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This book is very big on complicated personalities and relationship problems of galactic proportions.

However, We also are interested in Milieu... world-building, authors call it.

Music is too anarchic for worlds where fear rules, don't you think?

My pages fall open to tongue in cheek lyrics, bungle in the jungle lyrics, rebel yell lyrics, songs about heroes who are horribly sexually frustrated, heroines who are crying out for a hero, dramatic monologue songs, songs that surprise me, songs that make me see the world through the eyes of unlikely characters...

My pages turn faster to warlike songs...

I get all dogeared over defiant heroines with mystical life styles, witchy women and so forth.

My spine creaks with pleasure over songs that make me think.

I've got some great parts in me for spirited older lady actors, and some very fine and interesting roles for distinguished older gentlemen actors, too.

Can a book laugh out loud. Imagine my leaves rustling in soft self-mockery, then.

So that was the question on her mind (did you know that a book can read minds?) the otherday, when my author meant to blog, but couldn't resist watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets --again-- last night. Her favorite scene is the demonstration duel, where Gilderoy is so busy posing that he gets legally zapped by Severus Snape.

At least, We're (Royal We being deployed here) pretty sure Severus Snape is simply quick on the spell-casting draw, in neat dramatic contrast to Draco Malfoy, who cheats.

Why does my author like that scene? She finds it immensely gratifying when a poser gets their come-uppance! Don't we all? One of the most enduring themes in literature is hubris: the dramatic downfall of someone who gets too big for their boots.

As for journeys, We think --as long as the journey could be a literal journey, or a metaphorical one-- the answer might be Yes... especially if the story includes the rise and fall of someone arrogant.

We suspect that we'd all love to announce, "Your High-and-Mightiness, you are in deep shit!" but in real life, we probably wouldn't dare say that to a boss or world leader.

(One of my author's characters says it --and lives-- in me: Insufficient Mating Material.)

There's another popular literary tradition that it isn't healthy to be the bearer of bad news... as was demonstrated on a documentary recently about Great Intelligence Blunders.

Yes. My author watches too much television.

The most powerful example of a story based on a journey might be Lord Of The Rings. Does anyone not know that the Ringbearers travel from The Shire to Mordor in order to destroy the Ring and save the world?

The Odyssey would be another example. Both are sagas, not romances, though.

Metaphorical journeys might have the hero or heroine move from Moral Point A to Moral Point B; or from Unmarried and Innocent (or not) to the presumptive Happy Ever After.

Usually, when my author writes, she is more interested in one of the two protagonists. She don't have a problem with one of them doing the lion's share of the growing, or changing, or traveling.... or suffering!!!

Sometimes, We don't have a problem using a really good cliche, either.

Mystique Books "The rare sequel that betters the original! Djetthro-Jason’s story is awesome. Worth waiting for."~ Brenda, mystiquebooks.com

Fallen Angel Reviews "Insufficient Mating Material is an outstanding sequel to Forced Mate!" ~Jean, Fallen Angel Reviews

The Best Reviews "For those... who ... enjoyed FORCED MATE, the long-awaited story about Commander Jason is finally here and what a story it is!"~ Kathy Boswell

Romance Junkies "A powerful romance laced with devastating... secrets, treachery and a sizzling passion hot enough to singe your fingers as you turn the pages."

Although she may have thought, "With his looks, what a villain he would make!" I don't want to go there.

Most of Rowena Cherry's characters are a blend of at least three --or more-- sources, and all are products of her fertile imagination.

Heroines are another story. She needs a model. Not a runway model, but someone she can rewind and freeze frame. Djinni-vera in FORCED MATE was based on two women, but since it took Rowena Cherry ten years to polish that book, she had plenty of leisure to stare (covertly) at real people, great cheek bones, and the way beautiful women smile when they are nervous.

Helispeta of MATING NET was a heroine written in a hurry. My author, Rowena Cherry hadn't expected to be given less than six months to write the story of a royal grandmother's first sexual miscalculation. Helispeta's beautiful, tragic, deer-in-the-headlights face was borrowed from the cover of a magazine.

Then, Rowena changed her ficitional heroine's hair and eye color, the size and shape of her lower lip.... and all her vital statistics.

Rowena had to watch TV for months before she spotted someone with the potential to model for Martia-Djulia of INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL. We're not talking looks as much as animation, idiosyncracies, hand movements... maybe the faces she pulls when she is kissing the hero.

Now, my author is writing Electra-Djerroldina's story. By the way, with the Dj spelling which my author uses as an easy heads-up to the reader that this character is a royal Djinn, the D is silent.

Maybe she's getting better. Maybe she was lucky this time. It only took Rowena Cherry three months to find the perfect role model with a slow motion sneer to kick-start her latest heroine's character.

As for Rowena Cherry's heroes, When she wrote FORCED MATE, she thought that Tarrant-Arragon was the ultimate hero, and that she'd never write a stronger male character.

Then she wrote MATING NET, and fell in love with the god-Emperor Djohn-Kronos.

And then... along came Djetth. Of all my heroes, she'd choose to have Djetth (hero of Our book) with her if she were ever lost in the wilderness or washed up on a desert island, because he really knows how to take care of himself... and of his mate.

Grandfather!