K.C. Burn – Erotic Romance Author

For this month’s DIK reading challenge review, I read L.B. Gregg’s Happy Ending, the second in the Men of Smithfield series. It features two very different men, Seth and David, who get to know each other under rather difficult circumstances. Happy Ending started with a humorous scene, very typical of L.B.’s quirky, fun writing style. We’re immersed immediately into Seth’s arrogance, but it’s the arrogance of a self-confident, self-assured man, and his attitude is almost endearing. David, on the other hand, doesn’t find him endearing at all.

Quickly though, we discover Seth’s arrogance is often a façade to help him deal with his emotional upheaval and the almost bewildering lifestyle change imposed on him by his sister’s death, resulting in guardianship of his six year old niece. David, in Seth’s eyes, is mercurial and irresponsible, but dealing with a blackmailer, a kidnapper and a persistent ex makes Seth realize there’s no one else he can rely on like David, even after discovering the truth about David’s closely guarded secrets. Although Seth can hardly believe how much he wants David, he doesn’t deny that he does.

This story kept me guessing with unexpected twists and turns, and made for a pretty decent suspense story. But the main driving force was the developing relationship between Seth and David on the backdrop of Seth discovering new depths about himself. I’d hesitate to say he became a different person over the course of the book, but he definitely became more accepting, and his hard edges softened. Both characters were extremely appealing, but so vastly different it was hard to believe, even near the end of the book, that they could possibly make a relationship work. Somehow they do. Seth and David find their own improbable and yet entirely believable and satisfying happy ending. I was very pleased with this follow up to the entertaining Gobsmacked.

I’m blogging today at Flirty Author Bitches about my first apartment and how it served (and still serves) to provide inspiration… when it wasn’t scaring the crap out of me.  No, wait, that was still inspiring!  Anyway, please stop by.

I’ve been hiding under a rock for the past week or ten days, mostly because I’m trying to wrestle my current work in progress into submission. I haven’t been doing much email, or tweeting, and I sure haven’t been learning Facebook. I did take the time out to watch a couple of movies with my hubby. Unfortunately, one of them was Transformers 2. Two & a half hours of boredom. When Bumblebee (i.e. the Autobot who DOESN’T SPEAK) is the most engaging character, you know there are problems. But I digress.

Wrangling the WIP. This particular one is more complicated than I anticipated. One of the characters is a painter. Some of the pertinent back story occurs during the Great Depression. “No problem,” I say. A quick Internet crawl & I’ll have all the stuff I need to know for that (I’ve already bitched… er… blogged about the whole penis factor for this story & my title woes). “It’s just going to be a novella, I should be able to pop that out pretty quick.” I say. I was soooo wrong. I still love the idea, but I’m starting to kick myself for making my life difficult.

It’s kind of a long distance romance, and the two guys don’t meet face to face until near the end. Trying to have two people fall in love without meeting… I imagine it’s easier to do in real life than it is to write about it. GAH! And, there’s another little twist… which I’m not going to mention here… that is more or less tripling the complication of their developing relationship.

This is also the first time I’ve written scenes out of order. I usually like to write from beginning to end, but because this story has a few flashbacks (and I wasn’t sure where I wanted them), I wrote a bunch of scenes out of order. Which, honestly, has just confused me. So tonight, I got out the whiteboard, and started mapping scenes. Usually that’s a little too confining for me, but since I managed to complicate things for myself, I needed the help sorting things out. Hubby though, came up in the middle of my very serious timeline mapping, and laughed at the fact I’d plotted in “masturbation”. Well, the two guys aren’t together for much of the book — it’s bound to happen AND it’s important to the story.

Despite the laughter, I think I’ve got it figured out — YAY — but it’s going to be rather longer than I expected. Still, I’m hoping for a first draft by the end of the month — which means I’m probably going back under my rock.

I got suckered into watching a Lifetime movie recently. For someone who writes & reads romances, I don’t much like movie versions of them. Generally, I find them too sappy and emotional on screen. I’d much rather watch something explode. However, the sole and single reason I ended up watching? Ivan Sergei. The movie wasn’t bad, but if not for Ivan Sergei, I doubt I would have even given it a second of my time.

There are movies I am more inclined to watch solely because of the actors involved, regardless of whether I’d usually be interested in the genre. There are also a lot of famous, talented actors who can carry a bad movie, and lots of people who’d go see a crap movie with those famous actors. But I’m talking about (somewhat) less well known actors. Anyone watch Dollhouse? I liked it, but not as much as Firefly. However, Enver Gjokaj, the guy who played Victor? Cute, and hands down the best actor on that show. He was incredible, especially since he had to play a different character every episode. Now, I would watch just about anything with him in it. I’ve felt the same way about Ryan Reynolds since his sit-com days, and that opinion is clearly justified.

Cillian Murphy and Oded Fehr are on my list, too. Cillian first came to my attention in 28 Days Later (due to my insatiable love of zombie movies & his hotness) but he made it on my list after playing Scarecrow in Batman Begins – flipping brilliant in that role. Oded Fehr – who could forget him as Ardeth Bay (with those SEXY tattoos) in the Mummy movies? Naturally, I was thrilled he was in the Resident Evil movies (‘cuz, zombies… again!) As far as I know, Ivan wasn’t in a zombie movie, but he did appear briefly in Kindred: The Embraced… vampires are close, right? Now Enver just needs to find a good zombie movie to act in — is that an oxymoron? And if you’ve got any suggestions for talented, attractive actors who are maybe not so well known? I’d love to hear ‘em.

I’ve been so busy with edits and various other obligations that I think I failed to post about my upcoming releases.  Now that contracts are all finalized & whatnot I thought I’d drop a short post about them.  The sequel to Wolfsbane, MIA Case Files: Blood Relations, is scheduled to release this fall from Loose Id.  Although Adam and Carmichael both appear, the story focuses on one of Carmichael’s colleagues at the agency.  I’ve posted a blurb on my Books page.

I also have a futuristic novella due to release in spring of 2011 from Carina Press.  It’s called Spice ‘n’ Solace, and I had a blast writing it.  Quick and dirty?  It’s a case of mistaken identity where a high profile negotiator assumes a brothel owner is his escort for the night.  Hijinks ensue.  Okay, not actual hijinks, but the phrase amuses me.  There’s a blurb for it on my Books page also.

In the past three weeks, I’ve also completed the first round of edits for both, so I’m sure you can understand why I’ve been so busy!  I’ve been pretty lucky, in that all of my books so far are keeping the titles I gave them.  Several author friends have bemoaned the necessity for changing titles.  I anticipate joining them with my next submission.  The name in my head for my current WIP is probably not viable from an editor’s perspective.  But we’ll see… that’s assuming an editor likes the story… *wink*.

How important are titles, anyway?  Do words or titles using other languages create a barrier to book purchases?  Or do they create an allure, a mystique, that entices readers?  I know I’ve bought books based on cover art, and I’ve bought books where I’ve only read the first sentence of the back cover blurb, but I don’t recall if I’ve bought/dismissed books based solely on the title. Will using non-English words in a title lead people to assume the book isn’t written in English?  I’m guessing you can see where I’m going with this.  The title I have in mind is a non-English art term.  I believe it’s a relatively well known term (I don’t care to share yet… I have weird hang-ups about titles) and I’m hoping to have some ammunition when I submit.  Alas, I know I am not the final arbiter of titles — will having to change the title change the way I perceive my book?  Probably.   I’ll keep you posted!