Re: Wolf Dance
Dear Ann,
The measure of a good writer is one who is able to take a reader into another world, especially a world that the reader is not particularly interested in, and keep them engaged until the last page. I’ve never been a huge fan of science fiction in romance because it just made my head hurt having to figure things out — I’d always wanted a simple plot, nice characters and good sexual tension. I think I keep coming back to your work because my reaction to it keeps surprising me: from contemporary to erotic horror, science fiction, and futuristic, your story telling is what draws me in. Your latest, Wolf Dance, continued the trend for me, and I hope you expand on this world because I’d love to read more about it.
I have to admit, I found myself a bit jealous of Yuki. Yuki is a Nu Seato orphan. Both rescued and damned by scientific experimentation, he now works as a popular exotic dancer in a nightclub. One night while dancing, Yuki is shocked to make a connection with Oram, a dark, dangerous looking stranger in the club with a powerful aura. Oram is beyond hot. While Yuki is the pretty one, Oram’s alpha personality and possessiveness is seductive and the way that he effects Yuki sent tingles down my spine. Oram seeks Yuki out after the show, inviting him to a private party where he’d be the guest of honor. Yuki, overwhelmed by his attraction to Oram, attends the party despite his reservations and while there, learns that his attraction to Oram runs deeper than he could ever imagine.
Wolf Dance focuses more on Yuki’s realization and resolution of past confusions, yet I felt like Oram was the one ultimately saved. On a superficial level, there seemed to be more character development of Yuki than Oram, ie. information about Yuki’s past as an orphan and later as a guinea pig, his brush with death and the wolf that saves him, and his restoration back to living a normal life. However I liked learning about Oram through his candid actions. The tender way Oram treated Yuki spoke more about Oram’s personality than filler text would have.
I agree with you, the ending was a bit corny, but it worked! The character’s histories made is so that the story felt longer than it was, and the ending appropriate, although this could’ve worked just as nicely as a full novel with drama occuring between Yuki and Oram’s camp as their relationship developed. I enjoyed this latest read from you and I was pleased that you kept the same intensity and vibrancy with your m/m love stories. I’ll be looking for more Yaoi stories (hint, hint).
Sincerely, Solaine
June 6th, 2006 at 11:14 am
:-) Thanks, Solaine!
I told ya! First story up in ‘casters is m/m. I’m 10k into it now and it’s been fun. It IS SF and with more SF than Wolf Dance can be said to have — but hopefully some of the narrative will keep those who aren’t SF devotees in their comfort zone.
Ann
June 6th, 2006 at 11:39 am
I can’t wait! I hope you have the tarot cards up on your site then, too.
June 6th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
think, with as much as I’ve hopefully progressed, I have to start from scratch on the tarot cards, and I think I will try to do character studies from the series for some of the cards - but the numbers (12 primary characters, not 12 court cards if you count the pages) aren’t equal. Course, I could leave the pages out as a court card, and then look at fixing the m/m story to m/f story ratio at 2 m/m stories and 4 m/f stories — that would give me my 4 queens (no jokes!), 4 kings, and 4 knights
June 9th, 2006 at 6:49 pm
aw, shoot, i just saw that you put my website on your “colorful authors” link list … bet you didn’t visit it first :-)
June 11th, 2006 at 11:51 pm
I did! I had it up there before you put up the splash page :). Readers can still visit and google you to find you.
June 19th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
New CP release … so, since we’re on the subject of quickies here ;-) and Changeling, I’m printing out the contract on Wyvern Heat
Here’s the synopsis (you’re the first place I posted)
Wyvern Heat is a dark paranormal erotic romance centered within the circle of domination and submission. Thirty-something Lindsay Proust knows the circle well; she has danced within it, almost died within it. Now it has her trapped. The last lover she took turned out to be a blackmailing operative for a government agency known only as Unit Thirteen. The agency’s task is to trap a member of the Wyvern race. Its bait-Lindsay Proust.
Human in appearance, the Wyvern live for millennia, walking mankind’s crowded cities with little in their outward appearance to set them apart. No matter how human they look, old needs run the strongest: the men want to dominate and the women remain torn with the desire to kneel and bite at the same time. Knowing this, Unit Thirteen sends Lindsay out to the city’s BDSM clubs, hoping her beauty and submissive signals will attract a Wyvern male.
Enter Renaud Gargouille. He is exactly what the Unit and Lindsay are looking for. Only the protocols and warnings her handlers have drilled into Lindsay don’t hold when she is finally face to face with a Wyvern.
Agreeing to go to Renaud’s hotel instead of a Unit apartment, Lindsay’s flesh burns for the kiss of the whip and the feel of strong hands pushing her stomach first onto the mattress as she is taken roughly from behind. The primal animal within Renaud is more than ready to satisfy Lindsay’s needs, until her body begins responding in ways it shouldn’t.