Hey, hey! It’s Wednesday, and I’m kicking off the first official day of Book Pre-Launch Month with my WIPpet and a bit of fangirl squeeing. Let’s start with the squeeing, shall we?
My friend Sirena has not one but TWO novels out today. The first, Devil’s Dilemma, is a re-release; the second, Devil’s Despair, is brand new. Go check them out! I’ll be posting my review of Devil’s Despair this afternoon. I’ve been privileged to be one of her beta readers since the beginning, even before she was a big-shot published author. She’s been an absolutely huge encouragement to me on my journey. Let’s show her some love!
Now for my WIPpet. I have been absolutely dying to share this bit with you all, and now I finally get to do it. So much of this novel is now into spoiler territory, but there are a few good bits left, like this one. My weird WIPmath: 10 + 2014 01 (flip the 0 and 1 = 10) = 20 paragraphs. Warning: swearing and suggestive dialog.
Cat picked up a paperback book from a nearly-empty shelf and examined it. “What’s this?”
Micah glanced over and sucked in his breath. What in the world was it doing there? “Give me that,” he said.
“Why?” Cat asked. “Ooh, guy on the cover is hot.” He flipped the book over and wrinkled his nose at it. “Damn. Looks like typical het crap, or I’d ask to keep it.” He snorted. “Didn’t you say your father owned this house? Guess he didn’t have much taste.”
“Please just give me the book,” Micah begged.
He grabbed for it, but Cat held it out of reach. His eyes narrowed. “Why’s it so important to you? Is it like sentimental value or something?”
“No.” Micah sighed and dropped his hand. “Just put it in the paper recycling pile.”
“No way. There’s something you’re not telling me. Out with it.” Cat grinned.
“Ugh. Fine. I wrote it, okay? But you cannot tell a soul. I keep this separate from my professional life because I teach fifth grade. If parents found out about it, they’d have my head.”
Cat’s eyebrows shot up. “You wrote this?” He stared at Micah for a long moment before his lip started trembling and he put his hand over his mouth. It didn’t help; Micah heard his suppressed laughter. Finally, he couldn’t contain it anymore and let go, laughing so hard he had to sit down on the bed doubled over.
“Oh—my—god. Can’t—breathe,” he gasped.
“Shut up,” Micah muttered. “It’s not funny.”
Cat managed to compose himself. “Oh, no, it really is. This is too good. You write het erotica? The irony of that isn’t lost on me.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Micah crossed his arms.
“Just that most gay romance is written by women. But you’re a gay man writing straight porn. Oh, lord. That’s funny as hell. Do you even know what to do with a vagina?”
“I don’t write porn!” Micah huffed. “It’s romance.” His face grew hot.
“Same difference.”
“Fuck you,” Micah ground out.
Cat’s eyes brightened and he leered up at Micah. Pitching his voice artificially low, he said, “Really? Will you do it to me with your hot…throbbing…tool?” He curled his tongue a little on the last sound, half-closing his eyes. He licked his lip sensually then opened his eyes and snickered.
Micah glared at him. “I do not write shit like that.”
Sitting up, Cat tilted his head to the side. “Prove it,” he said.
I think I’ll just stop there and let Cat calm himself down. Tune in next week for another installment. Sorry, no hot, throbbing anything. (Also, nothing that leaks, drips, or is—shudder—moist. Except cake. Definitely cake.)
Ahem. This blog circle is courtesy of K. L. Schwengel, who will probably send her monkeys after me because this isn’t exactly what she had in mind when starting it. You might want to check out some of the other writers, especially if you thought this was a little weird. And if you want to participate, all you need to do is post a bit of your work-in-progress, connect it to the date, and add it to the linky tool.
Happy writing!
No more throbbing anything – I laughed out loud on the cake comment…in my house we have an obsession with the word ‘moist’ 🙂 Great excerpt, as entertaining as ever. I loved the wicked humour of the scene, Cat’s amusement and Micah’s obvious discomfort – you painted it all so well.
On a completely separate note, I hope the cover reveal went well. Over at WR101 we had a blast learning more about the novel 🙂
Thanks! I am so peevy about the words used in sex scenes. I rewrite all of mine multiple times to make sure I’m not using any words like “moist.” It is easier given that I usually write about men, but still. LOL!
I’m still catching up on all the lovely posts people put up for my cover reveal. It’s been so much fun already!
In our house moist has nothing to do with sex…we just like the word. It’s a British thing, worse it’s a Yorkshire thing! I’d go into more detail, but I probably lost you already 🙂
Hahaha! Guess I’ve discovered another fun cultural difference. 🙂 It’s a great word…just not in a romance novel. 😉
I have to jump in just because we were recently having a discussion regarding the word ‘moist’, and how there was a movement to have it removed from the dictionary. Seriously?!? How then would you compliment someone on their moist baked goods? “My, but your cake is very…um…damp.” FWIW, I have no problem with the word. 😉
“Moist” is a perfectly acceptable word for food—especially yummy desserts. It is NOT, however, a sex word. “Damp” is a marginally acceptable sex word. It is absolutely not EVER a good word for cake. Unless the cake has been left out in the rain.
Thanks for the shout out! I LOVED this excerpt. I was trying not to giggle out loud, but I failed at it. Great job, Amy. The dialogue was really strong and the tension was nicely done. I liked it a lot.
I’m glad it made you laugh! 🙂
And of course I’m going to promote the heck out of those books. I’m so excited for you!
Great excerpt Amy, really funny and I love the characterisation – you portray Cat and Micah so vividly. Poor Micah – Cat really isn’t holding back on laughing at him is he?
I liked the whole ‘it’s like straight women writing gay romance’ thing but Micah’s a ‘gay man writing straight porn’. Very good! 🙂
I imagine there must be some gay men writing straight romance. After all, some gay (m/m) romance is written by lesbians. But the situation just struck me as so odd, perhaps because I’m a woman writing about two men. It was really fun to write this scene.
hahaha *giggle* *snort* MOAR! lol. This is great. I love Cat’s enthusiastic response and Micah’s embarrassment. I imagine that’s how I’d feel if anyone I know personally found certain things I’ve published. =P
I’m going to post the follow-up to this next week, but I may have to send it to you before that. It’s a completely different scene, but it’s related.
LOL – what an awesome excerpt! I really get a strong sense of both of their personalities from this interaction. And how interesting – a gay man writing straight romance. I’ve known at least one who did likewise so it’s not completely unheard of. Plus he could really understand the butterflies a girl gets when looking at a cute guy! 🙂
Cat is such a character. I can’t wait to learn more about him.
Yes, I know men and women of all orientations who write in all sorts of genres, so it’s definitely not unheard of. The idea struck me as funny, being a woman who writes mostly male POV. You’re right, though, he would definitely understand the fun aspects of crushing on a guy—especially since he’s doing it while refusing to admit it!
O no, I’m offended on his behalf. Although I do see the irony here. 🙂
Fortunately, Micah’s not truly offended, just embarrassed. And he’s pretty forgiving—they’ll make it up to each other. 🙂
I despise the word moist. Even writing it makes me feel a little sick!
I loved this excerpt though. I feel so sorry for Micah! 🙁 Poor guy.
Hahaha! Yep, “moist” is absolutely on my hit list. I even giggle when I see the phrase “moist towelette.”
It’s all good. Micah will recover. 🙂
Cat curling his tongue over the word ‘tool’ was such a delicious image that I laughed right out loud. No one can convince me that Micah didn’t get even a teensy bit turned on by THAT! And if Cat had added that little hip twitch – umm, yeah…I’m writing the rest of the scene in my head, and I can’t hear you if you tell me I’m way off base, here, because I am just haaving too much fun with these two….
Brilliant, as always…and I’m with you on the moist thing. Seriously, who really thinks in those terms in the moment?! I’ve been married over 17 years, and never once has my husband defined me as ‘moist’!
Hahaha! Yes, Micah is definitely turned on by a lot of what Cat does, but he’s still reluctant to admit it, and Cat (like his feline counterpart) can be a bit skittish. The rest of the scene does indeed involve some unresolved sexual tension. Next week, I’m posting the one that was inspired by the idea of a cat messing with a writer’s keyboard. That was equally fun to write.
Yeah, moist goes in the same category as most euphemisms. My husband and I hit 17 years in July, and in all that time, we’ve successfully avoided using flowery words for body parts, and we don’t use words like “moist.”
I love this excerpt and will finally admit that Cat is growing on me. 🙂 He definitely takes some getting used to, though. Poor Micah! Your build-up with these two is great.
😀 😀 😀 I knew it! I knew you’d eventually cave. It’s fun to write them together. I’m hoping Cat will have proven his worth by the end of October when I stop posting snippets of this story.
Ha!! That’s a fun twist, a gay man writing straight romance. ROMANCE. Not to be confused with porn, although as Micah demonstrated, so many people think it’s one and the same.
Speaking of moist…. My brother made a romance CD mix years ago. He titled it moistness, but with the intended double meaning of moist for tears and moist for down *there* when giving the CD to girlfriends and such. I have a copy, my dad has a copy…. and it’s always a bit weird to have my dad naively talk about the title because he’s unaware of the double meaning.
Fortunately for me, Kate Sparkes came up with the perfect hashtag for these situations. #CueReGiBlush