Rise and Shine with Romance: Sharla Lovelace Talks Dirty

By - August 23, 2013

Okay, so maybe not so dirty, but this is the RISE AND SHINE WITH ROMANCE segment, so what better way than to welcome bestselling author Sharla Lovelace, who is guest blogging today about what sexy is.  Don't forget to check out the end of this post for details on how to win both Sharla's giveaway and an additional giveaway from International Thriller Writers' Debut Author Class Member and Attorney, Daco! Oh, and...

 

A big internet applause for our next guest blogger, Sharla Lovelace!  Take it away, Sharla!

Hi everyone!  And thanks to Colby for including me in such a great cause! 

I want to start by posing a question to you.  What do you find sexy?

In books, that is.  :)

Do you like a slow build to a relationship?  Instant heat?  Old love?  New love?  What do you find sexy in a story?

In a romance novel, there has to be a romantic relationship, and there has to be a happy-ever-after-ending.  It’s in writing, somewhere on a stone slab, there is no way around it.  In general fiction, the rules are vaguer.  There doesn’t have to be romance at all, but I personally have to have it.  It’s key for me.  In fact, it’s one of the first things I figure out when coming up with a story.  I have to find the backstory on a couple first…a reason for chemistry.  My favorites are old lovers that run across each other by accident.  In THE REASON IS YOU, the chemistry is very much previously established between Dani and Alex—a ghost who has been dead for forty years.  Check out this excerpt from the first chapter, when Dani first arrives back at her childhood home, with her teenage daughter Riley…

I walked around to the side steps and stopped cold. Leaning casually against my car, in his usual all black and sunglasses, arms folded across his chest, was Alex.

Sweet God.

My head said to walk forward, but my feet went numb. Then he looked my direction, and suddenly I was head-to-toe buzz with blood rushing in my ears. I took a deep breath and attempted normal as I made it down the steps without tripping.

Riley saw Alex. Riley wasn’t supposed to see people like Alex.

She had her usual folded-arms-with-one-hip-jutted stance, looking annoyed as hell, while Bojangles circled the yard in a frenzy with his nose to the ground. Alex slowly took off his glasses and locked his blue eyes in on mine with that arrogant little smile of his. I felt heat radiate from every pore.

“Dani,” he said, low and smooth, and all the breath left me. “My God, look at you.”

I opened my mouth to say the same thing, that after twenty-plus years he still looked exactly the same, hot enough to melt my shoes. But then the mommy gene stood up and waved and I remembered Riley was there.

He laughed, a deep throaty sound, as he pointed at Riley.

“I knew it had to be.”

A nervous noise squawked from my mouth. Nothing profound like I always imagined it would be.

“The eyes were the first clue,” he said with a wink.

Riley frowned, her expression a mix of disgust and wariness.  “God, you know this perv? He was here on the car watching me and won’t tell me who the hell he is.”

He smirked. “The sweet, gentle nature was the clincher.”

I couldn’t quit staring. Alex—right there in front of me. My whole past poured down over me in a whoosh, as I locked eyes with the one person that had made it all bearable.

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You feel their history, even without knowing it yet.  You know there was something.  But with a ghost?  How can that be?  By God, I’d better keep reading to find out!  :-)

In BEFORE AND EVER SINCE, it wasn’t quite so other-worldly.  Emily is quite literally floored when her first love, Ben is standing right in front of her after twenty years.  There’s nothing like that oh-my-God moment running across your first love, when your stomach drops to your feet and you can’t feel your tongue.   Here’s an excerpt from this book.

Oh no.  No, no, no, no.   Goosebumps ran the length of my body and back again.  Ben Landry.  As I stared into that face, I felt the old hurt I thought I’d forgotten seep through my bones right down through my feet, rooting me to the floor.

“You’re back,” I said, hearing the words and how my voice suddenly went all croaky and hating how stupid that was. 

But I was painfully aware that I had only thrown on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, and otherwise still looked like I’d just crawled out of bed.  Additionally, after twenty-one years, I was looking at probably the only person on the planet that ever really knew me.  And could turn my life upside down.

“Yes I am,” he said, his voice quiet.                                                                                                                   

“Mr. Landry,” my mother said from behind me as she moved me over from where I’d dropped anchor in the doorway.  “Come on in.”

“Just Ben, ma’am,” he said, shaking her hand and then gesturing toward where I stood with my heart slamming against my ribs.  His dark eyes warmed with memory.  My stomach threatened to send me back my four cups of coffee as I recalled the last time I’d seen him.

“Emily and I are old friends.”

Old friends. 

Ben was the boy that put snakes in the teacher’s lounge and snuck into the girls’ bathroom.  That popped all the girls’ training bras and spent at least two days each week in detention.  That wore an old black jacket with chains on it when he rode his bike, so he’d look like a bad ass.  He was the boy that lured me under my house when we were seven for my first kiss, and into a closet in the eighth grade for another one.  He was the mysterious, dangerous looking dark-eyed guy in high school who could part a room like The Red Sea when he entered it, who always sat with his back to the wall and never let his guard down.  Except with me. 

“I don’t remember seeing you around here,” Mom said.

Ben grinned, an endearing expression that transformed him back into the twenty-one year old I’d last seen him as.  Time may have dulled some of the edges, but it worked for him, God help me.  

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Does that work for you?  :-)  There’s already chemistry there, already a sizzle they are trying to ignore or forget. 

With new relationships, however, there’s also the magnetic draw of first everythings.  First brush against each other, first touch, first kiss…and on and on.  Do you prefer that to build slowly, or jump on top of it with fired up heat?  And what about the tease? 

For me, there has to be the tease. 

I’m personally not a fan of instant sex in books.  I love the tease, the push and pull between people that leaves you wanting more.  It doesn’t even have to be physical.  Sometimes the most intense sensual experiences are scenes where two people are just staring at each other, hearts beating in their ears, feeling the pull but fighting it.  Those moments, when written well, can be just as hot as wild monkey sex.

And then there’s that.  Because the wild monkey sex is good, too.  :)

In BEFORE AND EVER SINCE, I have old lovers dancing around each other, fighting chemistry and feelings and secrets.  Throwing them right back into each other’s arms would have sold the story short.  Me being me, I had to build it slowly.  Teasing with words, looks, and even the real-life aspect of awkwardness.  Sometimes that endearing quality can be very sexy. 

So back to the question…what do YOU find sexy?

Thanks for coming by!

~Sharla

 

***Sharla is giving away a tote bag filled with signed books of hers (and maybe a few other authors' books, too!) to one lucky commenter on this post.  So, don't forget to comment!***

ABOUT SHARLA:  Sharla Lovelace is the National Bestselling Author of THE REASON IS YOU, BEFORE AND EVER SINCE, and JUST ONE DAY.  Being a Texas girl through and through, she’s proud to say she lives in Southeast Texas with her family, an old lady dog, and an aviary full of cockatiels.

Sharla is available by Skype for book club meetings and chats, and loves connecting with her readers! See her website http://www.sharlalovelace.com for book discussion questions, events, and to sign up for her monthly newsletter. You can follow her as @sharlalovelace on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

 

With An Additional Giveaway From

DACO

 

***Three other lucky commenters on this post will win free e-copies of Daco's new book, The Libra Affair!***

ABOUT THE LIBRA AFFAIR:  Debut author Daco weaves a convoluted spy game, rather like a Jason Bourne movie -- only instead of the usual male secret agent, we get Jordan Jakes. And she is more than capable of rocking your world. The story is not necessarily a traditional romance, with feelings being demonstrated more by their actions in very difficult situations instead of in the bedroom, but it's apparent that Jordan and Ben love each other a great deal. What the story may lack in romance is made up for with gritty intensity and plenty of international espionage.