I Had A Dream

I know that as a reader, I’m ambivalent about sequels. I like to know the hero and heroine (or whatever combination of main characters) are still living happily ever after. But too often, in books something nasty happens to one or another of them down the track, in a long series. Or even to an important secondary character, like JK Rowling’s Dumbledore.

But sometimes, even though the hero and heroine are satisfactorily together, the story just isn’t finished. Other characters are screaming for their turn in the limelight, the villain escapes from captivity, or something else just appears.

This has happened to me several times now, so in each case I’ve written a stand-alone sequel where the main characters remain HEA, but other characters pick up the storyline.

My most recent sequel situation came about very differently.

The opening scene was a dream I had. I got out of bed, and wrote it down, but I had no idea what it meant, or where it was going. I showed it to author Anny Cook, and asked, “What do I do now?” She told me to keep writing. She said that sort of thing happened to her a lot. Either it turned into a book, or it would just stop. Well, I took her advice, kept writing, and it turned into three books. And finally, with the third book, I realized what the connection was. It is actually what happens more than fifty years after the “Raw Claiming” series I wrote.

What do you think? Do you mind if a former hero or heroine gets killed off in book five? Does it bother you if the end of the story is left hanging?

“Forbidden Future”: Blurb:
More than fifty years ago, wicked winds, carrying deadly diseases, swept across the land, and their ancestors fled to a protected valley. But now the easy-to-gather food and fuel are used up, and the people struggle to feed themselves. The goods their ancestors had brought with them are worn out, and life is hard trying to feed and provide for themselves.
Zuri, Udo, and Tau love each other, but have to meet in the forest to make love. The people decide to go to the city to look for food and fuel. It’s Zuri who finds the ancestors’ truck and asks for a gift in return—that she, Tau, and Udo could be together. Their request is granted. Then everyone plans for the trip to the city. It’ll be very dangerous, but the three of them will be together. But will they find any food? Will they even survive?

Buy Link: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Forbidden+Future+Berengaria

“Embrace the Future” Series: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=Embrace+the+Future+Berengaria

Berengaria Brown
Blog: http://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/berengaria.brown#!/berengaria.brown?v=info
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/BerengariaBrown

Cookbook romance from Berengaria Brown’s, “Terracotta Warriors”

Recipe: Terracotta Baked Potatoes

Ingredients
1 1/2 lb small new potatoes (approximately 24)
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon salt

How to make Terracotta Baked Potatoes
1. Wash the potatoes carefully, trying not to damage the skin which must remain on, and place them in a casserole.
2. Strip the rosemary needles off the sprigs and add them to the potatoes. Sprinkle the lemon juice, water and salt over, put the lid on and shake the pot well.
3. Place in a preheated oven and bake for 60 minutes. Test the potatoes at the end of the cooking time, they may need a few minutes more. Serve hot.

Food flashfiction:
The head waiter, Harry, saw Branden arrive and snapped his fingers for the barista to make Branden's favorite cinnamon mocha latte. The barista just nodded.

Everyone was well aware of Mr. Verwendahl's almost-addiction to coffee. But no one would ever tease him.
He was much too good a tipper.
Branden noticed all this byplay as he was led to his reserved table. I suppose I should cut back on my caffeine intake. But not today.
Sloan arrived at the same time as Branden's coffee, so the server just nodded, raised an eyebrow, and said, "And one for you too, sir?"
"Long black, please."
Branden let his hand rest lightly on Sloan's. The man's hand felt warm and strong and wonderful to his jittery nerves. "If you don't like her, if you don't want this, no pressure. I love you very much. Want you. Want us," he said quietly.
"Relax, I understand. I can't be happy if you aren't happy. I get that you need both. Shh now."
Branden picked up his coffee and sipped it, loving the soothing taste of it sliding down his throat, his gaze moving to the doorway. There she stood. Five foot eight and one hundred percent woman with lush curves -- generous breasts, ample hips and a nicely rounded ass.
God, she made his dick harder than a spike. No other woman ever had that effect on him. He put down his cup to signal her, but she'd already seen him and was walking toward them, her blonde hair bobbing on her shoulders, her gray eyes dark and worried.

“Terracotta Warriors” Blurb
Naomi has a casual sex-buddy relationship with Branden, a bisexual man. When she loses her job Branden offers her a short-term position in the Museum of which he is a director, but more than that, he wonders if she could be the solution to his sexual problem. He and Sloan are very happy together, but Brand needs the softness of a woman as well as the harsher, more animal mating of two males together.
Sloan and Naomi join Branden on a business trip to Xi'an. Will adding Naomi to the mix be a disaster -- or the solution to all their needs?

Naomi called her boss a f**ing idiot. In the lunchroom. Oooops. A Story Excerpt from “Terracotta Warriors”.

"Only a f**ing asshole like Shannon could imagine for one moment that we'd be able to do a brand new test without spending several days running trials and recalibrating the equipment," said Naomi to her best friend Alison in the lunchroom at the scientific laboratory where they both worked.

The usual noisy chatter of the lunchroom had dropped to deathly silence as Naomi spoke, and now that hush was broken by multiple gasps, snorts and sniggers. Alison's mouth was hanging wide open, her eyes filled with horror.

"What's wrong?" asked Naomi.

Alison rolled her eyes and worked her jaw until it finally closed.

"Would you care to retract that comment, Miss Hunter?"

"Oh shit!" Naomi spun around and there in the doorway was Shannon himself. Mr. Shannon Charles, Head of the Organic Chemistry Division of PVT Chemical Industries -- and everyone in the room's boss.

Her head spun, her cheeks blanched and her gut churned, but Naomi knew what she'd said was correct.

Incredibly stupid to say at work, but nonetheless accurate.

Pulling her shoulders back and her spine ramrod straight, Naomi took a deep breath, and then very deliberately threw her job away. "No, sir. I will not retract what I said. As you know perfectly well, I am one of only three people in the state qualified to sign off on the tests we do, and these new samples will not be accurate enough to pass the annual audit unless we spend several days doing trial tests and calibrating the machines properly. Our reputation for accuracy will be in the toilet." Like my job.

Shannon pulled his cell phone from his blazer pocket and clicked through his address book. "Julie, make up Miss Hunter's pay sheet right now. She's leaving us." He clicked again and said, "John, get to the lunchroom now."

No one in the room moved in the brief few minutes it took for John from Security to arrive. "Yes sir?" His hand was on his weapon as if he expected to have to break up a fight or apprehend a criminal.

"Miss Hunter is leaving us. Escort her to her desk and make sure she takes only her own possessions, then take her to Julie's office to get a printout of her salary entitlements and sign for them. That is all."

A few more gasps came from around the room, but Naomi marched through the door, head up, looking neither to the right nor the left as she set a fast pace to the Organic Chemistry Laboratory where her little office was. There she collected a large, empty cardboard box and packed her things by simply upending her desk drawers into the box, dropping the few personal items from the top of her desk into it, then balancing her potted plant and purse on the top of everything else.

Anger was burning through her at her own insanity at voicing the comment, and at the rightness of it. She snagged her jacket off the back of her chair, remembered to collect her log book, lab coat and safety goggles from the lab itself, then nodded to John who had stood well back from her, totally silent.

"Is that it, Naomi? None of your stuff in the bathroom or on anyone else's desk?" he asked carefully.

"No. I could delete my personal files off the computer but Shannon might say I took proprietary information. This way you are witness that I didn't touch it and I don't care if anyone reads my emails anyway," she replied, shrugging. Besides, her personal files were on her flash drive so it wasn't a big deal.

John nodded. "I'll carry the box for you. You take the plant."

When they reached Julie's office the paperwork was all waiting for her sign. Julie's face was alive with curiosity but Naomi simply said, "Goodbye" and "Thank you". She knew Julie would be on the phone to Alison as soon as she'd left.

John walked her to her car, loaded the box into the trunk for her, and she could see him still standing there watching her leave, as she exited the gate and turned onto the highway. She drove for a couple of miles toward her home, then pulled off into a side road, switched off the engine, folded her arms across the steering wheel, and burst into shattering sobs as the anger and tension exploded from her body.

“Terracotta Warriors” is part of the “Naughty Getaways: Eleven Sultry Stories” anthology.

BUY LINK: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B072LWRC7W/

Berengaria Brown
Blog: http://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Berengaria-Brown/e/B00541R3YQ/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/berengaria.brown?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BerengariaBrown

Pets in romance stories

Do you like your hero or heroine to have a pet or two? Does it make them more real to you if they cuddle a kitty after yelling at their true love? Or cry into their horse’s mane? Or maybe she owns a really clever pet bird that frightens away a would-be bad guy? Do you like the thought of your hunky hero going for a run with his dog?

I can think of one mystery author who always includes a cat or two in her books and the cats’ characters are every bit as vivid as that of the humans. And sometimes far more interesting to me, as a reader too.

I know of another author who adores animals and it shows in every line she writes about her shapeshifter wolves.

Then there are books I’ve read with a pet introduced in chapter one and never mentioned again in the book. I’m always left wondering, “What happened to the pet when the lovers hooked up? Is the pet going to get an HEA or not?”

There are a group of well-known authors who have written entire series of books where the hero or heroine is basically just a foil for the animal character that solves the mystery/ saves the world. That is another entire genre of book.

According to the God of all Knowledge, WikiAnswers, 63% of American households have a pet, the vast majority of them either a dog and/or a cat. Hamsters, fish, mice, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, bunnies, iguanas and ferrets are all in the top ten pets depending on who you believe.

So this is where I came in. If so many people own pets do they want to read about them in their books? Because they have a pet do they feel better if the hero/heroine has a pet?

Or do they see pets as something a kid needs to grow up with, rather like a bike and a football? Or just another household chore to perform? Do the laundry, cook the supper, walk the dog?

Many animals offer their human endless love, trust and companionship. They don’t fuss about unwashed blankets or unironed clothing. They adore being petted and at least pretend to listen when you talk to them. But does this uncomplaining attitude then make the hero or heroine look bad when they are upset at how their lover is treating them?

So what do you think? Should book characters be pet-owners? Or is this likely to make them be less appealing to their lover? After all, it is hardly romantic for the heroine to say, “I can’t go out without you tonight. I have to clean out the bird cage.”

Speaking of birds, in “Blue Bird of Happiness” Roland Clarke has a cat, Mr. Claws. Michael Taggart inherits two lovebirds, Bonnie and Clyde. Bonnie can open the cage door and escape. Every time Roland and Mike try to get together the animals come between them. As you can imagine, their path to a happy ending is as much about the animals in their lives as the lust and love in their hearts.

“Blue Bird of Happiness”: https://www.amazon.com/Happiness-Paint-Publishing-Classic-ManLove-ebook/dp/B00NEWXO2W/
“The Paint Store Boys” series: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=the+paint+store+boys+Berengaria

Berengaria Brown
Blog: http://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Berengaria-Brown/e/B00541R3YQ/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/berengaria.brown?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BerengariaBrown

Sex in the Water

Huge numbers of erotic romance books have a sex scene in the shower. Likely all that steamy heat, scented with yummy shower jells and even yummier naked men, is why such scenes are very popular. Besides vertical sex is just plain hotter than horizontal sex.

Hot tub sex is quite common. Again, near naked or totally naked bodies, plus steamy heat is just crying out for a sex scene.

But what about sex in the ocean or river? Likely if people are swimming it’s a hot day, and there is once again the whole nearly naked aspect bound to crank up the sexual tension. But now we have a logistical problem. Even if it is a private beach with no people around, how do the characters know there isn’t someone out on a boat, or back on the shore, with binoculars—or worse still a camera with a telephoto lens—watching them? Or does the thrill of discovery just make it naughtier and more exciting?

And then there is the problem of friction. Successful orgasms generally require friction, especially for the man, and water prevents friction. Which means pretty much anything below the waterline isn’t going to happen. So we need knee-deep water and the couple standing up. Which brings us back to the onlooker and his camera.
Or we could forget all about physics, sit our characters down in the water, and let our imaginations run wild!

My “The Beach Boys” series is set at Two Waters beach, a real place. It’s a narrow isthmus of land with a lake on one side and an ocean on the other. Families tend to stay on the placid, lake-side. The characters in my male/male romances prefer the wilder ocean side with its huge rock wall, and a sandbar just far enough away from shore to offer a little privacy.

There are four stories in this series: Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring. In each season a different couple of men discover the pleasures of the beach and each other. Each story is complete about that couple, but some characters return in cameo roles in later books.

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=The+Beach+Boys%3A+Berengaria+Brown&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3AThe+Beach+Boys%3A+Berengaria+Brown

Berengaria Brown

Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/berengaria-brown
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Berengaria-Brown/e/B00541R3YQ/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/berengaria.brown?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BerengariaBrown

Why write ménage?

Readers often ask me why I write ménages, specifically male/male/female ménages.

I’ll answer that question in a minute. But actually I also write lesbian erotica and male/male stories and even one man/one woman stories. In fact, “Naughty Spice” produced by the Naughty Literati, has one of my lesbian stories in it, as well as my menage stories.

Now, why MMF?

Just think about it for a moment, ladies. If one pair of hands teasing up your ribcage feels good, how much better would two pairs of hands feel?
If one set of lips, kissing and sucking the tender skin inside your elbow feels good, how would another mouth feel on the other elbow?
If you enjoy running your hands down a muscular back and over a taut ass, how much better would it be with two taut asses to touch?
Romantic fiction is a step outside everyday life into what if. A woman’s most important sex organ is her brain. She can think, plan, imagine. Imagine what if not one, but two delicious hunks wanted you? Imagine how intense the passion could be in bed with two men. Four strong arms, two hard chests, two even harder…

Well, I’m sure you can see where my mind is going here!

“Jewel’s Menage Christmas”: Blurb: Jewel, Donovan, and Oscar live together but the excitement has gone out of their relationship. She makes holiday plans to spice things up. Jewel's thought of everything, but will Donovan and Oscar rise to the challenge?

“One Kinky Weekend”: Blurb: Logan and Zara have been married twenty years. Their sex life is boring. Dead boring. They love each other but they want more excitement in bed. The answer? Ask another couple to join them for a very dirty, smutty weekend of darkly naughty sex. Wicked fantasies and forbidden desires are shared. Girl on girl action? Double penetration? Every dark craving comes vividly to life for an orgasmic weekend.

Naughty Spice Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078XCP2HB
Naughty Spice in Print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1983472433
Amazon: http://a.co/1BfGSBz
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble. com/w/naughty-spice-francesca- hawley/1127757320?ean=2940155437048
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ ebook/naughty-spice-2

Berengaria Brown

http://naughtyliterati.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Naughty Spice.mp4

What Do Men Want?

What Do Men Want?
Answer? Not much different from women. They want love, respect and someone to believe in them. But, and there always is a but, they’re more direct in their needs and desires. Sex is like breathing. They want hard and rough and hot. The partner who can take all that and more is their ideal.

Writing the male POV? Think of the men in your life. The man you love. The men that drive you mad with their grunts and unwanted opinions. Then think of the man who beds you and makes you scream with pleasure because he knows exactly what you want and need. Think edgy, hard and possessive. Think need and tenderness.

Men. They're complex. To write from their perspective? A real challenge. Nothing is worse than reading a male/male book where one of the characters’ names could be changed to a female name and the story wouldn’t change at all. But written with understanding? Ahh the best romance and hottest sex ever.

Do I know it all? Hell no. Will I keep striving to improve? Hell yes!

“Getting Naughty: Twenty Tantalizing Tales” includes three of my MM stories: “Fireworks at the Lake”, “Chocolate Coated Reunion”, and “The Loch Ness Monster, Romeo and Julio”.

“Fireworks at the Lake”: Andrew didn’t want to spend the Fourth of July long weekend with the people from the office so he goes to Lake Superior instead. There he sees Luke, a blond Viking who arouses every craving for love and lust inside him. But can he overcome his low self-esteem from when Rory rejected his love and open his heart to another man?

“The Loch Ness Monster, Romeo and Julio”: Fraser Campbell and Cameron MacDonald are sent to Glasgow on business. Cam’s determined to see the Loch Ness monster. Fraser just wants Cam.

“Chocolate-Coated Reunion”: Matt arranges to meet Jake for Christmas Eve drinks after work but after a series of disasters is very late. Jake refuses to talk to him. As Valentine’s Day approaches, Matt is determined to reconnect with Jake. But is Jake too hurt and disillusioned to forgive him?

Buy Links:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078H4ZLPT

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/getting-naughty-2

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/getting-naughty-suz-demello/1127687384?ean=2940155023661

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Suz_deMello_Getting_Naughty?id=eo1DDwAAQBAJ

Berengaria Brown

Writing my 100th book

I was asked about the most exciting thing that had happened in my writing career and answered that it was the sale of my first book. That first sale proves that everything I thought about my ability to write was correct. I wrote a book and a publisher bought it. The icing on the cake is when readers buy it too. The second book sale confirms that the writer can write. It wasn’t just a one-time thing, or an acquiring editor with too many gaps in their schedule so they bought any old thing. Someone actually liked my books.

In fact, I sold three books in very quick succession. I began writing because I had nothing to read. I wrote a book and sent it off to a publisher, but while I was waiting to hear back from them, I still had nothing to read, so I wrote a second book and sent it to a different publisher. And again with a third. I read anything. All genres, all kinds of books, the back of the shampoo bottle in the shower…. So that’s why I wrote different genres, and sent them to several different publishers, publishers that specialize in a particular genre.

Anyway, all three books were accepted with a few weeks of each other and suddenly I was an author, with contracts to sign, artwork to choose, edits to do.

Time passed. I kept reading, kept writing, and before I realized it, I had a passel of published books and needed spreadsheets to keep all the paperwork in order, to keep track of my characters, to make sure I didn’t repeat any important places, names, ideas.

Some of my books had been on two-year contracts, which were renewed, one of my books, had been made into an audio book, and several of my books were turned into print volumes. My spreadsheet was getting complicated so I sat down to work out exactly how many books I’d written, and which ones were in multiple formats. Which was when I discovered I had more than one hundred individual books, and I wasn’t exactly sure which was my one hundredth book.

An author’s one hundredth book is supposed to be a big thing. Lots of authors hold giveaways, prizes, and parties. Mine passed unnoticed. Of course, I tend to write short. I don’t have many books over 40,000 words. I have a bunch of books 30-35k in length but my preferred writing length is 20-25,000 words. So having 100 books is not nearly as big a deal as for writers who prefer writing 75,000 for each book. But still, it’s kind of embarrassing not to be certain which book is my lucky 100.

I think it’s Book 2 of the Possessive Passion series, “Possess Me”.

Shiloah, a New Thimphu native, is envious of her friend Chevaunne's newfound happiness with her men and wants that kind of love for herself. She has enjoyed working with the luscious Stan and Goa on The Grandparents' Garden. But now the project is finished, so how will she see them again?

All four books in the series can be read as stand-alone stories, but to get a feel for the world and the people it’s better to read them in order. Book 1 is “Shared Possession”.

Chevaunne is abducted by three brothers who take her to a new world where brothers share one wife, who is their treasured possession. Jim, Sam, and Paul have waited years to find the perfect woman, and when they see Chevaunne, they know immediately she is the one for them.

Buy link for the series:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=possessive+passion+series+berengaria+brown

It's also available in print: https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1619260239/bookstrand-20

Oh, and if you were wondering, I have recently finished writing book 149, and I will have party when I’ve written book 150.
Berengaria

Berengaria Brown’s links:
Blog: http://berengariasblog.blogspot.com/
Bookstrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/berengaria-brown
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Berengaria-Brown/e/B00541R3YQ/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/berengaria.brown?fref=ts
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BerengariaBrown