Literary Quote of the Month

"A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies," said Jojen. "The man who never reads lives only one." - George R.R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Writing in The Bedroom… a Guest Post by Gianna Day and My Review of her Book!


Today Chick with Books welcomes author Gianna Day, the author of the Hot Secrets Collection, which includes five erotic, lesbian short stories, and The Sylvie Series, a collection of hetero-novellas full of both comedy and naughty bits (sometimes at the same time) Today Gianna shares a glimpse into writing erotica. Join me in a warm welcome to Gianna!

Writing in The Bedroom…

There are many would-be erotica writers out there who get stymied by feelings of embarrassment. The same could be said of romance writers. The first time I wrote an erotic scene and handed it to someone else to read, I stood in a corner and cringed. What seemed like a good idea suddenly makes you want hide under the covers.

 I no longer cringe when I share my work for feedback. When fear creeps in, a writer would do well to remember the following:

 ·         Different people are turned on by different things. You can’t spend all of your time worrying that what turns you on might not turn someone else on. In many instances, that will be the case and there’s nothing you can do about it. But what is also true is that there are readers out there who like the same things you like, and those are the readers with whom your work will resonate.

·        Choose the vocabulary that appeals to you. When it comes to erotic scenes, the nuts and bolts (pardon the pun) and the words you use to describe them are up to you. If you don’t like a particular four-letter word, don’t use it. And try not to preoccupy yourself with the vocabulary that other writers of erotica use. Word choice is always at the writer’s discretion.

·        Confidence goes a long way. There is a reason that you decided to write romance or erotica. Chances are you see great value in your genre, so remember that and don’t ever be ashamed of it. Just as doubt can manifest itself in our physical presence, it also shows through in our writing. If you’ve taken the time to craft and edit your words, you owe it to yourself to believe in them when it’s time to share them with the world.


Gianna Day writes erotica and erotic comedies. She lives in the pacific northwest where she enjoys running, flying kites, exploring museums, and eating late-night desserts in all-night diners. She believes that with a healthy sense of humor, everything will be just fine. Don't miss Sylvie and the Spark, which is available right now on Amazon for your Kindle! And Sylvie Says Yes and Sylvie on Strike are Book 2 and Book 3 in The Sylvie Series, which are also available right now for your Kindle.

Also, check out Gianna and her books at her blog, Gianna Day's Blog!

Thank you Gianna for guest posting on Chick with Books today and sharing a little bit of yourself and your writing with us!

And What did I Think of Sylvie & the Spark?…  Well, I just loved it! Sassy, smart and plenty of SPICE, Sylvie and the Spark is the perfect combination of great writing and great sex.  Sylvie and the Spark is a novella, under 100 pages, and is pure erotica. But author Gianna Day also has a great sense of humor and infuses this in the pages, so that you're not just having a one night stand, but a relationship with the characters in the story. Love, lust and passion.

Sylvie is our main girl, works as a waitress (because she wants to), has great co-workers, a new dog named Doctor Love (you can only imagine why she's named this), and who at the start of the book has a long term relationship with Dave, who is just like a puppy dog and is as boring as can be. In total frustration, Sylvie tells Dave she wants a tiger in bed, and before she knows it, she definitely gets what she wants… but is it what she wants? And is dull steady Dave really the guy for her? When "the twins" move across the hall from her, the sparks ignite, but it's not at all what she expected…

Sylvie and the Spark is a romantic comedy with great memorable characters, great dialogue and lots of HEAT (aka sex!). It's funny, fast and a great first book in a three novella series. Gianna writes honestly, and with that I mean she writes about the tingle of that first kiss, the awkwardness of being with someone the first time, and the funny things that go through our head while it's all going on. Sylvie is a real girl with real feelings. If you'd like your erotica with some substance behind the sex, this book is right up your alley!

Sylvie and The Spark by Gianna Day is on a Blog Tour April 7 - 30th! Chick with Books is just one stop on the tour!  To find out where the other stops are, more info on Gianna Day and her book, visit PUYB Tours (Pump up Your Book Tours). I would like to thank PUYB Tours for the review copy of Sylvie and The Spark!


                                   

Sunday, April 20, 2014

A Favorite Literary Bunny...

The Easter Bunny has been up to a bit of mischief today... he's hidden all the hard boiled eggs! He can bribe us with all that chocolate we find in that cellophane wrapped basket, but we better find those eggs!

Even though he's not an Easter bunny, one of literature's favorite bunny's is Peter Rabbit. The first Peter Rabbit book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, was originally written by Beatrix Potter in 1893 as a gift to a little boy she knew who had been ill for a very long time. She went on to self-publish 200 copies of the tale that quickly sold and was finally convinced in 1902 to have the publishing house Frederick Warne & Co. publish her work. They initially printed 8000 copies! And happily the book has never been out of print since. Over the next 28 years Ms. Potter wrote and published 22 more Peter Rabbit tales, so for over 100 years Peter and his sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail have been entertaining children of all ages.

But Beatrix Potter was more than a children's book author & illustrator. At an early age she began to draw the plants and animals around her. Her family spent Holidays in Scotland and The Lake District, a rural area in North West England, where she began to paint the flora and fauna she closely observed. Her Uncle tried to get her admitted as a student to the Royal Botanic Gardens, a botanical research and education institute, but because she was female she was rejected. She persisted in her own studies and became widely respected thru out England as an expert mycologist (one who studies fungi). Her technical papers were never published because of her gender, but in 1997 the Linnean Society (the premier organization for the study of natural history) issued an official apology to Potter for the way she was treated.

Easter is so much more than the Easter Bunny, and for children all over the world there are all kinds of traditions that they enjoy... Peter Rabbit isn't really one of them... but he is an all time favorite literary bunny!
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