Meg Amor ~ Interview with Sensual Romance writer ~ Moi! :-)

Bora Bora, Tahiti

Aloha everyone! Well, I'm completely disorganized and so have no blog to put up. LOL. I've interviewed myself instead. I've asked myself all the usual questions I ask my guests. So Aloha MEG AMOR. E komo mai! :-) (That means 'welcome to my world in Hawai'ian.)


In case you're wondering: I'm a New Zealander, born and bred. My American home state is Hawai'i. Kona on the Big Island is my place of residence when I'm home. And my soul is also being called to New Orleans, Louisiana. :-)


Tell our readers a wee bit about yourself. What are 5 things you wished you’d done, have done or are still to do, on the Bucket List? :-) 


1. I wished I’d gone to bloody Tahiti with Aaron when we had the chance. It seems like such a stupid thing to have not done. Stayed in one of those over the water huts. Gorgeous!

Bora Bora, Tahiti

2. I want to fly in a B-17 and Lancaster bomber for old times sake.


3. I want one of my books made into a Hollywood film.


4. I want be back traveling every 6 weeks. I’m done with having my wings clipped. I need to be up flying again.


5. I want a home again in Kona, on the Big Island of Hawai’i and be a multi-millionaire again. I enjoyed that a lot.

Honaunau, Place of Refuge, Big Island, Hawai'i.

Tell us about the genre you write, why do you love it and how did you get into it?


I write romance erotica or sensual romance novels. It started because I hit 50 and some part of me simply refused to turn in my sensuality slippers. I was in a marriage that wasn’t sexual and all that energy got poured into writing my steamy romantic stories and much to my surprise, I LOVED doing it.


I loved my characters, the gorgeous sex scenes. I liked seeing what they’d do. I was thrilled when the characters started doing their own things and I found myself just trotting along at a brisk clip behind them taking dictation.

What’s your most favorite restaurant in the world? Where, why and the best dish/es they make?


I think it has to be Alan Wong’s out of Honolulu in Oahu. Not the Pineapple Room though. Alan Wong’s itself in the office building. LOL. Seriously. But oh, it’s lovely. Elegant, refined, fine dining. Superb fusion food. Their tasting menu… Gorgeous!! I don’t know if I’ve ever eaten anything else there for years. :-) 

And their Bully’s Martinis!! Wow. I’m not a strong alcoholic drink person. But those Bullys… Yum-tiddly-um-tum. Soak hacked up pineapple in vodka for days and strain into a martini glass. Seriously good. :-) 

Chocolate Crunch Bars - sooooo good. 

Remember those ads for Expedia (if not, just play along) that asked, ‘If you could go anywhere in the world, but have to go right now?’ Where would you have gone and would you have said to YES to right now? What pulls and entices you to that country?

Right now. The Maldives. Why? Because they just look so delicious. The sand looks like you could carve it up and suck on it like cotton candy. The whole energy of where it is. For me, somewhere that’s not home, not familiar. Somewhere I can simply escape to, rest and recover. And run away for a wee bit. I just need to do a Nike on myself right now. LOL.

Piano Bar - Maldives

What parts of you, are incorporated into your characters?

All of them. I think every story has a New Zealander in it. It means I can write in my own language. Yes, I speak English, but sometimes my American is a wee bit rusty. 

I’m a Southerner New Zealand from Christchurch and we have a particular speech style, compared to someone from Auckland, say. Our nature and energy is slightly different too. And we use the Scottish ‘wee’ in our speech pattern if we’re from the South Island. It started down in Otago and Southland and has spread throughout the whole South Island. My dad’s originally from Auckland, but it’s in his speech too.

Izzy is almost pure me. Although, when I get stroppy, I start edging toward Charlie, who has no tolerance for bullshit. I’ve been seeing more of that lately.

I always have a gentleness in one of my characters and despite my intense Aries/Leo stuff, I have the gentleness in my spirit too. To me, it’s one of my ‘strangest’ pieces of myself. Because I don’t see myself that way, but I know it’s there. I see it in Henry and Beau. Two characters whom I adore.

Favorite male hero/public figure you admire in the world, dead or alive, and why?

I have a few. I deeply Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was such a charismatic man. Gunned down on my birthday in Memphis, TN, when I was 5 years old. We went to see the Civil Rights Museum there and my god, we came out of there, shell shocked. It’s in the old Lorraine Motel. The shocking and to me, soul cutting racism that went on and still goes on. So, Dr. King is one of my heroes.

And I love Sir Richard Branson. What a complete nutter. And in my country, that is a compliment of the highest regard. LOL. He’s just terrific. What an amazing visionary of a man. Such enthusiasm and zest for life. One of the worlds modern pirates. Quite, quite fabulous.

Also, one more. I adore Morgan Freeman. He is such an unusual man. He’s very interesting, marches to his own drummer. He’s radical and also a bit of a pirate I think. I suspect he’s quite an intriguing person and has this wonderful energy to him which I find utterly captivating. His energy is virile. I suspect he’s a very deep person and you don’t meet too many of those on this earth. I also feel he’s a very nice man, oddly compassionate and quite quite unusual. I think he should be on my bucket list. Meet and have dinner with Morgan Freeman on a beach in Hawai’i. :-) 

Favorite female heroine/public figure you admire in the world, dead or alive, and why?

I always pick Amelia Earhart. I should pick someone new. Who? I’ll pick my mum Olwyn Loudon. She was a complete character. Terrific sense of humor. The madcap things that used to happen in our household. LOL. Mum had a life’s for living attitude to her. And a laugh that I once tracked through a hospital from a floor down. Like me, she was a gregarious loner to use Spencer Dryden’s term. But she had such great energy and style. Her view of the world was just different altogether.

My Mum doing a photo shoot for a friend. 

Me, Mum and Rach - portrait for Christmas

Have you ever had a character just “do their own thing?” Have you ever had an argument with one of your characters? Or anything else odd happen?

Oh God yes. My characters all seem to do their own thing. I’m just the hapless secretary, taking frantic dictation. Trotting around behind them, trying not to look too alarmed at where they want to take the story next. :-)  But to be honest, I actually like it when they take over. I haven’t got a chance of writers block when they’re running the show. 

Charlie is the worst culprit. He’s always doing his own thing. Nicknamed ‘Bloody Charlie’ by me, because of his ability to simply not do what I want him to do. He’s a complete law unto himself. And when I’m not writing about him, I miss him, quite physically sometimes. I want to sit down with him and have a wine, soak him in. Enjoy him.

A Young Charlie 

What’s your passion in life?

Writing obviously. But also travel. I used to be on and off planes every few weeks and I loved it. I also love art. My two big ginger and white boys, Leo Ray Jr. and Mr Beaumont. And I love passion in people of any kind. I think that’s why people like Martin, Richard and Morgan and my mum appeal to me so much. They are/were passionate vibrant people. Unusual outlooks, ideas, energies. I love that.

Mr Beaumont

Leo Ray Jr

What’s your writer’s routine? Do you write whenever or at certain times? Are you a pantser or plotter? Where do you like to write?

I have bugger all routine. I write at night. I sit down with a Bacardi and diet coke and write. I write in bed on my remote keyboard. I’m a complete pantser and write organically. Sometimes I write the end first. Or I start a scene half way through. I often write a sex scene and go back and ‘fill’ around it. I write parts of dialogue and slot them into scenes that they’ll be perfect in. LOL. 

And somehow it always comes together. I know my characters well, they’re so alive and real in my head, that no matter what you asked me about them, I could tell you off the top of my head. They’re a living breathing part of me. My only rule as a writer is ‘don’t follow the stupid writing rules.’ Half of them nearly stopped me from being a writer at one point.

When I first started out, I read all the ‘how to be a writer’ books and thought… God, I haven’t got a hope in hell of keeping up with that. LOL.

Now, I do my own thing. It works.

I’d like to write the anti-writer’s book one day, Writing by the Seat of Your Pants. For all us pantsers out there. Rules like:

Never walk away from a ‘hot’ scene. Start in the middle of the sentence if you have to. A hot scene is one that's any scene running perfectly in your head. 

Always work at night, when it’s most bewitching for the brain.

Never research too much at the start. Do that afterward and you’ll be surprised how much you already intuitively knew.

Have at least one alcoholic beverage to start you off on your writing day. It frees up the brain.

Always take precise dictation from any rogue character that turns up. They’ll be your best characters, you most loved, your deepest loves.

Get the bloody thing down. Don’t worry about the textures of it so much. Get the story on paper, go back and ‘fill’ it with the cream later and ice (frost) it later.

Don’t write everyday. You don’t get a chance for the really good stuff to build and percolate. Always run wee plays in your head of all your scenes. Speak the dialogue out loud, move about. Do it in the car, pretend you’re on a hands free cell phone. LOL. By the time, it’s running ‘hot’ — you can just dictate the whole thing down, line by line.

Always send your work to your email at the end of the day and read it on your tablet, cell phone etc. It always reads differently to on the computer.

In the final edit stage. ALWAYS read your work out loud to yourself. You’ll catch most of the funny wee extra words either put in or left out when you changed sentences mid way, or your hands typed slower than your brain. 

You’ll also catch weird words which you’ve read over a hundred times. I had clique in Henry and Isolde, which I reckon I read at least two hundred times! When I read it out loud, I heard it. The word was supposed to cliché. LOL. Your brain will read over skipped or wrong words after a wee bit.

I think there are millions more of my rules, but I can’t remember them right now. LOL.

If you could pick a past life, what time period would appeal to you and why? Would you be male or female? Rich or poor?

Well, I always say WWII. I’d love to be up flying planes again. But I think I’d like to have a go at one of my Russian lifetimes. I’d like to test drive being male and I’d like to be wonderfully wealthy. I like being rich, it’s such a nice way to live.

What things have you got in the works at the moment?

I have a few things on the go.

For Christmas, Muse It Up Publishing is releasing my heartfelt sensual romance Saint Nicholas.

A beautiful heartfelt, sensual erotic romance story—New Zealander, Daisy struggles with the death of her husband, and the days become blurs of unreality. Her one bright spot is buying a lotto ticket twice a week from the gorgeous Greek store owner, Nicky Constantine.

Then in Spring next year, the first of my Troika Romance Series will come out with Muse. The steamy sensuous romance of Henry and Isolde.

A steamy, deeply sensuous love story, set in modern day New Orleans. Henry, an older black musician feels his life is nearing its end. Until he falls in love with the exuberant New Zealander, Izzy—his white, younger, richer, married boss.

The passionate Izzy seduces him in the secret garden he built for her. His life goes from fifty shades of beige to a rainbow of textures, sights and sounds, but most of all—feelings he’s allowed to have.

Troika Horses in Russia. Troika means three equal things. 

I’m also working on my first soulful romantic and sultry male/male romance Hawaiian Lei.

Fed up with his empty soulless club life in LA, Norfolk Islander/Maori New Zealand painter, Matt Quintal, comes to the Big Island of Hawai’i to visit his sister Rach. He meets the gentle intriguing Hawaiian/Japanese/Tahitian bi-plane pilot, Beau Toyama.

They both have deep wounds in their backgrounds that have made painful holes in their souls fabrics. Caught in the Hawaiian magic and spirit, they heal each other and find deep romantic love.

I love all these characters, they’re so special to me. Beau is absolutely beautiful. And to watch this lovely man be loved and cared for is so warming. :-) 

Beau Toyama's face and body, now add long hair. Yum

Yes, I do fall in love with my characters. I hope my readers do too. I write very deep characters, very metro, lots of feelings expressed, lots of real men and whole men, whether they’re straight, bi, pan or gay. They’re real people with real feelings.

CONTACT MEG:

www.troikaromance.com

www.troikaromance.blogspot.com

www.twitter.com@amor_meg

The Lush and Blush Club on FB.

DARK WAR 

AMAZON

A storm is brewing, thunderheads rolling in off the bay. The wind chimes are going wild. Can Henry and Izzy find Charlie in time to rescue him from an old Plantation house? They find him in a depraved scene, Charlie punishing himself. Can they show him the deep emotional and physically sensuous love they have for him? And will he be able to take it in? 

Here's to you Mrs. Robinson! Older women/younger men. Conversations with Spencer!

Here’s to you Mrs. Robinson! Older women/Younger men.   

Aloha everyone! Thanks for the readers who come and continue to read Conversations with Spencer! We appreciate you listening to our thoughts on sex, love and relationships.  

There’s always something that comes up as we talk about some of these things. For those of you who don’t know us. I’m Meg Amor and my conversational partner is Spencer Dryden. We both writer ‘vanilla’ erotic romance. We’re fascinated by the viewpoints on sex, love and relationships from the male and female side of things.  

The vanilla orchid and the pods we get the spice from

So, today we’re discussing the real life or fantasy of the older women and younger man scenario.  

I’m the real life version. Spencer’s will be fantasies he’s always had. As always, we’re asking WHY?  

Why is it appealing? Why do women and men like this?  

I’ll start us off. I’ve been married three times and two of my husbands were younger than me. My late husband by five years and my previous husband by twelve. A previous boyfriend was ten years younger. In between I went out with a man fifteen older than me. Recently I did a ‘Mrs. Robinson’ with someone half my age. Although…really… I DO think he seduced me. J We’re still discussing it. LOL. 

Mrs Robinson in The Graduate

So, Spencer, what do you want to know? I’m going to let you ask the questions today and I’ll answer them. And of course, ask you anything back?  

SPENCER:

I don't know why there is a stigma attached to it. I think my fantasy comes from my sexual inexperience.  I was 19 when I met my first wife and she had just turned 18. Both of us had a load of old time Catholic training to overcome regarding sex. My wife had other 'issues' that I didn't learn about until much later that had a big bearing on our sex life. So I spent my most virile years in a nearly sexless marriage being confused and unable to successfully express myself to my wife. She had me convinced my urges were excessive, if not evil. By religious training I was set up to accept that put down.  

Later, after our divorce I started meeting women who were more experienced and more relaxed about sex. I've said on many forums, including this one, if a man is going to be a good sexual partner, it's because a woman has gently taught him how. So I think the fantasy began as a lament for the time I lost. How much more enjoyable life could have been if I had been with a woman who appreciated my sexual attention. Someone familiar enough with her own sexual responsiveness that she could help me trigger it. That confidence and familiarity comes with age. 

In reality I have never dated a woman older than I am. I've never even been in a social situation where I was around a woman ten or fifteen years older than me who showed any interest.  

MEG:  

Okay, this brought up an interest point for me. I’ve never though of it from that perspective before. That a younger man might be hopeful that I’d cast my smolder in his direction. (If you’re not familiar with the ‘smolder,’ please read our Pick Up Lines blog. J) Although obviously, I HAVE done this, otherwise I wouldn’t have had the experiences I’ve had. LOL. Although I have to say, if a younger guy was trying to catch my attention and I thought he was lovely, I’d definitely respond. It was interesting too to notice the age gap you mentioned. Is that set in concrete, i.e. ten to fifteen years difference or could you go beyond that?  

My biggest age difference was when I was forty-one and attracted in the attention of a guy who was twenty-one. He was the chef at a pizza place I used to go to in Volcano on the Big Island. He was a sweetie, lovely dusting of freckles across his nose, that sat under sexy blue eyes. I enjoyed talking to him every time I was in there. He had a gorgeous smile and easy manner. I think he asked me out and I was quite chuffed. I told my friends and Wendy said in horror, “But he’s about twenty.”  

“No, he’s not, he’s older than that,” I said. Well, he was, but only by a year. LOL.  

I thought, “Oh well, whatever, why not.”  

Now he was the one that I ran away from, that couldn’t be taught a jolly thing. See ‘Sex Tips’ blog. LOL. He wouldn’t slow down. Wasn’t open to gentle teaching, not so gentle teaching. I’d hate to group ‘all young guys’ in one set, but I do wonder how many would really be open to being taught anything. Ego seems such a huge thing at that age and silly pride.  

My ex, who I’ll call Andrew had bunches of it. He was an academic by training and whether he thought he was smarter than everyone else, I don’t know. We went to France once and he refused point blank, to utter a single word of French. I have half a dozen phrases I use and they have always gotten me through France. I’m polite, use please, thank you, hello, goodbye, and I would like… My ability to retain the vocab for another language stops me speaking it well.  

So, I’m hardly a fluent French speaker, but I’ve never had anyone be rude to me. I try and that works. But he just refused to even learn those simple phrases. He was certainly bright enough to easily get them. In Paris, a French waiter was really rude to him. I said to Andrew, “Well, serves you right. You’re in their country and you won’t even speak some basic French. What do you expect?” (Yes, I was slightly exasperated with him at that stage of things.) And I could never get to the bottom of why he wouldn’t learn it. I came to the conclusion, it must have been dopey pride or ego.  

We had a terrible sex life, he couldn’t kiss to save himself. And wouldn’t learn. Well, that’s your ‘entry’ point for me. If you can’t kiss, I’m not going to be turned on. Biggest sexual zone for me.  

When we finally split up, we were still friends. He’d stayed one night and the next morning he said, “Can you teach me to kiss please?”  

I looked at him like he’d grown a couple of heads.  

“What! You wouldn’t learn it why we were married and now you want to now?” I was wild.  

“Please. You can’t send me out into the world like this. You know I can’t kiss properly.”  

For God’s sake!! So, I did teach him. I wasn’t very nice about it either. “No, not like that. No. Wrong. You’re slobbering. Okay, better. Yes. Practice on your arm. Let me look. Okay, practice on me. More. Fuck!”

“That did something for you, didn’t it?” he asked when we’d come up for air. He could see my response.  

“Oh yeah…” I said. “Did you feel it too?” I asked him.  

Yes, he’d finally got it. A day late and a dollar late, but oh well.  

SPENCER:

My second wife, the love of my life, is five years younger than I am. I was in my early thirties when we met. She was much more sexually experienced than I was.  

The fantasy of the older woman plays against the male ideal of older rich guy with hot young trophy wife. I don't know how real that is either, or if there is any happiness in it. In your story of Henry and Isolde their love springs from what they do for each other, rather than what they are trying to get from the other. That's a formula for abiding love at any age. 

I find this man so extraordinarily beautiful ~ he's 77 and he's sexy as hell. He's deeply interesting as a person.

MEG:

Yes, agreed. I think that’s the thing that strikes people about the relationship between Henry and Izzy. (Isolde) She just loves him in a deep unconditional way. She doesn’t actually see him as any age, he’s just her beautiful Henry. He’s much more aware of her age to his, but it doesn’t bother her at all. I took this from my own experience of going out with someone older and adoring him. You do love who you love, at the end of the day.  

I had a girlfriend who was 42 and her husband was 22. He just adored her. He thought she was the most magical person on the planet. And as Barbara used to say, “I know people don’t get what Ed sees in me, I’m fat, frumpy and forty, but he loves me so much.” And he did love her: untidy gray hair, dumpy, rolls of fat body, several horrible children, unruly animals and house full of sign writing. 

SPENCER:

I think one of the barriers to the older woman/younger man may have to do with the emotional maturity of the man. We are often into very sophomoric stuff in our youth, most of which is a complete misunderstanding of what a woman wants in a man. The age of each is also relevant. For a fifteen year spread, thirty-five and twenty is a much different pairing than forty-five and thirty.

MEG:  

Agreed. In this country, everyone frowns on ‘underage’ sex, but other countries that are more progressive and not so sanctimonious have different views. I only bring this up because I find the whole ‘legal’ issue here confusing. In most countries, an age limit on sex is to protect people from true pedophilia, not to throw horny teenagers in jail as they experiment with sex at a very natural age and progression.  

And despite these strange attitudes, most Americans have had sex ‘underage’ anyway. It’s a hypocrisy which I find ridiculous. When I traveled the Southern States, through the ‘Bible Belt,’ I was astounded at the sheer size and amount of ‘sex warehouses.’ I’m assuming selling sex toys and other goodies for people. I never saw these humongous warehouse type places anywhere else in the States. The irony was crazy.  

Anyway, where I’m going with this is that you love who you love. And yes, the age differences through the growing up and maturing of young men is quite marked at times. In Australia, I had some friends whose son was fifteen and going out with a thirty-five year old woman. They’d been together for a while too. They had a lovely connection. I asked my friends about this and they were happy about it. They liked her and their son was happy and content. They just wanted him to not be up too late on a school night, because he was doing his School Cert. or University Entrance. (Australasians start High School at 12 or 13, so by 15 or 16, they’re getting ready to go out into the world, either to Uni or a job.) (Perhaps this accounts for a different attitude overall too. I’m not sure.)  

So, anyway, you know… What the hell?   

Which brings us to the next question I asked Spencer.  

How would you feel if one of you sons did a Mrs. Robinson with someone?  

SPENCER:

Despite my fantasy of the older woman, younger man, I admit it would be a bit uncomfortable if one of my sons brought home an older woman. My wife and I have to constantly remind ourselves that the boys are emancipated adults so we have no say in their business. A true Mrs. Robinson would be the mother of a girl he knows. That would be awkward. It would be easier to deal with than, "Hey dad, guess what? You're going to be a grandpa."  

MEG:            

Er, so it sort of comes under the ‘lesser of two evils’ banner. LOL.  

Well, I was being a bit generic when I said Mrs. Robinson. I really just meant the older woman/younger man scenario. I’m wondering how you’d feel if it wasn’t someone you knew. And what a double standard. LOL. 

My next question: What appeals to you about an older woman? 

SPENCER:  

I find the appeal in older women to be in their comfort in their own skin. Whatever a woman loses in muscle tone with time is more that compensated for by a bright outlook, a lusty smile and some wisdom that comes with age.  

MEG: 

What do you think of the French system of old, whereby they educated their sons in the art of sex? 

SPENCER:  

Wouldn't it be great if we could educate boys and girls in the art of sex? Considering how important it is to a relationship it should be as important a topic as learning to cook, balancing a checkbook, or driving a car. What a hopeless thought. We can't get sex education past the neocons, how would we ever go about slipping this into a cultural norm. Why did we ever quit doing it, or do the French still do it? 

The good news is the internet offers a wealth of information that wasn't available to us in past generations. Not that the internet isn't a cesspool at times but for someone truly interested, there is a wealth of great material out there. Hey, they could always read erotica. The Good Man Project (in which were were both featured) says in no uncertain terms that reading erotica can be a starting place for couples to discuss sexuality. So we erotic writers are providing a valuable public service.  

MEG: 

LOL. But only if you’re over eighteen. LOL.  

I tried to do some research on the French sex education and couldn’t find anything definitive. So I’m not sure. But I think it’s a really good idea. In the guys that I’ve come across who WERE good lovers at an earlier age, I’ve asked them about it and they said they’d started out with an older women on their first or second attempt at sex. And it had made all the difference. They knew to slow down, pay attention, that turning the woman on was the key to getting so much more out of it for themselves. They also genuinely seemed to like women. They had a respect for them. And whether this was part of their overall make-up I’m not sure. But I still remember those ones extremely fondly.  

My character Charlie, who becomes an equal part of the relationship with Henry and Izzy in the end, was taught by an older woman. And it shows on him. When he brings it up for his son Alex, Henry has to wrestle with it, because he knows it was good for Charlie, but also his puritanical American upbringing grabs him slightly. Whereas Izzy is less shocked being a New Zealander. Charlie likens it to driving lessons in the end and Henry exclaims, “It’s not quite the same thing, Charlie.” But maybe it is, or should be.

My next question. Yes, I lied. I did actually think of some questions for Spencer after all that. LOL 

A couple of times you’ve mentioned ‘sexually aggressive’ women? What does that mean? 

SPENCER:  

I think the term 'sexually aggressive' may be harsh for a woman's ears. Guys are supposed to be aggressive. I once went to men's ADVANCE. The organizers said men didn't RETREAT. (hopeless sigh) (Meg: LOL… OMG… semantics gone mad!!)

Let's say ASSERTIVE. I always liked meeting sexually assertive women. A sexually assertive woman: begins the conversation, kisses you first, puts your hand on her breast when it's time to move on, tugs at your clothes before you start on hers, pulls you into the bedroom, is very clear about her desire for intercourse, makes lots of noise, is the first to suggest other positions and, of course, builds your ego by telling how good you are.  

Meg, Meg? Where did you go? Oh sorry folks, I think Meg left to go thow-up. Well an assertive woman makes life easier for a shy guy. Be assertive, make a shy guy happy. 

MEG:  

LOL. No, didn’t need my neat wee airline bag on that one. Other than maybe, the ego building bit. J Yes, I don’t like the term ‘sexually aggressive.’ It’s up there with ‘nymphomaniac’ for me. It’s got that ring of unnaturalness to it and smacks of misogyny. The idea that men can be sexually hungry, but women can’t. Okay, BARF bag.

I think it’s slowly getting to the place where the old outdated ideas that men are more sexually interested generally than women are starting to—hopefully—fall by the wayside. Women may be taught to be ‘chaste’ from an early age, but I’m not sure it’s the natural way of things. I think we’re all naturally sexually active as human beings. Or we should be.  

Sex done right is so gorgeous, why should only the men enjoy themselves.  

To me, a sexually aggressive person, is someone who won’t take no for an answer. And that’s got major ick factor for me. What about a sexually ‘healthy’ person. J And that means both people equally feeling they can ask for what they want or make the first move etc. I wonder if our younger guys are more confidence than you or I were at the same age Spencer. I wish we could interview your guys? I must get my toyboy round here again and put these questions to him. J  

Last question: What older actresses appealed to you when you were younger.  

SPENCER: 

Actresses. I thought that Sigourney Weaver was much older than me. It turns out we are the same age, but in Ghostbusters, I thought she carried off a maturity that made her seem older. Oh my she was so hot in that movie and is there anyone who can kick alien ass better? 

Going further back further, Jacqueline Bisset comes to mind. Again, she is only six years older than I am, but played parts with greater maturity. How Steve McQueen left her behind each day to be Bullit, speaks for how  he embodied male cool. I would have just stayed in the nifty San Francisco apartment and drooled over her all day. Which explains why I didn't get the part of Frank Bullit. 

Raquel Welch is ten years older than I am. She wasn't a talent actress but I think she launched more seamen than the British Navy. 

Raquel Welch

MEG:  

Yes, she was a bombshell. I’d agree with that one. Very sultry looking. Possibly where I perfected my smolder from. LOL.  

Okay, so once again, have we answered anything or waffled on endlessly? I don’t know, but it’s always interesting nonetheless. LOL. Next time we might do a subject like body hair, love it, hate it? What do we think of the newish trend—none anywhere look? It personally makes me squirm, but that’s just me. More on why that makes me squirm on our next Conversations with Spencer. 

Thanks as always to the readers. We love seeing people’s responses and appreciate people reading.  

Aloha from Meg and Spencer!!!

CONTACT US AT:

MEG AMOR: www.troikaromance.com

SPENCER DRYDEN: www.fictionbyspencer.com

John Rosenman ~ Interview ~ Interesting speculative fiction writer!!

Aloha everyone! Today I have John Rosenman with me, a fellow Muse It Up writer. He's a prolific writer and writes a lot of speculative fiction. It's a form of science fiction, but covers a vast array of subjects. I hadn't heard of it either. :-) But it's been interesting finding out about it.

 

John has a captivating writing style that draws you into the story. He's led an interesting life and answered some great questions on this blog for us. Thanks JOHN! Great to have you here with us. :-)

 

Tell our readers a wee bit about yourself. What are 5 things you wished you’d done, have done or are still to do, on the Bucket List? J   

1.  I wish I’d gone to see my sister in Las Vegas for our ninth wild vacation before she died.(She flew in from CA; I from VA.)  She was single, richer, eight years older, and she always sent me a $1000 check for expenses.  There’s a moral here.  You should almost never pass up opportunities to see someone you love even if you don’t know they may soon die. 

 

2.  I wish I’d gone into the Navy at seventeen despite my father’s objections.  What the hell, my whole life would have been different.  Maybe good, maybe bad.   

3.  When I was 22, I hocked my law books, left law school, hopped a Greyhound bus one way from Ohio to New Orleans, a ride which lasted 38 hours.  In New Orleans I slung hamburgers for a buck an hour and lived in an eight dollar a week room trying to write the great American novel.  I’m still trying to write it. 

 

 

4.  My first published novel The Best Laugh Last is about a white English teacher in a Southern black college, and it cost me two teaching positions.  If I had the choice whether to do it again, I’d do it again. 

5.  I want to finish the Inspector of the Cross series, wherever it takes me, and perhaps the stories/novels involving Sky Masterson. And maybe get back again to writing short stories, which seem to have dried up. Strange that the only series I’ve ever written would be in my seventies. 

6.  (A Bonus): I wish I had reached all those students I never reached.

 

Tell us about the genre you write, why do you love it and how did you get into it?  

My main genre, not the only one, is science fiction or perhaps more accurately speculative fiction because it embraces the universe and all universes, all possibilities and all genres, including the one my interviewer writes.  Man, is it ambitious, the ultimate umbrella genre.  Yes, you can have m/m or intersex SF, too. 

 

I sometimes say speculative fiction makes possible my two major themes or interests, which are the endless, mind-stretching wonders of the universe and the limitless possibilities of transformation—sexual, cosmic, and otherwise. 

 

For sexual transformation, check out my novel Alien Dreams, where Captain Latimore changes into the giant alien Ragar and makes love to the  great winged alien queen for ten thousand subjective years while changing bodies, orifices, and positions with her in the process. Go ahead, find that one in The Joy of Sex. 

 

 

How did I get into speculative fiction?  Check the “About Me” tab on my web site.  (http://www.johnrosenman.com).  I grew up saturated with scary, creepy SF/Horror movies and scary, creepy SF/Horror comics.  Also, a boyfriend of my sister gave me a year’s subscription to Amazing magazine.  When I saw War of the Worlds in 1953, it warped me forever.  Then there was The Thing.  It Came From Outer Space.  Them!  Forbidden Planet.  Invasion of the Body Snatchers.  The Day the Earth Stood Still.  And the books . . .  The Martian Chronicles.  The Illustrated Man.  The Shrinking Man.  And so on. 

What’s your most favorite restaurant in the world? Where, why and the best dish/es they make?  

I’m not a gourmet or a sophisticated diner.  I like fast food restaurants.  However, I have celiac disease and have to avoid gluten which is found in wheat, rye, barley and therefore in bread, noodles, fried foods and the like. 

One place I like is Golden Corral because I can roam among all the food islands.  I love soups like clam chowder, broccoli cheese.  Steak.  At KFC I love its grilled chicken.  If it’s done right, it’s heavenly.  I’d like to eat fried chicken but I can’t.  It’s filled with gluten.  I love lobster and Lobster Newberg, but I haven’t had them in years.  I love so many different foods really.
 

Remember those ads for Expedia (if not, just play along) that asked, ‘If you could go anywhere in the world, but have to go right now?’ Where would you have gone and would you have said to YES to right now? What pulls and entices you to that country?  

 

 

Hmmm.  Probably Italy because when I traveled there with my sister in 1994, I was mesmerized by three cities: Rome, Florence, and Venice.  I loved the museums, the cathedrals, and the sites.  Heck, I wrote one of my best stories, which is about a mediocre art teacher who visits the Sistine Chapel and has a vision that he is the reincarnation of Michelangelo. 

 

It’s the timeless beauty and history of Italy which calls me, the artistic tradition and heritage.  They have cathedrals it took them a thousand years to build while generations of men and generations of governments rose and fell.  Just walk in some of those stupendous cathedrals and look up at the magnificent art and stained glass windows.  Walk in the museums. 

 

In Florence, I saw Michelangelo’s David, as beautiful as it was the day he created it.  As for Venice, what a preposterous city, as fanciful as those in any of my stories.  If you stray off the beaten path, you have to walk on water.  What beautiful blown glass art of brilliant colors, what romantic gondolas, and St. Mark’s Square.  But it would also be sad to return now that my sister’s gone.

 

 

 

What parts of you, are incorporated into your characters?  

Boy, Meg, this is a big question.  In Turtan, the hero of my Inspector of the Cross series, I put a lot of my wish fulfillment, my desire to be heroic and larger than life.  Also in a big way, I projected into him my desire to help people, to serve them.  I am not a Christian, but Turtan is a self-effacing, self-sacrificing savior who despite his flaws and sinful ways has many parallels with Christ.

Another example: Johnny Roth in my YA novel The Merry-Go-Round Man is my alter ego in some ways.  I gave him a similar name and put him in the school I used to attend though I never name it.  Plus, I make him creative.  He’s a painter, whereas I’m a writer.  (Meg: I have read some of this book. It's excellent, very engaging. Great subject matter!)  

 

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Biggest example: David Newman, the rebel English teacher at the Southern black college in my first novel The Best Laugh Last is me.  Or to be grammatically correct, he is I in many ways.  It’s a whistle-blower of a novel.  Though it was reviewed in newspapers, it never caught the attention of the national media. (Meg: And I would love to read this book, but apparently it's so controversial that John wouldn't republish it when it was offered! Just the type of book I want to read! Seriously.)

 

While many or most of my characters don’t contain parts of me, I like to think I have what John Keats called negative capability, which is the ability to identify and sympathize with all kinds of people, including those who are completely different from me.   

 

Favorite male hero/public figure you admire in the world, dead or alive, and why?  

I would have to say my father, for his scrupulous honesty and resolve always to say what he thought, regardless of the cost or consequences.  He was a lawyer, and a fiercely truthful one.  Once he had the nerve to tell a judge he would die for his dishonesty in the courtroom.  And soon after, the man did! 

When I was a small kid, I missed the first two strikes in a baseball game and gave the bat to another boy because I thought I’d just whiff the third pitch. Dad sternly told me never to do that again and always to try and never give up.  He was a good teacher, and I’ve always tried to carry that lesson through life. 
 

Favorite female heroine/public figure you admire in the world, dead or alive, and why?  

First, my mother, who like my father was not a public figure.  Like him, however, she cared deeply about her family and about being honest and true to herself.  Many of my values and beliefs are derived from her. 

I must mention Irene Sendler, the “female Schindler.”  She died in 2008 at the age of 98.  To quote from a source: “When the Germans finally caught her, the Roman Catholic social worker had managed to save 2,500 Jewish babies and toddlers from deportation to the concentration camps. . . . She was beaten, tortured and sentenced to death by the Gestapo  -  who even announced her execution. But Irena survived, her spirit unbroken, her secrets untold.”  She was uncomfortable being called a heroine.  Sendler said, "The term 'heroine' irritates me greatly. The opposite is true. I continue to have pangs of conscience that I did so little." (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1021048/Female-Schindler-Irena-Sendler-saved-2-500-Jewish-children-died-aged-98.html).

 

Irena Sendler

That last trait is shared with my epic hero Turtan.  Please don’t praise him, give a speech or dinner in his honor, or sculpt a statue in his magnificent likeness.  It embarrasses him and will piss him off.  He exists only to serve, only to save.  Anything else is not only irrelevant, it can be harmful bullshit. 

 

Have you ever had a character just “do their own thing?” Have you ever had an argument with one of your characters? Or anything else odd happen?

 

Usually I’m in control, and they don’t talk back or barge out of the joint.  But lately a fourteen-year-old girl named Sky Masterson gave me problems.  You see, I’m a Pantser, and when Turtan and I first ran into her in Book II in a deep mine on the planet Lauren, I thought she was going to be just a bit character.  A dirty-faced, malnourished kid.  A great acrobat/juggler, a good fighter, but deficient in language skills and dying of cancer. 

But she was so likeable, and I was so proud of her, and well, she grew on me.  And just as bad, or good, she grew on Turtan, too.  And in Book III in the series she surprised me by almost taking over and sharing the billing with my protagonist.  If there were a movie marquee, she’d be right there beneath him. 

 

Sky loves Her Inspector. And she surprised, bewitched, and completely won me over. Hell, she surprised the Jax, too.  He’s the representative of God, the divine female spirit who reigns throughout the multiverse. I have the Jax appear in every novel of this series, and he tells Turtan that Sky surprised him, too. He never saw this girl coming, and he never dreamed there could be two champions in the universe. All this when Sky is only fifteen years old. 

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The problem is, it seems I devoted too many chapters to Sky’s story in Book III, and they took away from Turtan’s story.  So I decided to delete most of her chapters.  Over twenty-five thousand words, baby.  But Sky’s still in there, and she continues into Book IV.  I mentioned an idea to my editor Chris Speakman about a separate novel focusing on Sky on First Station from age fourteen to eighteen, presenting everything from her POV.  Maybe a YA novel, and Chris is gung-ho about it. (Meg: What do we think readers? Hell yes. We love rogue characters. Please... please...please write it John. I'll sic Lea on you LOL. Chris just isn't scary enough. Sorry Chris! :-) Although she's currently threatening my beloved home state with snow. Little does she know, we welcome on Mauna Kea in the winter on the Big Island. :-))

 

I don’t know.  It’s a great universe, but maybe I’ve got to get out of it.  I do love Sky, though.  Hell, just about everyone does, especially men.  Like Turtan, Sky has transcendent abilities.  But what’s an eighteen-year-old woman doing, giving all her love to a forty-eight-year-old man when he won’t even sleep with her because he considers her to be his daughter even though he desires her.  Men.  They’re so fucked up.  You know they are, Meg.  It’s a doomed relationship, isn’t it?  Well, how would I know?  I’m only the author, and I’m a pantser.  (Meg: Oh for God's sake, just write the bloody thing John! LOL. And so say all of us.)  

You know why this beautiful, exotic, deadly fighter of a warrior won’t settle for any other man, not even for a quick roll in the hay? C’mon, I’ll give you ten seconds to figure it out. Okay, the answer is . . . because Turtan is the best there is and the best there ever will be.  It’s that simple.  Most of us will “settle” or compromise, but not Sky. Never. 

Anyway, Sky took over much of my narrative, and a large chunk of me hopes she doesn’t continue to hijack my keyboard and make me write a book or two focusing on her.  But I wouldn’t bet on it, Meg. You see, I’ve had a real weak spot for women all my life, and Sky knows just how to get to a man. 

 

What’s your passion in life?  

Well, I’ve already mentioned women, and I won’t dwell on it.  It tells you something that I make God feminine in my Inspector of the Cross series.  I like guys, but I don’t want any God with a deeper voice or a scratchier beard than me. 

My family is my passion, too. My wife.  We have shared a path and a journey for a long time.  Our children are my passion, too. 

My writing is my passion. I want to get inside people and make them cry, laugh, feel better, inspired, and never forget what they’ve read.  I want them to remember it long after I’m gone.  Maybe me a little but more important, what I’ve written, my characters and words and stories.  I try to hone and revise my writing, whether it’s fiction or nonfiction and make it as fine and polished as I can, as memorable and as perfect as possible.
 

What’s your writer’s routine? Do you write whenever or at certain times? Are you a pantser or plotter? Where do you like to write?

 

Basically I sit down in my den and bang away at my computer.  No real schedule, especially since I retired three years ago, and in good weather tennis comes first in the morning.  But when I’m inspired and the words are coming and I know where the story’s a-going, I go tap, tap, tap for hour after hour.   And boy is it good.  I have no regular, disciplined routine, though, and I write at scattered times.  

 

I’m basically a pantser, and I wrote a darn good blog on this subject on my web site (www.johnrosenman.com).  Just scroll down a ways.  When I used to go to cons, some writers on panels were meticulous planners, even constructing outlines hundreds of pages long with elaborate character sketches.  Others get by on a shoeshine and a smile.  I like to make it up as I go along. In my just finished novel, Defender of the Flame, the conclusion of what I call “The Turtan Trilogy,” I did have the basic conclusion in mind and even the last couple of sentences written, which is rare for me.  

 

Years ago, with Speaker of the Shakk, published by Mundania Press, I actually wrote out a complete outline and was proud of myself.  But then I changed the novel so much, the outline was little more than a springboard into something else.  Still, it was helpful, and in general I’d recommend that writers use them.  It’s just I like the freedom of marching forth into the wilderness without a map and a compass. 

If you could pick a past life, what time period would appeal to you and why? Would you be male or female? Rich or poor?  

Male, probably neither rich or poor but somewhere in between so I could forge my own future.  Females in general had it rough, limited freedoms even if they were rich or upper class.  And there was always the possibility of complications or dying in childbirth.  Besides, I like being a male.  However, I might be tempted to experience sex and sensibility from a female’s perspective . . . if I could remember what it was like to be a man. 

My favorite past time period: I’d like to come along as a young adult about 1950, the beginning of the Golden Age of Science Fiction before so many of the great stories and novels were written.  Perhaps I could create some of the great stories myself.  It’s not that there aren’t new stories to tell now; it’s just that so many of the classics have already been written.

 

 

CONTACT JOHN ON:

 

E-mail: jroseman@cox.net

 

Web site: http: www.johnrosenman.com,

 

Blog: http://johnrosenman.blogspot.com/

 

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/john.rosenman

 

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/JohnBRosenman?ref=hl   

 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/Writerman1

 

Google+:  https://plus.google.com/100151780540512089888/posts

 

Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/John-B.-Rosenman/e/B001KMN69E

 

Photobucket: http://s631.photobucket.com/user/jrosenman/library/?sort=3&page=1

 

An interview: http://workingwritersandbloggers.com/2009/08/18/interview-john-b-rosenman/

 



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