Wikipedia’s short definition of an Incubus is:

An incubus (nominal form constructed from the Latin verb, incubo, incubare, or “to lie upon”) is a demon in male form who, according to a number of mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to have intercourse with them. Its female counterpart is the succubus. An incubus may pursue sexual relations with a woman in order to father a child, as in the legend of Merlin. Religious tradition holds that repeated intercourse with an incubus or succubus may result in the deterioration of health, or even death.

That makes Incubus very interesting.  Of course, it also makes them even more attractive to fiction writers than your every-day demons.  Demons, that I profiled in the last post of this series, had over 500 search results at Amazon.

Incubus and Succubus have over 450 each.

It’s hard to resist a demon that has to have sex in order to survive.  Most fictional versions that I have read or seen in contemporary popular fiction, though, have dispensed with the idea of the victim being asleep at the time.  Most victims are awake, aware and often fully cooperative.

One of the more interesting versions of the incubus/succubus retellings I’ve seen lately is the Canadian-made series, Lost Girl, featuring Anna Silk and Kristen Holden-Ried (The Tudors).  Silk is a succubus, and fighting to maintain her independence in the middle of a fae war.  My jaw sagged in the middle of a recent episode when she found solace after being dumped by a guy by indulging in an MFF menage that was filmed all the way up to everyone taking off their clothes, kissing and caressing each other before the scene ended…  I guess Showcase can give HBO a run for its money.

Lost Girl just received funding and started filming its third season.

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Today my special guest, Naomi Bellina, is stepping up to the plate.  Please welcome her.

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Thank you, Tracy, for having me as a guest today and letting me share my thoughts on romance writing and saving the world. Be sure to enter my contest at the end of this post.

I’m a self-help, make life better, improve my character, motivational junkie. I diligently download lectures and talks from scores of inspirational and enthusiastic women, who tell me how to become the best person I can be.  I listen to these in my car on the way to work, to guarantee my day starts on a positive note. I want to make the world a better place, help society improve, and be a good person.

Part of my life’s work as a massage therapist involves helping others, but I have to wonder, how does writing romance novels fit into this holistic picture? I mean, come on, romance? And erotic romance at that. Isn’t this a frivolous way to spend one’s time, writing and reading love stories, especially since we know what’s going to happen. It’s going to end happily ever after and everyone will get what they deserve. Shouldn’t I be spending my time on more worthwhile endeavors, like raising money to cure cancer, or helping the homeless?

After a bit of soul searching and paying attention to a particularly wonderful speaker, whose message came at just the right time, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s okay to shine my light in this manner. Life is stressful. At the end of the day, we need to escape to a place that lets our mind relax, and we need forget about our problems for a little while. Even though we know it’s make-believe, and we know how it’s going to end, reading romance makes us feel good. Erotic romance can make us feel hot and sexy, and hot, sexy readers tend to be nice to their partners. We share the love, and then everyone sleeps better, and gets up in a good mood the next day.

People in a good mood drive kinder, smile more, and generally behave better than crabby people. Better behaved people will lead to less fighting, less tension, and more patience. Come to think of it, writing romance just may save the world.

Visit my About Me page on my website. Leave me a comment, and you will be entered to win your choice of ebook from my backlist. I will draw the winner April 27th, so feel free to comment up till then. Thanks again to Tracy for having me here today, and thank you everyone for visiting.

Naomi Bellina

Extraordinary erotic romance to tickle your fancy and unleash your libido

Site | Facebook | Twitter

Excerpt

A woman, a dwarf, a vow of celibacy. Enjoy this spicy excerpt from Seducing the Stone

“I’m not letting you go just yet. This person you were with, I want to talk to him. He knows where to find gems, right? I need him to get me an emerald.”

“No, he doesn’t know where to find gems. His name is Max, and he’s just a security guard who tried to stop me from taking the sapphire.”

Kuron looked unconvinced. Knowing the whole story would soon be all over Adonea, Raya quickly relayed the events which led up to her being in the museum the second time.

“So you see, he’s nobody, and there’s no reason for you to bother him. The sapphire is gone, and you’re out of luck. Let me go, and I’ll forget we ever had this unpleasant little encounter.”

“The human, Max, obviously likes you. He jumped in front of you when I fired my stun gun. I think he might talk to me if I were to convince him it would be good for your health to do so.”

Raya recalled Max had indeed thrown himself in front of her, to protect her. A warm glow filled her at this thought, and she lowered her face to hide a smile. It had been a long time since anyone had performed such a chivalrous action for her sake.

“You say he’s going to be at this museum tomorrow? I’ll pay him a little visit then, after their event. He should be in a good mood and amenable to helping me out. I could even offer him payment for his services. Humans are so avaricious. I’m sure he’ll jump at the chance for some extra cash.”

“Why do you want an emerald? Talk about avaricious. What are you dwarves going to do with an emerald?” Raya stopped as it suddenly dawned on her.

“You need to refresh your emerald at the temple of Espenar, don’t you?” She saw the look of annoyance on Kuron’s face and knew she was right. “I thought your groves were looking a bit shabby lately. Well, good luck finding the right emerald. We searched for a long time to locate Starry Night. If your people weren’t so contrary, you could just ask us for assistance. We would be happy to help you acquire one.”

“And if your people weren’t so selfish, we would ask for your help.”

“We are not selfish! You’re just being greedy! You have plenty of water from the streams on your side of Adonea, and we sell you as much of the water from Lake Cerulean as you want.”

“Yes, and you make a tidy profit off that water. You know good and well the lake water is what keeps us young and healthy. You should share it with us free of charge.”

“That water is our livelihood; selling to others is how we survive. We can’t just give it away. Come on, Kuron. We’ve been over and over this for years. Our people are not going to come to an agreement, and you keeping me here sure isn’t going to solve anything. And you’re not going to find the correct emerald without doing a proper investigation. Now let me go!” Raya tugged at the ropes binding her.

Kuron’s expression changed as he observed her attempts to escape. His eyes turned dark, and a slow, lustful smile spread across his face. “But you and I have a bit of unfinished business, my dear. Do you remember the last time we saw each other? Years ago, at a birthday party for some ambassador. I seem to remember you spurned my affections that night, but you told me if I ever caught you, I could have you. I do believe I caught you.”

To her chagrin, Raya did recall making a foolish promise to Kuron, after downing quite a few glasses of elderberry wine. What had possessed her to do such a thing? Kuron was irritating and arrogant, certainly not the qualities she preferred in her lovers. It appeared, however, she was trapped. She prided herself on keeping her promises, and Kuron seemed determined to hold her to this one.

The dwarf came closer to Raya, unbuttoned her shirt, and began to fondle her breasts. After her two months of deprivation, Raya was embarrassingly horny. Her nipples immediately sprang to attention, and she moaned involuntarily.

Kuron smiled. “I see you’re just as randy as ever. Excellent! Too many fairies lose their passion when they reach a certain age.”

Raya bit his wandering hand, and Kuron yelped as he pulled it away.

“Watch the age comments. I’m still in my prime. Now untie me, get your clothes off, and let’s get to work.”

Kuron loosened the knots and undressed while Raya rubbed her sore wrists. Promise or not, she would get even with Kuron for this. No one kidnapped and tied her up. Well, not without her consent, anyway.

“Sit down, and I’ll show you who’s lost her passion,” she said as she pulled out the chair. Kuron sat, and Raya knelt in front of him. Observing his robust erection, she felt her pussy juice up and reflected on how unfair it was that dwarves had the hardest, thickest cocks of all the creatures on the planet. But then, that was one of the reasons she enjoyed dallying with them.

Grabbing the base of his cock, she lowered her mouth down as far as she could and sucked the shaft, then pulled back up and licked the head, her toes curling in sexual excitement. Two months! How could she have gone without this for two months?

Buy Seducing the Stone: Amazon | Barnes & Noble |

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I’ve tweaked the layout and added more titles to the still growing list of recommended MMF romances.

This will be an on-going project, of course.  There’s new titles hitting the shelves every day — probably more than ever now, thanks to Fifty Shades of Grey.  And no, I’m not being facetious.  If you’d like to see me witheringly ironic, point me toward the growing number of “literary” blogs that are critiquing Fifty and making remarks about the sex in the story along the lines of how new a concept it is to put BDSM inside a romance for mainstream readers.  That makes my teeth gnash…

I’m starting to wonder now if this list of MMF romance titles is a project I really should have started at all.  I underestimated the size and effort involved.  But now I have started, I won’t ditch it –  there’s enough traffic blips on the list to make me think it’s of use to readers.

But…I don’t mind help!  If you know of any 4 or 5 star rated MMF romance (and they really do have to be MMF – MFM doesn’t cut it), do let me know!  I’m still working my way through Amazon and Goodreads, so it’ll be a good long while before I catch up on the backlists yet.  However, if there’s a book you would like to see on the list now rather than later, speak up!

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It’s been a while, so I’m very pleased to have a guest for you to chat with.  Naomi Bellina write paranormal — good hot stuff, too.

She’ll be here on April 20th, and she’s been kind enough to offer up one e-copy of any one of her backlist as a prize for visitors who leave a comment.

So don’t forget to stop off on the twentieth and say g’day.

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Reading Romances is celebrating their birthday with a blog hop/giveaway, and one of those stops is right here.  A copy of my MMF paranormal time travel romance Bannockburn Binding is up for grabs.  All you have to do is email me and tell me the full names of the heroes and heroines.

Contest closes at Midnight EST on March 28th, and the winner will be announced on March 29th, the birthday of Reading Romances.

Don’t forget to also check out all the other blog hop giveaway sites, and their contests, too.

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As an author, I’ve found the phenomenal success of the “vanilla BDSM” novella, Fifty Shades of Grey, at times either bewildering, astonishing, or encouraging.  At all times I have been curious to know why that book, rather than the staggering number of erotic romances — including some very good BDSM novels written by actual members of the BDSM community — that have graced the e-shelves for nearly ten years.

But if the publishing industry had ever figured out why one book breaks through to the top of a best seller list and not others, then it would have been able to ensure every authors’ income for the five hundred years since moveable type was invented.

The great thing about the success of Fifty Shades of Grey is that like Twilight and Harry Potter before it, it will open the general reading population’s minds and tastebuds to erotic romance, like Twilight and Harry taught everyone to gobble up anything to do with the paranormal.  Not everyone will find the BDSM in Fifty to their taste:  You are either hardwired for pain/pleasure or you aren’t.  But readers may turn to the other erotic elements in the novel as more appealing if the BDSM doesn’t do it for them.

And erotic romance will find a massive, new audience.  A mainstream one.

There’s plenty of titles for them to explore.  Thanks to ebooks, where erotic romance first found traction, there’s nearly fifteen years of titles still “in print,” and available, that have never left the virtual shelves.

But…some of those really early titles are likely to be disappointing, if these new readers are looking for hot, like hot hot, because the earlier titles aren’t as hot as what’s being produced today.

Romances in general are getting spicier by the year, to the point where what was once considered erotic, even ten years ago, is today’s average romance novel.

Consider this sliding scale.  If this is what was “hot” back in 2000:

I published my first erotic romance in 2003, and it was considered an averagely hot romance novel.  The hottest novels were really pushing the envelope, dealing with (gasp!) anal sex — Lora Leigh’s infamous hot August Brothers series were flying off the shelves at this time, for example.

Around 2003/4 erotic romance exploded all over the romance industry and really broke through in mainstream romance readers’ consciousness — but only within the romance industry for now — thanks to TV series like Sex and the City.  And suddenly everyone was writing erotic romance, or publishing it.  And everyone was clamouring for hot, hotter, hottest.

Spin through the years to 2012 as the envelope for “hot” got pushed harder and harder.  And here we sit:

What the romance industry considers “erotic romance” has shifted far to the right.  Just graphic sex won’t do it anymore.  Two years ago, Ellora’s Cave set the standard with its authors that all sex scenes had to include some sort of anal penetration of the heroine in order to be considered acceptably hot enough for Ellora’s Cave, which meant that standard MF sex had fallen off the radar as “erotic romance” as far as Ellora’s Cave were concerned, and tumbled into the merely “sensual romance” domain, regardless of how graphically it was described.

On the other hand, publishers of what used to be considered non-erotic romances have been steadily pushing their standards to meet reader demands, and now what they are releasing looks a lot like what was first being produced as erotic romance ten or twelve years ago, but is now labelled merely as “spicy romances”…and is, according to today’s standards.  Yet there are erotic romance publishers out there releasing exactly the same sort of novels, but under the “erotic romance” label.

This year, The Romance Studio did away with their “Erotic” category altogether in their CAPAs (Cupid and Psyche Awards), and combined the categories together.  There is no longer, for example, a CAPA for Best Erotic Paranormal and a separate one for Best Paranormal.  There is just a single CAPA for Best Paranormal.  This is a telling statement from one of the most influential review houses in the romance industry.  They clearly consider the erotic distinction to be no longer useful when romances in general have shifted ground so much to include elements of erotic romance.

In the next few years, as erotic romance boundaries keep sliding, I believe that erotic romances will shift completely to the right and become a highly specialized, tiny (but not as tiny as it used to be thanks to books like Fifty Shades of Grey) niche market catering to select readers with exotic tastes: BDSM, extreme sexual situations, and more.  The rest of us will enjoy our romances with frank open-door sex, menage, MMF and more, but it will all be one market again:  Romances.

Then we’ll be left with the pleasureable problem of sorting out which romances we want to read, out of the thousands now hitting the market each month, instead of the merely hundreds it used to be.

It’s a tough ol’ world…

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As I’m quietly and steadily working my way through Blood Stone, and the weekend started out with an empty email in-tray, and nothing moving on Facebook or anywhere else, I thought this was going to be one of those bulletins where I would have nothing to report, except for progress.

But Sunday, which is usually the day when everything on the Internet falls quieter than the grave, suddenly got busy.

And, I’ve had a small flurry of reader emails with questions about future books that I thought I would answer here, as well as the private answers I gave, in case others were wondering the same thing.

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Bannockburn Binding was nominated for Book Of The Year 2011 by The Romance Reader.  It just manages to scrape in for this honour because it was released on December 13 last year, so it was a great surprise — especially as the book is indie-published.  A nice hats-off.

Now, though, the winner is selected by reader votes.  I’m always reluctant to trawl for reader votes.  There’s so many polls and reader-vote elections out there, and in my category alone there are about twenty books, each with their individual author possibly hounding readers for votes!  So…I’m not begging you to vote.  However, if you have read Bannockburn Binding and really feel you would like to vote for it, you can click here, then scroll down to the erotic paranormal category (about half-way down the page).  Bannockburn Binding is the second book is the category.

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The Royal Talisman received a very nice 4 Star review from Love Romance Passion.

The review itself was short on detail about why the reviewer liked the book so much, but she did like the special features a lot, which was nice.  She also gave Dar Albert, the cover artist, a lovely thumbs up, too.

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From the mailbox:

A reader was anxiously asking if there will be any more books after Byzantine Heartbreak, and another reader/reviewer wants to see Brenden’s story…and what are the release dates.

Yes, there will most definitely be more books in the series.  At this point in time I can’t say how many more, but this is not a simple trilogy, by any means.  I consider the series to be open-ended with ambitious, complex story-lines and character arcs.

Look at the cover montage for the series.  There’s two way to do that:  Place each book cover for the series side by side to build up the montage that way.  Or “cheat” and jump to the series information page to see the full montage spread in one view.  Apart from being awed by Dar Albert’s artistic talents, you’ll also notice there’s a lot of room for a lot more covers on that montage.  I planned it that way. :)

Release Dates

As for release dates…well, that’s one of the joys — and pitfalls — of indie publishing.  The advantages, especially to you the reader, is that I can release these books as fast as I can write and edit them, plus or minus a week or two for formatting and for Dar Albert to build covers (and she’s very fast).   The down side is that it does take time to edit, format and upload to all the various retail sites, and those sites won’t hold or delay a release, nor will they guarantee exactly how long it takes to build a sales page for a book.  So there is no way to predict, for example, the exact date and time a book will appear on the Amazon site, even though I know exactly when I upload it to Amazon.  That part of it is out of my control.  The same applies for all the retail sites — Barnes & Noble, etc.

Therefore, all I can say in regard to a release date for future books in the series is that they will be as soon as I’ve written the books — and I’m a pretty fast writer — and that your best best is to either sign up for my newsletter or sign up for the email version of my RSS feed, so it is delivered to your email in-box.  That way, you’ll get an alert about the release of any books, and won’t miss out.

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I’ve updated the Recommended MMF Romances list.

I’ve added some more titles, and I rearranged the list into sub-genre groups.

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A reader asked what happened to the Kiss Across Time series, and Kiss Across Chains, the third book in that series, which up and disappeared.

The Time-Crossed Love series was first released under the Teal Ceagh pen name with Ellora’s Cave.  It’s one of my favourite series of all time, and I love and adore Brody and Veris and their extreme alpha-male outlook on life and time.  I was never so happy as I was when I was prompted into writing Kiss Across Swords by readers and reviewers who belly-ached politely asked for more about their histories and…well, just more of them.

I have the third book of the series, Kiss Across Chains, half-written, and ideas for six more in the series.  Like Beloved Bloody Time, this is not going to be a simple trilogy.

But, the first two books of the series remain with Ellora’s Cave for now.  I am working to have the rights returned to me, but until I do, I won’t release the third book in the series.  To do so would only further cement the first two books where they currently sit, and there are things I want to do with the first two books before I release the third (including issue them with uniform covers, expand the first book to make it a longer book, and more.)

So for now, this series must wait in the wings.

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“I wish I could join a board or something and review your books, they are that great.”

There’s two parts to this:  Reviews and discussion boards.

Reviews. 

There are any number of places you can leave a reader review about my books, if you feel moved to do so.  I encourage you like crazy to do this.

As more and more indie authors start publishing more and more books, one of the few ways readers will be able to figure out which are the good books and which are the duds are through other readers’ reviews — and there will be more and more duds:  It’s part of the price we pay for the flood of cheap, great and really interesting reads on the market.

Your review doesn’t have to be perfect prose.  Just a paragraph or two of simple, clear English saying what you thought about the book, and why you did (or didn’t) enjoy it — what made it work for you?  Keep it impersonal (no attacks on the author themselves), and rate the book, and you’re done.

The absolute best place to leave your review is Amazon.  Even if you didn’t buy your book there.  That’s because huge numbers of people research about what book they want to buy next on Amazon, and then they sometimes buy the book elsewhere because they want a different format, or can buy it cheaper elsewhere, or for other reasons.  But they’ll research on Amazon first, because the information about individual books is so thorough and complete.

So you’ll be doing me all sorts of favours by leaving your review about my book on Amazon.

Discussion Boards

Amazon to the rescue again.  Did you know that every single book on Amazon has its own unique discussion board?

If you scroll down to where the general discussion boards start, way down the bottom of the book’s page, just above those board subject lines, there is a live link to the book’s discussion page.  Most of the time (well, all of the time, for my books!  LOL!) the discussion is empty.  But if you want to start a discussion group for a book (anyone’s book), or join it, you’ll find the link to the book’s discussion group right there.  Click on it, and dive in.

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The biggest news of the weekend, and the last to arrive in my in-box, was the brand new cover for Delly’s Last Night.  The cover, another Dar Albert spectacular, is mind-blowing.  I don’t know if you’ve ever taken the time to double-click on the covers here on the site, and look at them when they’re at full size or better.  It’s worth it.  Then you really get to appreciate the full stunning detail.  They’re mind-bogglingly beautiful.  And the amazing thing is, Dar builds these covers from scratch.  She creates them out of nothing.  She doesn’t use stock photos except in the background sometimes, when I insist on historical accuracy, or well-known buildings.

Check out the cover for Delly’s Last Night, and click on it to see it at full size.

I stayed up late on Sunday night and formatted the book for release, so now you can buy it, too.  :)

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I’ve got a pain behind my eyes and my shoulders are hunched as I type this.  I’ve spent all weekend — all of it — doing my taxes and filing.  Because last year was such a horrid year, I didn’t keep up with my bookkeeping at all.  So I paid for it now it’s tax season.  I had to give up one of my precious long weekends (I work a compressed work week and get every third Friday off), and instead of working on the current manuscript, Blood Stone, I got to write the latest installment of Tracy’s ongoing saga with the Canadian Revenue Agency.  Oh.  Joy.

But it is done.  Fini.  

And tomorrow when I step on the #63 bus to go to work, I can settled back into Blood Stone with a clear conscience for one more year.

The book is finally moving along.  I picked up the traces I spoke about last week, brushed off the outline and tweaked it here and there to put more spin and emotional juice into it, and started writing.  Unlike last year when I dithered and procrastinated my way through the first three chapters, unable to really commit myself to the book, I’ve dashed off another two chapters without trying too hard.  So whatever was stopping me from writing the book late last year has gone.  I think getting another four books published successfully has helped enormously with that.  So did getting the day job and putting my life into some semblance of order. :)  Then again, maybe it was just 2011, which as a year in general was a vintage for general suckiness and bad events.

Here’s some snippets to whet your appetite.

“Why all the anger, Roman?” he asked softly.  “I did what we agreed.  I stayed away.  You’re as big a surprise to me as I am to you, today.”

Roman’s eyes narrowed.  Thoughtful, or suspicious.  Garrett knew that look of old, and it gave him a strange little jerk, low down in his abdomen.

“I’m not here for you,” Garrett stressed.

Roman’s jaw rippled.  “Then what the fuck are you doing with Kate?  You’re jerking her around.”

Garrett sighed.  “I can’t say.”

Roman half laughed, half snorted in disbelief.  “Since when could you not tell me anything?

Garrett grimaced.  “I can’t tell you this.”

The humour in Roman’s eyes faded.  “What are you into?” he breathed.

Anger touched him.  Garrett clenched his jaw.  “You know, you can’t just rock back into town after a hundred and seventy-nine years and expect to pick up where you left off.  Things change, Roman.  Times change.”

“You haven’t,” Roman said flatly.  “You might be wearing Armani, but you’re still fiery Calum Micheil Garrett of the mighty Bruce clan, and even now your hand is resting next to the hilt of your broadsword, because you’re on the defensive.”

Garrett dropped his right hand down so it was hanging fully extended, annoyed that Roman had noticed the old instinct.  Of course Roman would.  He’d lived through those times, too.

Roman gave a small, almost silent laugh in reaction.

“I don’t suppose you’re about to tell me why you’re hanging about the lovely Ms. Lindenstream, then?” Garrett challenged Roman.  He winced.  His brogue had emerged thicker than he normally allowed.  Roman was pushing his buttons, unravelling his discipline.

Roman’s eyes narrowed.  “Hey, I didn’t just rock up here at all.  I was already here.  This is my town, Calum.  You’re the invader.”

“I take that as a ‘no,’ then.”

“I’d do that,” Roman replied evenly.  He put the heavy sunglasses back on and picked up his jacket.  “You’re not going to back away from Kate, are you?”  His tone made it not a question.

“I can’t, Roman,” Garrett replied truthfully.

“I can’t give you free rein.  It wouldn’t look right, even if I wanted to.”

Garrett sighed, as potential meanings and implications occurred to him.  “Is she…important to you, Roman?”

The protective sunglasses were hiding Roman’s eyes from Garrett, and his eyes were one way Garrett most often could spot the real truth behind Roman’s layers of protective shielding.  So Garrett knew he was about to be handed either a flat-out lie or a prevarication.

Roman glanced away, toward the roof access door.

Escape, Garrett realized.

“I guess you’ll just have to figure that out along with my name for this century,” Roman said, hoisting the jacket over his forearm.

And for fans of Blood Knot, some old friends:

Garrett shook his head as Sebastian took another enormous mouthful, and looked at the man sitting to Sebastian’s left.  Nathanial’s appearance had changed since Garrett had met up with him in Poland, just over a year ago.  The long hair was now short and business-like.  There were streak of very pale blond through it that might be mistaken for grey in the right light.  He wore glasses that seemed to go along with the short hair and the very sincere-looking business suit he had on.  But the glasses did nothing to hide Nathanial’s eyes, which had always drawn one’s gaze.  Now, with his hair cut short and the glasses drawing attention to them, Nial’s eyes seemed to blaze with light and brightness.  They were the blue of the Pacific ocean, and as deep.

“You should have done something about your eyes while you were changing identities,” Garrett murmured.

Nial’s mouth lifted at the corner.  “I wasn’t allowed to.”

Sebastian snorted, and took another spoonful of icecream.  “Neither was I,” he said around his mouthful.

Garrett suppressed his first reaction.  That either of them would let a human dictate how they arrange something as basic, as important, as their current identities, seemed outrageous.

Nial shrugged.  “I intend to make it unnecessary for any of us to have to worry about this sort of trivia in the future, Garrett.  If my wife wants me to keep my eyes the same, it is a small matter, now.  It is not the life or death thing it once was.”

BLOOD STONE  Copyright © TRACY COOPER-POSEY, 2012  All Rights Reserved.

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I’ve made a habit of directing a lot of people over to the Goodreads recommendation lists over the years, and it’s always mildly annoyed me that the lists are subjective and voter driven, and I’m not on them.  [What? I'm not allowed to have an ego? :) ]  I wasn’t annoyed enough to go vote myself onto the lists, which I could do as I’m a member of Goodreads.   I suspected there were a few authors who had voted themselves on that way, because when you read through the list, there are places where one author’s books are all listed together in one chunk, one after another.  Dead give away.

But, no matter.

I thought, rather than making readers take that extra step over to Goodreads, and then over to Amazon, I’d start building my own list of recommended MMF romance titles here on the site.

Oh, idiot me!

Approximately six hours later…

I’ve just got through the first list on Goodreads.  Ugh.  I always knew my list would be a permanent, living document that would take consistent updating, but I didn’t think it would take so much effort just to build in the first place.  So I’m going to put up the list I have for now, and keep plugging away at it in spare moments over the next few weeks.

The reason it is taking so long is because I’m not simply siphoning off the list of titles from the Goodreads lists over to mine.  Just reading through the recommendation lists made my antennae twitch enough that I started vetting the list as I built mine.  Good thing, too.  Some of the titles on the list aren’t MMF romances at all.  Some only have MMF scenes incidental to the main romance — so I left them off the list, too.

It also puzzled me that books with ratings barely above two stars were making it onto the list.  But if anyone can add a book to the list, then there’s no quality control.  So I put a quality control on mine.  Only books with aggregate four or five star ratings were listed.  And that means that if they had a 3.75 star rating on Goodreads, but a 5 star rating on Amazon, they made the list, because the aggregate rating would be 4.375 stars.

Books that were listed on Goodreads, but were not for sales on Amazon I didn’t list.

If I couldn’t find an indication of MMF activity in the descriptions, categories or tags, I erred on the side of caution, and left the book off my list.

If the book only had one five star rating on Amazon, that looked like it was from a friend or might otherwise be a set-up job, and it had sucky ratings on Goodreads, I also left it off the list, even if it did scape into the 4-5 star ratings.

At all times, I kept in mind if readers would be happy about being guided to buying this book.  If I thought you’d get snarky about shelling out for the book and then being disappointed, I left it off the list.  If I find out later my assessment is wrong, I can always add the book back in.

Oh yes, and in the interests of full disclosure, I have added Amazon Associate links for all the book titles.  But don’t think this is a big money grab for me.  I use Associate links all over my site, and most months I don’t make enough to buy a cup of coffee from all the links combined.  The point of the links is not to make me rich.  :)

So, have a cruise through the titles and see what you think.  Of course, it’s not complete.  The list I was working from leaned heavily into BDSM and contemporaries, and didn’t seem to have anything from the last twelve months on it.  I have some catching up to do.

Recommendations gratefully received.

Recommended MMF Titles

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The book tour for Bannockburn Binding has finished, and all the posts have been loaded up on the site as articles, for your reading pleasure.  I’ve also linked them to the Beloved Bloody Time series page, and each of the books, if appropriate.

Would You Wait Six Years For A Kiss?

Why Time Travel Romances Wouldn’t Work Outside Romance Novels

There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

Vampires In The Future – Natural Space Travellers?

Don’t Like Apple? Switch to DOS and Become a Vampire

What Would You Do To Gain Your Own Psi Talent?

An Innocent Burn With A Bloody History

Time travel as tourism…where would you go?

___________________

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