Why my romance novel hero is the ugliest man in the world

Here’s a picture of my hero. Quite a looker, isn’t he? Well, this picture could actually represent most of us (plus or minus the penis, of course). It’s a sensory homunculus – a representation of our bodies that emphasizes our most sensitive parts. The sensory homunculus distorts humans based on how many sense nerves each… Continue reading Why my romance novel hero is the ugliest man in the world

No one forgets their first (vicarious) sexual experience

The other day, I was reading a post Imogen wrote at The Writing Groove about the first romance novels she remembers reading, and it got me thinking about how many of us romance readers got started when we were kids. As I told her, I remember very little about the plot of my first grown-up… Continue reading No one forgets their first (vicarious) sexual experience

Tools for heating up the (fictional) bedroom

If you write romance, chances are you’ll find yourself pondering how best to describe genitalia and different sexual positions. After all, who wants to read about boring sex? Having read romance for twenty years, I’ve seen the way sexual descriptions have changed. I still remember one novel where the hero and heroine made love on… Continue reading Tools for heating up the (fictional) bedroom

Describing how a man smells

One thing I hate to read about is a musky man – partly because it’s become hackneyed, and partly because the word conjures its original use. The musky scent in colognes used to come from a glandular secretion from near the musk deer’s rectum. According to Wikipedia, the word ‘musk’ originates from the Sanskrit for… Continue reading Describing how a man smells

When you can’t afford to go to RWA Nationals

One of the bummers (cue naughty giggles from my British friends) of living in London is that I can’t afford to fly to the US in summer. It costs approximately $Ridiculous and I’m on a charity salary. So color me thrilled to find Savvy Authors is having a Summer Symposium from today through Sunday. They’ve… Continue reading When you can’t afford to go to RWA Nationals