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!

                                   

The Wanderers by Paul Stutzman… A Review

An Amish Love Story About Hope and Finding Home

Everything in God’s nature, Johnny observed, did what it was created to do. Everything, that is, except the human race. Johnny was born into an Amish family, into a long line of farmers and good businessmen. He is expected to follow the traditions of family and church as he grows to adulthood. But even as a boy, he questions whether he can be satisfied with this lifestyle. He wants “more” — more education, more travel, more opportunity.

His restlessness leads him down a dangerous road where too much partying and drinking result in heartbreaking consequences. He’s adrift, and no one seems to be able to help him find his direction.

Then he meets spunky Annie, who seems pure and lovely and devoted to her God. Her past, though, holds sin and heartbreak. She was a worm, she explains, but God has transformed her into a butterfly. Johnny falls hopelessly in love; and eventually he, too, finds the power of God to transform lives. Settling down on the family farm, he forgets about the questions and the restlessness, thinking that he is happy and at home, at last.

But in a few short hours, tragedy changes his life forever, and he is again wondering… and wandering on a very long journey.

Entwined with Johnny and Annie’s story is the allegory of two Monarch butterflies, worms who have been transformed into amazing creatures specially chosen to carry out the miracle of the fourth generation. They, too, must undertake a long journey before they finally find home.

First Chapter Thoughts: We meet Johnny, born into the Amish life, but struggling against it. The first line of the book and chapter, hint that this isn't your typical Amish boy…"I was ten when I had my first taste of beer." The last line tempts you into reading more… "I was an Amish man living the dream. Until it was all taken from me." I felt right from the start that Johnny was a complicated character, and this just showed the beginning of the richness of Paul Stutzman's characters.

What did I think of The Wanderers? There's a quiet calm to Paul Stutzman's book, The Wanderers. The writing is hypnotizing, the story is wonderful and the characters just wrap around your heart, especially Johnny and Annie. A simple love story that will capture your heart, but also a story of acceptance, redemption and finding ones' place in the world.

I have never read any Amish literature. There are plenty of authors who base their stories in the Amish way of life, but my choice to read The Wanderers was because the love story between Johnny and Annie seemed so sweet, and I liked the idea of Monarch butterflies playing a part of the story. What's refreshing is that there is no blatant sex. Love, God and family play a major part of the structuring of the story and the reader can breath a sign of relief that the story itself is so good, that we don't need to be distracted. We enter the Amish world, but are not stationed there. We experience the way of life and as we walk outside of it, we can see and understand the differences. The characters Johnny and Annie are not perfect, but are written with a beautiful human quality that overpowers their flaws and makes the reader empathize with them. The Monarch butterflies- well, that is a sweet surprise for you to discover. They have their own story intertwined with Johnny and Annie, but written separate from them.  Simply put, The Wanderers was a wonderful read, and I would definitely recommend it if you enjoy Amish fiction, enjoy love stories and don't need all the sex, and basically enjoy relaxing with a good book that will break your heart in spots, but also make you smile in others.

I want to thank Pump Up Your Book and Paul Stutzman for including me in the Virtual Tour of The Wanderers and sending along a review copy of the book! You can read more about Paul and his new book at Paul's Website! The Wanderers is available on Kindle! Click on the title for more info.

Guest Post with Paul Stutzman… Butterflies and Amish

Paul Stutzman was born in Holmes County, Ohio in an Amish family. His family left the Amish lifestyle soon after Paul was born. They joined a strict Conservative Mennonite Church where Paul was raised to fear God and obey all the rules the church demanded. Paul continued to live among and mingle with his Amish friends and relatives his entire life. Paul married a Mennonite girl and remained in the Amish community working and raising a family. After Paul lost his wife to cancer, he sensed a tug on his heart- the call to a challenge, the call to pursue a dream. With a mixture of dread and determination, Paul left his job, traveled to Georgia, and took his first steps on the 2,176 mile Appalachian Trail. What he learned during the next four and a half months changed his life-and can change yours too.

After completing his trek Stutzman wrote Hiking Through—a book about this life changing journey. In another adventure where he pedaled 5000 miles across America he wrote Biking Across America.  Now Paul Stutzman has written his first novel entitled The Wanderers, a story about Johnny, a young Amish boy growing up in a culture he is not sure he wants to embrace. A young Amish girl named Annie wins his heart and life is great for a time. Entwined with Johnny and Annie’s story is the allegory of two Monarch butterflies.

Chick with Books is thrilled to have Paul Stutzman stop by today to share a bit of himself and insight into his writing. Join me in a warm welcome to Paul!

Butterflies and Amish

Writing my first novel, The Wanderers, I devoted my pen (well, keyboard, in my case) to truths and the truth—truths about our journey through life and the truth about a people very much in the spotlight today, the Amish.

The seeds for the book were planted years ago by my wife’s love of Monarchs. Every fall she would hunt out milkweed plants and find a tiny Monarch worm munching away on its leaves. She’d bring that worm home, keep it in a mason jar covered with a screen, and watch the process of an unseemly worm being transformed into a beautiful butterfly. She celebrated the emergence of the butterfly as a new birth, and released it to spread its wings and fly away. The Monarch butterfly migrates in the fall, and its story is amazing; it takes four generations to complete one cycle of migration.

My wife passed away from breast cancer on September 7, 2006. On the evening of her funeral, I fell into an exhausted sleep on my recliner. Around 2:00 AM, a fluttering sound awakened me. Flying in circles above me was a Monarch butterfly. One of Mary’s friends, knowing how much my wife loved Monarchs, had created a flower arrangement that included a branch with a chrysalis attached. The butterfly had emerged while I slept—on the very night of my wife’s funeral. I was amazed. As a spiritual person, I took that as a sign that God was showing me He had transformed my wife from an earthly creature into a heavenly one.

I released the butterfly into the cold September night. Over the next several years, as I recovered from the loss of my wife, I was often reminded of that butterfly. It was fourth generation, the generation that was genetically equipped to make the long pilgrimage of migration. What happened to that butterfly? Did it survive its long journey?

I wrote the account of that night in an early chapter of my first book, Hiking Through, the story of my journey through grief. But the questions and the fascination with the Monarch’s story never left me.

So when I began to write about the Monarch, I found that the butterfly’s story is an allegory that parallels many experiences in our own journeys. This opened another opportunity for me. I have long been disgusted with the portrayal of the Amish in many of today’s movies, books, and television shows. I was born into an Amish home and have lived all of my life in the middle of a large Amish community. I wanted folks to know that most of what they see in today’s media is sensationalized and exaggerated. I wanted to write about the Amish as accurately as I know them.

And so I paired the allegory of the Monarch’s story with the love story of two young Amish people, and the result is The Wanderers, a story of transformation, love, wandering, and looking for a place we call home.  
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Thank you Paul for sharing a bit of yourself in such a heartfelt post and sharing your writing process on Chick with Books today!

Want to learn more about Paul? Here's a link to the author's website. Want to read the first chapter of The Wanderers?! You can find the first chapter at Pump Up Your Book Virtual Tours! The premise of The Wanderers sounds wonderful and I can't wait to open the pages of the book myself! I'll be sharing my review of The Wanderers  on Dec. 26th!