Rose, Exposed – Writing During a Derecho by Afton Locke

Afton Locke is here today as part of her awesome Rose, Exposed Blog Tour!

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Rose, Exposed – Writing During a Derecho

Thank you for hosting me today. I’m excited to discuss writing during a derecho and my recent release, Rose, Exposed, a multicultural historical erotic romance set in the 1930s.

This post is part of the official Rose, Exposed Blog Tour (3/26 – 4/09).

The grand prize for the tour is vintage-style rose earrings for pierced ears (U.S. shipping address only).

To be eligible, COMMENT on this post. Comment should include the historical time period and geographical setting (when and where) you’d most like to see in a romance.

The tour winner will be announced at http://www.aftonlocke.com/RoseExposedTour.html on April 11th.

Writing During a Derecho

While I was in the middle of the first draft for my recent release, Rose, Exposed, a derecho blew through town. It also threatened to blow apart my writing schedule. A true writer is a dedicated writer, writing through sleet, hail, and even derechos.

Until last June, I’d never even heard of a derecho. I was watching TV, annoyed that the seemingly average thunderstorm rumbling outside my window might threaten the power and interrupt my evening unplug time, no pun intended. When it did go out, I stumbled to the kitchen for a candle. That’s when the wind from hell kicked up. Thinking it might be a tornado, I headed for an internal hallway and stayed there until it passed.

The power will come back on in a few hours or sometime tomorrow, I thought. I thought wrong. It didn’t come back on for almost a week. It was the longest time I’d ever gone without power in my life. Couple this with a 100-degree heat wave that lasted just as long. Talk about hot, sweaty, and just plain frustrated. Didn’t anyone realize I was in the middle of writing a rough draft?! I missed showers, refrigeration, and air conditioning, but what I really needed was my computer.

When I write a rough draft, it’s a train that doesn’t stop for anything. What to do? I fired up the laptop. It lasted about an hour before the battery died. I needed longer than that to get a chapter out, my daily quota. Then I decided to do what writers always rave about but I’d never done — write at a coffee shop.

After schlepping my laptop and notes to the nearest bagel shop, I plugged in and got to work while sipping green tea. What if someone tries to read over my shoulder? Must the staff clatter the dirty plates constantly? Will those screaming kids ever eat and hush up? Can writers actually write through this? Not this writer. After cranking my iPod volume into the stratosphere, I struggled through a few more pages and gave up.

After that, I went home and grabbed some paper and pencil and did it the old-fashioned way, longhand. When I first began writing, this is how I did it. It was soooo sloooowwwww. I think my hand still has that cramp in it. The worst part was not knowing how many computer pages it equated to, so it was hard to time my chapter-ending hook.

It was a lot better than nothing, though. When I went to a family member’s house for a much-needed shower and hot food, I made a beeline to their computer and didn’t come up for air until I’d typed up all my longhand notes. That’s another disadvantage of writing by hand, double the work and time.

What else happened during the derecho? The family got emotional and irritable. 100 degree weather with no A/C will do that. Keeping our food from spoiling and getting fresh water occupied our daily lives. I also learned to dress like a refugee from Gilligan’s Island to keep cool, wearing a bikini top drenched in water. Without TV, I learned to unplug by reading outside with a flashlight at night, which was incredibly cool.

Rose, Exposed will always be the derecho book to me. That pesky little storm might have broken my daily routine for a week, but it didn’t sidetrack my writing.

Publisher:  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

Release Date:  27 March 2013

eBook ISBN #:  978-14199-45205

Buy eBook:  http://www.ellorascave.com/rose-exposed.html

Stay tuned for reviews and more: http://www.aftonlocke.com/Rose.html

Video/trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bT9x9-Hlhw&feature=youtu.be

(I love creating trailers for all my books!)

Blurb

When Leroy Johnson gets promoted at the new oyster plant on Pearl Point, all he cares about is working hard. When he meets the flirtatious artist Rose Wainwright, however, nothing matters except getting her to the altar and into bed. Healing from a recent loss, he’s not about to let her go too.

Because Rose’s strict, social-climbing father doesn’t approve of dark-skinned Leroy, they court in secret anyplace they can find. Although Leroy’s raw passion can convince her to do almost anything, why can’t he understand she needs freedom, not marriage?

Her father wants her to be white, but Leroy wants her to be black. Playing both sides of the fence leaves this young biracial beauty exposed in more ways than one.

Excerpt (explicit)

Rose, Exposed – Copyright © AFTON LOCKE, 2013 – All Rights Reserved, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, Inc.

“You’re so…dark,” she exclaimed. Instead of the disdain he expected, he heard fascination.

Come on, lady. Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a colored man before.

“Yes, I’m dark,” he agreed as he politely removed her hand, “which is why it’s not a good idea for us to sit alone together in this car. Someone might come along and jump to the wrong conclusion.”

A conclusion that could get him beat up or worse with the Klan close by on Oyster Island.

But before he could stop her, she clasped both sides of his face and pressed her sweet mouth to his. Aw, hell. A man only had so much self-control, and she’d just shattered his. Unable to stop himself, he plundered her delicate mouth. Her lips reminded him of rose petals, and he sucked the sweetness out of them as if he were a bee. The more he tasted, the more he wanted.

She opened, giving him access to her even sweeter tongue. His penis strained, hard and now wet, against his undershorts. Hell, even his balls must be twice their normal size. Taking a big breath, he pulled away from her.

“We can’t do this. You’re white.”

She looked down at her upturned palms. “Then I really do look white?”

Leroy frowned. “Aren’t you?”

For the first time, her smile disappeared, making him shiver in his wet clothes. “The truth is, I don’t know what I am. I suppose that’s why I took this foolish drive.”

She must be biracial then, he realized, and not forbidden after all. The thought made him want to dance on the hood of the car. She still looked white, though. If he didn’t have the time to court a girl his own color, he sure didn’t have any for a complicated one like this.

“Kiss me again,” she demanded.

Without waiting for him to answer, she locked her hot, damp mouth on his again and tugged hard on his shoulders. Before he knew it, he was on top of her on the front seat. He wished her dress weren’t so thin when two round breasts pushed against his chest and long, slender legs shifted restlessly under his. Dizzy with the scent of rain and her, he froze.

At that moment, nothing mattered except finding out if her cunt was as sweet and yielding as her mouth. He didn’t care if the entire Klan showed up, knocked on the window and caught him thrusting between her legs on this slippery leather seat. It had been too damn long since he’d had a woman. He needed to stop this while he still could.

“Do you know what you’re asking for?” Lust had turned his voice into a husky croak.

She laughed and touched his face again. “I don’t know. What am I asking for?”

This girl was crazier than he’d first thought. What if someone less honorable than himself had stopped instead? She could’ve been raped.

“A whole lot of trouble.” He sat up. “Look, this is not the time or the place. Now let’s get you home.”

The sooner he could be rid of her—before she derailed him from his job, family, and everything else that mattered—the better.

WIPs Coming Soon

Rose, Exposed is the sequel to Plucking the Pearl, an interracial historical erotic romance.

http://www.aftonlocke.com/pearl.html

I have two more books planned for the Oyster Harbor series. Next up for romance are Sadie and Henry.

In addition to interracial/multicultural historicals, I also plan to keep writing erotic contemporaries.

Can an older woman find love with a hot male stripper? My current WIP, Two Hours to Entice, will answer that question.

Where readers can find me

I will be attending EC’s RomantiCon Oct 10-13, 2013 in Canton, Ohio – http://ecromanticon.com/:

Don’t miss the book signing on Oct 13^th.

I’m also hosting a Fabulous Fusion workshop with Koko Brown and Eve Vaughn to celebrate interracial erotic romance for EC’s Fusion line.

Web site: http://www.aftonlocke.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afton.locke

Twitter: http://twitter.com/aftonlocke

Newsletter – The Love Chronicle: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thelovechronicle/

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3159922.Afton_Locke

Café au Lait Book Club: https://www.facebook.com/groups/cafeaulaitbookclub/