Phew! I am a little late posting today's guest blog because I've been packing for my very first Romantic Novelists Association conference....which Rae is attending too, but Rae is flying in from South Africa, how great is that? Tomorrow I will meet her face to face, and I can't wait to share a glass or two...welcome, sweetie!
Writing Erotic Romance – Rae Summers
Anyone who’s read my new novella, Let’s Misbehave, will be surprised to learn that I used to write sweet romance. Love scenes terrified me. In my first complete romance novel my hero and heroine barely managed a kiss. So how on earth did I land up writing an erotic romance?
Travel back two years to 2008, when Harlequin announced that they were looking for bite-size historical romances for their new imprint: Historical Undone. I love history, but the length always put me off (and the vast amounts of research required) but with a maximum word count of 15,000, this seemed do-able. So I mulled over a few ideas. Then one day, as I was driving home from work, singing along to the soundtrack of the movie De-Lovely (Cole Porter’s bio pic) it hit me: the 1920s. Why there are so few Jazz Age stories, I don’t know, but I just knew I had to write one.
By the end of Cole Porter’s song, Let’s Misbehave, I already had a set of characters in my head. Gabrielle would be an outrageous modern woman, pushing society’s boundaries, a wild child. So of course her hero had to be the complete opposite: a staid, dutiful man from an old, established family.
I couldn’t wait to get the kids into bed that night. And as soon as I sat down at my laptop the words just began to pour out of my fingers. The story practically wrote itself. In a matter of days I had way more words than the requirement for an Undone, and I even had fun writing it.
It is no exaggeration to say this story wrote itself. Shy, innocent little me, who blushes to read love scenes let alone write them, had written not just one, but three sex scenes. Hot, explicit sex scenes. The kind that had me fanning myself even as I read back what I’d written. How did I do it? To this day I still have no idea!
Let’s Misbehave found a home at The Wild Rose Press, and though I’m grateful to Harlequin for inspiring me to write this story, I owe my editor at Wild Rose an even bigger debt of gratitude. Her belief in this story has shown me that not only could I get over that hurdle of writing love scenes, but that I could do it well enough to sell.
And having done it once, I know I can do it again. I’m no longer terrified of writing passionate love stories. You can expect to see a few more erotic romances from me, all set in that delightfully decadent period of the 1920s.
Let’s Misbehave Blurb
Gabrielle is the quintessential Flapper, a wild child who turns her back on home and a resentful and unloving mother to become a nightclub singer. She wants nothing more from life than freedom and pleasure.
Sebastian is a dutiful son, following in his father’s footsteps and on the verge of marrying a suitable bride. But as the Twenties roar to their conclusion, he finds himself torn between duty and the urge to indulge his adventurous streak.
From the moment Gabrielle and Sebastian meet, the tension between them simmers. When he rescues her from a boorish suitor, Gabrielle discovers a kindred spirit beneath Sebastian's serious demeanour, and she sets out to seduce him into one last passionate fling before he settles for a loveless marriage.
But the fire that burns between them threatens to consume her. Will Gabrielle survive falling in love with the one man she cannot have?
Rae Summers Bio
Rae's first grade teacher was so seriously concerned by her day dreaming that she called her parents in for a conference. Fortunately, her parents staunchly defended Rae's right to daydream and these days she's able to prove their faith right by turning those day dreams into novels. She hopes her stories bring as much pleasure to her readers as they bring to her.
Rae Summers lives in South Africa where she works in television advertising, a line of work that is only glamorous on very rare occasions. When she isn't working or being mom to two young daughters, Rae can be found with her nose in a book.
If you’d like to find out more about Let’s Misbehave, and about London in the Jazz Age, visit my blog at http://raesummers.blogspot.com.
You can view the book trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjGdk2DysA
To buy a copy of Let’s Misbehave: http://www.thewildrosepress.com/lets-misbehave-p-4119.html
The story sounds fantastic, Rae - its going on my 'to be read' list - see you tomorrow. Rae would love to hear any comments or questions!
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