Slipping into a Pen Name

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Unlike most people, I don’t wait until evening to slip into something more comfortable.  I do it every morning, after breakfast, exercise, and a shower. Yes. I slip into something more comfortable, more freeing, and even more sexy. And that something is my pen name. Liz Everly.

Okay. So the name itself might not be “sexy.” I like it. It’s why I picked it. But what’s sexy and freeing about it is that it’s not my real name. My real name comes with a lot of baggage. A lot of shoulds, coulds, supposed-tos, and definitely NOT-supposed-tos. And Liz? She can let it rip. And she does. Smirk.

When you’re writing steamy or erotic romances, a pen name helps in a lot of ways. First, people make assumptions about those of us who write sexy stuff and sometimes those assumptions can be dangerous. Just because we write about sex doesn’t not mean we are up for grabs.

For some of us, it’s a matter of safety and security in our own communities, as well. I live in a conservative Southern state. I have children that go to public schools and are involved in a number of activities out side of school. It could get ugly for them. I don’t want that and I’m betting you don’t either.

Publishers love the pen name when writers are dipping into another genres. It suits their marketing purposes. They don’t want to confuse bookstores and the like about where to shelve your books. Nor do they want to confuse your “image.” Can the person who writes squeaky clean inspirational romances, for example, also write sexy romance? Yes they can—and often do. But publishers think they will lose business and readers. We don’t want that. So I am only too happy to oblige.

So for all those reasons I am Liz Everly. And every morning when I’m writing my steamy romances, I shed the skin of the other writer I am and slip into something else—a lighter, uncomplicated version of my writer-self.

What are your thoughts on pen names?

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Please visit my site for more information about me and SAFFRON NIGHTS http://www.lizeverly.wordpress.com . Also, the first two chapters of SAFFRON NIGHTS are there.

Twitter @lizeverly1 ; FB author page.  Please click on the book cover if you are interested in purchasing SAFFRON NIGHTS from Amazon.

Check out my Goddess Fish Book Blast on February 6. Leave a comment on any of the blogs and get a chance to win organic saffron and cedar body wash and soap. Yum.

The Music of Saffron Nights

I once had a lover who had soft classical music already playing on the stereo when we walked into his apartment. Now there was a man who didn’t want to have stop and fiddle with the stereo. Smirk. He was also a man who knew a bit about setting the mood and tone of a delicious evening.

I think setting the tone in erotic romance writing can also be helped along by listening to music as we write. I know it helps me.

When I worked as a writer and editor in offices, music was a definite no-no, though I often felt the need to put headphones on and listen to a string quartet, or something, anything, to get the office blather out of my head. But it turned out to be a great exercise in concentration. I can write just about anywhere, if I have to, and focus.

When I started writing SAFFRON NIGHTS, I listened to music that put me in the mood as background music for my characters. I don’t listen to the music they would listen to. I listen to what puts me in the mood to connect with them. The kind of music that reminds me of the tone of my book. Does that make sense?

During the writing SAFFRON NIGHTS, I listened to a lot of Azam Ali,  Bliss, and Morcheeba, and  all of this music is sort of an international, sexy feel that I love. The book takes place all over the world—Mexico, Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Italy, and Morocco.

My next book will be centered on chocolate and will be set somewhere in South America. Well, it’s all vague right now. But I look forward to dipping in to South American music to set the tone of my book.

Sometimes I can get distracted by the words in music. When that happens, I listen  to Vitamin String Quartet—a string group that plays a lot of popular music.  I gotta tell you, I love this group.

You don’t have to have a huge music collection to enjoy different kinds of music. I am an avid Pandora listener and Spotify user. Both services are free.

Now I can’t imagine writing without music playing in the background. It really helps to free my mind, along with give me more focus.

Do you find music helpful when you’re writing or reading?

Please visit my site for more information about me and SAFFRON NIGHTS http://www.lizeverly.wordpress.com . The first two chapters are available there. Check them out. I also blog on http://www.ladysmut.com.

Twitter @lizeverly1; FB author page.  Please click on the book cover if you are interested in purchasing SAFFRON NIGHTS from Amazon.

Check out my Goddess Fish Book Blast on February 6. Leave a comment on any of the blogs and get a chance to win organic saffron and cedar body wash and soap. Yum.

Researching Aphrodisiacs in Saffron Nights

“Saffron Nights” will be released February 6 by e-Kensington. One of the questions I'm ure I’ll be asked is if aphrodisiacs really work. Well, I am not going to answer that. I reserve the right to be coy and say “read the book and you will know what I think.”

But I did find out a lot about reported aphrodisiacs all over the world when I was researching. The first one was durian, which is this spiky fruit that gives off a foul smell, but is tasty and sweet. It’s  native to Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia and many believe in its sexual enhancement powers.

Culinary superstar Anthony Bourdain says:”Its taste can only be described as…indescribable, something you will either love or despise. …Your breath will smell as if you’d been French-kissing your dead grandmother.”

 You either hate it or you love it. In my research, I found out that many people can’t get beyond the smell of it, which is exactly why some public places ban it.  So Maeve, the main character in the book, has a bad reaction to it as she is traveling through India’s mountains and durian groves. It adds an extra obstacle for her, of course, and definitely for Jackson, the photographer who is so worried about her that it difficult for him to work. But he manages and she rallies.

But with the Stinkhorn or MAMALU O WAHINE (woman’s mushroom)  that grows in Hawaii, among other places, Maeve is pleasantly surprised. She hates mushrooms and doesn’t even want to try them. (You can see a photo of it here. But as the mushrooms are cooking, the scent pulls her in. “Okay,” she thinks “I’ll try it.” She takes the plate with her to her room and locks the door. She is alone with her mushrooms and its affects—but don’t feel sorry for her. She wants it that way, preferring to keep Jackson on the other side of the door.

There are all sorts of stories about women and these mushrooms in Hawaii. Unlike Maeve, I love mushrooms. I’d be willing to try this particular mushroom, but it’s difficult to get your hands on, like much of the exotic food I am writing about in this book. This mushroom is at the top of my list to try–but I’d have to send my girls off for the weekend and lock the doors with just my husband and I inside—if the reported affects are true.

Stay tuned. I’ll be writing more about my research into the food of Saffron Nights. In the mean time, what are your experiences with exotic food–or even aphrodisiacs?

Please visit my site for more information about me and SAFFRON NIGHTS http://www.lizeverly.wordpress.com .  If you want to check out the first 2 chapters of the book, they live there. I also blog at http://www.ladysmut.com.

Twitter @lizeverly1 ; FB author page.  Please click on the book cover if you are interested in purchasing SAFFRON NIGHTS from Amazon.

Check out my Goddess Fish Book Blast on February 6. Leave a comment on any of the blogs and get a chance to win handmade organic saffron and cedar body wash and soap. Yum.

Exploring Appetites in Saffron Nights

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It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love of it and the hunger for it...and then the warmth and richness and fine reality of hunger satisfied...and it is all one.”—MFK Fisher

As a food writer (in my “other” life), I have had ample opportunity to reflect about the meaning of food in our lives. The simple act of preparing food is a pure form of love. Eating and sharing food goes beyond the simple needs of stomachs. Food writers, chefs, and home cooks know this. Yes, the attraction of certain food can often be as surface-oriented as the presentation of it. But what we as food people are interested in, really, are the emotions that the flavor of food reaches in and pulls out to keep the eater coming back for more.

The connection between food and sex would seem to be clear—primal, basic, instinctual. The modern appetite—ever bombarded with images of both sex and food—appears to be unyielding and stretching beyond anything that ancient people could have imagined. Yet, food and sex were both there—biological concerns, mainly. One wonders how it got to be so intermingled with pleasure and comfort and in such delightful manners.

 I agree with MFK Fisher that when I write about food I am really writing about love and the hunger for it. As I plunge into more and more erotic romance writing, I can see the same themes, for love and longing, for hungers and appetites fulfilled or unfulfilled, with different means and methods, of course.

Some believe that the best food, like the best sex, comes with love. Others are more complicated in their appetites. They want the best, most expensive truffle, or the exact kind of Stilton coming from a certain region in England, from a specific farm, or the precise chocolate that is grown on a plantation in Venezuela. They get off on finding the perfect food experience.

It’s the same with sex—some want one partner for life—others want to try a little of everything, a little spanking here and there, two or more partners at the same time, a little bondage, or, perhaps, food play. When food and sex come together, then, we are playing with deep primal yearnings and a delightful melting of appetites.  Some of us are better at squashing our appetites than others. Therein lies the story.

In SAFFRON NIGHTS, my first erotic romance published by e-kensington, Maeve has enjoyed sexual freedom with several men, telling herself love is a waste of precious time. She has some kinky predilections, considers herself a woman of many appetites. She doesn’t deny herself a lover, but she does deny herself love.

Until, of course, this wild journey she takes with Jackson. He’s a man who flits from woman to woman until he finds it no longer satisfying. He doesn’t know what he hungers for—is it love? Is he ready to be vulnerable enough to love again?

SAFFRON NIGHTS explores many appetites when it comes to food, sex, and love. Check out my blog for snippets about some of the aphrodisiacs I've been researching. Have you ever thought about the connections between food, romance, sex, and love?

 Please visit my site for more information about me and SAFFRON NIGHTS http://www.lizeverly.wordpress.com . The first two chapters of the book are also available there.

Twitter @lizeverly1 ; FB author page.  Please click on the book cover if you are interested in purchasing SAFFRON NIGHTS from Amazon.