It’s my pleasure to welcome Northern Bird, talented author, and all around fab person, Victoria Blisse, back to my site to to talk about her nasty, yummy, romantic novel, Naughty Rendezvous. I just have one question for you, Victoria, what makes us fall in love?
What Makes Us Fall in Love?
If I knew I’d be a millionaire from selling love potions to every unrequited lover in the world. However I think I have an idea of what types of thing make us fall in love with a fictional character.
People love a good plot, they love things to happen but every fiction reader knows that they’re reading the events because they want to know what’s going to happen to certain characters they’ve been introduced to and really, really, really don’t want them to die. So what makes a character compelling? I don’t suppose anyone can ever completely know because we all have differing opinions but I can think of a few essentials that can’t be argued about.
Emotion. We don’t want to read about people who just wander through life and in erotica shag the odd person here and there. No, we want to read about people who feel. We want to see sorrow and heart ache, laughter and joy and love, most of all we want to relive the wonder of falling in love. Well, those of us who love romance and erotica do anyway.
Personality. I think the one thing that stops me from reading a book to the end more often than not is when the main man or woman is exciting and real as a cardboard cut-out. When you get the prince who is tall, dark and handsome but completely and utterly vapid. Then there’s the princess who just moons about waiting to be rescued. You know the types I mean, their actions bore you because they’re born of cliché or simply to get to a particular sex act as quickly as possible.
A past.
Even in a very short story I want to know a bit about what happened to the character before the story even began. It’s one of those things that helps you to connect to what’s happening. It’s also something that’s pretty difficult to do and you also don’t want too much of it either. You don’t necessarily need to know her pet name as a kid or his favourite kind of cake, you know, that chocolate one with the nuts that his mum used to make. It’s got to be relevant.
So there you go, three things I think are essential for falling in love with a character. Now I’m going to introduce you to a friend of mine who I fell head over heels for whilst I wrote out his story. His name is Joe Moore and he’s the star of Naughty Rendezvous http://www.xcitebooks.com/Book/6653/Naughty-Rendezvous.html which is FREE at Xcite books until the 31st May.
First title in the Rendezvous triolgy, part of Xcite Book’s Ultimate Curves Rubenesque Range.
Joe likes to tease and single mum Leanna loves it to. When they meet up for their first official date, the sparks fly but who’s going to crack first? Will Joe’s intimate questions and kiss and run tactics bring Leanna to her knees or will Leanna’s curves, flashed in moments of exhibition drive Joe to rip off all her clothes and indulge his urges?
How will she react to Joe’s domination and will she be turned on by his spankings? She’s going to be a naughty girl, so she’s bound to find out.
Here’s an excerpt for you so you can try him on for size –ooo er!
Sometimes our typing gets sexy. It just happens. We’ll be chatting about our day or a film we’ve watched or a book we’ve read or something like that and then suddenly we’ll be saying how much we long to rip the clothes from each other’s bodies. How we want to kiss long, hard, and without limit. He tells me he wants to taste me, smell my feminine musk up close, lick me there, at the core of my womanliness. I tell him how hungry I am for him. How I want to explore every last crevice, nook, and cranny of his body. I type with fervour, spelling mistakes flying left, right, and centre, until we reach the climax. Then we go back to chatting again, content and warm and snuggled up to each other even though there are a good few miles between us.
I look up from my chocolate and my reverie as the bell on the window-filled door tinkles. When I see an imposing male outline and realise it’s him, my body shudders a sigh of relief as my tummy tightens with the excitement.
The cold early winter air blows in with him and he swiftly shuts the door. Joe smiles over at Kathy, the café owner.
‘Usual, Joe?’ she asks.
‘Cheers, Kathy, you’re a star.’ His deep silken tone is tinged with that familiar accent of the American south, bringing a touch of the exotic to the Northern British mundaneness of a cosy café. A girlish smile cracks across the weathered face of the elderly matron; Joe’s charm has worked on her too. I am sure I am smiling in just the same way. Noticing me in the back corner, his slightly squiffy smile is aimed at me now and my body goes as liquid as the chocolate I sip.
He strides over. He moves between the chairs and tables effortlessly, his dark-grey overcoat swishing and swirling around his strong legs as he moves.
‘Oh darlin’, I am so sorry I’m late!’ He smiles at me as he sits down, his grey eyes full of apology and regret. ‘I do hate to keep you waiting!’
‘Ah, you’re worth it, Joe,’ I answer. ‘And besides, I do love Kathy’s hot chocolate.’
He looks down and notices I’m on my second cup. ‘Oh, you’ve been waiting ages. Now I feel awful.’ He moves his cold hand to my thigh and squeezes. ‘I’ll make it worth your while, Leanna.’
‘Mmm, I know you will.’ My voice is huskier than I expect, the effect of his hand upon me, no doubt. ‘So what are we going to do with my precious hours of freedom?’
‘Well, honey, it is your call but please be gentle with me. It’s been a long day.’ He takes a long swallow of his hot coffee and I watch his light-pink lips darken with the heat as he sips.
‘Well, this is going to sound like a come-on … ’ I chuckle as I meet his eye, my cheeks flaring and my heart thudding for fear of rejection ‘ … but why don’t you just go back to my place? We can watch a film, I can throw us together a meal and we can just chill out for a bit.’
‘That sounds perfect to me.’ Joe smiles. He knows what I am thinking. He knows and he agrees to it. My heart does a pentathlon of actions as I hear myself saying, ‘Cool.’
We sit and chat for a while. He asks about Lucy, I ask about his day. We talk about the football, the traffic, and the sudden coldness of this bright autumn day. Joe drains the last of his coffee. His cheeks are more of an even pink now, having lost the harsh, wind-whipped look. His lips are deep, fleshy pink and plump. I look at the bottom lip as it curves under the coffee cup and wonder what it would be like between my own lips, gripped gently between my teeth.
‘Come on then.’ I shake myself from my seedy fantasy and pull myself up straight in my chair. ‘Or we’ll end up sitting here all day.’
‘OK.’ Joe replies, giving me a hand as I slip into my dark-chocolate coat. I watch him button up his own as I pull on my gloves.
‘It’s not far,’ I say as he holds the café door open for me. ‘So you won’t be out in the cold too long.’
He smiles as I pass him and his hand rests gently on my bottom for a moment before it is moved again.
Oh, he is a tease.
If you want to read more from Joe then check out Naughty Rendezvous http://www.xcitebooks.com/Book/6653/Naughty-Rendezvous.html as it’s completely free for the rest of May. He’s a hot dominant male you’ll just not be able to get enough of and I’m trying hard to resist name dropping Fifty Shades of Grey here but apparently I just failed miserably at that. So I’ll just say it. If you loved Christian Grey then you’ll be bowled over by Joe Moore and that’s a promise. It’s free to find out, so why not download yourself a copy right now? http://www.xcitebooks.com/Book/6653/Naughty-Rendezvous.html
Victoria’s Bio:
Victoria Blisse is a Mother, Wife, Christian, Manchester United Fan and Award Winning Erotica Authoress.
She is equally at home behind a laptop or a cooker and she loves to create stories, poems, cakes and biscuits that make people happy. She was born near Manchester, England and her northern English quirkiness shows through in all of her stories.
Passion, love and laughter fill her works, just as they fill her busy life.
Website: http://victoriablisse.co.uk
Facebook: http://facebook.com/victoriablisse
Twitter: http://twitter.com/victoriablissse
I couldn’t agree more- all those elements are essential to making a reader fall for a fictional character-sounds like a fab book Victoria xx
Thanks for letting me pop in, KD!
Kay – Thanks. I think it is a wonderful book but I’m a little bit biased, there. 😉
It’s a total pleasure to have you back again, Victoria, especially talking about such a wonderful topic and such a fab book! Thanks for being my guest!
KDx
What a fantastic post. Yes all those things and more. It has to be that feeling. You just know this is the one…
Always lovely to visit you, KD, thanks. 🙂
Savannah -Thank you and I know exactly what you mean.
What a great post. I think I maybe falling for this Blogger!