An Open Letter to All the Dreamers

This is the Righteous Perverts Pulpit so I decided to preach a little sermon. We talk a lot about books in RP, but we also try to lift each other up and support one another by talking about our experiences. This is mine.


So I’ve spent the last year watching an awful lot of reality TV. I don’t love the “lifestyle” versions. So no Real Housewives or stuff. But I do love the competition shows because that’s where the real drama is. Not in the Botoxed, I married I millionaire shows, but in “American Idol” and “The Voice” and “Top Chef” and “Project Runway”. Real people with real talent praying for the American Dream. I feel for these contestants. And I know the moment they run down the wrong path.

What bugs me? “This was my chance.” “I blew my only shot.”

What? These are kids crying and swearing that their lives are over because a panel of judges said no. Yes, they are a powerful panel and yes, it’s a great shot. But I know something they don’t know.

I ain’t the only one.

This is the part where I tell a little of my story. I’m a forty-two year old who, up until three years ago, was a housewife. Nothing wrong with that, but my whole life revolved around my children and my husband and the voices in my head were on the back burner because that was just a little pipe dream. I’d written three books and tried to get some interest going. No luck. Three books over nine years. I’d tried, right? I’d had my shot. I was thirty-eight and if you haven’t made it by then, you probably won’t.

That’s what I thought. So when my husband asked me what I wanted after I’d supported him through his MBA, I said another baby. I wanted to hold on to my youth. I’d only really been a mom. Baby number three was on her way and I didn’t have to worry about a time when I wasn’t someone’s mom. I could put off being me.

Sometimes change comes in the sweetest packages. I almost died giving birth to my baby girl. I can still hear my doctor cursing and see him sweating because I was bleeding out. They made my husband leave after they managed to get her out of me. I was given some really awesome drugs and I remember everything that was said, but I also remember thinking that it was okay if I died because she was born and it was okay.

And when I came off that table, I was a different human being entirely.

I was awake. I was alive. I was ready.

I wrote six books that year. It had taken me nine years to write three before, but I was open and a flood of emotion poured from me. I had so much to say, so much to do and nothing could stop me.

New York editors told me no. Agents told me no. Everyone told me no. And I kept on. There was no one chance. There was only the next chance. The next shot. The next street to try to turn down.

I am now forty-two years old with the sweetest baby girl ever. And I have a dream that has played out. It’s not what I thought it would be when I was twenty. I thought I would write a book a year and live in a mansion.

It’s better. I write everyday. I reach out and put myself out there and what I get back is so much more than money. It’s real connection. It’s knowing I meant something to a stranger. It’s knowing I made a difference.

And I still get turned down. Those first six books I wrote? I love them, but I’ve now been turned down by almost big publishing house in New York. And that’s after I’ve sold a ton of books and with a big agent behind me. The rejections don’t stop, but that doesn’t mean a damn thing if you really believe.

So for all of you dreamers who think it’s over, I’m here to tell you it’s only over when you decide it is. Life has the funniest way of showing us different paths. That dream that we thought we couldn’t have can morph slightly and turn out to be better than we could have hoped.

Be open. Embrace all the roads and avenues that are offered. Never stop believing that the path is closed no matter who says “no” to you. In the end, the only “no” that matters is the “no” say to yourself.

Believe. Dream. Live. And I will be rooting for you.

A contest – because I love to give away stuff! Leave a comment and get your name placed in a drawing for a signed copy of any of my books in paperback. Contest ends February 4,2013. Winner will be announced here in the comments. Good Luck!!


Sophie Oak writes erotic romance for Siren Publishing. Her latest novel, Once Upon a Time in Bliss, is available now at Siren-Bookstrand.

Expectations

I was told this was an important subject that should be addressed in a blog and since it was brought up while someone was reading my blog, I guess that means I needed to write it.  So here I am on a Sunday afternoon and instead of reading a book that is calling out to me, I am writing a blog on expectations and responsibilities. I know there will be some authors and readers out there that will want to hunt me down and beat my ass about this blog, so let me start pissing them off right now.

I feel that both the author and the reader have a certain responsibility in their relationship. I am not talking about ass kissing the author or commenting on each review or post that a reader makes. A reader/author relationship is a strange thing. Sometimes it is fan worship. Other times it is a support group. Each person has their own job in the relationship, and we forget it once in a while. This blog is a reminder to both parties what their job is. No, I am not Dr.Phil and yes, this is my personal opinion on it. You can stop reading here or continue and see what gobblygook I am spouting on about.

Readers like to gush about a book and how much they love the author and that is great. But the big question is—Is it really true? I am going to admit I am guilty of this occasionally. Sometimes the book is not fantastic. It is good but not great. I can remember parts of it but not all of it. I read a lot and that means it takes a lot to get me to remember a book. I have a horrible memory, but there are some books that just never leave my melon.

Now we come to the responsibility of the reader. An author does not know if they are reaching a reader, if everyone just says that the book is awesome. Sometimes you need to reach out to the author in a PRIVATE place, not on their Facebook wall but in a message. Send them an email. There are a lot of ways to contact authors. Be honest, but remember that this book is their baby. Treat them with the respect that you would want someone to treat you with. Don’t try and tell them how to write their books. Tell them what you liked or didn’t like about the book. Be specific. They will not be able to fix the book you are talking about, but it may give them something to think about when they sit down to write the next book. They can’t fix what they don’t know is broken. I can tell you as a beta reader that you can’t catch everything. Sometimes it takes a fresh set of eyes to see something.

This is not the only responsibility that a reader has to an author. I will admit I am guilty of this one too. Patience. I hate this word, but I know that I have to learn to deal with the fact that an author can’t just pop a book out every other day. Writing is a long process. Sometimes with new authors it doesn’t seem that way. You want to know why? It is because a few of them have slaved over a book for years. Then they put it away and write a few more. Then they pull out that first one and say, “Today I am going to submit this book.” Then if they are lucky, it gets accepted. Now the fun begins. There is a process that takes time from when the book gets accepted to the time it is available for purchase. We are not talking days. We are talking months. In the meantime, they have sent in all the other books they have written. So from the time the first book is published till their next book is available may be just a month apart, but it was written sometimes years apart.

For most authors it takes several months to write a book. From the time they type the end till it gets published is even a few more months. I know we wish that we could read books one right after another, but that is not possible. You have to give the author time to not just conceive the plot and characters but to write the book. Then there is the process of getting it published. Most authors want to give us the books we are asking for, but they need the support of their fans to give them the time to write the books. Oh we can ask them about the books and sometimes, they will be able to give us hints, but we have to remember what a long process writing actually is. So suck it up, Buttercup and stop hounding the authors.

Now to what I feel is the author’s responsibilities. We, as your readers, should expect to get the best book you can write. If you are an author and expect us to give you our money then we should get quality books. I know that every book is not going to be awesome, but I expect a well written book.

I am a character reader. I like the characters that could be my neighbor (if he was hot and rich). I want to be able to remember them after I have closed the book. I want a story that makes me laugh, cry, or get angry. Your job as an author is to make me care about the characters and what they are going through. 

Are you going to hit it out of the park everytime you are releasing a book, probably not. But if you put your heart into it then I will respect that sometimes a book just doesn’t gel. Most authors I know want to put out the best book they can, but so many things go into it. They have families that also need attention. Maybe their muse has become a bitch and won’t talk to them. It could be anything that can make a great idea go a bit off center. 

Now here is where I am really going to piss some off. I have found several authors that are just pumping out books. I have read a lot of them. I still like the books, but they don’t resonate with me. I can’t remember the characters or, hell, even the plot lines. Sometimes it is because there is no plot and the characters are one dimensional, at best.

As money gets tighter, I have found that I would rather buy quality over quantity. I have stopped buying a lot of these authors. These books are good for a quick read but not for much else. If I gave one of these books to a friend then chances are it would not make a fan out of them. 

Now don’t get me wrong. There are some authors out there that can totally write a book in a week. These authors are few and far between. If they do self-publishing, they can get the books out to the readers much faster because there are fewer hoops to jump through.

I don’t expect the moon and stars but sometimes we are lucky and get both from an author. This is because they put their heart and soul into the book and we as readers are doing our part in giving them feedback and supporting them when they are writing.

So are you holding up your part of the relationship?

 

Sinfully sarcastic,

Shmuttmeister

Melissa Schroeder's A Little Harmless Fantasy

Hello, everyone! If you don’t know me, my name is Melissa Schroeder and I write all kinds of books. I am best known for my Harmless series, which is mainly a BDSM series and MAINLY set in Hawaii.

I recently released A Little Harmless Fantasy which is the first ménage of the series. I have had scenes in some of the other books, but I never had a committed ménage before. When I first introduced Maura and Zeke in A Little Harmless Lie, I knew they would end up together. It took me a year or so to figure out how though. I knew they would be part of a ménage, but as I tried to come up with something to work, I could not seem to find a good fit. Then, Rory popped up.

Rory is one of those tortured kind of guys. Okay not really tortured but he’s had a hard life and he tends to be a bit of an ass because of it. Zeke and Rory have been on and off lovers for years, but this time Rory has made a commitment to stay. The only problem they have in their relationship is Maura. Zeke is still in love with her too, and Rory doesn’t like that. Proposing a threesome is one way for him to control it.

I have written ménage before and I have written one MMF prior to this. ALH Fantasy, though, was kind of emotional for me to write. I wanted to make sure that everyone’s relationship worked out the way it should and that the reader didn’t feel short-changed.  There are actually three relationships outside of the ménage (Rory and Zeke, Maura and Zeke, Maura and Rory) and I wanted to develop them well enough the reader felt satisfied.

Here is a little peek at Rory telling Maura just what they like to do, something Zeke had kept from her before:

A LITTLE HARMLESS FANTASY-read the entire first chapter
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He straightened and set his glass on the counter beside him before approaching her. With every step he took toward her, her pulse increased. Having Rory concentrate on her and only her was almost too much for her to take. Her nerves were sparking with an energy that she hadn’t felt before in his presence.
“Zee didn’t call it off because you couldn’t give him what he needs.”
She snorted to hide the pain. “I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”
He settled one hand against the counter then the other, effectively caging her in. She felt trapped, but for some reason, she didn’t want to escape. Her nipples were hard against the lace of her bra and her mouth was suddenly dry. It was just like when they had been at her car.
“Zeke never explained it to you, did he?” Rory asked, his voice drawing the words out, his Irish accent thickening.
She shook her head because she could not speak. All the air in her lungs seemed to back up and her throat clogged. He was looking directly into her eyes and she felt herself melting.
“Zeke doesn’t like to play at BDSM.”
She sighed and inwardly cringed at the wistful sound. She hated that she sounded like a little lost girl.
 “I know.”
“I do though.”
She shook her head even though she knew it was true. She had heard the rumors, but she had never believed it because Zeke hated BDSM. He didn’t like playing either role with men or women.
Rory nodded, one side of his mouth curving up. God he was driving her crazy with small gestures. No wonder Zeke was so in love with the man. He could probably seduce the most conservative man into bed.
“And here’s a little secret,” he said, his voice rougher than before. He leaned closer until his mouth was against her ear. His warm breath feathered against her skin and she shivered.
She needed to get some control over the situation and, not to mention, her body. “What’s your secret?”
He chuckled and she realized he had been waiting for her to ask. “Well, love, Zee likes to watch.”

~~~~~~~~~~

Want a chance at a 10.00 GC? Well, let me know if you like reading ménage and what kind?
Make sure to pick up the prequel to Fantasy for free at most stores:
Prelude to a Fantasy
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My First Time

           

Yep, time for me to write another blog. *sigh* You have a dirty mind because I know what you were thinking from the title of today’s blog, you nosy heifers. Today’s actual topic is Authors Love them or Hate Them???

Wait. Scratch that…maybe, that is another blog for me to write later. Mwahahahaha. Nope, today is about meeting authors. I will tell you about my first author meeting. I know this is going to be hard to believe, but I have fan girl moments all the time. I usually am all alone, but I have them. My boys at work are so tired of hearing about my authors. I am surprised they haven’t killed me yet.

Moving on to my first author meeting…hmmmm, let me think a moment. Oh yes, I remember now. It was just a few years ago. Now let me just tell you that I never in my wildest dreams thought I would meet an author. I live in the middle of nowhere Illinois; no one ever comes here so I just never let the thought cross my mind. Then one day I was talking to a friend in Nebraska whom I was going to visit for the first time. I was checking to see what date would be good for both of us. Then I found the perfect week. Sherrilyn Kenyon, with whom I am slightly obsessed, was going to be in Kansas City, Missouri which was only three hours from my friend’s house. I figured hell I was already driving nine hours to meet Debs so three hours to meet Sherri, piece of cake.

The trip was planned and off I went. I spent a few days with Debs and we planned the trip in detail. Okay, not really. I just put the address in my gps. I put in some of my favorite music, and we hit the road.  I took every hardback book I had of Sherri’s along with the first book of each series.

The great thing about Sherri is she will sign all your books, if the stores will let her. We got to the bookstore early and scoped out the best seats. We wandered around the mall for a bit and let me tell you that was a huge ass mall. It was about three hours till the signing so back to the bookstore we went.

We picked our seats and copped a squat to wait. More and more people started showing up and pretty soon it was standing room only. I was excited and very nervous as well. I mean hell it was SHERRILYN KENYON!!!

Finally the time was upon us. She came out to huge applause. Dianna Love tours with her so she keeps everyone entertained while Sherri is signing. I had read Dianna because she writes the Bad Series with Sherri. They talked and answered questions for about an hour then the actual signing began. Dianna was giving away lots of swag and kept everyone in stitches while we waited. I was having so much fun I started to relax.

The line was long, and it was going on hour three of waiting when I noticed there were just a few of us left. I started to get nervous again. We stood up to get in line, and I started to get really jumpy and twitchy. Finally, I was the next person in line. I started to panic. What do I say? Will I make a fool out of myself? Will I toss my cookies all over her. All the scenarios played through my head at warp speed.

She looks up and smiles and asked me my name and said something about me being a huge fan judging by the amount of books I had brought with me. Just like that I relaxed because she made me feel so comfortable just by smiling and mentioning my love of books. She never made me feel rushed and she took the time to answer some questions that I had and posed with us for pictures. I am so glad she was my first author.

Now you know about my first time. What was yours? Or are you still holding on to your author cherry for just the right one to come along?  If you have had a wonderful author experience and would like to share, just contact us and we can set it up for you.


Sinfully Sarcastic,

Shmuttmeister

Who Am I and How Did I Get Here?

The answers to those questions are – Luna and that’s a bit of a long story. I have the name Luna due to the fact I was born on a Monday during a full moon. Fits, doesn’t it? I think so too. No it's not my real name, it's my 'nom de internet" seeing as I'm not very fond on my real name.

The whole how I got here started about 5 years ago on Sherrilyn Kenyon’s web site message board. I began talking with a woman there by the name of Tina. We bonded over books at that site for a couple of years, I even started doing banners with my Gimp graphics program for people to use when they posted. Then the site was revamped and the whole message board got canned. Bummer. Those of us who hung out on that site moved on over to Facebook where some of us kept in touch and others lost touch.
Tina and I were two that kept in touch. Tina had started up this Facebok group called Kris Cook’s Chatters for readers of erotic romance books who went to Kris’s chat site and yammered about all sorts of crazy stuff. One day Tina asked me to  make some stuff for her for one of Kris’s books she’d read. I asked her if she could tell me a bit about the story of it so I could get an idea of what to do graphically for it to make it fit right. Sounded kind of interesting to me. After I’d finished, she lent me the book. That’s the start of how I got here. Tina’s “Perversion Conversion” began. I cheekily referred to her as “Shmuttmeister” for the lovely smutty books she read and introduced me to. I joined the Kris Cook’s Chatters and became a regular in the chats too. One day Sophie Oak, an author who frequented the group and chats called the group a bunch of Righteous Perverts in the dedication of her book Siren Enslaved. The name stuck and the group morphed from Kris Cook’s Chatters to The Righteous Perverts. The chat site was renamed as well.

Over the past year since the renaming, we have continued to chat every Wednesday night and we still hang out in the Facebook group, talking about what books we’ve recently read, what up coming books we are looking forward to and even simple things as how our days have gone or vented about what’s bothered us in our lives. Then one day we all decided we needed to get together and finally meet in person! Yes awkward to do since most are spread out over America, and like me, in another country all together from the majority of members. But meet we did, down in Texas for the Cinco De Mayo weekend. There it was where I’d at last met the Shmuttmeister, the corruptor of the (not so) innocent! Yes, it only took three years for me to finally smack her ass in person. Yup, I literally smacked it. With a paddle. In an adult sex toy shop. In Texas. No we weren’t alone when it happened. We were with the other Righteous Perverts members who flew in to Texas to do “Fig Fest” – that’s what we called the gathering. I was the only non-American there… so technically it’s was the international Fig Fest meet n’ greet. Yay for Canadian content. Anyways, we had a wicked fun weekend hanging out and I managed to drag my ass onto a plane despite my fear of flying (and the panic attack I had in the airport in Toronto). I would so do it again to do the next get-together.

Now begins the next era of the group, the bloggy thingie as I call it. The group will now have a blog where we yammer about random weirdness or whatever tickles our fancy. So onward we go with The Righteous Perverts, the book club for those who love romance and all it’s sub-genres… yes even the kinky erotic stuff :P

Luna

Pervert Guides

Hi and welcome to the Righteous Perverts Pulpit! This is the first blog so we will introduce ourselves over the next two weeks. There are two of us ladies (and I use that term loosely) who will be your guides to the weird and wonderful world of the Righteous Perverts Chat and Facebook Groups.

Let us introduce ourselves.

I am Tina. What to tell you. Hmmmm. I am a Leo who likes…..Scratch that you don’t care about that stuff. Instead, I think I will start with the story of how I became a Righteous Pervert. Let’s see. I met most of my cyber friends thanks to Sherrilyn Kenyon’s old website, lovingly referred to as the Dark Hunter BBS.  This is where I met your other guide, Luna.  She and I bonded over hotties. I found the pictures and she made me beautiful banners using them. I also met several other members of the Righteous Perverts on the BBS.

We were very sad to see the BBS go away to the new site and, while the site was in transition, we looked for a new place to chat. Several other members of the BBS told us about Facebook, and that is where we all met up again.

                                                               The Perversion Conversion

Another one of my BBS friends, Bonnie gave me my first erotic romance book, Decadent by the amazing Shayla Black, for my birthday several years ago, and I have been hooked ever since.  One day Bonnie sent me a message saying I should check out this live chat site that featured authors. It was hosted by an author named Kris Cook.   I was skeptical about chats because I am a natural lurker.  I went, not expecting to ever go again, but then Kris welcomed me with such warmth that I decided to keep going—for a while.

I never would have guessed that I would be addicted to chatting so fast. I met some of the most amazing authors there and was shocked to find out how wonderful and normal they are. See, I have always thought of authors as people who had the most amazing ability to take me on a journey without me leaving my home. I put them on a pedestal and never thought that they would be as generous and genuine as they always appear to be in interviews and on the dust jackets of their books. 

At this point, I was still new to the genre of erotic romance so I had never read most of the authors who were guests at the first few chats. After talking to them, most of the intrigued me so off to Barnes and Noble I went. That first year my debit card groaned every time I walked into Barnes and Noble, I swear I could hear it. Soon I was reading several books a day. I was buying all the back lists of most of the authors and discovering new ones every Wednesday.

I found that I was staying later and later after the official chat was done, just talking to some amazing people. Our conversations ranged from books to sex toys to sex acts to anything that caught our fancy.  Naughty and Risqué became words to describe our group, and rightly so. 

Wednesday became my favorite day of the week because I could talk about my passion for Smutty Goodness. I found that I missed my friends the rest of the days of the week so I decided to try something new called a Facebook Group.  I contacted Kris and asked him if he minded if I called it the Kris Cook Chatters. I was shocked when he said I could and that he wanted to be a part of the group. I got it started and added a few of the friends I had made at chats. I even sent invitations to several of the authors that had been chat guests. I was so excited to see that they accepted the invitation to join the group. The group then began to grow fast.

Kris had an author friend of his, Sophie Oak, as a guest and she became a regular chatter.  She mentioned our chat group and called us Righteous Perverts in the dedication of her book, Siren Enslaved. The name stuck and a few months later the Kris Cook Chatters changed our name to the Righteous Perverts. We have tried to live up to our name and hopefully have succeeded.

                                                                                    FigFest

A group of us started talking about trying to meet up in Dallas. Why Dallas? Well, a couple of reasons. One, most of our favorite authors seem to live in Texas. I think there might be something in the water in that state.  Another reason is our group is spread out around the country and even in The Great White North, also known as Canada. So picking a place that was kind of in the middle of the country was perfect.

I was excited to see that so many people wanted to come to what became known as FigFest.  We actually managed to get several members there, and we had a wonderful time. The highlight for me was meeting the authors. Kris, Sophie, Shayla, Heather Long and Heather Rainier hosted a luncheon for the group that included some fantastic margaritas. I had an awesome time just sitting there and watching the group that I spend several hours a week with, having fun and meeting people who enrich our lives with their talent and dedication to their writing.  I hope to do it again sometime and, hopefully, a few new people would like to join us. 

Wow. I had no idea what to write about but now I see I have written over 900 words. I guess when I get to yapping, I can’t seem to stop. Sorry people, but I guess you now see why we have a group that is very active on Facebook.

Sinfully Sarcastic
-Shmuttmeister