**NEW** Included with the items already in the giveaway (you see below) are two signed books you see above!

Gunn note pad and the mystery box!

On with the story contest. I’ve compiled the suggested list of names from my previous post about the story and now I need you to suggest two things this time. One is the setting of the typical life of our characters and the other is the story “trigger”. Let’s talk setting first. As stories go, we’ll meet the H/h in their everyday lives to understand them. I’m picturing Kathleen Turner in Romancing The Stone. In the opening scene of that story we meet her as an introverted writer whose best friend is her cat. We get that she’s a homebody with no love life, but desperately loves the idea of love as she writes about it all day.

Our heroine has to have an everyday life too. Is she a professional who is driven? A single woman out of work? You might not think this important, but it is. What she lacks in her everyday life could become the trigger that starts her story. Follow me.

The trigger is usually something beyond the H/h control that gets squeezed in order for the story to start. Again, using Romancing The Stone as an example, the heroine receives a disturbing call from her sister who’s in Columbia. The sister sent the heroine something in the mail and now she needs the heroine to bring that item to Columbia so the bad guys won’t kill her. Pair that trigger with what we already learned from the heroine’s everyday life and we see the problem. How’s a homebody who has no friends and is introverted going to get to the other side of the world and save her sister? Simple. She’s going on a quest, but we don’t need to worry about that right now. That’s for next time.

So everyone understand what I need from you to begin to build the story structure?

The heroine’s everyday life that gives a clear picture of what kind of person she is.
The trigger. What happens to the H/h to start our story.

 

I’ll use the story I’m getting ready to release, Provoked, as an example.

 

The everyday life part:

 

Charlotte Wood is the executive secretary for the local museum. Her twin sister is a feisty submissive who works at a prominent BDSM establishment. When she and her twin need to raise money to help their parents handle a family crisis, she steps out of her comfort zone to earn the cash.

 

The trigger: Unfortunately, she steps on the wrong toes doing so, and the only way to get around landing in this potentially bad situation in-the-making is to switch lives with her twin for two short days. It was the perfect solution until she learns that her twin sister has her own potentially bad situation brewing with a renowned Dom that Charlotte, or Charlie as she’s called, walks right into. See the problem? How’s a museum secretary, who’s trying to do the right thing by her mom and dad, going to handle faking her way through a bad situation with a strict Dom that’s meant for her feisty, but submissive twin? Well…me thinks she’s going on a sexual quest, but we don’t need to discuss that right now. We’ll do it next time.

 

As always post your suggestions and I’ll make a list. Once we have the basic structure I’ll post a total of five scenes to make up our short story asking for more suggestions as we go along. It should be fun with lots of good loot added to the giveaway each time.

 

If you have any questions just post those as well.

 

Here’s a little teaser from Provoked.

Heheheh! Charlie has no idea what’s she in for. Neil is a pretty strict Dom who’s not going to cut her any slack because he thinks she’s a well-seasoned submissive. >.<

I hope to have this book all polished and ready to release by the end of the month. *fingers crossed!*

Thanks for stopping by!

Riley