Greetings from Keira Andrews

Hello! I've been publishing with Loose Id since 2006, but this is my first time contributing to this blog. Looking forward to getting to know everyone!

I've published both contemporary and historical fiction, and my latest release is The Station, which was my first full-length historical. It was part of Loose Id's Coming Out Day Celebration. Most coming out stories are modern, and I wanted to explore the challenges – and rewards – of coming out in a different era. Despite the serious consequences of coming out in the 1800s, my goal was to explore the freedom and opportunity being yourself could also bring.



Ever since Cambridge-bound Colin Lancaster secretly watched stable master Patrick Callahan mastering the groundskeeper, he’s longed for Patrick to do the same to him. When Patrick is caught with his pants down and threatened with death, Colin speaks up in his defense, announcing that he, too, is guilty of “the love that dare not speak its name.” Soon they’re both condemned as convicts and shipped off to the faraway prison colony of Australia.

Patrick learned long ago that love is a fairy tale and is determined that no one will scale the wall he’s built around his heart. Yet he’s inexorably drawn to the charismatic Colin despite his best efforts to keep him at bay. As their journey extends from the cramped and miserable depths of a prison ship to the vast, untamed Australian outback, Colin and Patrick must build new lives for themselves. They'll have to tame each other to find happiness in this wild new land.

So that's a little about my newest book. As for me, along with writing gay romance, my passions are travel, theatre (especially musicals), ballet, TV, movies and figure skating. Oh, and reading, of course! To sum me up in a nutshell, I don't believe in guilty pleasures. Life is too short for shame!

Favourite place to travel: I love Australia and Italy, but New York City and the Great White Way holds a special place in my heart.
Favourite musical: Spring Awakening, which I've seen 15 times
Favourite ballet: The National Ballet of Canada's Cinderella, not only for the gorgeous choreo, dancing, sets and costumes, but the HEA, which is a welcome respite from all the Russian tragedy in ballet!
Favourite TV show: So hard to choose, but right now my faves are probably Vampire Diaries, Dexter and historical Brit show Garrow's Law.
Favourite movie: Again, a tough choice, but if I can only pick one, it's Stand By Me, which resonated so much with me as a 13-year-old. And for a movie that never fails to make me happy -- Strictly Ballroom.
Favourite figure skater: Of all time: Kurt Browning. Currently I love Patrick Chan, Jeremy Abbott (who broke my heart last week at US Nationals!), and the ice dance team of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir.
Favourite book: Impossible! Right now I have to go with the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. Very powerful story and characters that left a lasting impression after the last page was turned.

Enough about me. What are your favourite things?

Flash Fiction - Licorice

My apologies everyone, not only did I miss last week, I'm running late for today. Please feel free to send me emails kicking my butt into gear! ;)

Today's word is

LICORICE

Hot Topic - Kids and Pets

Kids and Pets and erotic romance - can they work together?

One thing I've noticed is that kids don't show up a lot when it comes to erotic romance - apparently single mothers are great for sweet romance (oh, the juicy angst!), but not so much for the sexy stuff. Pets - not the shapeshifting ones - tend to be a little sparse as well, although they show up more often than kids.

Now there is a whole genre of 'baby drama' when it comes to category romance - whether it the secret baby, the abandoned baby, or the one-last-shag-before-I-kick-you-to-the-curb-what-do-you-mean-you're-pregnant baby - but it doesn't seem to translate over into its erotic romance cousin. I wonder why not?

Is the 'hot sex because we are trying for a baby' too close to home? Along with the trying to have an active sex life while avoiding being walked in on by the kids? (oh, I have such an embarrassing story about that - Anne)

Tell us what you think - and if you've got any great recommends for sexy erotic romance reads where the hero/heroine have kids or very charismatic pets, do tell!

Hot Topic - Body Image

Today's topic: Body Image

The world revolves around our body image and how we see ourselves. From the stick thin girls (and guys) that think they are too fat, to the jovial plus sized who decide to enjoy life no matter what their weight, our world is a melting pot of size and colour. Black women who can shake their big booty are prized, yet a white woman of the same proportions is fat. Big, tall, muscled white men are ooh'd and ahh'd over, yet their coloured counterparts are often feared. Why is BBW a sub genre when the majority of women are over a size 12 -- why can't that feisty kick arse heroine in the skin tight leather be a size 16 instead of a size 2 five-foot pocket rocket? Why is it always the women in romance are down on their self image -- guys can be just as uncertain about their appeal, or is that verging on the wimpy hero even if it's realistic imo. I've got lots of questions today, huh?

These are only just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to body image -- lets hear some of your questions and views. Tell us how you'd like to see body image genre tropes turned on their ears...

Hot Topic - Spicy or sweet, sex with a...err, cherry on top?

Today's Topic:

Spicy or sweet, sex with a... err, cherry on top?

We all need to eat, right? But should we be eating while we're having sex? (no oral sex pun intended!) Drips of honey, phallic shaped carrots, squishy fruits and sticky chocolate - there's something to suit everyone's taste buds. But is foodie sex a turn on or a turn off? Is it a bit like sex on a beach -- it sounds all romantic until a crab bites your ass and the sand creeps into places you really don't want sand creeping when there's some friction going on?

Let's talk about sex toys...or not

Since this is my first post at Loose Ends, I wanted to talk about something scintillating, exciting, maybe even a touch controversial, so the topic I came up with was sex toys...

...but then I decided I'd die of embarrassment.

Yes, I write erotic romance, yet rarely do I talk about sex in my everyday life--and I mean outside of the bedroom. One of the raciest dinner conversations I've ever listened to--note: I didn't do much of the talking--was at a conference where I was seated with a table of erotic romance writers. That was fun.

So how is it that I can write about sex (and maybe even do interesting...shh, we won't go there!), but blush cherry red when I talk about it? Like when I went to see my friend's band play. My male friend has read my stuff. In fact, he gets to read alot of it before it's published. And he made some comment in front of another friend--I nearly died on the spot. Good, thing I'd started drinking already. No, I'm not going to tell you what the comment was. I don't talk about it, remember?

I guess I come from a don't ask-don't tell family, and I was adept at not getting caught (unlike my sis). I have noticed lately, though, that when I'm around "straight" romance writers, I'll invariably say something that gets me a strange look. Something will just pop out of my mouth that I was pretty sure was normal, but just isn't talked of in polite circles. Apparently hanging out with my usual crowd of EroRom authors, surrounded by lingerie and penis straws while sitting on an overstuffed stiletto, has changed me somehow. How can that be?

Like I find myself discussing whether the in-laws would notice the chips were in a penis-shaped tray if I bought it for a family party, and whether a 6-foot whip is entirely too long for BDSM in the bedroom. Seriously, wouldn't you just spend the whole evening thinking about Indiana Jones? Maybe that's a good thing!

Speaking of BDSM, BLAME IT ON THE MOON (my latest with Loose Id) got the BDSM rating in the description. Whoa! Did my mom read that? I know she bought the book, so I'm hoping her PDA batteries die before she gets to those parts. I really don't want that topic discussed, ie. blurted out, during my son's next birthday party.

Now it's your turn. Talk to me. How do you feel about talking about sex? What's your comfort level? Like, I'd rather hand my son an age-appropriate library book than actually talk about it, but I think I did okay...with the book's help. And, if you're less shy than I am, feel free to discuss sex toys, too. Tell me your faves. I'll nod and enjoy the conversation...as long as I don't have to talk. LOL

Last of all, I have a contest posted on my News Page with some cool prizes related to BLAME IT ON THE MOON. Check it out at http://www.sharalanel.com/.

Shara

Flash Fiction

Today's word:

Illogical

Use it the word any way you see fit, as long as your flash fiction can somehow relate back to the word.