#spotlight -- Shehanne Moore on How To Write Sexy

I am so pleased and honored to have Shehanne Moore, the Queen of Smexy Hisotrical Romance on my blog today, discussing what makes sex good when writing a romance.

Shehanne:

And the good sex award goes to….. 

Now there’s a question. Four books, four very different couples, one thing in common. Sex. Some of it not that brilliant. Why? Because I don’t like writing sex scenes? Believe it or not, it can be difficult to write.  Or because I think that one of the most important aspects of writing a sex scene is to make it appropriate for that couple at that stage in the story?

Let’s start with the sex in The Unraveling of Lady Fury.  It’s sex all right and quite a lot of it, but it’s cold. Flint broke Fury’s heart, now she needs an heir, so she sets the terms of exactly how this  encounter will be and—it’s not nice. It’s cold. It’s clinical. She will use a cream. He will keep his hands to himself. Of course eventually it’s back to how it used to be in the old days.  But you are not going to bring a couple with that amount of baggage to together and expect an instant blaze and I did have a lot of fun writing him trying to get around her rules. I think I’d give them a good sex award eventually.

 Moving on, the sex in His Judas Bride was kind of scorching. Games are being played and these games get out of hand. Also neither the Black Wolf or Kara have been with anyone for a long time.  But do they qualify for a good sex award when this passion gets completely out of control and they’re not really caring about what happens next? Eventually love comes into it, so they get a little bit more tender.

I think Devorlane Hawley and Cassidy Armstrong from Loving Lady Lazuli would win the bad sex award hands down.  The problem here was that here’s a man who has experienced it all and feels nothing, sex is one wild night’s ride to him. As for Cass? Well, beneath her glittering, premiere London jewel thief exterior, she’s a virgin. So the big question was what’s so different about her that she keeps him when the initial encounter is a complete disaster.  It’s awkward, it’s fumbling, she nearly falls all her length when her leg gets tangled in her skirt, then she ends up slapping him when he has the temerity to ask if she’s a virgin. But when Cass is  torn between looking a complete fool and not wanting to give herself up to him, she turns the heat up.  That also ends in disaster, but perhaps it’s because he never quite has her to his satisfaction that he keeps coming back for more by which time he’s hooked. I’d give them a good sex award but not till the very end of the book.

So what is the sex like between Sin and Malice, hero and heroine of my new book, The Viking and the Courtesan? Pretty hot, largely because of the hero’s guilt that he’s cheating on his pretty horrible betrothed. But the catch with this time-slip story is that without true love this couple can never be together, so they have to learn sex is about more than a scorching screw. The catch is that to start with the arrangement between them is purely business.

What tips can I give for writing a sex scene?

1. Never write what you are uncomfortable with writhing.
2. Anchor the sex to where your couple are in the story.
3. Remember sex is a great source of conflict and tension in a story. When I was writing the first sex scene in Loving Lady Lazuli I initially had Cass succumbing to Devorlane. That one touch and she is swooning with need scenario has been done- pardon that pun – to death. So I ripped the scene up and explored things differently. This leads me to…
4. Vary your scenes that way. Length-pardon that pun too- how much you describe, cut to fade occasionally. Repetition can be dull.
5. Remember the five senses. Appeal to each. Set your scene carefully that way even down to the lighting. 
6. Watch the flying body parts. Phrases like,  ‘she exploded, her head hitting the pillow’ sounds like she stood on a hand grenade and it went off.
7. Think about the physical possibilities of what you are describing. I think the main thing is to make it real. Sometimes that can mean lousy sex. Just look at the possibilities opening up when that sex starts to get better.

 Excerpt 

He reached down, grasped her skirt, the material so wet he could have wrung drips from it. Delicious. As for her lips, her fingers tugging at his belt, even as he brought his lips back on hers, they drugged and beguiled. But most of all, they drove him. Of all the women he’d had, he couldn’t think of one who did this to him. Cost him his restraint. Made him just want to have her at any cost.  He had to be inside her whatever the insanity.

                The frantic fumbling, the way her fingers tugged his clothes, yanking his tunic free of his breeches, then working inside the tight waist, drove him to the edge. Her skirt was around her hips so his hand clasped naked thigh. She hooked her leg over his hip. He hoped she was ready for him because he couldn’t hold off. Heart, blood, breath pounded. So did he. Her eyes stared with a wantonness, a desperation, that increased his. Although she was cold and shivering he had never known a woman so hot.

Blurb The Viking and The Courtesan

In 898 AD she wasn’t just from another land.

Wrecking a marriage is generally no problem for the divorce obtaining, Lady Malice Mallender. But she faces a dilemma when she’s asked to ruin her own. Just how businesslike should she remain when the marriage was never consummated and kissing her husband leads to Sin--a handsome Viking who wants her for a bed slave in name only? 

She came from another time.

Viking raider Sin Gudrunsson wants one thing. To marry his childhood sweetheart. Only she’s left him before, so he needs to keep her on her toes, and a bed slave, in name only, seems just the thing. Until he meets Malice.

One kiss is all it takes to flash between two worlds

But when one kiss is no longer enough, which will it be?  Regency London? Or Viking Norway? Will Malice learn what governs the flashes? Can Sin? 

Where worlds collide can love melt the iciest heart?

Buy Links – on pre-sale now at Amazon. FREE on Kindle Unlimited. RELEASE DAY....July 29th!

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BIO

When not cuddling inn signs in her beloved Scottish mountains alongside Mr Shey, Shehanne Moore writes dark and smexy historical romance, featuring bad boys who need a bad girl to sort them out. She firmly believes everyone deserves a little love, forgiveness and a second chance in life.

Shehanne caused general apoplexy when she penned her first story, The Hore House Mystery—aged seven. What didn’t she work at while pursuing her dream of becoming a published author?

Visit her blog to find out about past releases and hear more about her forthcoming time-slip historical,  The Viking and The Courtesan. 

Shehanne Moore: Smexy Historical Romance

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