How long does a book

How long does a book have to be these days? My understanding when I began this game a decade ago was that the standard Regency romance would be around 70k words but those I have read recently seem to be getting shorter. Is that true or not true? One I read in the last year, by a very famous author, had pages and pages of sex and very little actual story. A little is sort of expected these days but extended pages scream (to me) that the author couldn't think of more story. 

Deadline approaching on latest book but I have no cover for it yet. Tried Shutterstock a couple of times but nothing that suits and since I paid for a set of 5 and still have 2 to take, I won't be looking anywhere else unless I become truly desperate. (Can't break the habits of a lifetime!) Must keep checking!

The pic is of the entry to Prudhoe Castle but this time, looking out. English Heritage held an open day ay on 2nd May and hopefully, this means the castle, which has been closed for several months, has begun a programme of events and open days. 

Every sex scene should include...

 Some people find writing sex easy some find it difficult.
Things I need to remember or: every sex scene should:

a) advance the story

b) be a point of change for at least one of the characters.

c) Show the mind and heart set of the characters as well as what they see and do.

d) Actions reveal personalities and personalities can be revealed via actions.

e) What they seek must fit in the drive of the story as a whole

f) Sex is a dialogue between two minds.


Sometimes it helps to outline the same scene from the other person's point of view.
Always keep the tone and style of the story.

Be sure you know:

a) what each of your characters wants as they go into the scene,
b) what their point of change is, and
c) where they are at the end of said scene

I must remember to think of a sex scene as a point of mental and emotional change explained in physical terms. The action may well be similar to every other sex scene ever written, but the difference should be in my explanation of the character’s experience. And, of course, my writing style will also have a part to play.

Fear of Flying

You have to be over 50 to understand the hooha that went on when Erica Jong published Fear of Flying in 1973. It has sold more than 27 million copies and no doubt a new generation will discover it all over again now the author has given Isadora Wing a new outing in Fear of Dying. It is one of the hottest stories at the London Book Fair and goes some way to proving once again that publishers have their beady eyes on what will sell.


Fear of Dying tells of a woman in her 60s encumbered by dying parents, an ageing husband and a pregnant daughter and who feels the lack of sex as something too valuable to ignore. I am not sure that the majority of women in their sixties would prioritize their lives in quite that way, and thirty-somethings and youngsters probably think that the thought of their parents having sex as gross. Will a theme that sounds so depressing be as popular as publishers think?

There is evidence that publishers are scanning the self-published lists. Meredith Wild landed a 6-figure deal with Transworld in the UK and a 7 figure US cheque for her self-published novels about a young businesswoman's intense relationship with a billionaire. (A familiar theme?) A G Riddle gained a 7 figure deal for his self-published novel Departure, which features a plane from New York crash-landing in the English countryside.

Janet Ellis has won a book deal with a major publisher after submitting her manuscript under a pseudonym. A Little Learning is set in the 18th century, and sees a girl taken advantage of by her tutor. (Oh dear; sounds like sex and abuse; how can it fail?) As a friend of mine once said - Sex Sells.

50 Shades v Outlander

Interesting to compare the reception of  two different shows that share a major component. The first is 50 Shades of Grey, and the second is Outlander. The major component, if you haven't guessed, is sex. The first few episodes of Outlander aired recently, and the next few are scheduled to begin soon. 50 Shades went on general release yesterday.

I think I'm right in claiming that the E L James has sold 100 million copies in the 50 Shades trilogy and Gabaldon 20 million over seven or eight books. Even if the figures are slightly different, it is easy to see which is the most popular. Why then all the brickbats and bashing for 50 Shades and fewer complaints about Outlander?

The biggest complaint about 50 Shades is that it offers and even recommends abuse of women. I don't think this is true. I read the first book and the heroine actually signs a contract to say that she is a willing participant in the relationship which leads her into the pleasures of bondage. At any time she can withdraw, but chooses to stay. The complainers say this leads men of a different type to try and do the same without the willing consent of their partners. We night as well say that crime stories lead people to loot, steal, rob and commit murder, They complain that Grey is a handsome billionaire who makes everything seem romantic. Well, naturally; this is fiction, after all. It wouldn't work if he was a tramp and lived in a dustbin.

Outlander on the other hand, has a story about a modern women stranded in 1745. More imaginative, but even more outlandish, you might say, than the set up of 50 Shades. Claire, the heroine, sees and filters everything through the eyes of someone used to the life of a 1940s woman, It is possible that Claire is more independent than women actually were in the 1940s despite their necessary work during the war years. Claire, I often feel, is as modern and independent as the author, born in 1952 and 39 when she published the first Outlander novel.

There is a good deal of sex in the novels. Claire is threatened with rape so many times in the first few episodes of the Starz production that I lost count, but I think they were present in the book too. It is so long since I read the first one that my memory of it is hazy on certain points..Then comes her relationship with Jamie. The film episode where they marry is devoted to their lovemaking to the exclusion of almost everything else. The difference is, in this production/story, Jamie is a virgin and Claire is the one with sexual experience. I remember thinking how great that Gabaldon had turned the usual man-in-charge-thing on its head in the novel, and cheered. I also noted how many women worked on the Starz production team alongside Gabaldon. I think what we have on film  is a woman's perception of making love.

That is also what we have with Anastasia in 50 Shades. We share her perceptions, not his. The only difference is that in 50 Shades, he is the controller and she the novice, In Outlander, Claire is in control or at least an equal partner in the later novels. And I think that is what makes the difference, why so many women complain about 50 Shades.

Stuck my nose out of bed this morning and hastily stuck it back in again. Cold! The air was cold, and so was my nose. Autumn, it seems, has arrived. Yet by midday, I was hot while walking the dog. Now, as I write this an hour later, it threatens to rain and it might be a good afternoon for working. We had a wonderful morning walk at the beach this week. Tim's first exposure to the sea....he trotted toward it, full of curiosity, and then......(see later this week!)

I have plucked up my courage and sent off two partials submissions on Capture a Queen, aka Matho's story, in the last month. Now comes the nail biting time of sitting and waiting for a response. Meanwhile, I have gone back to work on my next Viking story Blood Feud. Suitably exciting title, don't you think? It will pick up the character Oli from Far After Gold, when he has reached sixteen, and tell his story.  So far it is exciting, but I have to keep stopping and think how characters are going to get out of the difficulties I have given them. Usually I'm stuck for a day or two, and then the idea pops into my head while I'm asleep, or nearly asleep. Sometimes I forget it by the time I've woken up next morning, and Yes, I know I should keep a notepad and write the idea down, but really, that's just too much fuss when dh would be grumbling about the light being switched on, and the dog would wake up and come nosing around - and his nose is even colder than mine was this morning! If the idea is good, it will come again, or I'll remember it half way though the day.

So far I have seven books published, which surprises me sometimes. They all sell, some better than others, and the one with the most sex sells better than the rest, so I know what I have to do. They are all listed on the My Titles page on this blog. All historical, but for Shadows, which is set in contemporary France.

As I anticipated, it is now sheeting down. Good thing I didn't do any washing today!

Tranquil covers

Tranquil scenes of the North Sea on a summer's day. Temperature 23 degress, no wind and a calm, calm sea.

Dh presented me with a link to a site displaying cover pics of Mills and Boon and how they have changed over the years. Check it out here

The modern covers are not the ones I won't be seen dead buying over the counter - and not under it either! You know the ones I mean. The ones with impossibly handsome men, so handsome that the sensible mind shrieks oh yeah, pull the other one. The ones where the men look as if they need a bra to hold in their rounded pectoral muscles and their abdomens seem painted on. The ones where the female displays wanton limbs with only a scrap of limp muslin preserving her decency...

But even in the examples shown, we have a preponderance of couples lolling around on a bed.

Why do the media people want to give the impression that the stories are all about couples bedding each other?

The ones I have read (OK, yes, I have read some of them - ebooks do provide anonymity! - must be why erotica does so well there - No, really, I choose carefully so that the covers will not make me blush to admit reading them) Well, the ones I have read always have more story than the cover would have you believe. Carefully thought out, well motivated plots about why couples don't make it to bliss at the drop of a hat. But does the cover tell you that? It does not. It tells you Read About Sex Here.

When is the advertising/media world going to get over its preoccupation with sex?

Skipping sex

I thought it was about time I commented on some of the books I've been reading and listing on here. (If you haven't noticed, look to the right....)

Last read has been a Stephanie Laurens. This is perhaps the fourth one - I've done Vane, Devil, and Lucifer. This time it was one of the girls as protagonist- Amanda, to be precise. I adore the way the author gets her character psychology so right, the Regency times so precise and love her excellent use of language. But...you can tell there's a but coming, I suspect - I now skip pages describing most of the sex encounters. At first it was Vane and Priscilla and the encounters were well done and in character. (And new, of course. To me, anyway.) Slowly, as I've found and read the other titles, I find the level of sex is increasing until in the last two books I've been tempted to count the pages that detail the encounters - sometimes seven, eight and nine page encounters and more than three, four or five encounters per book - perhaps more. What percentage of the whole book, I wonder? Not that it isn't well done, but...there's only so much lapping, laving and silken skin a person can take before it begins to feel just a tad repetitious. I'd much rather have more story, which the author also writes very well indeed.

Perhaps I've read too many of the series in too short a space of time. Spread out over a few years, would I notice? I don't know.

Does this demand for sex come from the reader, the editor, the publishing houses? and how much is enough? and how much becomes too much?

I'm wondering how far and where this trend will go. If you have a view, let me know! And if Ms Laurens happens, by some strange internet quirk, to see this - don't worry - I'll still be reading your books!