Moving quickly through the room, her hands were shaking as she fingered the locket. She had taken it upon herself to try to elicit the whereabouts of Blackheart from the villagers and although no one had been entirely forthcoming, there were snippets of information that Ana was currently turning over in her head. She had dropped into the inn to see Madame Fleur and the innkeeper had shared her knowledge of the trouble spots on the coast road with regards to recent smuggling activities. Ana had asked under the guise of keeping herself safe on her rides. Now crossing to the to the large map table, Ana studied the map Christian had in the library of the local area. Having considered Madame Fleur’s advice she had determined the two most likely places to find Captain Blackheart.
Ana traced the line of the coast road with her finger, committing it to memory. Her back ached from leaning over the map table and she straightened up looking about the room as she did so. The memory of the bookshelf came back to her as she glanced to the corner. Had she imagined that it had opened? She knew that there were often secret passageways in old houses, the remnants of Tudor times when priest holes and escape routes were a necessary part of the architecture. Could that really be what she had seen?
Christian sat at his desk studying the papers before him. The candle flickered, breaking his concentration and not for the first time tonight, his thoughts went to his wife. Her cool demeanor was a mask. He knew this for certain because he had perfected his own over the years. She was protecting herself, against what, he was not sure. All he knew was that the feisty and passionate woman who had confronted him on his ship and challenged his alter ego on the dance floor, had suddenly retreated into this empty husk, who had barely walked through the past few days leading up to their wedding.Her reserve had warned him to be patient but her latent tears had ripped at his heart. Within those pathetic murmurs he heard all of the passion she had been denying and he had very nearly gone to her. Instead, he had stilled his hand upon the handle, rested his forehead against the door and simply listened to all of her pain, wishing for the first time since he had approached her father, that he had done things differently. All of the decisions he had made were for their collective good. At the time he had been certain of his motives, but in being so convinced of what he thought was right, he had removed her choice in the matter. So he had stopped himself from going to her tonight, choosing not to force himself on her, as many husbands did to their wives. Instead, he hoped that, as unworthy as he was to be a husband, he could love her enough for the both of them, and in time, she might learn to love him in return.The clock chimed two and Taylor entered the room.”We're ready, Sir.”Christian nodded, locked the papers in his drawer, donned hat and cloak and followed his man through to the library.
I have to apologize for life being so slack lately. Things are a little hectic in real life but please know that I am still working away on the various stories with the intention of updating as regularly as I possibly can. Plus that original series is still cooking, even though I am not getting the kind of writing time I would dearly like.
I don’t know why it took me so long to read Sherrilyn Kenyon but I am so glad I did. I love the magic, the history, the setting, the hot, hot hero. There were tears and laughter, tension (sexual and otherwise). There were mythological beings, other realms, classical literature and a large helping of kink. Julian of Macedon makes one hot love-slave and Dr Grace Alexander proves to be the only woman in centuries that could be a match for him or his curse. There are delightful side characters who I hope I will encounter again. What’s more, the writing is fabulous and the pace is perfect. I’m guessing she knows that but I just thought I should repeat it anyway.
Click on Stephenie‘s image to go to her Goodreads blog.
My encounters with Twilight
Back in 2008, I was sitting around with a group of friends, all mothers of daughters, and we were discussing stocking fillers for Xmas. I wanted books for my daughter and their suggestion was to try out Twilight. The movie had just been released but it really was pre-hype days. However, all four of the books were on the market and reasonable prices so they seemed like a sensible idea.
I am not sure why I trusted the recommendation of the mother’s in question. We’d been drinking. We drank a lot. And ate. And crafted. Sometimes all at the same time. I think it is important to note that sequins, hot glue guns and alcohol don’t always mix. However, we did sometimes give each other good advice and they were right about the books.
My, then 12 year old, daughter devoured them. The first two in two days, the third a week later and I made her wait for the fourth for a month. When I read them she returned the favor by lending the fourth book to a friend. I thought I was going to die until that book arrived back in our house. I devoured them a further 4 or 5 times and spent at least six months pretending my car was an Audi while I drove around with the Twilight soundtrack blaring. Side note: Slug Boy’s ring tone is SuperMassive Black Hole. Think about it.
According to popular mythology Stephenie had the story come to her in a dream. I wanted to drink what she was drinking. For the next couple of years I toyed with some paranormal ideas and read some other paranormal romances – that was how I discovered Felicity Heaton and Cynthia Eden. Those angels, demons and other-worldly beings made me want to walk on the wild side. I’ve never really been a bad boy biker girl but they took me there.
Edward, the hero, was criticized because he was the boyfriend that no parent wanted for their daughter. However, for all his failings, Edward, stayed true to his core values. Values that would have been significant to the era in which he had been born. So, even though he was a stalker, he would protect Bella‘s life and innocence for as long as he could. The old-fashioned other-worldliness of Edward enabled me to forgive Stephenie for making him sparkly. Oh, hell who am I kidding? I would have happily given him a liberal sprinkling of glitter myself (see previous note about crafting, sequins and hot glue guns).
And Bella was seen as … well …
For some reason Bella was seen as being incredibly weak and one dimensional. She apparently let Eward make all the decisions and control the relationship. But I would argue that there are a lot of teenage girls who are exactly like Bella, even when they don’t want to admit it. Socially awkward, slightly isolated for no reason other than their lack of self-confidence, perhaps making not great choices in boyfriends. And there are a lot of teen boys who are slightly obsessed with their first loves to the point of some slightly unreasonable behaviors. I’m not sure that the people who criticized the relationship really read or understood it.
If they had read all of the books thoroughly – and let’s face it even if they had looked at the things Bella did to protect and save Edward in the first story – then they would have seen her as a young girl on the cusp of adulthood, working out how to be both true to herself and her relationship. And Bella pretty much kicked ass all the way through the stories. She just developed and evolved as time went on and her confidence grew. Something that a Mary Sue character doesn’t get to do very much.
I’m pretty sure that those who have attacked the stories the most have been women who grew up in the age of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the ultimate Mary Sue. The relationship was termed as being abusive and controlling.
I think they missed the point that she was a human dealing with a vampire, not a vampire slayer with superhuman powers. She was right to be scared, he was right to set the boundaries until they could work out how they could be together. She did, however, step into the vampire world, took on a few that seriously wanted to kill her, dealt with a gang of werewolves, rode motorbikes, cliff dived, fought to keep a fetus that was killing her and saved her family from being killed. I’m fairly sure that is pretty damn proactive on the kickass heroine front.
There were also people who just hated Twilight because it was chick-lit or gay. There were going to be haters no matter what.
Influence on the cultural landscape
Twilight spawned an entire fan fiction stream that seemed to have a life beyond anything anyone could possibly conceive. While there have always been fan fictions that have made it to publication, the sheer number and breadth of what came out of and continues to emerge from the fanfiction.net and twcs Twilight communities was/is like none other. Pulled to Publish seems to be a term that has been attributed to this fanfic community. Some paranormal authors (Anne Rice, JR Ward) have resisted fan fiction. Stephenie has celebrated it.
Twilight has brought us such books as Fifty Shades of Grey, Wallbanger, Poughkeepsie, Beautiful Bastard and Gabriel’s Inferno among many others. And of course, the movie brought us…
If you are here on my blog because of a love all things FSOG and you have never read Twilight then you really should check the books out. I recognised Twilight in FSOG before I knew it was fan fiction or even what fan fiction was.
Stephenie has often courted controversy as an author, but love her or hate her, she has made an extraordinary contribution to the cultural landscape. Find out more about her at her website.
I think it’s kind of rare that an author gets to launch a book twice like this. Accidentally in Love With a God was my first novel, published in Jan. 2012, and it’s sold about 100K e-copies by now. But that’s not the COOL part. NOPE!
The cool part is the story about my readers. Yup! They were the ones who really who took a chance, read the thing, sent emails (and tons of funny jokes), and made me want to keep writing! Seriously, I know if it weren’t for them, I would have quit! Bottom line…this book coming out has more to do with them, then it does me. Weird but true!
So tomorrow, my novel comes out AGAIN! In paperback. And I can’t tell you how COOOOOL it is to see this happen and have so many fun people to share this with, the same people who took…
Alright, I know that for many of you the notion of brilliant women and fan fiction is an oxymoron. Believe me, when I first entered this realm of fan fiction, I assumed that I was perhaps going into deep dark unknown to mix with a bunch of crazies. In fact, I was warned not to do it. I can’t begin to tell you how wrong that assumption was.
Okay, I know you think I write porn. That what I am pushing here is porn. And I will admit there is a lot of porn writing in fan fiction but we don’t all write porn. In fact, most of us would argue that erotic fiction is not porn. The joy of writing fanfic is that we get to push boundaries but it still isn’t porn. Even if you’re a man reading women’s fan fic to get ideas on seduction it isn’t porn – then it’s just research.
So I am going to introduce a few of my friends from FSOG FanFiction facebook land. We may not all be high-flyers or brilliant writers or even aspiring authors. Although, there are some ladies on this list who are published in their own right and the rest probably should be. The facebook group (now 200+ members strong) is almost a year old and we’ve become good friends over that time (if you love FSOG, have a ff.net id and would like to join us then let me know, I’m in the dubious position of being an admin). Our members come from all walks of life and many of us are highly educated, qualified professionals in our real life careers. Some are writers, some are readers. Some had never heard of fanfic before they joined in the fun. Some didn’t even know that Fifty Shades of Grey had been fan fiction itself. However, every day we share our stories, our joys, our frustrations and our love all things fifty shades. We have become a family of sorts – alright, sometimes a bitchy family with a hefty dose of PMS (even the guys) – but a family nonetheless. And quite frankly, we kick ass!
So I would like to introduce you to some of those FSOG Fan Fiction Authors who are now bloggers in WordPress world. Some have been here a while, others have recently arrived. All are making an honest attempt at sharing their oeuvre (albeit borrowed) with the world.
Jane masquerades as sunandsurf on fanfiction.net and is the author of such classics as Fifty Shades of Taylor. As you all know, she is truly brilliant as an author in her own right so if you like her ff work, you will love her original stories.
Ani is anisurnois on ff.net and is the author of the beautiful 30 nights of Snow (The Masters Muse). I can’t tell you how she blew us all away when she first arrived on ff.net. She also lets me tweak her wordpress site every now and then, so I feel like I might contribute in some small way to her creative genius.
Lulu goes by her own name on ff.net and is the author of Leaving You Behind. She also does some awesome work around pinterest to titillate your tastebuds and you all know how much I love everything about transmedia storytelling.
Netzel is a firm favorite on ff.net. as the author of Late Night Thoughts – one of the earliest FSOG fanfics. Netzel is known in our circles as the Queen of the Happily Ever After (HEA). Her work is the type that will keep you warm at night.
Most of you know my absolute love and adoration for this lady. Mobabe mentored me into this blog and I am eternally in her debt. Of course, she is also the author of the stunning Fifty Shades Meander, amongst others, and she writes a mean cliffhanger ending.
Rose is one of those genuinely lovely people who has a permanent place in my heart. But don’t let that sweetness fool you, she likes to travel on the steamy side with Fifty Shades of Fate. She gives you the kind of visuals that make you want to suck in your breath and cross your legs.
One thing I can say about Angie, is she is prolific, and one of the kinkiest writers I know. She’s brilliant! In ff.net she goes by the moniker Missreadingfool, If I had to make one recommendation from her list it would be The Reluctant Parent, just because it is my fave but quite honestly just read them all. You won’t regret it.
What to say about this lady. Bronzey is a force of nature and her story is phenomenal. I could talk about her research, her pithy dialogue, her kick-ass characters, her unreasonably intense plot twists. Just read it. That’s all there is to it. At ff.net you’ll find her listed as Bronze Goddess because she just is. Her brilliance shines in Paging Dr Steele.
Ann is one of those unique writers who has taken the original work and placed it within a completely different cultural context. Which only goes to prove that the love story is the key to the appeal of the original stories, not necessarily the kink. She goes by Anastasia DeSilva on ff.net and you should really check out Connected Souls.
There are others, and I will make an effort to introduce more from time to time but these are a wonderful starting point (mid point, ending point) if you loved FSOG and wanted… more…
A research home for Historical Fiction Writers of the Antebellum Period, by A.M. Cal, author of the historical novel "Eighth Wonder" The Thomas Bethune Story. You know of Mozart and of course Bach and Beethoven. But do you know Thomas?
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Sasha Cameron - Writer 