Guest Post and Giveaway: Solace Ames on Asian Sex Symbols and BDSM

Image credit: Jain Basil Aliyas

Our friend and awesome author, Solace Ames (who also writes under the Violetta Vane pen name), is here today to tell us about her new book (co-written with Heloise Belleau aka Heidi Belleau) and to talk about sex symbols, sex stereotypes and race. As you can see, we’re kick-starting the year with a bang. Also, stick around because there’s a giveaway at the end of the post.

Let’s give it up for Solace!

Asian Sex Symbols and BDSM by Solace Ames

I like to think there’s a big difference between a sex symbol and a sex stereotype. Symbols are unique, and potentially infinite, like stars in the night sky. Stereotypes are the same, flat, and dehumanizing. As an Asian-American woman, I’m sadly familiar with sexual stereotypes. My race is a porn category, after all. But while it’s important to criticize stereotypes, I think it’s equally important to celebrate the positive. And today, there are an increasing number of Asian sex symbols.

Guest Post: A Quick and Dirty Guide to Ireland by Violetta Vane

Weeks ago, author Heidi Belleau shared with us the anatomy of a co-written scene. Today the other co-writer, Violetta Vane, is here to tell us a bit of their research process. So get ready to meet Violetta, their Irish friend, Emma, and Ireland!

A Quick and Dirty Guide to Ireland

by Violetta Vane

Heidi and I write some pretty research-intensive stuff, and one reason is because we enjoy the research process in and of itself. Another reason is that we’re passionate about settings. I like reading and writing stories with vivid settings; the characters seem more real to me, their stories more exciting. So when we decided to write a story set in Ireland, I was absolutely thrilled. Colorful Ireland! And then I thought, wait a second, what do I really know about Ireland? Despite my fanatical devotion to the Father Ted comedy series (or perhaps because of it), the answer was... I don’t know very much at all.

Guest Post: Anatomy of a Co-written Scene by Heidi Belleau

I'm pleased to welcome author Heidi Belleau to the blog. Heidi, along with her partner in crime, Violetta Vane, writes M/M Romance stories that are often gritty an very real. Since they work as a team, I asked them to tell me a bit about how they work and their experience as co-writers. The result is this interesting and insightful post that gives us a glimpse into the creation of a co-written scene. Enjoy!

Anatomy of a Co-written Scene 

by Heidi Belleau 

Violetta and I are often asked about how we co-write. Do we trade-off scenes, do we roleplay, do we email back and forth, do we each take a chapter? Our reply is always the same: we write simultaneously in google docs, even down to working on the same sentence at the same time. It's a hard thing to visualize, I imagine, so we've come up with a little exercise to try and show you what we mean. The following is a short scene fromHawaiian Gothic. The green areas are Violetta's writing, the purple are mine. This is also an edited version, so there's input from our Loose Id editor, Venessa Giunta, here as well, but we haven't colour-coded what she influenced. Hopefully this gives you a sense of our process!