Incorporating places I’ve visited into storylines

By Starla Kaye

I just returned from visiting the United Kingdom for ten days and I’m ready to go back. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy my home country of the United States, but there is something about the UK that draws me. Especially Scotland and the Highlands.

With the wonderful invention of digital cameras and cameras on smart phones, I take hundreds of pictures during my travels. I get rid of a lot of them, but still there are many that warm my heart as I look back at them. I particularly like visiting castle ruins and imagining what life would have been like when the castle was an actual stronghold. Many of the castles I have visited have breathtaking views of the countryside or the lochs they overlook. But during their heyday, it was critical to be able to see your enemy coming.

I enjoy touring every inch of the partial ruins, which isn’t all that easy. As I struggle to climb those tiny stone steps in the circular stairways to reach the various levels of the castle and the ramparts, I constantly wonder how people managed to hurry up those steps when it was necessary to do so. And going back down those staircases isn’t that much easier. No, life back then wouldn’t have been stress-free.

As I travel, I am constantly looking for places or things that will spark a story idea. The photo of The Clachan pub (the oldest pub in Scotland) is one possible setting currently floating around in my head. I just need characters and a plot to go with it. There are so many potential ideas.

When I wrote The CEO and the Cowboy, I also used places that I was familiar with. Daniel lives in the Country Club Plaza area of Kansas City, which I have been to many times. And Calhoun has a ranch in the Kansas Flint Hills, another area that I have driven through a lot. Personally, I like to incorporate places that I have visited into my stories so I have a better “feel” for the settings. That isn’t always possible, of course. 

The CEO and the Cowboy available HERE

Title: The CEO and the Cowboy

Genre: Contemporary, erotic, GLBT romance

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Author Website: Starla Kaye

Happy anniversary to The CEO and the Cowboy!

By Starla Kaye 

Time goes so quickly and I can’t ever seem to stay up with everything. Do you ever feel that way? Doesn’t it feel like Christmas was just yesterday? Now it’s only five months away! But I’ve actually been stashing away a few gifts already, which I often do most years. My problem is that sometimes I forget where I stashed them (heavy sigh here). Anyone else have that problem?

It’s also time for me to celebrate the second anniversary of the release of The CEO and the Cowboy. Don’t worry; Calhoun and Daniel are still a couple. But they have been struggling to make their complicated lives work together. Anyone having been involved in a relationship understands the frustrations faced, and the ups and downs of making two lives work together. But they are determined to not lose the special something they have found with one another. Still, each of them has felt like maybe something is missing…maybe someone.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m working on the sequel story that will continue their lives. I really need to get focused on it and finish the story, but other characters have also wanted their stories told. So many characters…so many stories to tell.

Anyway, For Ruby’s Love adds a woman to the mix. Calhoun has suffered a great loss on his ranch when his horse barn burned down one night. His prize breeding mare was severely traumatized and he is desperate to find a way to save her. He got word to the well-known and highly recommended RT McMurtry that he needed his services as an animal healer ASAP. The man promised to come to his ranch, but he and Daniel have been waiting for over three weeks. To say that Calhoun is frustrated and impatient would be putting it mildly.

And then Ruby Tuesday McMurtry shows up in her travel trailer. Her father died right after agreeing to help Calhoun, but she is equally skilled as a horse whisperer, having worked with her father for years. She can do the job…if only Calhoun will give her a chance. Darn the big, stubborn cowboy! At least Daniel seems to be on her side.

Making the tricky situation worse, she’s having serious trouble keeping her mind on her work and off the two gorgeous men.

Back to celebrating Calhoun and Daniel’s first story, The CEO and the Cowboy…

CONTEST: Leave a comment about why you love cowboys. One randomly chosen commenter will win a small Ride ‘Em Cowgirl sign. The winner will be chosen July 29 with the prize mailed August 5, when I’m back from vacation.

Title: The CEO and the Cowboy

Genre: Contemporary, erotic, GLBT romance

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Author Website: Starla Kaye

What’s on your bucket list?

By Starla Kaye

We hear all the time about people’s bucket lists. I hadn’t even really thought about making one because I just want to do everything. Okay, maybe not quite everything, but a lot of things. But my niece who is 16 talks all the time about her bucket list. So I decided maybe I should come up with something, too.

Currently my list includes visiting a dude ranch, parasailing, possibly hang gliding, going to as many other countries as I can, zip lining, and attending the big balloon festival in Albuquerque. In truth, my list could go on and on. You’d think from some of the more physical items that I was some kind of adrenaline junkie, but I’m not really. I am curious about things, sometimes a bit too daring (at least according to my daughter and husband).

I have managed to check off one item that would have been on my bucket list: hot air ballooning. Earlier this month I had the opportunity to ride in a balloon over the Napa Valley. I LOVED it! And, yes, I’m shouting about it. It was everything I thought it would be and more.

Oddly, as soon as we went up and I first looked down, the first thing that came to my mind was that I was actually living the eye test I have every year. Do you remember that one? Where they try to adjust how you see this balloon hovering over some fields? I swear that view was Napa Valley.

So…what’s on your bucket list? Anything wildly exciting?

Oh, my writing list would include writing another couple of dozen books for Decadent Publishing. I just had a new story, Acceptance, come out with The Edge Series. And I’m working on three other stories: one is a sequel to The CEO and the Cowboy, one is another 1Night Stand story, and one is for the Challenge Series.

My Favorite Things

Buy The CEO and the Cowboy HERE

By Starla Kaye

Remember the song My Favorite Things from The Sound of Music? I have so many favorite things, so many types of collections…many of them started because I had one item. Then my sister or friends decided that I must be collecting it. Hence I end up with yet another collection. My semi-forced-upon-me collections (which I now love) include figurines of older couples, figurines of couples, all sorts of Western items, teapots, stuffed cows and figurines of cows. Need I go on? I don’t think so.

In connection with my favorite heroes to write about, I love everything cowboy.

Dripping water on bare, well-toned chests

Beard stubble on ruggedly handsome faces

Dark hair worn a bit too long

Blond hair carefully trimmed

These are all things I yearn to touch

Brown eyes heating with fire

Blue eyes sparkling in amusement

Hazel eyes hinting of desire

Green eyes searing with passion

These are all eyes that make me shiver

Tight, faded jeans hugging a taut ass

Open shirts revealing a really nice six-pack

A Stetson cocked temptingly right

Scuffed boots, polished boots, boots with spurs

These are all adornments that draw my attention

A spirited horse beneath a skilled rider

The dusty pickup of a working rancher

That ambling walk of a confident cowboy

The low rumble of a Texas drawl

These, too, are among my favorite things cowboy

Title:  The CEO And The Cowboy

Genre:  GLBT Contemporary Romance

Author:  Starla Kaye

Author Website:  Starla Kaye

Buy Link:  Decadent Publishing

Dreaming Up My Next Story

Buy The CEO and the Cowboy HERE

By Starla Kaye

Every writer I know works differently. Story ideas, titles, and characters come to us differently. There a ton of “how-to” books available on how to write a book. There is advice all over the Internet. You can belong to writers groups, critique groups, or just bounce your ideas off your friends and family.

I have a massive library of writing “how-to” books; most of them only glanced through when I picked them up in the bookstore. I look at some of the writer’s advice that passes through online groups I belong to, or I pick it up when I do research for a program that I will deliver at one of the writers groups I am a member of. And I have solid, reliable writing friends that I can bounce ideas off of or have them critique at least part of a story. But I rarely talk about more than my basic story thoughts with my friends or family.

Mainly I come up with story ideas on my own. As Barbara Elsborg said in a recent blog, I also can’t start writing a project until I have a title definitely in my mind. Rarely do my titles ever get changed before publication. After I have my title in mind, then I create characters and a setting that fit it. Maybe some people think that is an ass-backwards way of starting a story, sort of putting the cart before the horse. It doesn’t matter. That’s the way I work.

That’s the way I usually start out, anyway. There are always exceptions to a rule. I’m in the process of writing a sequel to The CEO And The Cowboy. I am using my two heroes from that story, so I have characters already created. I will be digging deeper into their psyches, pulling out more of what drives them emotionally, and extending their relationship. What I mean by that is I am adding a woman into the mix: Ruby Tuesday McMurtry.

Tentatively titled For Ruby’s Love, the story will pick up about a year after Calhoun and Daniel got together and struggled to become lovers. As with many couples in real life, the “bloom is off the rose” and although they want to be together, they are struggling to make a relationship work. Life—each of their lives—gets in the way.

When I was dreaming up a storyline to continue what had been started in the first book, I knew in my heart that they needed another person in their lives. Of course they don’t realize that at first. When Ruby arrives at Calhoun’s ranch to help him with a traumatized horse, both he and Daniel expect a completely different person. They had made arrangements to bring to the ranch a famous and in-much demand horse whisperer. Instead Ruby, the man’s daughter, arrives and refuses to be turned away. She is dealing with trauma of her own and now must prove to these two alpha men that she can handle the job. She desperately wants to prove herself and earn a reputation of her own. What none of them foresee is the powerful attraction that fires up between them.

I’m excited about writing this story. My problem is I get sidetracked…and I’m totally blaming the publisher. I had finished coming up with my basic plot line and was ready to dig into the actual writing. And then I heard that Decadent might be looking for stories about older couples. Well, I had to stop everything and work on that idea. Now I’ve got Silke’s Stubborn Cowboy racing around in my thoughts and dying to be put on paper, too.

One thing I don’t have is a problem coming up with story ideas. Finding enough time to actually write each of the stories…okay, that’s where I have problems. But I’m determined to crank these two particular stories out before too much longer.

Colorizing Characters

Buy The CEO and the Cowboy HERE

by Starla Kaye

Let's say you've finished the first draft of your story. Now you are ready for the first read-through and starting your revisions. There are so many areas to review: plot, conflicts, settings, and characters. With each of those areas there are even more things to focus on. But, to me, the most important to concentrate on are the characters.

You can have an intricate plot filled with mysteries, an amazing adventure, or a beautiful love story. If the characters don't come to life for the reader, though, you take a chance of that reader never reading more than the first page or two. A reader (which I am one, as well as being a writer) wants to care about the hero and heroine. And she wants to care about each of them as individuals, plus she wants to pull for them as a couple if it is a romance.

Give the characters depth. This goes beyond giving the reader hints of what they look like, what kind of car they drive, how they prefer to dress, whether or not they have an accent, or where they live. All of those are useful in establishing a basis for the reader understanding a character. Yet they are still surface elements of characterization and not necessarily personalizing items.

Nothing brings a character to life like a hint or two of reality. Make them have habits or quirks that individualize them. I’m talking about little things that are reasonable to a reader and yet set a character apart from every other character in the story.

An important thing to remember about these character details is not to go overboard. This is part of that whole KISS idea: Keep It Simple Stupid. The following are some little ways to colorize your characters.

·        Always putting their keys in a particular spot at home - meaning when they have been put somewhere else they go nuts when they can't find them

·        Having a set routine while getting ready in the morning - meaning if they do one step out of order it throws them off and slows them down

·        Religiously checking refrigerator and pantry items to make sure they are within the expiration date...or never remembering to check the dates until it is too late

·        Always turning every light in the house off before leaving to conserve energy and save money...or never remembering to turn off lights

·        Eating the same thing every day for at least one meal…or always skipping a certain meal

·        Doing the dishes every day...or putting dishes into the dishwasher without running it until being ready to eat again and discovering there isn't anything clean to cook with or to eat on

·        Never remembering to fill the car up with gas until being forced to drive on fumes or run out...or constantly watching the gas gauge and never going below 3/4 of a tank

·        Using the passenger's side of the car’s floor as trash storage...or being almost anal about always having a small trash bag or container

·        Needing to sleep on a particular side of the bed…or not being able to fall asleep

·        Taking your share of the bed in the middle - meaning the other person has to make do sleeping on an edge of the mattress

·        Going through the morning newspaper first and cutting out something important to you - leaving the other person to try and figure out from the holes in the paper what is missing

People have a lot of habits or quirky things they do and a lot of the time they aren't aware of them. These are simply part of "who" they are. These can be the fun things about knowing someone. Or they can be things that really irritate someone else.

Of course there are far easier details that can give the reader ways to identify characters. He runs his hand through his hair whenever frustrated. She chews on her lower lip when nervous. Etc. I wanted to show you, as a writer, how to think beyond those easy traits, how to use what you observe about real people to add colors to your characters.

Did you recognize anything listed as something you do? Maybe see something your mate or a friend does? What other quirky things can you add to this list of everyday habits?

Analyzing Great Covers

by Starla Kaye 

Okay, I’m prejudiced. I have had three books published with Decadent and I love every cover. All right I admit that there are a gazillion other good covers with the publisher. But this is an “all about ME” moment.

First, let’s look again (and again, and again) at the cover for my first book with 1 Night Stand, Maggie’s Secret Wish. Is it “hot” or what! There is my pretty Maggie, who has dreamed naughty things about getting spanked, hands bound and up nice and close with the man Madame Eve matched her with for a very special night. And what a match he is! Ian, is a Scottish hunk (note those great pecs and biceps), who happens to be a steamy erotica author…and a Dom. Be still my heart….

My second 1 Night Stand book, Starting Over, was my first try at writing a gay romance and I couldn’t have been happier with the results. Just look at that cover. Are those two men “yummily hot” or what?! And I don’t even care if they’re gay. What I cared about was sharing a special story about Corbin (the man in the background) who has finally decided to ease into the lifestyle he has only dreamed about. He needed to be matched with a man equally special…and Madame Eve found him. Matt (the dark-haired, devilish looking man) also has been dealing with a drastic change in his life. The man he’d thought he would be with forever died and he struggles to go on with his bruised heart.

And then there is my newest book, The CEOand the Cowboy, with yet another wonderful cover. The great chested man with a tie is Daniel, the CEO, an experienced gay man recently burned by a cheating lover. He is reluctant to get romantically involved anytime soon, but when he meets Calhoun (the “hot” T-shirted man in a hat)… well, he can’t help wanting to get to know the cowboy up close and personal. But Calhoun has never been with a man “that way.” Unnerved by his attraction to the CEO is putting it mildly. An unlikely match, but they’ll win your heart as you see them struggle to find something special.

Feeling lucky? Feeling frisky or daring? Leave a comment and take a chance at being the one lucky commenter to win a $25 gift card from Eden Fantasys. The winner will be chosen July 28 in a random drawing.

I’m having nothing but fun! Okay, most of the time

by Starla Kaye

Let’s talk about the “fun” first… I love writing romance and I love writing for Decadent Publishing, and being part of this amazing group of authors. There is so much talent here: authors, editors, and everyone else behind the scenes. Back when I first decided to try submitting here, I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing to do. The house was still fairly new, which meant it could go either way. But I’m a positive thinker and wanted to be part of their eventual success. Boy, did I ever guess (hope) right! I couldn’t be happier with all that has happened for the publisher and its authors.

My “fun” part here has been having two novellas published with the 1 NightStand series: Maggie’sSecret Wish was my first one, followed by Starting Over. They were both such fun to write and Starting Over was my first try at publishing a GLBT story. I really enjoyed writing about two very special men and decided to try another such story.

Sometime this year (I think) my novella The CEO and the Cowboy will be published as a regular Decadent story. I couldn’t figure out how to make their story work for the 1 NightStand series.  In this upcoming book, Calhoun is a man who no longer knows where he fits into things. He can’t seem to figure out what he wants. He’d spent years engaged to a woman who deserved a lot better than him, but he’d finally let her go. Now he’s really adrift in life. He has needs…but he isn’t real sure what they are. In contrast… Emotionally burned by the last man he thought he’d loved, Daniel isn’t anxious to find a new lover. But there is something about the proud, bedroom-eyed cowboy who shows up at his friend’s wedding that draws him. He isn’t even sure if the man’s gay, although the heat firing between them makes him wonder. What he does know is that he plans to find out, maybe even entice him into changing his sexual preference if he can.

Now for the “not so fun” part of my life. I managed to burn up my office PC a couple of days ago. Yes, I’m “gifted” that way.  Now I’m strictly a two laptop lady. Yes, I have a Mac Pro and an ASUS now, too. Long boring story as to why two laptops. Oh, and another “not so fun part”… I managed to screw up putting the password on the new laptop (ASUS). DO NOT ever do that! Trust me, it was a long 5 hours of torture getting that problem fixed.

Back to strictly “fun”… I’m trying to find the time (beyond dealing with computer issues) to write a new story for Decadent. The ideas keep tumbling around in my head, but they need to make it from there to my fingertips, and on to my computer.