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
I may be a book, but I adore music even if the high tech feudal world in which I'm set reserves music for formal state occasions, such as Mating ceremonies.
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.
Movies
I'd like to be one...
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.
Television
"Do all good stories revolve around a journey of some kind?" a friend asked my author. "If so, do both the hero and heroine have to grow along the way?"
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.
Books
Survivorman
"What a fantastic read! A book full of possibilities, humor, intrigue and action. I loved it!" ~ Les Stroud AKA "SURVIVORMAN"
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."
Heroes
My author has never looked at a male movie star, sports personality, or world leader, and thought, "My hero!"
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.
Shot down… for failing to mate in public. Marooned on an island with the ultimate fashionista, who wouldn’t take off her wet clothes to save her own life, Djetth discovers that survival isn’t just a matter of making out.
Someone is trying to kill them…
Even in the outrageously wicked Tigron Empire, who would dare to attack a royal princess and her consort?
With the aid of two exiled empresses acting as psychic sleuths, some misplaced guitar glue and a talent for disguises, he would unmask a killer and prove this was certainly not a case of… INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL
About My Author... I daresay I should mention her, she is in a sense my mother and my slave.
Her name is Rowena Cherry --except for when she is writing slightly darker, slightly dirtier stories, in which case she is Rowena Beaumont Cherry-- and she write "space romance for broadminded adults"
She loves to research, and to write. She alleges that chatting with long distance friends is one of her greatest inspirations. In this book's humble opinion, she is full of it. Close and personal friends and experiences inspire her, too.
For instance, take her debut novel FORCED MATE (it is a chess term... all her titles are chess titles... and it seemed a perfect play on words for a cosmic love-triangle/alien abduction romance) .
At the conclusion of FORCED MATE, the guy who lost the girl is left with a smashed jaw and a broken thigh, and her editor wanted a sequel. My author started some exploratory chatting about broken jaws.
"Oh, a broken jaw is terrible. You cannot possibly have a hero with a broken JAW," my author's helpful, long distance correspondents told her. They went on to share all the romantic things that a guy with a broken jaw can NOT do, and all the unromantic, unattractive, and painful things he'd have to endure.
"Fabulous!" My perverse author exclaimed. She's like that about the house, too. If someone tells her she cannot do something, she wants to do it... as long as it is safe and legal, of course. She particularly loves literary challenge.
So she asked her Fantasy, Futuristic and Paranormal writing pals what they knew about broken jaws. And they came back with a lot she could use--like the neat little detail that vomiting can kill a man if his jaw is wired shut! A military guy who broke his jaw twice (!!!!) really gave my hero something valid to worry about, and a reason to be nervous of the heroine.
Next, my author's friends on the FFandP loop discussed wild issues such as body odor on a deserted island, and what to do about it. Also, various ways of depiliation (shaving). My author's own research on a beach with a broken shell told her that a so-called "razor" shell simply does not work.
Yes! She's crazy. She takes great pride in her research, and will go as far as is legal and safe to make sure she gets her facts right. Sharp shells will take off your skin, but they won't do much for your armpit or leg hair. Now, obsessive daily rubbing with a pumice-like stone will discourage hair regrowth, but all in all, it's better to genetically modify your alien heroines so they don't have underarm hair.
That is not the entire story of how I came to be born. There were other irresistible challenges, such as "Oh, you CANNOT write a romance set on a deserted island. After two chapters, it will be soooo boring!"
My name is INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL, and if you find me a confusing book, try checking out my author's note in the front pages and my family tree at the back.
My author is:
Who I'd like to meet: Anyone who wants to take a book to bed.
Especially a book that is, to quote Writer's Write,"...racy, wildly entertaining futuristic romance"
Readers and booklovers in the USA and especially in the UK.
Librarians everywhere.
Booksellers, in the UK and elsewhere.
Other books, especially other funny, sexy or scientific ones.
Manuscripts that should be books.
Film scripts that want to be books.
Books that want to be screen plays (not that I can help!)
Bibliophiles.
People who decorate books.
People who promote books.
People who make films out of books.
People who act in films about books.
Hi, just wanted to let you know you are today's AuthorIsland. com BOOK OF THE DAY!!!
Congrats!
HERE'S TODAY'S BOOK OF THE DAY!
INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL by Rowena Cherry
Shot down..for failing to mate in public. Marooned on an island with the ultimate fashionista, who wouldn't take off her clothes to save her own life, Djetth discovers that when a Tiger prince is honor bound to hide his true identity, when his best tool of seduction bears a damning tattoo, and his very life is in danger, survival isn't just a matter of making out.
But even in the outrageously wicked Tigron Empire, who would dare to attack a royal princess and her consort? So what if she had spectacularly rejected his hand and privately turned her pretty nose up at his other princely parts? With the aid of two exiled empresses acting as psychic sleuths, some misplaced guitar glue, and a talent for disguises, he would unmask a killer and prove this was certainly not a case of...INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL.
This novel by award-winning author Rowena Cherry is a finalist in the Fiction and Literature: Romance category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards, a finalist in the AuthorIsland. com Reader's Choice Awards, a winner of the Spring N.O.R. Awards, Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi Romance and a CAPA Award nominee for Best Fantasy Romance of 2007.
For details on how to win today's book of the day, head to AuthorIsland. com
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Just wanted to let you know IMM is today's Book of the Day over at AuthorIsland. com! Thanks so much for putting up a rare autographed copy of the ARC for a prize for our readers!
You're the best!
HERE'S TODAY'S BOOK OF THE DAY!
INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL by Rowena Cherry
Shot down..for failing to mate in public. Marooned on an island with the ultimate fashionista, who wouldn't take off her clothes to save her own life, Djetth discovers that when a Tiger prince is honor bound to hide his true identity, when his best tool of seduction bears a damning tattoo, and his very life is in danger, survival isn't just a matter of making out.
But even in the outrageously wicked Tigron Empire, who would dare to attack a royal princess and her consort? So what if she had spectacularly rejected his hand and privately turned her pretty nose up at his other princely parts? With the aid of two exiled empresses acting as psychic sleuths, some misplaced guitar glue, and a talent for disguises, he would unmask a killer and prove this was certainly not a case of...INSUFFICIENT MATING MATERIAL.
This novel by award-winning author Rowena Cherry is a finalist in the Fiction and Literature: Romance category of the National Best Books 2007 Awards, a finalist in the AuthorIsland. com Reader's Choice Awards, a winner of the Spring N.O.R. Awards, Best Fantasy/Sci-Fi Romance and a CAPA Award nominee for Best Fantasy Romance of 2007.
I have been extremely busy. If you are looking for more interesting stuff about pets and vets you might want to read the feedback I have received lately, which I have posted on my blog!