Matt Gardner: On Sex & Death

So I am incredibly blessed to have wonderful friends.  Take, for example, Matt Gardner, one of the first ever Mills & Boon boys, who took to the role with such aplomb, has written a book.  It's dark, it's funny and it's all about sex and death.  Downloadable for free from Amazon in the UK, US, Australia, and I'm sure elsewhere too...

On hearing that its free this weekend, I immediately hijacked him and asked for a guestpost!  Despite the fact that he has just moved halfway across the country, and is currently finishing the final draft of his first novel, he agreed...

I didn’t set out to write a collection of dark, twisted tales. When I launched my blog Interstellar Lovechild, I knew that I wanted to try my hand at some form of regular creative writing, and flash fiction seemed the best way forward – a new story every week, somewhere between 250-1000 words. I didn’t mean to make the majority of them dramatic little vignettes that went behind the closed doors of the protagonists’ lives, and reflected upon their most intimate and vulnerable moments.

It just sort of happened that way.

Mind you, I’m very glad that it did. Sex is fascinating – the politics and power and passion, the love and lust and longing. I’ve posited in the past that it’s like religion in many ways – we all have different takes on it, place varying degrees of importance on it. Terrible and wonderful things are done in its name or the pursuit of it. Both have sex and religion have the capacity to make us contemplate our own mortality, and the word ‘god’ is bandied about in both.

In Sex & Death, I wanted to treat the subject as something fairly matter of fact. It’s about sex rather than love, and though there are one or two stories that could be considered romantic from a certain perspective, and one or two that might be considered to deal with the more extreme side of things, I didn’t want to sensationalise or over-exaggerate. 

So it is that although there are a few stories that deal directly with the act of sex, it’s all of the emotions before and after that I’m rather more interested in. So we have the pressure beforehand that comes to the fore in the unfortunate tale of erectile dysfunction in Under Bright Lights. The jealousy and self-doubt in the uncomfortable thought of someone else doing what you’ve been doing in the Facebook-induced paranoia of I Don’t Care or the in-the-act anxiety of Embers. The hollow emptiness of a tryst stolen with a stranger in a hotel room or club toilet in No Strings Attached and 21^st Century Love.

The point is that sex is used as a catalyst to push our most primal buttons, and that’s what happens in a good number of these narrative vignettes. There are comic moments amongst these tales, sure, but for the most part, the drama is as messy as the act itself. Whatever your gender, whatever your sexuality, the emotions, the hopes, the fears, the joy, the despair, it’s often all the same. Sex is intense, so often a crucible of heightened passions, and that makes it a wonderful subject for character studies and narratives that are perhaps a little more about people than plots.

The reactions to Sex & Death have been encouraging to say the least. It was never going to sell by the millions – a genre-agnostic collection of flash fiction being self-published by a new, unknown writer doesn’t exactly scream bestseller – but it’s been a great way of getting people interacting with my writing, and I hope that the 5-day free period will serve to aid that.

Sex & Death will be free on the Kindle Store through to the end of the week. You can bag yourself 30 striking pieces of microfiction here.

Sex, Lies and Her Impossible Boss, or The Importance of Being Kinkpositive

“There's no such thing as 'just sex’, Cash.” 

When the new boss of Faith Harris's TV station, the famously ruthless and annoyingly gorgeous Cash Anderson, tells her he'll be canceling her sex and relationships show she knows she's in for a fight. She's worked her silk-clad butt off to get her high ratings, and no man's going to take them away from her--however hot under the collar he secretly gets her... 

But sugar's better than vinegar any day, so Faith decides to prove to Cash just how meaningful her show really is. The only trouble is, it's also rather...risque. And there was enough chemistry between them even before Faith set about proving just how riveting sex can be...

I'm all about sex positivity.

Seriously.  I think that it's an incredibly important debate and one that is often fueled by lazy misogyny.  So the premise of Sex, Lies & Her Impossible Boss immediately grabbed my attention:  an intelligent journalist, a producer who's all about the ratings and a television show that's at the centre of a big debate about sex.

It's really hard to approach this kind of topic in a serious way; so many people will denounce you for mentioning sex in public (horror of all horrors) and even authors have been pushed to drop sauciness and kink from their manuscripts due to big publishers not understanding the fact that BDSM isn't tantamount to abuse...

So when it's addressed as a light-hearted topic in a novel like this, it means that we can engage with the big issues, without being preached at or scared off.

And Jennifer Rae does this brilliantly!

In addition to this, it does help that the characters who are mediating this to are so engaging as well...  Faith is fun and determined; with an understanding and acceptance of everyone that is so wonderful to see.  And Cash is beyond dreamworthy.  An alpha male with a soft side, he matches Faith in terms of intelligence and business acumen and sensuality.

Sparks fly throughout the book - especially when Faith takes him along to see the filming of her segment - and he's really rather delicious.

Worth reading and downloading immediately.

Cue Mills & Boon boy Steve...  ;)

Lessons in Rule-Breaking, or What I Wish My Journalistic Career Was Like...

Journalist Jess has always followed the rules when it comes to her career: 

1) Never say no! Trying to extract a tell-all interview from bad boy of the art world Xander Heaton might be her own worst nightmare, but she's just going to have to grin and bear it!

2) Absolutely no flirting on the job -professionalism is key to a journalist's success. Even if Xander does have her imagining the most unprofessional scenarios…

3) If resistance proves impossible, remember the golden rule - never kiss and tell! One night with Xander and she's broken at least one rule...and discovered it's much more fun breaking rules than making them!

Christy McKellen's second novel, Lessons in Rule-Breaking, is all about developing your confidence and going after what you want - professionally as well as in the bedroom...

As a blogger and freelance web journalist, I'm incredibly jealous of Jess's job.  Plus, if I met a Xander I'd be seriously tempted (though not enough to leave C) and McKellen does a fantastic job of developing her fully. Her background has left her with serious confidence issues, particularly in how she looks, and these are explored in a sensitive way.  I particularly liked the way that Xander tried to accept her panic in the restaurant, even if he didn't wholly understand it.

I think that some of the key scenes come towards the end of the book.  There are moments when Xander realises that he has to truly understand and accept Jess's insecurities - which can be a very difficult thing to do when you're attracted to someone so very very much.  It's at that climax in the novel when everything Jess fears and dreams of collide and she's left in the midst of her own private horror film.  Kind of like when a lovely dream switches midway and becomes a nightmare instead!

I loved the development of the characters, the fact that it's set (for the most part) in Italy, and the clash of two very different worlds of the characters.  Plus the steamy scenes are well written and very engaging.

A great follow-up to what was a fab debut and I can't wait to read more from Christy McKellen!

And Mills & Boon boy Steve seemed similarly impressed...

Beach Bar Baby, or Why "I Love You" Isn't Always Necessary

Beach…After some bad news, Ella jets off to sunny Bermuda for a bit of solo R & R… 

Bar...By day six, surrounded by honeymooners and smug marrieds, she has to admit the solo bit is getting a teeny bit boring! Why say no to a casual date at the bar with ripped, tanned and enigmatic Cooper Delaney? 

Baby!It’s really not Coop’s style to flirt with tourists, let alone hook up with one again. But he can’t get the sweet London girl out of his head. A business trip to Europe is the perfect chance to see her. Only he finds Ella curvier, prettier…and keeping a secret he was so not expecting…

Ella was first introduced in one of Heidi Rice's very first ModernTempted novels, Cupcakes and Killer Heels, back when it was still in its RIVA incarnation.  In fact, it was the book that introduced me to RIVA and started a long and happy love for MT novels...  So I was pretty delighted.

And for good reason.  Ella is adorable.  She's sweet and funny and the perfect match for enigmatic Cooper.  You do really feel for her, especially when she's just been told that she is, in all probability, going to have serious issues in conceiving.  But one night with Cooper and the unexpected happens...

There are a couple of things about Beach Bar Baby that makes it stand out.  Firstly, the ages of our hero and heroine.  Ella is older than Cooper by about six years.  I like this - it's nice to see a balanced relationship develop where the heroine doesn't have to be younger than the man.  And Rice doesn't shy away from highlighting Ella's concerns about this either, which just adds to the depth of her character.

In addition to this, and possibly my favourite aspect of this book, comes with its climax.  Warning:  Spoilers!!  Cooper doesn't say "I love you".  This may seem like the most outrageous thing for a romance novel to do, but actually it makes a hell of a lot of sense.  As readers we are left in doubt of his love for Ella - as is Ella herself - but Rice realises that it would be out of character for Cooper to say those particular words at the moment and so she doesn't force the issue.

There's a hell of a lot of pressure on men to be hyper romantic - particularly at pivotal moments in a relationship - but I genuinely don't think they're necessarily needed.  After all, they're just words.  Recently I got engaged myself (still dancing inside) and my proposal story isn't particularly fancy but it was perfect.  So yeah.  Kudos to Heidi Rice from giving us a Happy Ending without the "I love you."

Mills & Boon boy Steve said that the snippet that he read was really funny...

One Night with Her Ex, or Revisiting the Guy You Left Behind

Can you honestly say you don't want me?

Lily Montgomery finds the perfect antidote to an anticlimactic New Year's Eve: a hot, up-against-the-door one-night stand with a sexy millionaire. Trouble is, the man in question is Kit, the ex-husband she's spent five years getting over.

For Kit Buchanan, the past few years have been hellish! He's conquered the business world, but when it comes to the bedroom he's had the mother of all dry spells. Clearly he needs to get Lily out of his system once and for all!

But one supercharged night later, Kit's not so sure. After all, why move on when he's having so much fun where he is?

Exes.  They can cause so much stress and heartbreak, mess with your head, and in the case of Lily and Kit, really screw up your sex life.

Lucy King's One Night with Her Ex looks at what happens when closure comes in the form of a one night stand with your ex.

I think the thing that makes this Ex Factor story (haha! puns!) stand out for me, is the fact that the characters really haven't got over each other.  Lilly's consciously been struggling with the end of their relationship, whilst Kit has been struggling with his inability to perform in the bedroom.

So when Kit turns up on her doorstep, the intention is to have sex.  Instead of fighting the attraction they have for each other - which is so often the case with second chance love stories, they throw themselves into one hot and steamy night.  Of course, the next morning, they start to wonder whether it's worth just continuing...after all, mindblowing sex is mindblowing sex...

King cleverly inverts some common tropes - Kit hasn't had sex at all since their split, whilst Lily's had a number of short-term relationships and flings - and then there's the split itself.

It's interesting to see how each of the character approach the reasons they split differently, and then to see them overcome these differences.  There is a balance where blame is put to one side and they take responsibility for their own roles in the breakdown.

And by the end, you're longing for them to get that second Happy Ever After...

Anthony, our Mills & Boon boy, opened the book right to the reconciliatory sex scene - as can be guessed from his face!!