These are the commercials I used for one of my final projects. Check them out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4kNl7cQdcU – Folgers (Christmas)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNScRM_NzLI – Victoria Secret and Michael Bay

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFDOI24RRAE – Chiquita Banana

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLdFreZRw0s – Condom Commercial

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk7yqlTMvp8 – Herding Cats

Just finished my first term with Kaplan University Online and (though its not official yet) will be getting A’s in both classes. Ya me. I’m 70% done with Christmas stuff and am ramping up for the online class I’ll be teaching for Popular Fiction about exposition.

Hope everyone is having an awesome month! Happy Chanaukah.

I’ll share a few recommendations but don’t leave me hanging. What are you listening to, reading or watching that I should be checking out?

Any fans of obscure movies? Check out the RoughCuts on YouTube.

The Decemberists. A musical group self described as victorian punk. A co-worker and fellow Smith got me listening to them.

Chart Jackers Project. A group of British YouTubers decided to use the internet and their subscribers to create a song to raise money for children’s week, a big event in UK. I’ve been following since day one and love the final version of the song.

Carlotta and Saving Abel still on continuous loop.

Rediscovered Bookshop. Okay, if you are within 20 miles of Boise you should be a regular customer. They know their stuff and promote the stuffing out of local authors and events. 2nd year in a row voted Boise’s Best.

Castle – A tv show about a writer who plays poker with other best selling authors and shadows a NYC homicide detective. Great dialog and Nathan Fillian (Mal from Firefly and Captain Hammer) is perfect for the role.

Twitter. Does it work? No clue. But it is so easy to text a short pithy comment once in a while from my cell phone.

Mt. Dew Horde. I’ve tried the Alliance flavor too but the cherry Horde is better. Don’t tell my husband. His level 80 can kick my can. Last year when he was still job hunting, he created a character named Drhorrible and I had a Captnhammer. We pvp’d War Song gulch like nobodies business. So a kid dressed as Arthis for Halloween, did a  spot on good job with the costume.

As a fiction addict I’ve been getting my fix via Castle, Mentalist and Doll House all of which I totally recommend. I can DVR them on my Directv Receiver and watch at my leisure when the kids are sleeping. But I’d like to read more. Whose on my pile and whose been knocked down?

ZA Maxfield – soooo good at the gut twisting emotional impact with a side of sex.

Suzanne Brockmann – never makes it to the actual pile. I read her the first week they come out.

Jan Hambright’s – besides just being an all around great chapter mate she’s the guru of plot twists.

Right now I’m reading a ton of Silhouette Nocturne because I think my Amazon series would be a good fit with that line and I’m ‘researching’.

Books knocked off the pile unfinished?

I’ve tried to read (name with held to protect the writer) Again. There is no story question. If I hadn’t read the back of the book, which I never do, I would have no clue there was supposed to be some great world ending conflict. They do the dead on page 55, it should have happened on page five, and then what? Why should I continue? She is often placed on my pile, I’m intrigued by the story concept or a friend recommends a series by her but I have yet to finish one.

Harry Dresden, which is a dorky, wizardly version of Elvis Cole. I have a strong geeky side and I like the first person detective series. But there were soooo many characters and I haven’t decided if I care enough about any of them to read book 2.

So if you are one of the two people still reading this blog, tell me what’s just been placed on or knocked off your to be read pile and why.

I haven’t posted in a very long time. If this is on your friends page or your blog reader you may not remember why you ever added me, so let me do a quick refressh. Citizen Police Academy, Hero’s Journey, GMC and the Great Deb Dixon, and Murder in the Grove Master Class Weekend.

Since I posted last I came to terms with having to return to work full time to make the ends meet. I’ve changed board positions a bit on the local non-profit groups and finished the 2nd draft of SAR and sent it to my beta reader who promptly sent it back with helpful, though painful, tips on how to make it better.

I entered both the Emerald City Opener and the Golden Opportunity and have a full of RNR at Loose Id I’m waiting a reply from (they rejected it very politely and I’m revising before I send it out again). I joined the RRW (Rainbow Romance Writers) and put together a new playlist for the WIP. Twittering, conferences, and my mother–in–law is living with us.

I’m Really Excited About END RESULTS. For $25.00, you will receive a detailed feedback sheet and comments from four readers on the first 25 pages and synopsis of your manuscript. Readers will report on characters, story development, dialog, narrative, setting, and plot. This is a perfect opportunity for feedback if you don’t have a critique group or if your only access to “readers” might be friends and relatives. This is a must use service.

I also just went back to school full time online through Kaplan university. I picked them for their class structure and bonus, work is paying for it. I’ll get my bachelors in communication in just over two years.

Crazy of all crazy, I plan on doing NaNoWriMo. Taunt me on or let me know if you need encouragement.

From Val Roberts

Sorry for the x-posting, but I wanted to get the word out that I’m teaching Practical Chemistry for Writers as the first Murder in the Grove online class. This is a reprise of the class I taught through RWA KOD’s COFFIN program last year (with a couple of easter eggs they didn’t get). It’s also probably the last time I’ll teach this class for the foreseeable future. Practical Chemistry will cover: Poison 101 – the basics Poison 102 – overview of alkaloids Meanwhile Back at the Lab – how we handled things in my lab Herbal Medicine that Really Works Suburban Terrorism – what HSA won’t tell you Love Potion #1 – neurochemistry of attraction, infatuation & attachment Soapmaking Distillation You can find more information (or sign up for the class, hint hint) at http://www.murderinthegrove.com Feel free to forward this information wherever you think it might be useful or welcome. Thanks, Val Robertson — Blade’s Edge – Sept 2009 from Samhain Publishing Chemistry for Writers – MITG online class Oct 2009

Cross-posted to Genre Benders

At a recent writers meeting a few twitter stalkers of Ken’s was teasing him about writing love scenes. The story goes that when he got to a love scene in his WIP, he twittered that he hated to write them. The next day his mom, via computer web cam – cool mom – told him he needed to write more love scenes. Old ladies like them. Ken, feel free to add to the story.

So to help my friend out, here’s a link to a Romance Writers of America article on writing love scenes by Cara Summers a Harlequin Temptation and Blaze author.

Behind the cut below are the 12 stages of intimacy that Valerie Robertson was talking about at the meeting provided by Kerri-Leigh Grady. She says that Linda Howard was the first to introduce them but I’m not sure that’s true.

And here are my helpful tips. Build the tension so when you do get to the scene it doesn’t take as much to pull it off. *smiles* Remember that no one gets it perfect the first time. Sex doesn’t solve problems, only complicates things. And if you feel awkward writing or reading it, so will your reader. Write what you’d like to read. You can write a love scene where it fades to black (no actual on stage action) and still get the reader’s blood pumping. Me, I love to add humor to love scenes. The condom that won’t unroll. Trying to be sexy and falling on your butt. Tickling.

Intimacy.

In order to advance, we need to know the 12 stages of intimacy. They are vital. Linda Howard first introduced them several years ago.

When you look through the list, you must keep in mind a few points. First, spread these out. You don’t want the first ten included by chapter two. Titillate the reader. Spread them out and reuse a few when necessary. Progress naturally. Don’t have the heroine with a hand down the hero’s pants in chapter seven, then in chapter eight they’ve got their first kiss, unless the intent is to throw the characters for a loop (which can do wonders for sexual tension). Also, don’t skip anything major. First kiss and first sexual intercourse (unless you write sweeties) are vital. So is talking. So is eye contact. Keep in mind, too, that the hero and heroine MUST BE AWARE that they are experiencing each of these, or it’s not really going to do much to increase sexual tension. In fact, you can use the awareness of each of these as replacements for the “tightening in his groin” or for other overused euphemisms.

Okay, so here are the much-awaited Steps of Intimacy (these were pulled from a web site years ago, and now I can’t find the site to give the poster the proper credit, but these were pulled from a presentation by Linda Howard):

1. Eye to body. The old once-over, except it happens in a fraction of an instant. Only a few significant details are absorbed. Attraction occurs or it doesn’t.

2. Eye to eye. Eye contact is sustained only between intimates. If a stranger stares, it’s considered rude or an act of aggression.

3. Voice to voice. Ranges from small talk to intimate.

4. Hand to hand. This requires some trust. Hand to arm counts here, too (man’s excuse to get his hands on her, by guiding her).

5. Arm to shoulder. May be a hug.

6. Arm to waist. Can be sexual, especially if “waist” is considered the small of the back. Men won’t do this to other men.

7. Mouth to mouth. Full frontal contact during a kiss.

8. Hand to head. Requires trust.

9. Hand to body. Any body part –- breast, shoulder, chest…

10. Mouth to breast.

11. Hand to genitals.

12. Genitals to genitals.

Copyright © 1998 Kerri-Leigh Grady
Do not distribute or reprint without proper credit.

]]> http://amberlysmith.wordpress.com/2009/01/08/sex-scenes/feed/ 0 A Smith http://amberlysmith.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/im-bloging-over-at-genre-benders/ http://amberlysmith.wordpress.com/2008/11/18/im-bloging-over-at-genre-benders/#comments Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:37:02 +0000 A Smith http://amberlysmith.wordpress.com/?p=82 ]]>

I remember the first time I killed someone. I’d avoided it for weeks. Planning, talking about it, studying the results but the kill it self? I just couldn’t do it.

Until I picked the right person. Squinted so I didn’t see it happen. Then it was easy.

Sound creepy? I’m just talking about the first character I killed. We’re writers that’s what we do. And don’t go saying, oh this inspirational writer – the writer who creates characters who are widows or who have misscarages? Yeah, we deal in death. Moving on. So this character, his name is a combination of two boys I suffered through knowing. Cheap therapy. And I didn’t actually describe the death itself, just the crime scene and body. Since then killing characters has been easier. I’m working on the first draft of SAR my second Amazon book, and this is the beginning of a chapter. I use a similar talk-to-self-method as David Morrell

Okay, next scene to work on? Let’s do the other murder. Kee Ping she looks a lot younger than she is and has lead a solitary like with men in and out. She has recently met a total nerd. He is a neurosurgeon and in his mid-thirties, half her age. He has none of the romantic skills her normal lovers have nor the good looks yet she’s fallen for the first time. Fallen hard. He’s sent her flowers, a dozen roses and though she appreciates it she also thinks that he should of at least sent two dozen or an exotic arrangement. Though the card is sweet. More than sweet. She sits at the end of her bed. She should at least call and thank him for the flowers.

And then I couldn’t kill her. The poor nerd. I love nerds. Next thing I knew I’d written twenty pages in a single sitting and reached the end. Oh, it needs serious work but it’s all there. Just from trying to kill her. Geuss I’ll have to attempt murder more often.

I got a reply from Samhain. A no thank you. I think I prefer the long response time, then I can delude myself that they were tempted. For some reason this one was really hard for me. Maybe because it’s the first non-personal rejection. But I think its more that I had gotten …arrogant? Not quiet the right word…. I was so sure that this would be a good fit. I even made the mistake of telling someone that I felt close. That’s like when one of the character’s on a tv/movie says it can’t get any worse and then it does. I just want to climb into bed and ignore life for a bit but instead I packed my writing bag and headed for the coffee shop to work.

I didn’t get much done. Distracted. My mind wanting to analyze the different angles, where I should submit next, etc. Then my nemesis Kathy Hurley sat across the café from me. Then I had to work. I’m not saying were enemies or even Frenemies. She’s great. But having another author who could see I was goofing off instead of working was a great kick in the pants to get started and the rest of the night was very productive.

So, I’m not giving up on RNR, no freaking way, but I’m juggling a little publisher research with working on SAR so I can figure out where to send it next and how to spin it. Wish me luck.