So I’m reading a paranormal romance where the shifter hero (bear (!) with me, if you’re not a romance reader–this is a common trope) knows just by scent that the heroine, a human with Special Abilities™ is destined to be his bonded female. There will be no other women for him! Or he will die! Or other awful things.
But the thing is, what if the hero had a cold that day? And was all stuffy and couldn’t smell that his mate had just walked by him while sussing out the cheese section at the grocery store (my guess is the heroine likes Manchego, because I do. I self-identify with the heroine and such, you know). And it was only by chance she was there in his neighborhood doing some cheese-buying, because she was visiting her Sassy Best Friend™ who was trying to set her up with her brother, a tool who hates shifters?
Or what if he finds her, only she’s allergic to animals?
Imagine the conflict there! Then it’s not so much ‘Uh, I’m not crazy about when my boyfriend changes into some kind of shaggy beast’ as much as it’s ‘Uh, if I’m around you in this state my eyes will swell up, my nose will explode, and if I’m lucky, I won’t end up in the hospital with an asthma attack.’ Like that.
It’s hard to suspend my disbelief when I’m sniffly.
This Saturday, I got together with the Alpha Sparkle Dog to do some writing–and boy, did I! I wrote nearly 3,000 words in just a few hours, and it was fantastic. I’ve been eking out 3-500 words during the week, what with homework, dinner prep, general exhaustion, etc., so Saturday’s output was spectacular.
Saturday afternoon we went to celebrate a friend’s birthday and had many beers, and no dinner. Ruh roh.
Sunday we hit a street fair and I did mooseloads of housework.
Which is all to say, life has been sorta the same, and things are continuing, and such. I do continue to love this entire Mayer Hawthorne record like whoa. So, whoa!
Today I am at the Risky Regencies, talking historical plot stuff. Which is fun.
The Avengers was as good as promised, and I didn’t want it to end, even after two and a half hours and staying through to the bitter end (that last final bit of business was BRILLIANT!).
The best part, out of many, for me was Tom Hiddleston as Loki. He made what could have been a two-dimensional villain into a nuanced character.
I read a lot. A LOT. I like to change up my reading from genre to genre, although relationship reading is my primary focus. Recently, thanks to my day job work, I’ve been reading a lot racier stuff than I do normally (in my flippant email conversations, I call it smut, but smut just sounds so…smutty).
It’s interesting to see how that subgenre has changed; when I tried to read it earlier, I think I tried literary erotica, which was cold and somewhat unpleasant. The stuff I’m reading now is much more developed, relationship-wise, and is healthily steamy, not edgily sexy.
This new reading foray is helping me sharpen my own writing, not necessarily in the directly sexy way you might think, but in seeing a different style of writing than I’m accustomed to, and incorporating some of those tricks into my own writing.
In other news, tonight we’re going to see The Avengers. SO EXCITED. And this weekend I will be writing, and hanging out with friends, and eating good food. Maybe with a modicum of sleep thrown in there, too.
