Monthly Archives: February 2012

What I learned from watching When Harry Met Sally & Brokeback Mountain

Posted by Erin M. Leaf on

When Harry Met Sally:

  1. Best friends make the best lovers.
  2. If your hero is funny, it doesn’t matter what he looks like.
  3. Happy endings are awesome.
  4. Most men think a woman always makes a lot of noise when she orgasms (men are often dumb).
  5. Chance encounters mean the universe may be telling you something (Like, hello? True love right here?)
  6. Writing witty amusing romances is awesome. Reading/watching them is also awesome.

Brokeback Mountain:

  1. Best friends make the best lovers.
  2. If your hero is a brooding, strong, sexy cowboy it doesn’t matter if he’s not funny.
  3. Tragic endings suck (make sure you have enough tissues).
  4. Most men think a woman can’t tell when he’s wishing for someone else in the sack (men are often dumb).
  5. Close encounters mean the universe may be telling you something (Like, hello? True love right here?)
  6. Writing tragedies is awesome. Reading/watching them? Not so much.

Conclusion:

Best friends make the best lovers, but because men are often dumb, if you leave it up to them, they will screw everything up and the story will end tragically. Ergo: add a woman to the mix and you will get a happy ending. Ménage rules!

Evernight Publishing is pretty cool

Posted by Erin M. Leaf on

I just sent in my signed contract for a new book with Evernight Publishing and they’ve already added an author page for me to their website! No cover yet or edits, but I’m sure they’ll be coming soon since the book is scheduled for release in April. The novella is called Risk Is A Four-Letter Word and it’s part of a new series I’m writing based on the idea of chance encounters. How many times does a woman have to meet her soul-mates before she falls in love?

I’ve already begun work on the next book in this series, hopefully titled Kiss Is A Four-Letter Word. My characters are cracking me up! The heroine is a bit of a spitfire. She knows what she wants and the two guys she keeps stumbling over are just starting to realize it.

*****

I’m also thrilled that I have a firm date for the release of Love Storm: May 10, 2012 from Siren-BookStrand. This book was a long-time coming since I wrote it in-between the craziness of real life. The next book in this series isn’t written yet, but I have ideas. Lots and lots of ideas!

writing romance novels = freedom?

Posted by Erin M. Leaf on

How did I not see this article sooner? Romance Novels, The Last Great Bastion of Underground Writing, an article over at The Awl by Maria Bustillos. In it she posits that romance novels are feminist works. And that the authors get to do whatever they please since they don’t have to follow the strict guidelines of that snotty literary side of the fiction world. Um, yeah. Like, I knew that already. I’m in agreement. Sort of.

Of course, romance novels come with piles and piles of their own rules, mostly those that have to do with trope: virgin heroine! virgin hero! domineering hero forces heroine to submit and they live happily ever after! Make sure you have this, this, and this kind of sex so that it sells, and also? Virgin Heroine who jumps out of airplanes!

I could go on, but I think you get the point. The thing is, Ms. Bustillos is still right. You can write around the tropes and stick stuff in the plot that would be laughed out of any decent creative writing class. It’s kind of awesome. I tell people that the best part of my job is where I get to make hilarious shit up. I’ve often found myself writing scenes and laughing hysterically over the absurdity of what I’m doing to the poor characters. I don’t have to worry too much about reality. I get to play in dreamworld and it’s really, really, really great.

However.

You knew there would be a however. However, writing romance novels means that you don’t get taken seriously by a great many people whose respect you’d maybe like to get. You find yourself defending your choice of career: oh yeah, I love writing romance novels. Yes, yes I know if my kids’ teachers found out they’d look at me cross-eyed. And see, that’s the part that’s a drag. Millions of women (and some few men I hope) read these books every day and find themselves entertained. They’ve done this for years. It’s a very good feeling to know that you’ve made someone laugh or cry or think about love and the world, except if you do it in a romance novel rather than in a poem, it’s somehow less. Less respectable. Less valid. It’s not much better than (GASP) porn (oh that dirty word!—>very frowned upon in the romance world, by the way).

Well, I say to that attitude: eff  you. Too bad. Deal with it.

I’ve read romance novels since I was thirteen. Or maybe twelve? Sorry Mom! I kinda stole your books. You don’t mind do you? They make me happy. They make a lot of other people happy. And that’s pretty damn awesome for an underground, feminist manifesto genre that nobody talks about in public.

And that’s freedom, baby.

What’s more important? Writing or being superwoman?

Posted by Erin M. Leaf on

I used to think I could do it all: write novels, network, advertise, cook dinner, raise two boys, exercise, enjoy my marriage, sleep, etc. Yeah, no. Nope. Impossible. Not gonna happen. Like ever.

I tried, I really did. The juggling was going okay for a while. I had at least a month or two sometime last year where I was managing, and then, of course, like the cruel mistress she is, Life taught me otherwise. A family member passed away. One needed surgery and another had to face moving from her apartment into an assisted community. My house rebelled and we had to renovate rooms. Patch things, cut down trees. You know how it is.

I needed to prioritize. I made a list: family, exercise, writing, cleaning, sleep. Or something like that. I still enjoy writing blog posts and I love meeting readers on Facebook and Twitter. I enjoy reading reviews and friending/following other writers and fans. But for me, the biggest and most important lesson I learned last year was that the writing is the most important thing after my family. And exercise is integral to my life because if I didn’t run or bicycle or do yoga, I’d never be able to sit for hours at a time typing. And I love writing.

I love making up stories and tormenting characters and watching my heroes and heroines fall in love. I adore writing dialogue. I enjoy learning more about how best to improve my work. Character development was a big one for me last year. I really wanted to do better with that. This year I’m trying to focus on humor and tension. I’ve decided that I’m going to write and write and write because I’ve got all these ideas rattling around in my head. Heroes are banging on the casements of my mind. A few of the heroines have scaled my brain stem and climbed into the attic.

It’s time to open the windows and let them in.

New review for Appassionato by The Romance Reviews

Posted by Erin M. Leaf on

And it is a lovely, lovely review, thank you J9!! Here are some highlights from the review:

I love it when authors have sexual build up and allow emotions to develop between romantic leads and that’s what Ms Leaf did here. The trio have fallen in love before they initially meet in person so when they do, it’s incendiary.

…

The plot too was very good and kept me reading. The initial suspense of why Emma was suffering these symptoms was interesting but then once the kidnapping of bondmates started, the plot soared. The mystery plot was fast paced and didn’t interfere with the sexy romance but rather enhanced it. This strong plot development elevated a good book to a great book.

…

APPASSIONATO is a wonderful M/M/F menage story. I loved the characters, their incendiary relationship, and the suspenseful plot. I’ve read book two of the series already and adored it as much as this first book. Erin M. Leaf is now on my auto-buy list.

4 stars from The Romance Reviews!