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Friday Fun: Gender Play

17 May

by C. Margery Kempe

I recently took in the “David Bowie is” exhibit at the V&A in London. One of the most fun aspects of Bowie of course is his gender play. From early on, the audience confusion — “Is he a girl? Is she a boy?” — was part of the provocation. I remember the label on this video saying it was banned in the US, but I know I saw it at the time, so perhaps it was only banned from certain mainstream avenues.

There’s a drag tradition in Britain that’s different from what it is in the States: from the days of Shakespeare, where the theatre was far too scandalous to allow women on it, right up to the relatively modern public (i.e. private) school tradition that segregated genders and made it necessary that school plays include boys dressed as ingenues, it has been largely accepted as okay for straight men to dress up.

By Bowie’s time in the midst of glam rock the fluidity of gender had much more playful aspects to it that many found confusing; it wasn’t the easy identification of an old comedian dressed as a ‘battle axe’ or ‘pepperpot’ but very attractive (and overtly masculine) men in eyeliner and glitter — as well as more slippery characters like Bowie who didn’t necessarily make it clear where their gender identity lay.

Tilda Swinton is the perfect foil for Bowie, isn’t she?

I wrote a medieval story with the ‘heroine’ really being a boy, whose mother had raised him as a girl. How do you like to play with gender?

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Kirk or Spock?

16 May

by Madeline Iva

Pepsi or Coke? Logolas or Aragorn? (Or are you one of those weirdos out there who prefers Frodo?) We women really seem to line up on different sides when it comes to the types of men we like. Why is that?  Does it all come down to the guys who thrill vs. the guy who’s chill?

Of course Spock.

Spock's hittin' it

Spock’s hittin’ it

Of course Legolas–but I have a sneaking suspicion you won’t agree with me.  [Fist pump with my sisters out there who do.]

Chris Pine you are fine.

Chris Pine you are fine.

My first crush was on Spock. (I won’t even tell you what movie.)  And I’ve been faithful ever since.

Original Spock--accept no substitutes.

Original Spock–accept no substitutes.

And I’d bet money that those women out there who prefer Kirk would also prefer Aragorn.  Don’t know why, it’s just a gut feeling.

--And we--love. Men who talk. Using strange...pauses. In their speech.

–And we–love. Men who talk. Using strange…pauses. In their speech.

The latest Star Trek is coming out.  [Let the summer movie extravaganzas begin!] I’ll be interested in seeing it because I don’t know…ladies, I may be jumping ship.

While Spock’s getting it on with Uhura, I’m going to be checking out a third dark horse in the race for yumminess: Bones.Hot!

Karl Urban was recently in a not-too-bad reboot of the Judge Dredd franchise.  He’s cute, people.  Have you noticed that? And I’m saying that after watching him play Dredd–where we never saw his face.  His side kick was kinda okay too btw.

Damn it Jim, Karl's hawt.

Damn it Jim, Karl’s hawt.

So you tell me in the comments below — Kirk or Spock? (Or have you been reading fan fic where they *ahem* are both together?) Who’s open minded out there and willing to toss Bones into the ring as a contender?

Oh wait! You know what–they should call this movie STAR TRECK: VOYAGE INTO EXPONENTIAL HOTNESS.  Because hey look–Benedict Cumberbach is playing the bad guy.  And B.C. –if you’ve been following the BBC’S SHERLOCK — he’s just riveting.Benedict

So you know where I’ll be Friday night.  Meanwhile, if you’re home over the weekend and you’d rather stay inside in front of your own TV to watch some action adventure, here are two DVD’s to check out:

Dredd — as I told you, it’s not. that. bad.  Harsh, with cool slo-mo effects and a great villian-ness.

Dredd and his girly side-kick.

Dredd and his girly side-kick.

I thought that Lena Headey (see my Bad Mommy post) was an awesome–practically stole the movie.  Funnily enough her character’s name was ‘Mama’.

Lena rocks it as the villain--of course.

Lena rocks it as the villain–of course.

Check out John Carter as well.  It got panned quickly for no real good reason that I can see.  Really, it’s just fine.  And the princess isn’t a size zero–that was refreshing.  It’s long though,–so make sure to settle in with a snack–but it’s honest, bouncing fun.  Makes up for the last few wretched Star Wars flicks.

Johnny Boy & a princess

Johnny Boy & a princess

 

Remember you can follow this blog — just hit the button to your right. :)

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Sexy Saturday Round-Up

27 Apr
Photo by Dollen

Photo by Dollen

Greetings, sexy! What a week. I’m still in lala land over my blog post on USA Today’s Happy Ever After column. It’s been so busy at home that I barely have time to eat! The next thing ya know it’s time to round-up some blog posts. So we have a group of very interesting posts this week. Sit back, grab a cuppa or glass of whatevah, and enjoy!

From Liz:

Jody Hedlund on tips for finding competent, compatible critique partners.

Forced seduction and its place in romance (or not).

The value of a writer’s life experience.

From Madeline:

Stephanie Frasco tells us how to Market like a Kardashian. Hate them if you will, but you gotta admit–this is their one true area of genius.  (Thanks to Alma Katsu for the blog rec.)

It’s not too late to vote for your favorite ROMANCE CRACK.

Older woman, younger man–yes, it’s a hot sub-genre in erotic romance, but how well does it work in real life? 

Yet again Cosmo gives the worst sex advice EVAH.  (I still recall with helpless giggles the column on trying out BDSM. “take a fork and stick him with it all over.” Hahahahahahaha! ) This one is on how to take that hot new sexy relationship and make it awkward as F***.  (Who are the people who write this stuff and what’s wrong with them???)

Margie Lawson give great examples of writers injecting their words with emotion at Writers In The Storm Blog this week.

From Elizabeth

Is your voice affecting the way others perceive you?

You. Being sexy. In 3D. Oh yes, ladies, it’s here.

Make your break-ups that much more perfect with these handy suggestions for break-up wine pairings.

From Margery:

Book marketing ideas that will change your life.

James Patterson thinks the sky is falling!

How some devious editors tried to remove all the “lady writers” from Wikipedia pages.

An amazing artist who never shared her incredible photographs.

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Pros & Cons of a Pseudonym

26 Apr

PainTreasureby C. Margery Kempe

Did you know my name isn’t real? Okay, it’s real but not my given name. I write — at present — under three different names. The original Margery Kempe was a medieval mystic; she was a real rebel and forged an entirely new way of showing her faith, which annoyed a lot of people. The one sin she struggled with was sex. If she lived now, she wouldn’t have that struggle I suspect, but embrace her lust without shame.

I figure I’m channeling that alternative history of Marge.

I know a lot of folks take noms de plume for writing erotica and erotic romance because they’re afraid of the scrutiny of others, but I mostly took it on as branding. Under my given name I’ve struggled with finding an audience because every thing I publish seems to be different than what came before it. People who like one of my books don’t know if they’ll be interested in the next one.

I advise not doing that (>_<) but I can’t seem to help it — except with the pen names.

With C. Margery Kempe you know you’re getting the sexy. Sometimes with love, sometimes without, but always with the hot and steamy. With Kit Marlowe, on the other hand, you might be getting love and sometimes a little suggestive heat, but no sex. I’m considering a fourth name for my crime writing, largely to distinguish it from main identity and its elusive, eclectic nature, but also because the crime writing I do tends to be very dark noir. You may not be surprised to find that it’s a genre still largely perceived as ‘masculine’ despite the many female readers and writers.

But it’s harder to get reviews and word of mouth buzz because most men don’t like to be seen praising women; praising someone is seen as putting oneself in a subordinate position. Even interviews go badly for women writers in a different way than they do for male writers, who are more likely to be challenged on their expertise than asked about their shoes, weight or children. I’m really grateful to the crime-writing guys like Paul D. Brazill and Richard Godwin, who have always generously supported my writing. But I’m also frustrated that so much of the field seems so matey. I’m often made to feel as if I am intruding on conversations if I offer an opinion.

There are many aspects to consider. Sometimes it’s fun to have an argument between my selves on Facebook; it amuses me. Sometimes fellow writers are nonplussed because they don’t remember that I’m these different names (“It’s me, logged into my other account!”). And maybe I am splitting my audiences when I should be trying to join them together. I just don’t know. They’re not secret identities — I always make sure to be as transparent as possible — and they’re not sockpuppets, so I like to think of it as “my team” (does that sounds weird?). I will use saltier language as CMK than I generally will as Kate, mostly because my dad is on Facebook and I don’t want to give him a heart attack.

What do you think? Are pseuds useful? Do you want to keep a distance between your personas?

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Mmm, Smells Like Heroine To Me

22 Apr

“You’re a bitch, you’re shallow, you’re selfish,” so says Tracey, a matchmaker on the reality TV show Ready For Love.  She’s reporting how she is willing to give it straight up to women about why they’re not married.  Mmmm, smells like a potential heroine to me. 

Ernesto

Ernesto. Can you say cute?

Pamela Palmer admits her love of deeply flawed heroes who must be redeemed, but I love me a flawed heroine just as much.  The ugly duckling, the woman afraid of intimacy…and the woman who has got a lot of great qualities, but some big honking flaws as well.  I think my obsession stems from my mother telling me The Taming of The Shrew as a bed time story when I was growing up.  I found the implied comparison between Kate and myself annoying when I was nine, but the trope of a beauty-in-the-rough who must be tamed obviously stuck with me through the years.

In last week’s show we saw some beauty, but also some beasts as the claws come out over the new guys up for grabs. Ben and Enrnesto were presented to their potential matches, and at the end of the show the women were called out on their bad behavior by the experts.

I watched one woman try to hold it together.  Her chin would come up and her lips tighten like she’d sucked on a lemon.  She did not like anyone—except Ernesto.  She was heartily sick of the other women but managed with sheer effort to rapidly pull her emotions together as soon as he came around and present him with a sense of herself: a flash of flame, and a hint of playfulness.  Yet she shot herself in the foot running down the other women in the house when she had Ernesto’s full attention.  She really just needed to vent a little, but his time is too precious for such ordinary activities and in the end she was sent home, thinking she was misunderstood.

Matt the matchmaker points out that even though she was feeling misunderstood: “She said she was feeling awkward, but her response to feeling uncomfortable is negative.  The dream partner is not an automatic drama queen when things aren’t ideal.”

Ben likes a woman who keeps him on his toes.

Ben likes a woman who keeps him on his toes.

I want to say back to Matt: but so many men marry drama queens! Face it: men love drama.  The next guy after Ernesto was Ben and when his ex is around he snaps to.  What’s going to happen next? Ben doesn’t know when he’s around her and he relishes the cheap adrenaline rush she brings to the table.

Mindy is only 80% selfish.

Mindy is only 80% selfish.

I didn’t really care for the contestant sent home but I was left to ponder what we want in a heroine.  Myself, I find a misunderstood heroine so appealing. After all, misunderstood guys are catnip for women.

Aubrey hates you.

Aubrey hates you.

Edward in Twilight is a classic example of the ‘misunderstood’ guy.   He’s not moody and unsocial, daddy, he’s just a vampire who’s trying not to kill me.  He even says he’s the bad guy and I should stay away…See, he’s totally misunderstood. (Okay Twi-hard haters out there, don’t leap on me in the comments section.  It’s just one example. I’m sure you can think of others.)

We love the misunderstood guy, but what about the misunderstood girl?

Cloe Moretz in the Carrie Remake. Carrie is misunderstood AND scary.

Cloe Moretz in the Carrie Remake. Carrie is misunderstood AND scary.

Could the misunderstood girl become a new kind of heroine in romance novels?

Or the Selfish Girl?

Or the Anti-social girl?

Or the Scary girl?

Or must heroines all be near-perfect, selfless and endlessly giving?

Can you think of a heroine who’s idiocyncratic and a bit indifferent to others? I think I’d be interested in her—especially if her flaws keep me laughing.

Meanwhile, I’m even more convinced that the hero of Ready For Love is Matt the matchmaker. Again, trying to keep the women from succumbing to competition Matt says: “Men value what they have to earn.”  True, Matt, so true.  But so do women.  We watch these shows because it’s 8 women fighting over one guy—if they aren’t earning his love, I don’t know who is.

Matt speaks wisdom. Even though I disagree with him a lot.

Matt speaks wisdom. Even though I disagree with him a lot.

Matt, my hero, then says towards the end of the show: “99% of people allow the quality of their life to be affected by strangers.  Never be one of them.”  Woot!

And then there was this heart-breaking moment for me.  There’s a virgin on the show, and Tracey, another matchmaker said to her: “Instead of being vulnerable you talked about being vulnerable. Big difference.”  It’s so true, that’s exactly what happened.  But come on Tracey, baby steps.  This virgin just doesn’t know HOW to allow herself to be vulnerable.  And my heart goes out to her because she’s trying.

In the end, I deeply admire the women we watch on these shows who are feeling so uncomfortable, but they just keep trying.  These are the women who suck me in and keep me watching.

The guys slay me too.  They are intent, focused, and yes, very vulnerable themselves.  My heart melts watching them struggle to be honest, to be the good guy, and work hard—but not too hard!—at their job of finding love.

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Mature Lust

12 Apr

old-acquaintance-2by C. Margery Kempe

I had an unexpected moment of connection in teaching this week. In the medieval course, we were talking about the Wife of Bath and watching the BBC modernised version of the tale and prologue with Julie Walters. In the writers-on-film course, we were watching the Better Davis film, Old Acquaintance. Both deal with older women lusting after younger men. Walters’ embodiment of the bawdy wife is markedly different than the genteel lit’ry author Davis plays, but the tension around their desires is palpable.

Chaucer’s medieval icon has had five husbands, the last two considerably younger than she; in the adaptation, Walters plays her as a much married-soap star who falls for her decades younger co-star. Her fame only increases as the program’s audience seems to think she’s pulling off quite a feat, but her young lover’s star falls precipitously because people can’t imagine him falling for a much older woman.

Huh.

Davis’ film follows the friendship of two women, Davis’ Kit Marlowe (though my first inspiration for my other romance nom de plume was largely the Elizabethan playwright, it’s also for this film) and Miriam Hopkins’ Millie Drake. When Kit first makes a splash as a controversial literary author, the envious Millie decides to pen a novel, too. Of course she writes a romance — and then another and another and before you know it she’s rich and successful while Kit struggles with her follow up.

The wrinkle is that Millie’s neglected husband falls in love with Kit who spends more time with him and Millie’s daughter. Being a good friend, Kit won’t let anything happen, but she suffers. Millie makes her suffer more when her husband leaves, though she’s as oblivious to his love for her friend as she is to pretty much everything that is shiny stuff for herself. She’s so incredibly callous that she deserves the famous shake when Kit’s armour of self-sacrifice finally cracks a little.

 

This happens in the last half of the film where it’s clear Kit is “old” — she has s stripe of white hair to prove it! Her 10 year younger beau pines after her, trying to persuade her to marry him, but she find it too absurd to consider, although she wants to very much. Everyone agrees it’s absurd. When she decided to say yes anyway — well, you can guess things don’t go well.

I suppose I’m sensitive to the issue because I’ve mostly always been with younger men. I did have one boyfriend who was a week older. It didn’t work out. ;-) So am I being ridiculous?

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Romance with Discipline

5 Apr
Mask by Leonor Fini

Mask by Leonor Fini

by C. Margery Kempe

I gave a paper at the Popular Culture Association Conference last week called, “Knocking from Inside: Forging Strength through Pain in V for Vendetta and The Story of O” and it seemed to go over well in the BDSM/Kink area panel, despite the fact that I was the only panelist who turned up. (O_o) The title comes from a Rumi poem about struggling with your own constrictions:

I have lived on the lip of insanity, wanting to know reasons, knocking on a door. It opens. I have been knocking from the inside!

But at a romance panel the next day I was disturbed to hear a lot of negative attitudes toward the erotic. One speaker described the arc of Fifty Shades‘ narrative as starting out as ‘BDSM’ and then ‘becoming romantic’ — as if it were not possible to have romance in anything but a vanilla relationship. I don’t know if the ignorance or the arrogance annoyed me more.

O’s voyage is one of self-discovery, but it’s also one that allows her to finally love without being dependent on her lover, as she is at the start of the book. When he sends her to the chateau in Roissy to undergo ‘training’ her only concern is pleasing him. She needs repeated assurances that he loves her, that he is pleased with her. But with all the floggings and bondage, she begins to transform and find a peace within herself:

And yet nothing has been such a comfort to her as the silence, unless it was the chains. The chains and the silence, which should have bound her deep within herself, which should have smothered her, strangled her, on the contrary freed her from herself. (38-9)

Pauline Réage [the pen name for Dominique Aury] herself seemed to find a powerful release from writing the book and discovering the truths which lay inside her heart, truths she had not heretofore acknowledged. Her essay “A Girl in Love” which is usually packaged with the otherwise lamentable follow up Return to the Chateau (which may have been penned by her lover and not Réage herself) demonstrates this power:

“The girl was writing the way you speak in the dark to the person you love when you’ve held back the words of love too long and they flow at last. For the first time in her life she was writing without hesitation, without stopping, rewriting or discarding, she was writing the way one breathes, the way one dreams.” (Return 7)

I have found this happening more and more in my writing as I stopped fearing what I could write or whether I could write and just wrote without censoring the thoughts that arose. Anything can exist on the page. It can also be edited or simply tucked away if it doesn’t fit into a coherent narrative. But the more we refuse to hold ourselves back, the more truthful our living. What exciting things can happen.

Even love. Are you still knocking from the inside?

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Sexy Saturday Round-Up

30 Mar
Photo by Dollen

Photo by Dollen

Hello sexy! Whew! The Lady Smut bloggers have been busy on the Internets. We have a long and delicious Sexy Saturday Round-Up for you today. In fact, it might take you all weekend to get through reading all of these nuggets.

We have writer-advice, sexy-hair-advice and a post on snail sex. Yep. You won’t get such a diverse set of topics on any other blog round-up. Sit back, relax, and click and read.

From Liz:

In defense of the love triangle.

What readers want from a writer’s website.

Jane Friedman on Amazon’s White Glove Program.

Making Sex Normal. A new blog.

479985_10152664942040094_1792237409_nFrom Madeline:

The most HORRIBLE AWFUL TERRIBLE APPALLING CONTRACT THAT NO WRITER SHOULD SIGN EVER and why it caused such controversy as explained to you by Wired.com.

Secret romance…princesses…and lutefisk? Who knew life in Sweden was just like a romance novel?

I’m pretty, dammit, and here’s why I won’t say so in public.

Are you striving or are you surviving? Bob Mayer has tough love for writers.

Why Mindy’s got it going on.

This month we celebrated a man…a special man…a Fabio-loso man. This is my fav Fabio cover.  What’s yours?

The government is spending more than half a million dollars betting that Snail Sex is better than human sex.

My fav subject: wedding mayhem.  Now you can buy someone’s cancelled wedding.

From Elizabeth:

Are you a feminist? But you love porn? Then here, my friends, is a book for you.

Beware these five things that can ruin your sex life . . . and how to fix them.

If you’re looking for a new do, here are suggestions for sexy hair that’s a magnet for men.

Nordic noir heroines, straight from Scandinavia.

Finally, do yourself a huge favor and  take a seven minute chill out break with this wonderful, sensual dance video from Duo Osmose. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bJzgYh7qdU

From C. Margery:

Seeking papers on Time Travel.

First global conference on shapeshifters, among other things.

Stay hungry,

Liz

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Romance at the Popular Culture Association Conference

29 Mar

FiniOwl2smby C. Margery Kempe

I’m away in DC at one of my favorite academic conferences; partly because it’s chock full of friends that I only get to see these days at the conference, but also because it’s always a lot of fun! Here are some of the panels (thanks to Teach Me Tonight) that will be of interest to you folks, but see the whole program here.

Romance I: Fifty Shades of Scholarship

Romance II: Authors, Characters, Readers:  What’s Changed? What’s Changing? What’s Stuck?    

Romance III: Publishing, Texts, and Authorship

Romance IV: Across the Media: Iconic Moments, Cultural Narratives, and Real-Life Love

Romance V – Special Session: A Natural History of the Romance Novel Tenth Anniversary Roundtable: Pamela Regis and the Rebooting of Popular Romance Studies

Pamela Regis – In this presentation I will reconsider our shared work—to understand the genre itself and the texts that comprise it—from the temporal vantage point provided by the decade that has passed since the publication of my account of the genre in A Natural History of the Romance Novel. My focus will be on the state of our work on the American romance novel, and the challenges that face us.


Romance VI: Paranormal Romance    

Romance VII: Problem Texts and Questions of Ethics 

Romance VIII: Homosociality, Homoeroticism, and Bisexual Desire

Romance IX: African American / Black Romance

Romance X: Romance at the Boundaries: Race, Place and Translation

Romance XI: Romance Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, Critique

Romance XII: Open Forum: Where are We, Now, in Popular
Romance Studies?

Romance XIV: Vampire / Romance Joint Round Table

Romance XVI: After Fifty Shades of Grey: Kink and Romance
Perspectives

Vampire in Literature, Culture, and Film VIII: Paranormal and Romance

Vampire ROUNDTABLE V: Walking the Line Between Paranormal and Romance: A Roundtable Inquiry into the Heart of Paranormal Romance

Fan Culture and Theory: Uneasy Pleasures: Ethics of Studies/Fan Studies Scholarship

Romance I: Fifty Shades of Scholarship

Romance II: Authors, Characters, Readers:  What’s Changed? What’s Changing? What’s Stuck?    

Romance III: Publishing, Texts, and Authorship

Romance IV: Across the Media: Iconic Moments, Cultural Narratives, and Real-Life Love

Romance V – Special Session: A Natural History of the Romance Novel Tenth Anniversary Roundtable: Pamela Regis and the Rebooting of Popular Romance Studies

Pamela Regis – In this presentation I will reconsider our shared work—to understand the genre itself and the texts that comprise it—from the temporal vantage point provided by the decade that has passed since the publication of my account of the genre in A Natural History of the Romance Novel. My focus will be on the state of our work on the American romance novel, and the challenges that face us.


Romance VI: Paranormal Romance    

Romance VII: Problem Texts and Questions of Ethics 

Romance VIII: Homosociality, Homoeroticism, and Bisexual Desire

Romance IX: African American / Black Romance

Romance X: Romance at the Boundaries: Race, Place and Translation

Romance XI: Romance Pedagogy: Teaching, Learning, Critique

Romance XII: Open Forum: Where are We, Now, in Popular
Romance Studies?

Romance XIV: Vampire / Romance Joint Round Table

Romance XVI: After Fifty Shades of Grey: Kink and Romance
Perspectives

Vampire in Literature, Culture, and Film VIII: Paranormal and Romance

Vampire ROUNDTABLE V: Walking the Line Between Paranormal and Romance: A Roundtable Inquiry into the Heart of Paranormal Romance

Fan Culture and Theory: Uneasy Pleasures: Ethics of Studies/Fan Studies Scholarship

And mine:

BDSM/Kink/Fetish studies (Frantz) BdsM/kink in film, Pornography, and Japanese Culture
Virginia suite C 8:15pm-9:45pm WED 27 March

“from now on, i will do the things i like:” Ito Seiu, Minomura Ko, and the emergence of kinbaku (erotic rope Bondage) in Japanese Popular Culture
Douglas Thomas

Pornography as the New tool of the intellectual historian
Joseph Wright

Masochistic desire in luis Bunuel’s Belle de Jour
Julia Smith

Knocking from inside: Forging Strength through Pain in V for Vendetta and The Story of O
K.A. Laity [AKA C. Margery Kempe]

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Friday Fun: Femmes Fatales

22 Mar
barbara-stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck: noir goddess

by C. Margery Kempe

You may not know her name, but you know the look on her face means trouble. She’s got a shape that lures your gaze to fondle it, but her mind’s always working the angles. Someone’s going to end up on top — and it’s not you.

After looking at rogues last week, I figured it was time to look at their female counterparts: the femmes fatales!

They’re untrustworthy, conniving, double crossing and undeniably sexy. Whether it’s noir goddess Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity or The Strange Love of Martha Ivers or bad girl-who-wants-to-be-good Gloria Graham, they have incredible sex appeal. When she walks into the room, the femme fatale draws every eye like a slinky magnet. Her dress might be low cut and it’s probably tight as a second skin, and she’s bound to be tottering on stilettos with a dainty ankle chain just to make sure you’re looking at her legs — but it’s her expression that holds you. She knows too much and what she knows isn’t good for you.

But you can’t resist!

Gloria Graham

Can we imagine a romance novel with a femme fatale heroine? Or are they destined only for dark crime stories where everything goes wrong? It seems somewhat difficult to imagine, but surely someone must rise to the challenge!

Maybe she could be won over and leave behind her vampish ways. But if it were told from the heroine’s point of view, could the reader identify with the bad girl?

Do you have to be a bad girl to enjoy the femme fatale? I have written a good number of them in my crime stories but I have to admit most of my romances feature good women who mean well and only want the best for their paramours, too.

Well, maybe the Man City gals have a touch of the femme fatale: Shai and Lizzie scheme a little bit, but for a good cause: a ménage-à-trois! Surely they can be forgiven a bit of intrigue — after all, everyone shared the prize in the end. ;-)

Can you imagine a femme fatale heroine in romance?

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