Wednesday, January 12, 2011

But Will It Turn Me On?

By Rachel Randall (Guest Blogger)

Finding the best words to describe your own writing can as big an adventure as putting the story down on paper in the first place.

And it’s oh-so-important to get right. Readers want to know that a story will push their buttons and turn them on, and one of the most important parts of my job as an author is to show them how it will do just that.

In some ways, it’s pure pleasure. I know my characters intimately. I’ve got my favourite scenes. I want to share everything about the story RIGHTNOW and OOHLETMESHOWYOU and ISITRELEASEDAYYET?

In others, it’s pure challenge (which, fortunately, brings its own piquant pleasures). Many of you will know the agony/ecstasy of struggling with a synopsis or cover copy. It’s quite thrilling when the words come together, but there’s that midnight-moment of desperation when you just want to babble them all out in a big mess and leave it at that.

That’s why I love wordle.net. Wordles are “word clouds” that take the most commonly used words from your text and represent them in beautiful visualisations. It’s free, and you can tweak your creations exactly how you please.

Taking It Off, my next release from Total E-Bound, is due out on Valentine’s Day. I love this story. I think it’s funny, flirtatious and full of really hot sexual tension. I want to share everything about it with you RIGHTNOW and OOHLETMESHOWYOU and ISITRELEASEDAYYET?

But what’s the story really all about? There’s nothing quite like seeing it all there in burgundy, white, grey and pink!

Visit me at rachelrandall.wordpress.com where you can find free stories and Wordles galore. You can also check out my recent interview on Jenika Snow’s blog, where you’ll hear all about my love for my bicycle (when you live in the Netherlands, you love your bike), my dream date (a Britrock threesome), and my recent release His Christmas Present (also featuring Valentine from Taking It Off).

Thanks, Lisabet, for letting me stop by!

Add Taking It Off to your Valentine’s Day wishlist.

Valentine’s got a talent for finding the right fit—whether it’s matching an executive to a job or finding a lover for himself—but he’s never had a first impression like Lucy before.

Commandeered by the intriguing stranger at a luxury London department store, Valentine’s more than happy to provide the masculine opinion Lucy demands. After all, watching her model fabulous cocktail dresses, saucy shoes and mouth-watering lingerie is his pleasure.

He soon realises that he wants more than just one seductive afternoon with the luscious Lucy. Getting under those new clothes will be a challenge since she's gone back to New York, but he's not the only one being driven mad by the heat of their long-distance flirtation. Now Valentine just needs to convince his little tease that the best part of trying things on is taking them off again.

(A Wordle picture may be worth a thousand words, but it’s always fun to have an excerpt too! Read a selection from Taking It Off here )

6 comments:

Lisabet Sarai said...

Greetings, Rachel! Welcome to Beyond Romance - and thanks for stepping into the breach so quickly when my previously-scheduled guest had to cancel.

Taking It Off sounds like great fun. And I've got to check out this Wordle thingy!

Rachel Randall said...

Thanks so much for having me, Lisabet! :)

Definitely check out Wordles -- they're tons of fun to play with, and as far as interwebs diversions go, they're actually quite useful!

I also use them for editing....great for spotting pesky word repetition through visualisations ("just" is my nemesis!).

Cornelia Amiri said...

Great blog post Rachel. I didn't know about wordle.net, thanks so much for sharing that. It's fabulous. And Taking It Off sounds so yummy and delectable. It sounds like a great Valentine read. Thanks so much.

Anonymous said...

Rachel - Lust Bites - Taking It Off - sounds like an entertaining fun read. Congratulations. Also, thanks for turning me onto wordle - I can't wait to create my own mess of words. Love it! Thanks for sharing your book and your ideas.

She said...

Good post! I love it when I can picture what the author writes and get aroused by it. She/he has done her/his job. Thanks.

Rachel Randall said...

@Cornelia, so glad you enjoyed. And Yummy and Delectable are *definitely* two words I would use to describe Taking It Off :)

@Kay Dee, Thanks very much! I'm really excited about this one. And you're welcome! Have fun playing with it -- I love how just changing the font and the shape of the wordle can really change the tone of your creation....

@She, you're very welcome. I love that too -- there are so many erotic romances out there, all the help possible is fantastic for sorting out what will appeal specifically to what turns us on as readers.

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