To those of us who stand in the streaming rays of the sun, shift under the glow of the full moon, or rise at dusk and never get tan lines,  

Let's take care of business first. I just received my latest hit tallies for this site and my blog activity. Thank you all so much for visiting me. I had no clue how popular I am in U.K. Here is a shout out across the big pond for my supporters there. Love you, Luvs!

 I wonder if my popularity in England has to do with the Brits well earned history and infatuation with vampires. I can only hope, that the astounding number of hits I get from those lovers of Big Ben is no coincidence to both a very famous British gynecologist and a fancy cosmetics line in the U.K. each using the name Anne Roberts. I'm neither swabbing women nor making the masses beautiful one shade of lip gloss at a time.

Naturally, I discovered those other Anne’s by googling myself. It's a rush. If you haven't done so you are missing out. By the way, I am the number one site under both Anne Patricia Roberts, as written in a variety of ways, and Supernatural Erotic Romance. Bragging, you quip? No, you silly bee, I set up my web site to attract attention to my writing, to help other writers that aspire to become published. I’d love to bring more readers into the amazing worlds of Paranormal, Supernatural, Erotic, Futuristic, and Romance fiction.

That brings me to my wonderful news, and then some goodies I've noticed about writing for adults vs. young adults. I wrote my first novel. Then I learned how to improve my writing. I swear to you. It was in that order. My purple prose ran rampant. They were bruised, actually. My punctuation was punctured and bleeding out, still is a little, but it doesn't hemorrhage like it used to. Those poor participles were dangling like a male model without his Haynes under briefs. And last, lest I start to rant, the point of view of my characters was hopping so fast, it was like watching the head go around and around on that unfortunate young girl in the Exorcism.

 I'm still learning better uses for the English language, and always will be. I think writing is like that. Just when you are down on yourself about your punctuation or the fact that your writing has a long way to go, something wonderful happens. For example, an editor contacts you out of the blue, and she says those words you would get down on your knees and do unspeakable things in public for ... YOU HAVE PROMISE!

That actually happened to me last month. Maybe, she noticed my web site and decided to take a gamble. I will never know, but a real, live, accredited, cosmopolitan editor of Paranormal Erotic Romance emailed me. I ended up showing her a few pages of my novel. She was incredibly kind and gave me advice ... for free ... out of the goodness of her big heart. Writers are to beware, but this editor really was helping me because she wanted to do the whole “pay-it-forward” deal. A professional with exceptional values… and I got to work with her. Neat, huh?.

After her initial contact, I studied her advice for a solid week. I researched every correction she made to my story. I almost started praying the words she had gifted me, "you have promise,"" like some mantra for rain or peace or the skill to write a well crafted short story. My mumbling was answered with inspiration. Sorry, getting a bit carried away, in actuality, she was very cool. Her guidance sparked me to write a paranormal erotic romance short story, which I had, a little painfully, amateur edited, elsewhere. I submitted my story to a Publishing house that specialized in epub. Believe me when I tell you, and half the world, you will be the first to know if they buy it from me, and where you can a copy of it.

The moral to this story is not to sit in your castle, ye maids and maidens, and wait for a wonderful editor to come riding in on their great, white stallion across the mote and sweep you off your feet into publishing bliss. Women need to get real. Take any critique from anyone who will give it, professional or not. Join a writer's group, get a writing partner (more of the editor's great advice), and try to get an overall view of your writing weakness's. My primary offender will always be poor punctuation. That's okay. I have the ability to tell a fast-paced story with great sex scenes, and I'm never, ever giving up writing. Now, I understand why the author of Harry Potter is rumored to have lived out of her car. It is an honor and a rush to create stories to entertain my fellow humans.

 Digress much? Yeah, well, you know you love it. You know you loved Twilight, too. It is so popular with adult females, that when I mention that I am an aspiring romance writer, and my theme is usually vampires, most women respond by saying, "Like Twilight?" Inevitably, wearing my Cheshire cat grin, I tell them, "Oh. Those books written for tweens and young adults do provide an excellent introduction to the paranormal world. Don't they?" 

First of all, I am not joining the band wagon on Twilight bashing. I’m pretty ambivalent about teen literature. Sure, I see both the up and down sides of the fame achieved by that type of book.

I wasn’t really a fan of the parallels the writer drew by comparing the big, bad archetype of the Catholic Church to the book’s vampire leaders all dressed like Bishops and based in Rome. I am neither Catholic nor Mormon, but religions are a touchy subject for fiction writing.

A Mormon housewife trashing another religion is like me, an aspiring writer, bashing the success of her book. However, religious subterfuge is a no-no in youth fiction. Let’s all keep our own religious ideologies in check and write using more universal morays than those likely to be offensive, please. Other than that I am happy for the writer’s success.  

The most profound aspect of the Twilight novel is that the writer has provided young readers their paranormal romance training wheels. Even though when I was a teen, I still wanted to read the build-up of sexual tension I probably would have liked this book anyway. I figure, by the time I start hitting my writing groove with my own stories those teens readers are going to be in college and chomping at the bit for my erotic fictions. Yipee!

The Dark Side Anthology features stories with drama and action driven plots, just like books for younger readers. The heroes are men, or beings, who inevitably are driven to pursue and protect the object of their desire while a developing romantic conflict builds along with the plot. Readers of all ages love reading about relationships with powerful and irresistible heroes and heroines with whom they can identify.

 In romances for all ages, these heroes are domineering, gorgeous males, similar to the teen novel heroes that are less forward and more pensive. The adult and erotic story heroes have needs that must be met, deep-seeded problems they are forced to face, and pasts with filled with suffering and trauma. The difference is that in erotic or sexy romance hand holding and a kiss on the cheek isn't going to satisfy them. Thank the Deity of your choice for that. 

I worry many women have been raised with such a fear of unwanted pregnancy that, even in their reading choices they can't let go of the Victorian shyness about sex that was verbally beaten into them. What is the solution? LET GO GIRL! Doing it and reading about "the wild side" of life are two different behaviors.

Being sexually promiscuous is dangerous and deleterious. Reading, and learning new things, and then giving your sweetie a tap on the shoulder and wink is all fun and most enjoyable. You can plunge into an erotic fiction anytime you want to. You have to grow up and give yourself permission to read about desire between mature, consulting adults. Reading gives you a chance to break free of your expected role in life. Try it. I promise you will not go blind. I did and didn't.

 Now, I write stories that make other women squirm with delight and seek out their partners after reading one. Thereby, they bring new ideas into their bedrooms, kitchens, in their back yards at night after the neighbors got to sleep.

The allegory, Grasshopper, is that you should read a variety of literature before you lock those cathedral doors, choosing "safe" material which is popular and more socially acceptable in some circles. There is so much more out there that has been written for you, the adult woman. Jeepers, make a book cover out of a brown paper bag to hide the sexy male model on the cover of your spicy stuff or better yet, order online and no one will ever know if you are enjoying "War and Peace" or one of my tantalizing tales.


Talk to you in your dreams,
WBCT (Warmest Blood Curdling Thanks),
Anne Patricia Roberts