I would like to welcome Chris Almeida and Cecilia Aubrey to the blog. This dynamic duo are the authors of 2 full novels and 3 novellas...so far. For a chance to win the entire collection, continue reading.
If the love scenes
you write…
In our interaction with other authors, we have heard them discussing the writing of love scenes and how some think it the hardest part to write. Oddly enough, the love scenes and romance aspects of our stories are the easiest to both of us. We are fairly certain that this comes from our background as role players where we actually wear the skin of the characters we are portraying and play fairly erotic scenes often. In that case, practice makes perfect. The more we played erotic love scenes, the easier it became to write them for the novels and shorts.
One of our mottos states: If the love scenes you write don’t make you squirm in your seat, you are doing it wrong. Rewrite.
Luckily, we have never rewritten a love scene. Again, we definitely feel our background as role players has benefited us in this aspect. When writing we both become the characters and the flow and action comes naturally. In the case of the main characters in Countermeasure and To Russia with Love, we wore their skins for months before formally committing their story to the page. In essence, we are Trevor and Cassandra. We feel their emotions, desires, pain. As a result, when we come to an intimate scene it flows as naturally as their banter. Whatever the setting, whatever the position, it may be just a touch, kiss, a caress, or other delicious…you get the picture, Trevor and Cassandra are in control and we follow their lead.
There are times when we thrive on seeing how much we can make each other squirm and there are times that we have to step away for a breather—more like find a fan—because the intensity of their love can be overwhelming. It’s thrilling to receive comments from readers telling us how those scenes made them feel, how they made them squirm, too.
When writing similar scenes with other characters the same thing happens, however, we have to lock Trevor and Cassandra away to give way to those characters’ voices. Take for example, Stephan and Jessica from To Russia with Love. Their relationship is just as intense, emotional, and loving; however, they are driven by different desires, which are much different from those of the main hero and heroine. Stephan is more domineering and Jessica enjoys the thrill of relinquishing control to him. We plan to continue exploring their story in upcoming Bytes of Life.
All in all, our connection with our characters allows us to write scenes that will let you experience their intimate moments to the fullest. Keep in mind that we do not have barriers when it comes to writing those scenes and as long as you are open to the explicitness of the content, you will definitely get a tingle out of it.
Cheers,
Chris & Cecilia
Excerpt from To Russia With Love:
As each camera was set and turned on, their images began displaying on the screen and the feeds were automatically saved to their external hard drive. They were also motion activated, transmitting data only when activity was detected. That meant they could run the surveillance for hours on end without running out of disk space.
Cassandra got lost in the flow of activity and jumped slightly when she heard Trevor's devious chuckle ripple through the connection. "Damn it, Trevor. I know that laugh. What the hell are you up to?!"
"What?! Can't a guy have a little bit of fun on the job?" His voice held a rasp of excitement.
"Why is it that when you say 'fun' I hear 'trouble'?"
His voice held a hurtful tone. "No faith, whatsoever, in my skills."
She guffawed. "Yeah, yeah."
"Okay. About to set last camera."
Trevor checked to be sure that the coast was clear before he left the cover of the trees and sprinted for the sidewalk across from the park. He hugged the wall as he pulled the last camera from his pack. Staying out of the view of the security camera he'd spied earlier atop the gate's side pillar, he used the intricate design of the wrought iron gate as a ladder to reach the camera. Its location was ideal to record the faces and license plates of cars arriving at the gates and its angle prevented any peripheral activity from being recorded. Idjits made it too easy.
At the top, he swung a leg over the rounded edge of the gate, balancing himself to keep from falling on his face as he reached from behind for the encased camera with both hands. He carefully attached their micro-camera and battery pack to the top front edge of the casing.
His voice was hushed and cartoonish. "Oh, grandmother, what big eyes you have! The better to see you with."
Cassandra's snort of laughter traveled over the audio link.
“Oh, you liked that, didn’t you?”
"Just because I laugh at your jokes doesn't mean they're good, you know." Her voice oozed disdain and he could picture her eyes rolling back in her head.
He kept tabs on the surrounding area as he adjusted the position of the micro-camera. He switched it on and gave Cassandra the last signal. "Let me know if this one has a good angle."
After a few moments, her voice exploded over the link. "What the hell?! That is from pretty high up. Really good view, but really high up! How the hell did you accomplish that one, Trevor? Hold on a second. Where are you right now?!"
"Setting the cameras?" He feigned innocence.
"Get your ass out of there on the double!" Anxiety bled through her words.
Her fear beat at him. He sobered immediately. "I am on my way down and will be out of here in no time, Cassie."
Trevor swung his leg back over the gate. Suddenly a deep growl blasted his ears and a heavy weight slammed against the fence, knocking him from his perch. "Umpf!" He exclaimed as he hit the sidewalk and pain seared through his entire body. His vision dimmed and ears grew muffled as he exhaled is shallow breaths to ease the radiating agony. The low menacing growls and barks from at least two dogs penetrated his haze. Move your arse, man! He grimaced to himself, rolling instinctively up against the wall into the cover of shadows. Sucking in a deep shaky breath, he held his position and tried to regroup.
"Fuck! Trevor! Report!" Cassie's frantic voice demanded in his ear.
Winded, he couldn't squeeze out the words to comfort her. A commotion inside the gate forced him to press tighter against the wall, hoping his dark clothing would help as addition camouflage.
"Trevor! Report. Now!"
"Here!" He gasped out with a groan.
A voice behind the wall yelled. Trevor smirked. The guard blamed the dogs' barking on a stray cat.
Someone else cursed at the dogs to shut up.
"I would like that, too, thank you very much!" Trevor mumbled to himself as he completed an internal assessment. The pain was fading and, although nothing was broken, he had landed on his back and on the small tool kit box in his backpack. Damn that's going to smart in the morning. Confident he hadn't blown his cover since he wasn't kissing shoes or facing gun muzzles, he finally responded to Cassie's frantic requests.
"I'm okay. Just sore. All cameras placed. I'm heading back."
"If you think you can just scare the crap out of me and walk home like nothing happened you are very wrong, mister." Cassie's voice, although steady, was now seething with anger. "What the hell happened out there, Trevor!?"
Trevor checked his surroundings, crawled closer to the gate, and popped his head around the corner of the wall to check the house. Again, loud growls echoed in his ears and the gate shook under weight of a body butting up against it. The dogs were right in his face doing what they were trained to do—guard the property.
"Dogs, Cassie...big dogs happened."
As each camera was set and turned on, their images began displaying on the screen and the feeds were automatically saved to their external hard drive. They were also motion activated, transmitting data only when activity was detected. That meant they could run the surveillance for hours on end without running out of disk space.
Cassandra got lost in the flow of activity and jumped slightly when she heard Trevor's devious chuckle ripple through the connection. "Damn it, Trevor. I know that laugh. What the hell are you up to?!"
"What?! Can't a guy have a little bit of fun on the job?" His voice held a rasp of excitement.
"Why is it that when you say 'fun' I hear 'trouble'?"
His voice held a hurtful tone. "No faith, whatsoever, in my skills."
She guffawed. "Yeah, yeah."
"Okay. About to set last camera."
Trevor checked to be sure that the coast was clear before he left the cover of the trees and sprinted for the sidewalk across from the park. He hugged the wall as he pulled the last camera from his pack. Staying out of the view of the security camera he'd spied earlier atop the gate's side pillar, he used the intricate design of the wrought iron gate as a ladder to reach the camera. Its location was ideal to record the faces and license plates of cars arriving at the gates and its angle prevented any peripheral activity from being recorded. Idjits made it too easy.
At the top, he swung a leg over the rounded edge of the gate, balancing himself to keep from falling on his face as he reached from behind for the encased camera with both hands. He carefully attached their micro-camera and battery pack to the top front edge of the casing.
His voice was hushed and cartoonish. "Oh, grandmother, what big eyes you have! The better to see you with."
Cassandra's snort of laughter traveled over the audio link.
“Oh, you liked that, didn’t you?”
"Just because I laugh at your jokes doesn't mean they're good, you know." Her voice oozed disdain and he could picture her eyes rolling back in her head.
He kept tabs on the surrounding area as he adjusted the position of the micro-camera. He switched it on and gave Cassandra the last signal. "Let me know if this one has a good angle."
After a few moments, her voice exploded over the link. "What the hell?! That is from pretty high up. Really good view, but really high up! How the hell did you accomplish that one, Trevor? Hold on a second. Where are you right now?!"
"Setting the cameras?" He feigned innocence.
"Get your ass out of there on the double!" Anxiety bled through her words.
Her fear beat at him. He sobered immediately. "I am on my way down and will be out of here in no time, Cassie."
Trevor swung his leg back over the gate. Suddenly a deep growl blasted his ears and a heavy weight slammed against the fence, knocking him from his perch. "Umpf!" He exclaimed as he hit the sidewalk and pain seared through his entire body. His vision dimmed and ears grew muffled as he exhaled is shallow breaths to ease the radiating agony. The low menacing growls and barks from at least two dogs penetrated his haze. Move your arse, man! He grimaced to himself, rolling instinctively up against the wall into the cover of shadows. Sucking in a deep shaky breath, he held his position and tried to regroup.
"Fuck! Trevor! Report!" Cassie's frantic voice demanded in his ear.
Winded, he couldn't squeeze out the words to comfort her. A commotion inside the gate forced him to press tighter against the wall, hoping his dark clothing would help as addition camouflage.
"Trevor! Report. Now!"
"Here!" He gasped out with a groan.
A voice behind the wall yelled. Trevor smirked. The guard blamed the dogs' barking on a stray cat.
Someone else cursed at the dogs to shut up.
"I would like that, too, thank you very much!" Trevor mumbled to himself as he completed an internal assessment. The pain was fading and, although nothing was broken, he had landed on his back and on the small tool kit box in his backpack. Damn that's going to smart in the morning. Confident he hadn't blown his cover since he wasn't kissing shoes or facing gun muzzles, he finally responded to Cassie's frantic requests.
"I'm okay. Just sore. All cameras placed. I'm heading back."
"If you think you can just scare the crap out of me and walk home like nothing happened you are very wrong, mister." Cassie's voice, although steady, was now seething with anger. "What the hell happened out there, Trevor!?"
Trevor checked his surroundings, crawled closer to the gate, and popped his head around the corner of the wall to check the house. Again, loud growls echoed in his ears and the gate shook under weight of a body butting up against it. The dogs were right in his face doing what they were trained to do—guard the property.
"Dogs, Cassie...big dogs happened."
Reading Order:
1 - Countermeasure (Novel - Published)
1a - Ecstasy by the Sea (Short Story - Published)
1b - Cuffed at Midnight (Short Story - Published)
1c - Passion at Dawn (Short Story - To Be Released September, 2012)
2 - To Russia With Love (Novel - Published)
For more information about this series visit their website HERE
Buy Countermeasure and To Russia with Love HERE
Chris and Cecilia are offering one commenter an entire Countermeasure Series collection in e-book format. That is a total of 5 books, 2 full novels and 3 novellas!!! To enter, talk sex scenes with me. What makes the perfect sex scene to you? Leave a comment and fill out the form below. All contest will be open until noon tomorrow (8/31/12) Winners will be chosen and notified shortly after that.
27 comments:
Thanks for the blog post and excerpt.
The perfect sex scene for me needs to pull me right into it like I'm watching in the same room or so that I feel like I'm one of the characters. I also like scenes that are very descriptive and aren't over in just a couple of paragraphs.
Becki, yes...we are not known for brevity. We tend to explore those scenes with gusto ;)
*Facepalm* LOL! Be prepared to stay for the long haul! *grins*
For me, the heat comes just as much from the emotional intensity as the physical act itself. Just make me cry and I'm happy!
Liz, definitely. And when you are invested in a scene and pour all of your emotions in it, it shows. Be it a love scene, a fight or a simple discussion between the characters, it needs to make us *feel* it. Without that, the story falls flat. We enjoy putting as much emotion and show in our stories as we can.
I read to my wife so a good sex scene is one where she makes me put down the book. A good sex scene has to be descriptive but also realistic and I love when the couple can laugh at themselves when appropriate.
I've been trying to find books that Hubs and I could read together. He's not really a reader - his ADHD is too bad, but he does like thrillers. This might just be the solution I've been looking for! ;-)
I'll keep you posted...in a vague sort of way! LOL
Thanks so much for being here!!
LMAO - David! I've heard of writes' spouses having a rating system for when they're reading their wives' books... having to put the book down would be a great clue that it's a good one!
David, humor is a big part of life. We make use of that as well :) Interestingly enough, a lot of our male readers found us because our books are listed as thrillers. Thank you for the comment!
Alannah, yep...no TMI. LOL! Hope you two *enjoy* our stories ;)
What Chris said. We have a facebook friend whose husband is a trucker and she read our story to him during a road trip. She said they both enjoyed it. *weg*
For me, the emotional intensity is more important than the actual physical part. I've read books where just a few, if any, scenes had any type of emotional connection. IF I finished the book, I always felt I was missing something. Alannah, I gave up on getting hubs to read any of my books. He reads books on soccer, politics or books like the Jason Bourne series. That's if I can get him to read.
Michelle, the Bourne books are some of my favorites too! I can agree with your husband on that. I understand what you mean about the reality of the moment. Role playing our characters gives us the added layer of complexity that makes for realistic scenes.
The perfect scene for me draws me into it where I can see, feel, hear everything. It has me trying to recreate it in my dreams for a few nights and thinking about it for the next few days!
Cathy, I love when a scene and book holds you in its clutches and you can't shake it! You think about it all the time! Ends up in my to be RE READ pile! :)
I've added these books to my Amazon wish list which I treat myself to each week. I can't wait to get my grubby little hands on them.
I love when it's emotionally intense, but I also love the ones where there seems to be a little humor involved, it all depends upon the story and where the scene happens.
Although I do love the heat & description of sex scenes, my favorite part of them is the emotional connections of the characters. But if you have a couple of characters (or more) that have a deep emotional connection already, and you add in some kink, I will be a very happy reader, lol.
Liz, nice to know! Hope you enjoy the ride.
Kimberly and June, emotional connections with a dash of humour, and sprinkle of kink makes everything shiny as far as we are concerned. We love those elements also!
Becki - Last Call has a kissing scene that lasts for several pages. It's not like one long kiss, Gavin definitely makes it count (lol), but I worried it was too long. I'll be curious what you think about it. :-)
Details...Details....Details!!! Don't rush through it. It needs to be at LEAST a page long, not just a paragraph! Plus a good sense of who the characters are, how they connect, and what they're thinking/feeling. And the hotter the sex, the better! lol
Chris and Cecelia - I'm really excited about having time this weekend to read the first Countermeasure book. I started it yesterday morning, and read it here and there when I had a chance - while lunch was nuking, etc. The writing is awesome!
Thanks for helping me celebrate my birthday and for being so generous with the giveaway prize!!!
Liz - That's what made me fall in love with Janelle Denison! Her books are smoking hot, but the emotional intensity is also extremely powerful. Like I've always said...I wantta be Janelle when I grow up! :-D
Chris - Amen!
David - Do you read Suzanne Brockman's Troubleshooter series? One of my favorite scenes (which also happened to be of my favorite hero), was where the heroine was really making it work for it (read between the lines here, I'm trying to keep this clean. LOL).
Being the awesome hero that he is, he wasn't about to finish before she did. And at one point he gets really frustrated and says, "Come on!" The heroine laughs and that's when he realizes she's been holding back just to mess with him.
I remember laughing at that scene when I read it, and it obviously stuck with me because it's been years since I read it and it's still one of my favorite sex scenes.
Sex is supposed to be fun, so I think humor is good, too. Definitely when appropriate, though, and not forced.
Michelle - a lot of husbands like the BDB series, but I haven't had any luck with that either. :/ He's just not a reader.
Cecelia - That's a great story about the trucker and his wife. One of the commenters here is a trucker's wife, she might get some ideas! LOL
Cathy - I agree! I used to have a sticky on my computer that said, "light, sound, air temp, inside/outside, ceiling, etc." I can't remember everything I had listed now, but I did that to make sure I touched on all the senses so I get could the reader as much into the story as possible. As a reader, I love that feeling of living their characters life for a while. :)
Post a Comment