The River Taboo
When I first started this business it seemed everyone had a tag line, and people were always asking me what mine was. Oh dear…I didn’t have a tag line. Heck, I didn’t even fully understand what a tag line was to be honest. I was certainly impressed with some of the ones out there in cyber-space though. How did these people come up with such nifty ways to describe themselves and what they created? It was a good question.
A few months into my journey to becoming a writer I realized my writing was a tad different than everyone else’s, but I still didn’t know exactly how to describe it or how to “tag” it. My editor and I had a discussion, a lengthy one at that, about how my writing differed from other writer’s and what my “hook” was. You see, I don’t write paranormal and I don’t write same sex romance. Two of the hottest selling items on the market right now. The reason? They aren’t the genres I fit into. I don’t know vampires and I don’t feel that I’m well equipped to write same sex well enough to do it justice. Well, that being said, what did I have to offer the literary romantic world if I didn’t have something that screams read me? My editor enlightened me to what I do have. Realism. Hmph. Who knew? So, I coined my very own term. Realmantica. What exactly is realmantica? Since I coined the term, I believe I reserve the exclusive right to define it. Realmantica is a romance that is defined by its elements of realism with some erotic content woven throughout. It can stand alone without the erotic parts, but is much better with them present. And just what is realism? Real people, with real problems, in real places, linked by real facts, and with real solutions. In other words, these stories take time, patience, and research to develop. Some things you just can’t make up. Not that same sex romance doesn’t embody all those real things. They do, but as I already said I just don’t feel I’m the right fit for that genre. So…now I had a tag line: writing one realmantic moment at a time.
So what does all that have to do with this River Taboo? Well, you see, I grew very tired of formula romance some time ago. I’m sure everyone is aware of the formula and how it applies to Greek tycoons, cowboys, and cops. Here’s an example. Billionaire sleeps with secretary, she turns up pregnant. Oh dear, now what? They resist, they marry, HEA all the way around. Whatever. Where’s the depth? Where’s the problem, other than she’s pregnant? I want to crawl inside their heads and find out what the real issues are.
Too often, writers are afraid to walk across that bridge over the River Taboo. I’m not. That river contains all the realistic problems real people have. Disease, mental illness, physical disfigurements, poverty, drug problems, miscarriages, alcoholism, abortion, loss of a spouse, and the list goes on and on and on. All these things float down the River Taboo, but not many people are there with their literary nets catching them. They’re too serious, they’re too scary, someone might be offended. Yes, they are serious and scary. Life is serious and scary. But, if taken and treated with care and respect, no one’s feelings are going to get hurt, no one will be offended. In fact, it is my belief that these real people with real problems will appreciate the fact that someone took the time to notice them and their plight.
Now, Three for Keeps is a ménage with BDSM elements. Is ménage a real problem? Is BDSM? Well, not necessarily, but it certainly is taboo in our society. Why do I choose to write it? Because both are real and touchy subjects. Not to mention I just plain like figuring out what makes people tick and with four people in a relationship that equates to a whole lot of heads to crawl inside and pick apart. Zoey, Dane, Jack and Ryan were a lot of fun to write. And let’s face it. As much as I like writing realmantica, even I need a touch of fun occasionally.
If you’re a writer, take a chance. Don’t’ be afraid. Cross that bridge over the River Taboo.
Now without further ado…here’s a bit about my latest creation…Three for Keeps…
Zoey Matthews is in love. She’s been in love since the day she was dropped off by a social worker at yet another foster home on a back country road miles from nowhere, Missouri. At age ten, she met the men of her dreams. Over the course of sixteen years, Dane Cardwell, Jack Devereux and Ryan Wilkins fell in love with her, too. They’ve each told her they love her, they’ve shown her and each man has gone so far as to ask her to marry him. But what they don’t know is Zoey loves them all.
Her game of kiss and not tell all comes crashing down around her the night of her graduation from veterinary school and Zoey runs for the mountains. Of Colorado. Hoping to outrun her obsession with three men and forget them all together, she stays gone for ten years. But the wound has never healed. In fact, it’s done nothing but fester. Needing to clear the air, Zoey agrees to spend a few days back home with the boys never imagining it would turn into a week filled with comparison sex as Dane, Jack and Ryan each try to get Zoey to choose between them and their varied tastes.
When she finally tells the truth, a truth only one of them has known all along, Zoey fears the foursome will never be able to make a sharing relationship work. After all, aren’t there just too many personalities and desires to sort through? Add in the kink factor and things get really complicated. Zoey’s not convinced the truth has any merit, but there’s one thing she knows for sure…this time she’s playing for keeps.
Please enjoy a short excerpt:
“How long has this been going on?” Zoey asked hanging her bag over the door.
“How long has what been going on?” Jack looked everywhere but at her.
“This vigil.” She waved a hand around the room. “This shrine.”
“It’s been here since you left. We did all this as a graduation gift. We thought you might come home, you’d need a place until…” Jack stopped and took a breath. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For driving you away.”
Jack turned and left her standing there with her mouth hanging open.
How on earth could that man ever think for a minute he’d driven her away? He’d never once hinted that he held any guilt over what happened. Zoey didn’t blame him, not in the least. It was a moment of weakness on both their parts and in that moment was when she figured out she couldn’t live with one of them and couldn’t live without them all. So she’d put on her coward’s cape and fled, but not before confessing everything to Jack between crying spells.
Zoey pulled her cap off and tossed it on the sink then tugged her tank top up and over her head letting it fall to the floor. She glanced in the mirror at the artwork that Ryan hadn’t seen as she unsnapped her bra and tossed it on top of her shirt. After toeing off her ropers she shed her jeans and stood there in nothing more than a pink G-string brushing her hair out.
“Zoey Matthews,” Ryan growled and sent her a few inches off the floor squealing. “Oh my God. That fuckin’ hummin’bird wasn’t all of it? What the fuck? Jesus Christ!”
Before Zoey could cover herself, Ryan was in the bathroom with her spinning her in a circle looking her over from head to toe. His eyes lingered a while on the wild stallions galloping across her lower back.
“Who the hell did you let do that?” he demanded, pointing at her nipple.
“None of your business,” she said. “I told you earlier, I’m grown.”
That piercing had come on the heels of a stint with a bull rider who liked to play rough. Zoey found she liked a little rough too and after a few too many Patrons one night had had one of the vendors administer a little gold ring in her right breast. Of course what her next lover never knew was that the whole time he was flicking that little gold ring with his tongue she was imagining someone else’s tongue rattling her cage.
“And I told you I could see that.”
Zoey opened her mouth to give him an earful but before one word escaped her Ryan had run his hands up her nape and grabbed two handfuls of her hair, wrapping it around his fists, then literally devoured her mouth. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t move, hell she couldn’t even think. Desperate was the only way to describe what Ryan was doing. He bit, sucked, licked and inhaled her over and over again until they were both breathless, forehead to forehead heaving for air.
“Ryan?” she gasped.
“Shut up, Zoey.”
That was all he had to say before feasting on her mouth again then moving down and grabbing her little gold ring with his teeth and tugging until a zip of pain ran out and across her breast sending her heart into an irregular rhythm and her clit into a spasm.
“Oh, shit,” she squeaked.
“I’d have never guessed, Zoey. Why didn’t you ever tell me?” he breathed across her throat before taking her earlobe and grating it between his teeth.
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know, Ryan,” she groaned.
“I want to know, baby. All of it.”
“No you don’t.” Zoey squirmed and pulled away. “Stop, Ryan. I can’t…”
“Goddamn it, Zoey. Shit!” Ryan backed up and ran his hands over his head. “I’m sorry. I…that’s not what I came up here for. I was supposed to ask if you were hungry.”
Thanks to you and Jack I’m starved.
“No, thanks anyway.” Zoey yanked her G-string down, threw it at him and got in the shower.
Purchase Link: http://www.allromanceebooks.com/storeSearch.html?searchBy=publisher&qString=rebel+ink+press&searchBy=publisher&qString=rebel+ink+press
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