Thanks for having me on the blog!
I have a bit of a confession. I write romance because the world needs more happy endings. It’s easy to focus on the tragedy, the heartwrenching sadness, that buckles our backs in the daily mundane but the little moments, the ones that take our breath away fascinate me.
When I first started writing happily ever afters, I wasn’t as clear on what I was doing or why I wanted to add to the balance on the side of good but as the years have gone by, I see so many struggling with minutia or great and epic struggles so it’s heartwarming to be able to capture those times when life isn’t like that.
In Taking Control, my 1Night Stand for Decadent Publishing, I got to focus on both an external and an internal conflict. The external is pretty obvious from the outset. In a world of reality television shows, what happens to the people after the cameras stop rolling? How do you recover from that kind of exposure? Can you find love in a world that has judged and sentenced you?
The internal conflict is one many of us struggle with—what we need verses what we want. Mellie knows what she thinks she wants…but is it what she needs? And if you dare to go outside what you think is expected of you, what the rules say is okay, can you find a happiness you never dreamed of?
The theme of happily ever after can be explored in a thousand different ways and in each story, we as writers get to pick one and explore it. Using sexuality as a tool to explore those complex questions allows us to choose from a full palette of colors to paint a picture of some of the basic emotions we all feel. If we do it well, you’ll find something in every story to identify with and get to come with us for a happy for now, if not ever after, and that is the joy of literature.
*****
Looking for love…
When she got voted off “Find Your Hubby,” a reality tv gameshow, Mellie gave up on finding love.
In all the wrong places…
Everyone knows that you are more likely to get hit by lightning than find a husband once you’re 40. Using the last of her winnings in a spur of the moment fling, she pays for a matchmaking service that offers you the perfect person-For One Night Only.
Can you buy passion?
When the ‘perfect person’ they find her is a woman, she first questions their selection service…Then her own desires.
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*****
Excerpt:
“Maybe dancing wasn’t the best idea.”
I knew it. She doesn’t find me attractive. Damn it.
Not sure why the thought bothered her so, she shrugged and followed Alex out the front doors of the restaurant. The beach, painted in hues of violet and blue, emitted a whispering murmur of surf and night. Everything smelled fresh and alive, the air full of excitement.
Or maybe she reacted to the pulsing energy she longed to find an outlet for.
Going through a mental tally of reasons her date-her paid date-wouldn’t like her. From the extra ten pounds she could never lose, to her lack of conversational skills, caused mostly by nerves, there were a thousand possible reasons Alex might not find her attractive.
Lost in thought, she wobbled when Alex spun her, pinned her to a wall, and closed hot lips over her own. Opening her mouth to seek out the other woman’s tongue, she compared it to kissing a man. Similar, but at the same time, very different-softer, sweeter tasting. Unbelievably erotic.
Fire.
The word blazed in her mind as Alex’s body pressed hers against the wall, her lips both seducing and demanding response. Alex’s tongue slid into the recesses of her mouth as if it belonged there, while she caught the hair at Mellie’s nape and yanked her head to the side. Almost too much…but added up to just what she wanted.
The kiss took her breath away.
She couldn’t think. So good. So right, somehow.
And then she surfaced, gasping, as Alex stepped back, licked her lips, and stuffed her hands in her pockets. Her mouth quirked into a cocky grin. “Been wanting to do that all night.”
Mellie nodded, lifting one hand to her throat, fingertips pressing on the hyper-aware flesh. Swallowing, she tried to determine what she thought of the experience.
“Sorry. I mean, if I took you by surprise or whatever.”
Mellie nodded again. Her body a furnace, need welled up like a fist to punch her in the gut. Possibilities stretched out, and she hungered to taste more-wanted to touch and be touched.
“Uh, so…if it made you uncomfortable…?”
She did not want to discuss it.
Live each day like it is your last.
Catching Alex’s wrist, she tugged her closer and merged their mouths.
*****
About the Author:
Virginia Nelson spends her days chasing three very active kids around. When she is not doing this, or plotting taking over the world, she likes to write, play in the mud, drive far too fast and scream at inanimate objects. She can often be found listening to music that is far too loud and typing her next fantastic tale of blood, sex and random acts of ineptitude. Romance, in Ms. Nelson’s opinion, is not about riding off into the sunset on the back of a horse with the knight in shining armor- it is about riding the dragon. If the knight can keep up… well, that is love.