Curvy Girl And Super Shy Hunky Guy
I’m at Selena Robins’s online home today, talking about Curvy Girl and Super Shy Hunky Guy, a real life romance I witnessed.
https://selenarobinsmusings.com/2016/06/08/adorable-inspiring-a-true-account-of-romance-in-the-gym/
Here’s a snippet…
I’ve been watching a real life romance between a super shy hunky guy and an oblivious curvy girl at the gym every day.
Hunky Guy runs on the treadmill every day, watching the business news as he works out.
Girls give him the eye (I admit to checking him out too – he’s no Dear Wonderful Hubby but he is REALLY good looking).
He pays them no attention.
Then this girl walks by. She’s a curvy girl, brown hair up in a ponytail, glasses, no make- up, wearing an oversized T-shirt, leggings, and black goth-like running shoes.
He almost gets whiplash, watching her pass him.
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He wants one night. I want forever.
Hit it and quit it—that’s Smoke Sheridan’s relationship philosophy. The tall, dark, and dangerous club owner never spends more than one night with any woman. He seduces the broken-hearted, leaving them with smiles on their faces and a sexual confidence other men can’t resist.
I need his services.
My boyfriend of four years dumped me because I’m a lousy lay. Smoke can help me win him back, teach me how to make my man writhe in ecstasy. I’ll show him such bliss, he’ll bellow my name in the dark of the night, want me with an all-consuming desire.
This sounds like a great plan. Except I see the loneliness in Smoke’s eyes, feel the wistfulness in his touch, experience the wanting in his embrace. The player isn’t as shallow as he appears.
And I’ve never been good at letting go.
One And Done contains inappropriate humor, very bad pickup lines, a BBW heroine who doesn’t know what she’s doing and a player who thinks he does.
This is a standalone story.
Buy Now:
On Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/One-Done-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B01FOVMF70
On Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Done-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B01FOVMF70
On ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-oneanddone-2040641-340.html
On Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-and-done-cynthia-sax/1123809444
On Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/one-and-done-1
Topics: Guest Post | Comments Off on Curvy Girl And Super Shy Hunky Guy
Game Of Thrones And Bringing Characters Back From The Dead
Warning: This post will contain Game Of Thrones spoilers. If you haven’t watched Sunday’s episode, please don’t read this post.
This week, one of my favorite characters on Game Of Thrones was brought back from the dead. Yes, we didn’t see him die (just as we didn’t see Hodor and many other characters die) but he was left in a situation he couldn’t survive. I assumed he’d died. I grieved. I moved on.
Now, he’s back. Many buddies thought I’d be thrilled.
I’m not. This is the second character they’ve brought back from the dead this season. I suspect they plan to bring Khal Drogo back (based on the prophecy and the fact they haven’t stopped talking about him). Who else will they resurrect?
And if any character can be brought back from the dead, why should we care when characters die? Why should we care when they fight, when they’re in perilous situations, when they’re inflicted with a seemingly incurable disease? The tension, the emotions from those scenes are gone for me.
THIS is the reason, as writers, we have to be very careful about bringing characters back from the dead. It changes the way readers view a story and a series.
Few writers kill characters for no reason. It is a gut wrenching experience. I cry every time I kill a character. I created him or her. To destroy him or her tears my heart out.
We know the death will impact readers. If the character is much loved, we know we’ll cause readers pain, perhaps make them cry. As a romance writer, I love making readers happy. Making them sad hurts me.
But killing our characters is sometimes necessary. Maybe we write medical romances or stories with battle scenes or murder mysteries, stories in which death and danger happens. To not have a death (especially in a series) wouldn’t be right for the story or the series.
In one of my cyborg stories, I killed a beloved secondary character. It was the right thing to do for that character, for the book, for the series.
I’d created a character who couldn’t live in the world without substantially changing, without losing every aspect that made him special.
I also knew a cyborg had to die eventually. The cyborgs are at war and, although they seem indestructible, they aren’t.
In addition to this, I needed something extremely shocking and personally moving to happen to force the cyborgs to change, to reevaluate their priorities. They were too inward looking, too focused on themselves. This death was that shocking incident.
The reader backlash from this character’s death was intense. Readers were angry. They sent me emotional messages. They vowed never to read another book I write. I lost two-thirds of the readership for the cyborg series with that decision.
Yeah. (grimaces) It was one of the darkest times of my writing career. I will always write but I questioned if publishing my stories was the right thing to do. My goal in life is to make at least one person a day happy. With this story, I’d made many people unhappy.
The temptation to miraculously bring the character back from the dead in the next story was tremendous. Some readers asked for this. Readers wrote fanfiction in which this character survived.
I didn’t resurrect this character. While allowing him to stay dead might not have been the best decision for sales, it was the right decision for the series. My reasons for his death hadn’t changed. Bringing him back to life would have felt wrong, like a cheat, and that would have dampened my love for the series, a series I originally wrote only for me.
Killing a character, even a minor character, should be a serious decision. Bringing him or her back from the dead is an even bigger decision. It will have an impact on your story and on your series.
Think before you resurrect characters.
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Defying Death
He’ll risk it all for one moment of happiness.
Cyborgs don’t show emotion. Death learned that lesson early in his long lifespan. To survive, he hides his fierce passions behind a stoic wall. He calls no warrior friend. He never admits to caring for any being.
Even the human female he’s destined to love.
Tifara is Death’s obsession, his sole opportunity for happiness, to express the all-consuming passion burning brightly inside him. He’ll do anything to obtain the curvaceous medic: defy a direct order, abduct Tifara from her battle station, and wage war on his fellow cyborgs.
To earn her love, he’ll have to risk much, much more.
Amazon US: http://www.amazon.com/Defying-Death-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01D6OUQS2/
Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Defying-Death-Cyborg-Sizzle-Book-ebook/dp/B01D6OUQS2/
ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-defyingdeath-2001671-147.html
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/defying-death-cynthia-sax/1123562659
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/defying-death-2
Topics: Writing Tips | 2 Comments »
One And Done – First Scene
As One And Done is releasing on July 19th (and is available for pre-order now), I thought I’d share the first two chapters of this 300 page plus contemporary erotic romance.
“Yes, yes, yes,” Azure, my roommate and best friend chants, her pitch rising, rising, rising. Her bedroom door is closed yet I hear every word, every pant, every moan. “Yes,” she screams.
I press my lips together, sucking back my envy, the taste of it acidic on my tongue. That’s the third time this evening she’s come.
I’m happy for my friend. I am. We’ve lived together since our first year of university, got jobs at the same company, have each other’s backs. Azure is my sister in every way except blood. She’s chosen family, the best kind, and her joy usually feeds mine.
Usually.
But not tonight. Listening to her find release over and over again reminds me of what I’ve been missing. It has been almost two weeks since I’ve seen Edward, my lawyer boyfriend, twelve days and twenty-two hours since I’ve had sex.
Sex with another person, that is. I pleasure myself in the shower every morning. That takes the edge off but is never enough to completely satisfy me.
I need a man’s hands on my body, more specifically, my boyfriend’s hands.
Which is why I’m baking cookies on a Thursday night.
I open the oven and a wave of chocolate-and-vanilla-infused air sweeps upward, heating my arms and face. This last tray of chocolate chip cookies is almost ready. The previous batches are cooling on the laminate-topped island separating the tiny kitchen from the equally tiny living room.
I’ll package these cookies up, bring them to Edward, and, once I’ve satisfied that hunger, I’ll appease his sexual appetites.
That’s the plan.
Azure’s bedroom door opens. “You boys entertain yourselves.” She closes the door. “I’m taking a break.”
My best friend dances toward me, her lush body swathed in a colorful robe made from hemp and natural dyes. A smile lights her makeup-free face. She’s been banged silly by her two men of the moment.
I grin at her. “Do you want me to make you a sandwich?”
“There’s no need for a sandwich.” She spins, almost losing her robe in the process. The soles of her bare feet smack against the hardwood floor. She smells like sex and marijuana. “We have chocolate chip cookies.”
“These cookies aren’t organic.” I didn’t expect her to emerge from her bedroom tonight. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. It’s my cheat day.” Azure pulls a barstool out from under the kitchen island and plops her curvy ass on the vinyl. “I ate white bread at lunch.”
“No.” I gasp. My friend considers white flour to be the work of evil corporations hell-bent on destroying the world.
“That’s my truth.” She dips her head. “I’m not proud of it. There were leftover sandwiches in the fourth floor lunchroom and I was weak, so very weak.”
Since Azure is confessing, I decide to make one of my own. “I made these for Edward.” I remove the last sheet from the oven and turn it off. “He’s working late again tonight.”
“He’s working?” Azure’s lips twist. “Is that what he told you?”
“That’s his truth.” I set the sheet on a cooling rack. “He wouldn’t lie to me.”
“I didn’t say he was lying.” She grabs one of the ready-to-be-eaten cookies and breaks it into pieces.
I watch her, waiting. My friend has more to say. She always does.
“You haven’t seen Steady Eddy in…how long?” Azure tilts her head.
“It’ll be two weeks tomorrow.” I’ve missed him, desperately. “And you know he doesn’t like that nickname.”
She shrugs. “It suits him.”
My friend says this as though it’s a bad thing. It isn’t. Edward is forty-three, thirteen years older than I am. His steadiness and his maturity are two of the many things I love about him.
And I do love him. My boyfriend might not look like a movie star. His blond hair is thinning and some unkind people might call him scrawny.
But he eats whatever he wants, is able to devour a tin of my cookies and not gain weight. And his hair, the few strands he still has, is baby fine, soft to the touch.
He’s also kind and intelligent, his eyes are a beautiful shade of blue, a couple of hues lighter than mine, and he treats me like a princess. He doesn’t care that I’m two dress sizes larger than I was when we first met; that I’m an accountant, a career many people find boring; that I’m not trendy or fashionable. He loves me the way I am.
I share none of this with Azure. My best friend isn’t as lucky as I am. She doesn’t yet have a permanent guy. The two men in her bedroom are casual lays.
Azure claims that’s because she doesn’t believe in monogamy. I think it’s because she hasn’t found ‘the one.’
“It’s been almost two weeks, huh?” She arches one of her eyebrows.
“We’ve both been busy.” We’ve never gone this long without seeing each other. This frustrates me sexually but it doesn’t worry me. I know why we’ve been apart. “Edward is hustling for clients, trying to make partner. I had month-end.”
“Those are excuses.” Azure waves her right hand dismissively. “If he wanted to see you, he would.”
“He’s busy.” Securing our future, ensuring we never have to struggle for money like my parents did.
“No man is too busy for sex.” She destroys another cookie.
Her bedroom door opens before I think of a reply. Rohaan, one of her meditation buddies, struts out, wearing absolutely nothing. The man is short and round and hairy, his chest covered by a thick mat of fur, but he has a reason to be confident.
He’s packing. I’ve never seen a cock as long or as thick as the one he’s been blessed with. It’s semi-erect and bobs as he walks. It’s impossible to gaze away from it.
Azure turns her head and frowns at him. “What did I say about leaving Evan unsupervised?”
“Oh fuck.” Rohaan changes course without another word and strides back into the bedroom, shutting the door behind him.
I blink, trying to purge images of his humongous cock from my brain. “Do I want to know why Evan can’t be left unsupervised?” I look at Azure.
“No.”
I wait. The expression on her face says she wants to tell me.
“Last time he was here, he stuck a curling iron up his ass.” She pauses. “While it was heated.”
“Ouch.” I wince. Then I think about this a little bit more. “Wait a minute.” Azure always allows her hair to dry naturally. “Do you own a curling iron?”
“No.”
“Did he stick my curling iron up his ass?”
“Don’t worry.” She avoids my gaze. “He replaced it.”
I open my mouth and then close it again. With Azure, it’s sometimes best not to know the details.
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He wants one night. I want forever.
Hit it and quit it—that’s Smoke Sheridan’s relationship philosophy. The tall, dark, and dangerous club owner never spends more than one night with any woman. He seduces the broken-hearted, leaving them with smiles on their faces and a sexual confidence other men can’t resist.
I need his services.
My boyfriend of four years dumped me because I’m a lousy lay. Smoke can help me win him back, teach me how to make my man writhe in ecstasy. I’ll show him such bliss, he’ll bellow my name in the dark of the night, want me with an all-consuming desire.
This sounds like a great plan. Except I see the loneliness in Smoke’s eyes, feel the wistfulness in his touch, experience the wanting in his embrace. The player isn’t as shallow as he appears.
And I’ve never been good at letting go.
One And Done contains inappropriate humor, very bad pickup lines, a BBW heroine who doesn’t know what she’s doing and a player who thinks he does.
This is a standalone story.
Buy Now:
On Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/One-Done-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B01FOVMF70
On Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/One-Done-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B01FOVMF70
On ARe: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-oneanddone-2040641-340.html
On Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/one-and-done-cynthia-sax/1123809444
On Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/one-and-done-1
Topics: Cover Reveal | 1 Comment »
Interview With Siren Allen
I sat down (virtually) with Siren Allen for a short interview. Siren Allen’s most recent release is Her Alien Protector, a Sci-Fi Romance!
Cynthia Sax: What makes Raynor so freakin’ sexy?
Siren Allen: Raynor is handsome. He’s got a body that looks like it was carved from stone. He’s a great warrior and his smile sends chills down his mate’s spine. But, it’s the way he cares for his female that really makes him sexy. He puts her first and will do whatever he has to, even kill, to make sure her and those she love remains safe. Oh, and he looks good with his shirt off… and his pants.
Cynthia Sax: What is your favorite line from Her Alien Protector?
Siren Allen: “Lark, you smell,” he inhaled deeply and then growled. “You smell like something I would like to taste.”
I absolutely love this line. It’s sexy. Raynor has a habit of saying extremely sexy things to his reluctant mate, Lark. His words make her blush. However, the sexier he talks to her, the more comfortable she gets around him and the more comfortable she feels in her own skin. After years of being treated as the ‘ugly sister’, she’s starting to realize that beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. By just being himself, he’s helping her accept who she is. This sentence is not only sexy to Lark, it’s also refreshing and uplifting.
Cynthia Sax: Where does Her Alien Protector take place?
Siren Allen: Her Alien Protector takes place on Venus. I have always been obsessed with this planet. It happens to spin in the opposite direction of the other planets in our solar system. Though it’s not the closest planet to the sun, it’s still the hottest. I found the idea of placing a vampire on Venus intriguing. One day on Venus is about 243 Earth days, which meant my vampire would have to endure hellish conditions to be with his mate. Oh and did I mention there’s a harem filled with enhanced concubines? What happens on Venus stays on Venus.
Cynthia Sax: Is Her Alien Protector part of a series and will you be writing more stories in this series?
Siren Allen: The name of this series is, The Beasts From Beyond. You will not only get to meet Raynor, but you’ll also meet his brethren. Though book 1 takes place on Venus, the other stories will be spread out all over the galaxy. Escape pods have a habit of crash landing on unknown worlds. J
Cynthia Sax: Thank you for joining us today, Siren!
Siren Allen’s Website: https://sirenallen.com/beastsfrombeyond/
*****************************************************************************
Falling in love with a prisoner was against the rules.
So why was Lark allowing herself to get close to Raynor? He was domineering, cocky and much too handsome for his own good. Though her mind found him unbearable, her body was ready to endure anything he could deliver. However, inside of him lived a darkness unlike anything she’d ever witnessed. If the rumors were true, that darkness would consume any and everyone in its path. Lark was going to try her best to stay out of his way.
They called him The Destroyer.
Raynor Batiste was many things: a monster, a killer, one of the most feared creatures in the galaxy. He was a beast whose name sent shudders through his enemies. However, a prisoner he was not. He’d only allowed himself to be captured so he could get close to his mate, Lark Valdese.
That task was proving harder than he’d anticipated. Lark is afraid of what lives inside of him, and she should be. Yet, when her planet comes under attack, the evil lurking within him may be the only thing that can save her and her people. He’s willing to protect her planet, but his aid comes at a price, a price only Lark can pay.
Will Beauty give in to the Beast in order to save her world? Or will she learn that the monster inside of him is the reason her planet is being destroyed?
Buy Now:
On Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01G3S6SEY
On Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01G3S6SEY
On Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01G3S6SEY
Topics: Author Interviews | 2 Comments »
