Thou Strong Seducer, Opportunity
by Angelica Hart and Zi
As the writing tandem of Angelica Hart and Zi we confront the omnipresent obstacle of credibly selling seduction. The action of the artful lure of lust and love is and can be difficult. The line of demarcation between sensuality and erotica is hazy. The following is a piece from our manuscript in progress, It May Be Love. The writer of the e-mail was a man wanting to seduce, his heart was pure, his motivation honest, yet were his techniques apt, effective, or foolish?
Morning. The world of weather appears to have given wonderful, at first, it a light gentle rain. Not so wonderful later, so I read until I sat to write to you. The coffee is being shared alone, wish I had a smile to share with it, yours. The room is silent but for the ticky-tack of my keyboard, ticky-tack, sticky keys. The A and S keys. I have been writing steamy stuff lately. Why? My thoughts are with you. I hope this finds you well.
John Dryden wrote, “Thou strong seducer, Opportunity!” John knows seduction, yet, so few see the opportunity before them. I contend that they miss the moment. So few understand seduction, I see it, feel it, but can I create it? The best I can do is try. Kudos Johnnie boy. Your beautiful eyes are my opportunity to dream, no, not John’s but yours, silly!
You are my possibility
My friend to be
My muse
My paramour
My future
You are my possibility
And I am profoundly
Pleased.“A wise man will make more opportunities then he finds.” was given to us by Francis Bacon, neither a pig nor a women but a man who has a healthy vision on how to challenge life. I am a glass half-full man and see optimism as my greatest quality, maybe my second. You can be the judge one day.
I see sun when it rains
Light in the dark
I feel dawn rushes
I know good
And adore it
Ugly is ignored
For beauty transcends all
I see possibilities.Pollyannaish? No. Nor cynic. Edward R. Murrow said of optimism, “Someone who tells you to cheer up when things are going his way.” That is the essence of a cynic. I think of you and become showered by the waterfall of possibilities. Drenched in the orange glow of what if.
The ‘iron hot’ strategy from James Howell’s words, “strike while…” is how most look at opportunity. John Clarke wrote, “Make hay while the sun shineth.” Don’t ya just love a word with a –th. Churchill’s spin was, “Make hell while the sun shines.” which supports this narrower view of opportunity. I differ with these men. I see opportunity as a more wonderfully larger thing. Opportunity is boundless, enriched by imagination.
As a child I was told
Have lemons make lemonade
As an adult I say
Have a life… live brightly.Now, is our chance to discover, to take sojourns to ideas and ideals. The method to facilitate the quest for the self-actualized being is captured in one thought; risk it all. The grand way to find the greater joy our lives can offer; risk it all. A way to grow in oh so many ways… wink-wink!
Sincerity bleaches white
The browns of dishonesty
The you of me is beguiling
The me of you… reconcilingI look at it this way. When it rains cats and dogs; you’ve a new pet or two. I’ve reached that age where I understand and I enjoy the simple things. Life is good, so I just look for it.
The point, yes, I’ll move toward it.
Aristotle puts it simply, “A friend is a second self.” After reading your words I felt a wonderful connect. One I would be foolish to let past without discovery, so you are my opportunity, my possibility, and I sincerely thank you. You are becoming my friend.
I look at you
And see me
Looking back
At yourself.I’d like to see your eyes, feel your smile, and discover you.
The afore piece was designed so the man might via his email seduce. When we construct a manuscript and the plot device is seduction we never know if we’ve been successful. Of course we seduce the whomever we intended, we designed it that way, but do we touch the reader. We are writing temptation so we want to tempt. It is the reader whom we ultimately feel we have to move. Enticing allure was the staple of Shakespeare, but required one to be a student of the obscure. We feel it must be both real and overt, universally intriguing, yet precisely perfect for the characters and, yes, we stumble.
Is it innate insecurity on our part? Great query. No! Neither of us are insecure about seduction nor our writing. It is the delicate fabric of it and the diverse nature of it that brings us struggles. One character might find apt fascination with a shy stoic man whereas another craves a virile dominating sort. Translating that and bringing it beauty is our duty to readers. There are no formulas. The plot and essence of the characters created dictate the tools available to us. Our constant boggle is that within our plots do we excite and please the reader. We are inspired to make the seduction believable, maybe the seducer likeable, the tease sexy and personal to the reader, but mostly to bring an honest twitter to anyone who lets our words unfold before them. We want you to believe a shy man a stud, and want you to want him. It is easy to make a stud a stud.
We see love, also beauty in that love, and all that for every person. Naive of us? Not at all.
This is Zi saying that I want you… to read!
EXCERPT FOUR
She finally raised her head, flushed with what she could only imagine was a brilliant blush, she now making first eye contact. Why? He was an attractive man, the remember-to-breathe sort of attractive, with penetrating eyes and a charm-saturated smile. Every grooming detail meticulously accounted for earlier. He wore a Nat Nast beneath a vintage leather jacket and jeans that looked like something out of a GQ ad, perfect fit, perfect stance, perfect… everything. Her mind hung on the ideal of everything. The last thought reminded her she wasn’t thinking about jeans but about the man in them. Confronted by such a man often embarrassed her, turning her shy, and with confidence elusive she oft times stuttered. Fumbling with her out-of-style eyeglasses she found her composure and responded, “Twenty-two fifty. Wow. That is pricy.”
“It is, but would be worth it if you smiled.” He flashed a smile that nurtured as it tenderly comforted, and raised an eyebrow calling for that smile.
Though, completely taken off guard, she felt a flick of panic rush beneath her skin. Easy girl. You can do this, she told herself silently. So what if this man piqued the urge to drool and bat a few lashes, then she remembered her eyelashes were on her nightstand. He was just a man; gorgeous to the square of infinity but still a man. She knew many handsome men. She thought of Jack the handyman at her complex who had muscles that could barely fit through the door and Carlos, owner of a local pizzeria, with his all-white-dazzle smiles and compliments. But neither were the handsome that attracted Letti, neither had the voice that made her feel music, or looked at her as if she had a soul. Somehow, in this instantaneous moment of glance-to-glance, she found that this stranger did. He coupled her sensibility right to her passion and bridged that through his eyes retracting her soul into the protective hug of his. He was a man. All she was able to do was feign an awkward grin as she twittered in place.
ABOUT AUTHORS
Their combined accomplishments include book publications in print and/or electronic versions of twenty-four titles, fifteen romance specific, ten manuscripts pending, EPPIE finalist for three books, Cecil Whig award, Hob-Nob Reader’s Choice Award, written over 500 shorts with numerous published in both nationwide and small press magazines, articles published in various local, city and statewide newspapers, including four as a Guest Columnist in addition to trade articles. Both are members of various writing groups.
KILLER DOLLS IS AVAILABLE: Unaware that bio-terrorists are using her handcrafted dolls to attack the innocent, Letti Noel finds herself falling for Taut Johnson, an undercover FBI agent. Even as deceit is a growing barrier to their love, it’s the stalking terrorists that are a threat to their lives.
We love to hear from anyone interested in what we do. Anyone who writes us and leaves a s-mail address, we will send you a gift and add you to any future mailings.
Angelica Hart and Zi
Author’s site: angelicahartandzi.com
Killer Dolls can be purchased at Champagne Books: http://www.champagnebooks.com/
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
I found the excerpt very seductive. You can feel the sparks. Great blog.
I like being seduced when I read a book. I become the heroine and want to feel everything she feels. You guys nailed that feeling in both excerpts.
Hi Jenn, ever wonder if those initial sparks are emotional or physical? Physical is usually pretty instantaneous, the eye contact, the body language, and that connection we simply can’t explain. Some say it is hormonal, we have that inner drive, but there is also something that draws us spirit to spirit. Of course, we don’t know this as a fact, but it is something that we like to believe. It is what brings us into that realm of romance, that certainty that love, to coin Zi, can be found anytime, anywhere, you just have to look for it.
Sally, great to meet you. Ah, seduction, the lure, the tug, the dance of thoughts, sparks, and chemistry. Our entire goal is to get the reader to participate in that dance, to, as you put it become the heroine, to feel as she feels to yearn and desire the hero, to feel completely and fully the focus of the hero’s energies and passion. We are tickled that you experienced that in our excerpt. For as Waiter Rant says, “But seduction isn’t making someone do what they don’t want to do. Seduction is enticing someone into doing what they secretly want to do already.”
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