she creates with her descriptions of the libidinous acts of her characters whether or not they are the reality of others. I liked all the books but I could read Jace’s, Hot Ticket, over and over again. He is my favorite Sinner, I love me a wounded hero.
Olivia Cunning can be found on Twitter and Facebook. She has a new book coming soon from her One Night with Sole Regret series. More rockers!
Suzanne Wright
It wasn’t long ago that I became a fan of Suzanne Wright. I had fallen into a werewolf reading spree and I was downloading shifter books from Amazon at a rate that made my husband threaten to cancel my credit card. I came across the book Feral Sins and I judged it by it’s cover and figured it would be pretty ridiculous but fulfill my need to glut on shifter books. I was wrong and never happier to be so. The book was so very good that I went on a Suzanne Wright glut. Taryn, the heroine, is one of my all time favorite female characters. She is strong and funny and she does not put up with anyone ever. Especially not Greta, but they are pretty cute together. The attraction between her and Trey can only be measured by degrees. They work one another up, wear one another down and create some of the fiercest sweat scenes.
I really enjoy alpha males and Trey is territorial and possessive and it makes him act aggressive, arrogant and like an asshole and Taryn fights him tooth and nail which just means that the sex is off the charts. Suzanne Wright’s characters have a very earthy sensuality. It’s extremely visceral and reading it is unlike contemporary romance eroticism because it feels a great deal more like a natural animal magnetism and the urge to possess, overpower and control. It’s all about a male wanting to claim his female. It’s not fucking it’s mating. That being the case Suzanne Wright takes her readers to a place that is quite basic. A fundamental appetite between two sexes to come together and feed a hunger of a never-ending lust.
The Phoenix Pack series is very good although I do feel that both female characters in the two books are very similar. This book series is one of the strongest shifter books series. There are a great many erotic shifter books out there. I think there is actually a biblical commandment that says, Thou shall go forth and write shifter-porn. I really feel that Suzanne has the best blend of story and smut to balance one another and her sexplosions are hot enough to keep you well-heated without making you hide all traces of the book from your mother.
Cherise Sinclair
Speaking of hiding books from your mother. I read Masters of Club Shadowlands and got really interested in reading more BDSM books and looked up some more titles. I found that there are some really, really titilating books out there that I was not ready to read just yet. This book series by Cherise Sinclair is pretty lightweight but still very kinky. Or I guess that is my uneducated opinion, but I don’t know my BDSM very well. However in my eyes this is very good erotica.
The first book left me somewhere around meh and what the hell? I didn’t know what to think so I read the second. I came away with kink where someone says ‘Sir’ is pretty hot. It’s amazing how many different ways to tie someone up are out there. Is this what they train Boy Scouts for? I actually started to wonder if I could get a tour of a club just to see what Club Shadowland would look like. Could I Google BDSM and my area and pray I found the “nice” dirty playground? Please, Sir, can I come and just window shop? My mother and husband would never let me be your friend. They don’t let me put strangers in my mouth. Would any of that work?
Cherise Sinclair responsibly writes her books with disclaimers at the beginning of each one discouraging readers from ignorantly attempting anything they read in her books at their homes with people who are not properly educated in how to perform the acts described. Her knowledge is incredible and she is very articulate regarding the sensations and mindset of her characters. Those characters are varied and the intensity of their feelings and emotions add a realism and depth to the stories. I will not mislead you, a great deal of the stories is spent on tactile delights. Those delights are succinctly spelled out to you in ways that give you a very good idea of what someone who is experiencing that sexual activity might be achieving, I say achieving because it isn’t always as simple as orgasm, and what that relationship is about at that time. A great deal of the sex works on voyeurism and fantasy. That doesn’t mean that the books lack actual plots. The characters are individuals and the secondary characters do exist and they play into the story of other books to support an overall story arc. There is a cohesiveness and complexity beyond the deviant and permissive sex. Most of the books I recommend in this list are a M/F, one on one conventional relationship. A D/s relationship is a lifestyle choice. These books may not be for everyone.
Cherise Sinclair can be found on Twitter and Facebook. The eighth Shadowlands book will be coming soon
Laurann Dohner
This is probably one of my most favorite authors. I actually read a book by her that I really didn’t like before I read any of her other books and I was confused because the book, Mating Set, had almost 4 stars on Goodreads. It felt very silly and the characters seemed unrelatable, I actually disliked them both. But I am not one of those people who have author prejudices. I have been known to read authors time and time again despite not liking their books time after time. My husband makes fun of me constantly. I am pessimistic about almost everything else in my life but I’m the eternal optimist about books. I have faith that eventually it will get better. And if I hadn’t thought this, I would have missed what has quickly become one of my favorite series.
The New Species books are a Sci-fi series about a medical/science corporation that has spent the last twenty or so years testing on humans splicing their DNA with animal DNA. They have kept the hybrids in a facility experimenting on them and trying to breed them and perfect them. Not being human they react by instinct, are extremely primal and now that they are free they are trying to control their animal urges. The humans of the world are suspicious of them and the New Species just want to live in peace. Things become a bit more complex in the first book when Fury meets Ellie and New Species/Human relations goes to the next level. New Species who find their females basically lose control and act on the need to behave as their primative impulse would with their mate. This being the case in most of the books the sex scenes begin early on in the story and they literally burn the ink off the pages. I’m always confused if I’m including the purring and growling as dirty talk or not, but it always feels a lot to me like her men know all the sexy words to say.
Laurann Dohner has also created a great world. The secondary characters have grown since the first book to a true community and if you have been paying attention you can tell them all apart. Earlier characters are often mentioned in later books and you hear updates about prior couples relationships and families. –Oh by the way, did I mention, they purr? Think about that for a second. A man that purrs when he goes south. No more batteries and you can take him everywhere you go.
The other series of hers that I recommend is Cyborg Seduction. (The name makes me imagine the big cyborgs on Battlestar Galactica trying to hump a trash compactor and I don’t know why.–Sorry Ms. Dohner) I have only read the first two, Burning Up Flint and Kissing Steele, so far but the concept is very compelling–and despite it breaking one of my main reading rules–which is no cowboys, no Christmas stories and no aliens, the struggle between the Cyborgs and humans is very interesting. They are not full books like the New Species books, I would call them novellas. Before you think that this might be metal men with human women let me assure you that that is not the case. Cyborgs in this world are a combination of humans with some cybernetic improvements. They have the ability to reproduce children and they have all the functions of a human being, they are just superior in every way.
The Cyborg books have their own brand of steaminess. It is very different than New Species. There is a great deal of dub-con involved. It works both ways between both sexes. Cyborgs can turn on and off their emotions so their is a great deal of using sex as a tool. It’s a whole different element than the other world she writes about. A great deal more controversial sex issues. But when she writes the flesh-smacking-flesh scenes they sizzle.
Both series are absolutely addicting and Laurann Dohner is really the queen of something I once termed on Goodreads as ‘the big salami train’. I appreciate that she has a world in her mind where most of my ex-boyfriends don’t live. In both of her series, the New Species and Cyborg Seduction series the men are the altered characters and the females are humans (I haven’t finished all the books as of the date of this blog post). Both series males have alpha male aspects of a caveman, are incredibly good looking, are more talented with their tongue than Kobe Bryant was playing ball and they are capable of turning a woman to jelly within ten minutes.
Laurann Dohner can be found on her blog, Twitter and Facebook. She is published by Ellora’s Cave, which is one of the largest publishers of erotic romance books. Which is a comment not a plug persay. I mention it because this is a blog post about erotica. I have no affiliation with Ellora’s Cave.
Thank you for reading my post today. I hope it was helpful
Before Harry Potter and Twilight, movies that were adapted from books were usually general fiction with the focus group being just about anyone who would pay for a ticket. Occasionally there were movies that were for a specific audience; Disney films, Lucas films, Larry and Andy Wachowsky adaptions or Steven Spielberg productions. Some made a lot of money and others barely made any impression at all.
Early on, the basis for adaptations included novels–memoirs, comics, plays and in some cases news reports and non-fiction. Cinema banked on the new technology that allowed for the more traditional form of public theater to reach an audience that was titillated by innovation. The tradition of communal entertainment–public execution, sports events, theater, vaudeville, operas, music halls and street performance evolved through time and blossomed with the advent of film.
In the late 1880’s the movie camera was invented and motion pictures, silent films at the time, were shown at social events like carnivals and circuses. People marvelled at this new creation and news of it spread quickly. By the early 20th century the media was sending social and political messages attached to motion pictures to movie viewers and cinema devotees.
That is when the market of film adaptation took root. Some of the earliest stories that made it to the silver screen included, The Little Match Girl, Sherlock Holmes Baffled, Alice in Wonderland and From the Earth to the Moon. I personally wonder if the makers of those films could even conceive of the birth of mass media that would follow. Or the access to film entertainment that would come in future times.
Some of the most popular classic movies were Bela Lugosi’s Dracula, adapted from Bram Stoker‘s novel written in 1897. Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel Frankenstein, that solidified the fame of Boris Karloff. Technicolor wonder, The Wizard of Oz, which shot Judy Garland’s star into the night sky. Interestingly, at the time that The Wizard of Oz was released it wasn’t received well. Later when it was shown on television the film found a revival of interest. While other films like Gone With The Wind, starring Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara, received 10 Academy Awards the year after it’s release. Clark Gable made movie-goers swoon when a handsome Rhett Butler mutter the famous words, “My dear, I don’t give a damn” on film.
Not only were novels adapted from books, comic books and graphic novels began to make a real splash as well. Superman was brought to life by Christopher Reeve. Batman became popular when first adapted by Tim Burton and then reintroduced when Christopher Nolan, rebooting the winged hero with the Dark Knight Trilogy. Marvel flooded the market with Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spiderman, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor and the rather terrible Daredevil.
In 2001 when J.K. Rowling’s young adult books, Harry Potter, were given a new life in film, and a new genre of book adaptations became popular. Prior to Harry Potter fame, young adult books might occassionally be adapted to television with a small demographic of viewers. The Jason Katims TV show Roswell, which was inspired by the Melinda Metz books Roswell High, is a good example. The response to Rowling’s already incredibly popular books was extraordinary. The interest in the teen genre exploded and soon after other young adult books were being shopped to studios hoping to be picked up for cinema and television.
Stephanie Meyer’sTwilight Saga grossed over 390 million worldwide with it’s first film alone. Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattenson’s names began to be on the tips of lips everywhere making them very appealing to the paparazzi. The following four films–New Moon, Eclipse and the two Breaking Dawn films created more and more of a stir. The books, which follow the love affair between a human girl and her vampire boyfriend, fed the interests of teenagers everywhere and soon other vampire novels began to get a great deal of attention from producers and studios.
L.J. Smith‘s Vampire Diaries premiered on the CW channel in 2009, the cast included teenage heartthrob Ian Somerhalder, and millions tuned in every week for more Damon Salvatore. Originally written in 1991, The trilogy included the titles of The Awakening, The Struggle and The Fury. After almost twenty years L.J. Smith returned to the literary world of Mystic Falls to write even more books based on the same characters. Currently the book series contains twelve books. Personally, I think that the original three were pretty bad. I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that though.
Probably the newest Vampire series to have caught Hollywood’s attention is Vampire Academy, creation of author Richelle Mead. In six books the story of Rose Hathaway and her best friend Lissa Dragomi stretches from their first introduction ofSt. Vladimir’s Academy to ultimate domination. A dark world of power struggle and forbidden love fill the pages. The film, Vampire Academy: Blood Sisters, is currently in the process of casting actors. Zoey Deutch and Danila Kozlovsky will be playing the parts of Rose and Dimitri. No one else has been announced at this time.
But young adult adaptations aren’t all about bloodsuckers. There are numerous novels being slated for film and the genre varies.
In 2012 viewers flocked to movie theaters to see the first installment of Suzanne Collins dystopian tale, The Hunger Games. The novel is about Katniss Everdeen, a teen who lives in a world segregated by districts distinguished by wealth, social status and political strain. Jennifer Lawerence received critical acclaim for her portrayal of the character as a role model for young girls, strong and intelligent. The trials and tribulations of Katniss and Peta mark a path that pairs them together in order to survive The Hunger Games.
Philip Pullman’s popular fantasy books, His Dark Materials Trilogy, became known as one of the least liked film adaptations of the last decade. The Golden Compass, also known as Northern Lights, was released in 2007. A key component of the books is the religious implications of the importance of the human soul. The adaptation attempted to play down the controversial elements of Christian faith. By obscuring the original story the plot fell short. Despite the stunning visual effects fans were unhappy and the film flopped.
Currently in the process of being filmed is Cassandra Clare’sCity of Bones. The approval and interest of fans regarding the first book adaptation of the The Mortal Instruments was rewarded when a green light was given for the second book prior to the finish of the first. The Mortal Instruments books have a large cast of characters and fans debated and commented on Clare’s website as they were cast. Clary Fray and Jace Wayland, played by Lily Collins and Jaime Campbell-Bower, are the main concern of the first three novels. Clare later built on the initial trilogy adding more books. The voice of Clary, who dominates the books–City of Bones, City of Ashes and City of Glass is joined by characters, Simon Lewis, Alec Lightwood and Jace Wayland/Lightwood, in the books that follow.
Veronica Roth’sDivergent series, another dystopian society book, has garnered a good deal of fandom squeeing. The reaction to the casting of the two main characters, Four–Theo James, and Tris–Shailene Woodley has been positive. The plot, a world of a five faction society based on specific virtues, spends a great deal of time focusing on the concept of political control. Tris, is born to one faction but at her sixteenth birthday she is tested and finds she can choose another. In the faction she has choosen, the strongest and most fearless of those in that society, things become suspect. Soon she discovers a plot to control her faction and use them as a tool to control the others.
The Fault in Our Stars is a heart wrenching story of two young people living with cancer. Written by contemporary American writer and YouTube vloggerJohn Green, The Fault in Our Stars looks at the poignancy and fraility of youth. Faced with the horrors of cancer, The hero, Augustus Waters, waxes poetic and philosophically searches for meaning in all things. The story is told from heroine, Hazel’s, POV and reveals a girl who is surviving cancer rather than dying from it. There has been some controversy by book reviewers that Green was cashing in on tragedy, most readers don’t agree. Overall the book has been celebrated for it’s meaningful message and noteable quotes.
“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”
The woman who acted as guide to many females–pre-teens and young adults for over forty years is finally seeing one of her novels adapted to film. Judy Blume, winner of over 90 literary awardshas co-written the screenplay of Tiger Eyes with her son Larry Blume. Released in limited theaters on June 7, 2013 the plot is a look at a young girl’s grief at the loss of a parent. Blume’s celebrated insight and wisdom has addressed topics from masturbation to bullying and all those issues that touch nearly every girl in between those two things.
A great many adaptations are quite faithful to their inspiration. Like all things which go from the hand of one person to another–views, ideas and prominent points change. As a reader you may think one adaptation is a success and another is a travesty. It’s either great to see something you imagined interpreted in a similar fashion to your own ideas. Or it is heartbreaking to see a novel you enjoyed massacred. I am a firm believer in letting your voice be heard. Never be shy, if you can’t find a place to comment on the things you like or dislike publically, tell a friend. Opinions might be a little like buttholes, but no one can ever say you are better off without one. After all, that just means you are full of shit.
This has been a very long and involved look at the history and result of adaptation. Thank you for sticking with me and seeing it through.
Good Morning! Today is a glorious Thursday and tomorrow D and I leave to fly out to Manassas, VA for a week with his parents. I’m really excited to be going back to the DC area because there is just so much history there. I love seeing the old houses, battlefields and cemeteries. I look forward to seeing the family too since we rarely get to spend time with them. But I won’t be able to get past my book addiction even while I’m there.
I have a Goodreads account and I am so fastidious about it. I would say that I visit the website at least two or three times a day. I’m always marking the last book I read or adding to my ‘To Read List’. But Goodreads is something that I only discovered in April of this year. I immediately found the 2012 Reading Challenge and put in the number of books I would read before the end of this year. Because I have an OCD about numbers with the ending of 3,6 or 9, I set my goal as 199 books. I know it sounds like a lot but this, reading, is what I do (okay, I write too!) and it makes me pretty happy. So today is the 27 December 2012 and I have read 201 books for this year so far. I’m pretty happy with myself. I plan to set my goal for 2013 at 333. But before I get there I’d like to give myself another challenge, a 30 in 30 goal. For the next 30 days I will read the books from the list I will be building today.
So to show my extreme attentiveness to detail I will admit that my notebook, which I use as a day-to-day bible, contains lists of things to do, noting ideas for writing stories and a list of movies to be seen and books to read which are already on my kindle. From the 787 books to read I am picking this 30. Oh this is so exciting because until I start the list I won’t even know what they are…
There it is, my list. I plan to do some book reviews of some of these books. A lot of them are Young Adult, which is what I really read a lot of. I know I’ve been badly educated not having read The Hobbit yet. I’ll be fixing that within the next month. I’m going to ride this all out and see how it goes. Maybe you can make your own list, a shorter list, and see how many you can read.
Cecilia Robert has already had success with her young adult paranormal Soul Collector series debut, Reaper’s Novice in 2011 and then a contemporary romance, Truly, Madly, Deeply, You this past year and is getting ready to find her home in yet one more genre with Homecoming, a steampunk cum paranormal adult romance. I had an incredible opportunity to ask her a couple questions, which she then indulged me to ask a lot more. This was a great chat and I think I picked her brain to the point where I could probably write parts of her first Cloaked Devices book now. =)
