Bedtime Words

As an erotic romance author, I’ve noticed sometimes the dialogue in sex scenes boils down to very simple phrases. Don’t stop. Oh god. (Or in my stories, more likely “Oh gods.”) So good.

You get the idea. But what about boiling it down even more? Here’s a list I came up with of ordinary words which take on whole new layers of meaning when characters use them in bed.

More
Again
Yes
Hurts
Now!
Come
Enough
Stop
No
Always
Never
Maybe
Love
Good

I could go on, but I want to leave the rest to you. Keeping it clean (come on, we all know those words already, and sure, you’ll find them in my books, but let’s get more creative here), what are some single words that speak volumes in the heat of the moment?

Happy Reading,

Eden
www.edenrivers.com

Hearing Your Own Voice

As writers, we’re told that our voices make us unique. They may be strong, or subtle. Bold, or understated. But somewhere in there is buried what we’re all about. I’ve never been particularly good at hearing my own. Voice is such a part of us, it’s like trying to hear your own accent when you’ve lived in one region all your life.

But lately, I’ve been working with my new critique partner. She’s got a great voice. Her writing sparkles with energy, and whatever she’s writing, I get a sense of her personality in her words, even though we haven’t known each other that long yet.

So I looked back at my own work, trying to hear my own voice. I do things like this when I’m feeling any kind of pressure with my writing (currently, to complete Broken Pentacle, the sequel to Nature’s Pentacle). I go off on interesting tangents, procrastinating under the pretenses of better understanding my own writing process.

What I decided as I read back through my work in progress is that, for me, voice is tied directly to how I experience the world around me. I’m one of those people who’s constantly aware of air movement, shadows, bird calls, and other earthy details, like what the soil smells like after a spring rain.

I guess it’s a pagan thing, that constant connection to the world around me. But what I’d never noticed before was how much it comes out in my voice when I write. It’s there in the words I choose. The details I describe. The structure of my sentences.

And really, it made for a delightful bit of procrastination. So, what about you? If you write, what would you say characterizes your voice? Sets it apart from others? And as readers, can you think of any authors with a voice you love? What makes them one of your favorites?

Thirteen Things I Love about Spring

1. Pussy willows blooming against a blue sky.

2. The smell of rich earth.

3. The reappearance of chairs and tables on my patio.

4. More sunlight.

5. Birds swooping around my yard and singing at the tops of their little lungs.

6. The first purple crocuses coming up through the snow.

7. The greening of the grass.

8. The absence of winter coats, hats, mittens, and scarves.

9. More energy to write.

10. Planning summer gardens.

11. Seeing neighbors I haven’t seen since we all crawled into our houses in November.

12. The first spring thunderstorms.

13. Buds on the trees.