By Lynn Cahoon (Guest Blogger)
Get your mind out of the gutter. I’m
not talking about my personal journey in the wonderful world of
physical contact, just writing about it.
Temporary Roommates, which
releases today with Passion in Print on April 20th started
as a sweet novella. I was at a pitch workshop when the publisher
I’d expected to pitch to didn't show up at the event. (Bad form, that.)
Anyway, another publisher, Passion in
Print, stepped in and loving my pitch asked for the full. When the
contract offer came, they explained, there needed to be one on-screen
sex scene in order for them to buy the story. But they had lots of
energy and seemed to love the novella as much as I did. So I agreed
to add a sex scene.
When the edits finally came, my editor
felt I needed to up the sexual tension even more. More one-on-one
for the hero and heroine. More compromising positions. Troy, the
hero, was fine with the changes. In fact, he welcomed the increased
physical relationship. My heroine, focused on her career, felt like
she was selling out to the more conventional and expected role she’d
been raised to lead.
And it ticked her off.
So what’s an author to do when your
editor wants more hanky panky but your heroine is acting like a kid
refusing to try something new at the dinner table?
You let your character take the lead.
Annie didn’t have any expectations from her time with Troy. In
fact, she knew that building a career and a life took priority over
finding a husband. No matter what her mother and supervisor thought.
I put her in charge and gave her the
aggressor role. Sex as power is usually portrayed as a bad thing.
But sometimes, having gratifying, meaningless sex gives a woman
perspective. And that’s not a bad thing, either in fiction or in
real life.
Now I hear the groans. For me, sex
without commitment or meaning, isn’t powerful, it’s scary. But
I’m not my character. I think about stuff too much. (Just ask my
husband.) And even when I was wild and crazy after the divorce, I
expected a night of sex to lead to a relationship. Like a girl.
I wanted her to think like a guy. To
enjoy herself for a few hours, then go on with her life.
But Troy keeps bringing their situation
up in the days following. And she’s caught.
Reversing the role expectations allowed
me to really play with the idea of when is just sex okay? And I had
to challenge my own insecurities and deeply held beliefs. But in the
end, the story was better because of my own discomfort.
So have I told you too much of the
story? Or just enough to tease your appetite? Check out TemporaryRoommates and let me know what you think.
Blurb
When a determined nurse and a hot intern find the perfect apartment, the same perfect apartment, they must find a way to share it for ninety days, without killing each other.
When a determined nurse and a hot intern find the perfect apartment, the same perfect apartment, they must find a way to share it for ninety days, without killing each other.
Annie Baxter has her dream job. Now,
all she needs is a cheap apartment close to the hospital. Troy
Saunders knows his life as an intern is all about the long hours. He
doesn’t have time to play doctor to some Nurse Barbie. So when his
sister finds a great apartment walking distance to work and next to
the best running paths in the city, he’s sold. Two leasing agents,
two prospective renters, one apartment. Can they co-exist without
fireworks?
About Lynn
Lynn Cahoon is a contemporary romance
author with a love of hot, sexy men, real and imagined. Her alpha
heroes range from rogue witch hunters, modern cowboys, or hot
doctors, sexy in scrubs. And her heroines all have one thing in
common, their strong need for independence. Or at least that’s what
they think they want. She blogs at her website
www.lynncahoon.wordpress.com
Passion
in Print website - http://www.passioninprint.com/ShowBook.php?CR=LC_TMPRMATES
