Taking a Nerdy, Thoughtful Moment

If You've Been Looking For A Sofia Harper Book...

You might be in for a very long wait. Like...long, long. But are you itching to read something I've written anyway?

Well...you're in luck. lol Go check out Melissa Blue. There's tons there. One book keeps bouncing up and down the Amazon top 100 list.

This one:

Did I also mention that it's free only for the next two weeks?

Pastry baker Emmaline Sharp is one business connection away from turning her bakery into something more than the dessert shop on the corner. She believes she’s found Mr. Right in café owner Tobias Merchant. His Caff-aholic brand of freshly brewed coffee makes him the perfect partner. When she accepts a dare that thrusts her naked self into Tobias’ waiting arms, she jeopardizes her entire future. Emma will have to convince him to give her another chance, and somehow she'll just have to ignore the unexpected passion he ignites within her.
Tobias needs the connection with Emma’s bakery, Sweet Tooth, in order to liberate himself from the financial and emotional obligations of his past. Unfortunately, Emma's reckless behavior leaves him doubting she can be level-headed and business savvy. Every one of his instincts tells him to walk away, but she’s a temptation he can't seem to deny. He's inexplicably drawn to the lightness in her, especially when he knows just how dark the world can be. Against his better judgment, Tobias ignores his instincts and proceeds to form a partnership with Emma.
When their relationship shifts from business to personal, will Emma and Tobias be able to conquer their demons and find their sweet reward before the deal turns sour?


Amazon
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So...that's about it for right now. Will be back when I have any news on the other book, the one for Sofia. Or, if the mood to blog strikes me again. Have a good one.

Eons With No Word But I Came Back Bearing Puppy-Cuteness

First, you have to understand, I'm not an animal lover. Many people will never come back to my blog after reading that opening line, but I don't want to lie to you folks. This is a safe circle...a circle of honesty, right? You should also understand I told my DD when she turned sixteen she could have a dog.  DD wants to be a vet so having her own pet is her Mecca. She has yet to forgive me for the fish massacre a while back. Long story. Moving on. 

So, she comes to me one day and lets me know her best friend's family is going to take the puppy to the pound. They already have two dogs. A third is just too much. I have two children who I've already potty trained. I did not like it. Not at all like Sam I Am who just hadn't tried it. If you've never had to clean poop then consider yourself damn lucky. If you've never been peed on, again, consider yourself lucky. I have and didn't want to relive this experience. Plus, I remember as a kid the puppies we had and how they whined. 

It should come as no surprise, I said hell no. 

Cue the long face for two days.  

Now my DD doesn't do the long face. My son is the boy who cried wolf. He wears it just because. In case he needs it for candy/staying outside longer/just because. DD does not, but she wore it for two days straight and I remembered seeing this puppy. I know of the gas chambers an unwanted puppy will face. 

I knew of all that I'd have to face if I took in said puppy.  

So...I gave DD a twenty-four hour trial. She could see how things played out for a day. See how things went when puppy whined and pooped and peed on everything. How he'd eat everything and then throw it up because it screwed with his stomach. I’d let her see the responsibility of puppy-rearing. The early morning walks to take him outside so he wouldn't poop in the house. The feedings. The whining. I was steadfast in my stance I wouldn't care one way or another if this puppy ended up in the pound. I was not an animal lover. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sigh. Touch my puppy and you will fucking die.

Say hi to Rocko. (Yes, as in Rocko's Modern Life.)

 

12:01 a.m. I'm Heading Into Insanity

I've always thought actors and writers have a lot in common, despite the forms in which they play in. We are both donning on a personality, a world that is not our own. It takes a certain kind of preparation and with every actor, with every writer there's a different degree in which they go. 

I'm about to head into NaNo and that means pounding out 50k in 30 days. That's 1667 words a day. Nothing in the scheme of things for me. When I'm really on a roll I can knock out 3k a day. But the thing that makes it uncertain is that I have to be in the world I'm writing. I have to know the characters skin I'm slipping into. How they see the world and the words they'll use to describe it. I have to know where the story will end up. This last is the most important. If I don't know what I'm writing to I don't know why I'm writing. I don't have tunnel vision and that's makes the difference of skating with 100 words in a 24 hour period and being able to easily get down 3k.

 

That's why NaNo is insanity. It's making a personal promise, for the world to see, that I'm going to figure out that ending. I'm going to complete a full story filled with plot and characters and something that gives me a workable start. Because first drafts are a workable start. At least for me.

So, I'm listening to Sail by Awolnation on repeat. I'll probably head to my Pinterest to get some pics to see the world that gives me a bit of a guide. 

But really, I'm heading into the land of insanity.  

Wish me luck. Hopefully, I can regain my sanity December 1^st.

 

Equality is Sexy

I've been writing paranormals lately. It's not surprising that in the two I've written this year, power is discussed and in some part at the heart of the conflict. If you strip away the paranormal aspect of the world, I think power is still a huge thing to consider when writing a romance. One side simply can't have it all. At least for the romance to work for me. 

And this brings me to something that might get my ass reamed later. This need for equality is why I've had trouble getting into BDSM. It's not the kink that stands in my way of glutting on this genre. It's how power often comes across uneven for me. Hell, it's partly why I have trouble with Presents and any story that features an Alpha, whether it's the man or the woman. Because a big part of what sells of on the HFN or the HEA is that I have to see the couple still together in the future. When there's an imbalance of power, or one party gives or takes more than the other, I'll see how that wears on the relationship. At some point, one party won't have much left to give or take, and that in itself leaves me cold.

 

Maybe it comes down to a core belief within myself that relationships have to have clear boundaries and still be flexible. I seek that same belief in the romances I choose to read. The BDSMs and clear Alpha-type stories that work for me have that.

 

Yes, many people are absolutely disgusted with the romance between Mac and Barrons. And you want to talk about a huge imbalance of power...Yeah. The Fever series has that in spades. Whenever I think about what sold that romance for me s probably one of the most controversial aspect of the story. It's when  

SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Mac becomes priya and Barrons uses his dick to save her from it. No question about it, Barrons finally got his hands, mouth...ok. He finally slept with Mac. It was completely consensual for the mindless sex-bot Mac had become, but not for the Mac in books 1-4. Barrons completely held all the power in those scenes. Yet, it was completely clear to me, if Mac had been in her right mind, Barrons wouldn't have done what he'd done. Throughout the entire series, he didn't push back against this boundary in a way he totally could have. He respected that boundary.  

There's an internal line for me, because the Alpha-type romance definitely has a I'm doing this for your own good and you so want it too thing going for it. And for me, I need to see, I need to believe there's a clear, CLEAR line that even the Alpha won't cross. They won't cross it because the other person in the relationship matters to them. It's about power, but it's about respect. It's about equality in the relationship. 

And, I can say that above all things is sexy as fuck.

 

Untouchable: The Preview

*blows dust off blog* Wow. Well, let me just say I'm not dead, I've been writing. http://pinterest.com/sofiaharper/untouchable/ <----That's part of what the story looks like if I could tell it in pictures.

And it's so out of my comfort zone. I don't write paranormal. I've written some but up until this book have only completed one other. A YA paranormal at that. Yeah, I could type until my fingers bled on a contemporary romance. Paranormals are another animal. No pun intended.

So, that's why I've been silent and all introverted. But what's the point of this post? Brain gibberish. I've finished the book. YAY! I'll get started on my last revisions of The One I Want (a contemporary romance. YAY!) It's a friends to lovers story. It's something I'll bribe give my editor whenever we're done with A Hot Dose of Trouble.

So, if you don't hear from me in a month or so...I'm revising this book ----> http://pinterest.com/sofiaharper/the-one-i-want/

Flummoxed About The Opinion on Editors

I'm confused about some of the latest rumblings regarding the need for editors and what it is an editor should and shouldn't do. Trust your story is being thrown around. Don't let anyone mess with your vision of what the story should be. The last thing an editor should do is give suggestions on how to better your story.  

But to what extent are you talking? There are plotlines or jokes or characters that make sense in your head, that you believe needs to be on the page. Yet when you send that story out and get back comments varying from Huh? to WTF? Maybe, just maybe, your instincts were wrong. If not completely wrong, what happened between your head and the page missed the mark.

Yet, some people are saying developmental editors are useless? Then what are crit partners and beta readers? They are doing the same thing except without pay or working on a bartering system. Just like there are some bad crit partners and beta readers, there are some bad developmental editors. Does that make them unnecessary? No.

And to say giving suggestions is the last thing an editor (crit partner or beta reader) should do is beyond my reasoning. When an edtior, crit partner or beta reader points out a sentence and tells you something is confusing, this might clear it up and, gasp, God forbid rewrite your precious words... Heresy! Or tell you, hey, your beginning moves slower than molasses. Maybe if you start it here it'll read better or the pacing is on point here. Gasp. Heresy! If I'm paying someone $1,000-3000, I better damn well see some suggestions other than “This needs more here.” (<---This has made every single author I know scream with frustration. More what?)  

What's really making me rant about this unimportant contention in the first place? When you give this kind of advice you're not telling the writer who has been writing for a few years. The veteran writer has been around long enough to know they need someone else to go over their work. They may know something is wrong with the beginning but not necessarily what's wrong with it and they should get someone else to read the book. They know what's in their head may not always end up on the page. Or what does end up on the page and still misses the mark. 

You're telling a newbie writer. How in the hell can they know what they don't know? How can you tell them to have instincts and belief they haven't honed yet for themselves? While handing out this blanket statement are you bothering to explain what it is crit partners and beta readers do? The signs that you're being pigheaded about a story element and when the CP or BR are dead wrong? You're doing your readers, who are more than likely newbie writers, a disservice and throwing an entire profession under the bus. 

Nope. No one will ever know your story like you know your story. Sometimes that's part of the problem and why you're sending the story to an editor, crit partner or beta reader in the first place.

 /rant

What do you think an editor, crit partner or beta should and shouldn't do?