Month: August 2007

A rose by any other name… Doesn’t necessarily sound the same when cried out in a fit of passion. . . .Does it?

Buy It Now

Thanks to the naughty girls here for inviting me to blog today – I love this place, and I’m looking forward to having a lot of fun chatting with you all. In fact, if you chat with me today, I’ll pick a winner from the comments to receive a signed copy of Pick Me Up, my new Blaze Forbidden Fantasy, released this month. Anyway, on to the topic of sexy names… what makes a name sexy?

I read in a news item this morning that there is a Chinese couple who want to name their baby “@,” the “@” symbol used in email. They said “The whole world uses it to write e-mail, and translated into Chinese it means ‘love him’,” the father explained, according to the deputy chief of the State Language Commission Li Yuming.”

Yeah, right. I don’t know if they were allowed to do it or not, since China apparently has some law against using Arabic symbols in names. However, names are always in the news. Celebrities who name their kids crazy names, and last week, I saw a news clip where some folks are making a living now as “name consultants” – I’m not kidding, you can pay someone hundreds of dollars to tell you the best name for your baby.

Imagine if we had to do that with our book characters? We’d go broke. I name a couple dozen characters every year, and I manage to do it without paying someone to tell me what name I should use. I also named my son and myself. I was asked by my editor when I sold to Harlequin to choose a pseudonym, and I actually like Sam very much, though I feel more like a Sam, not a Samantha. I think anyone who knows me would agree.

It’s kind of a sexy name, though, I think, Samantha Hunter – and I guess that’s why Harlequin agreed to put it on the front of my sexy books (when I first chose it, a friend teased me that it’s because “man hunter” is in there…). Ha.

When I’m naming characters, I try to find names that are reflective of the story – so Risa Remington in my Blaze Extreme, Untouched, has an alliterative name because she’s a superheroine, and superheroes always have alliterative real names. I also wanted her to have an unusual name, since she was an unusual gal.

I write books largely set in New England and the east coast, so I come up with names that I think match geographically (white bread, east coast names, LOL), and I think about my characters’ families, ethnicity, background, and how their name reflects who they are, at least in my estimation. Lauren is a shy, somewhat insulated, over-protected heroine, but Miranda is a firecracker. Brett is a cowboy, but Colin was my college professor.

I usually wonder, how would this name sound called out during sex? Would it sound silly? Is it the kind of name that someone can say affectionately, create a loving nickname from, or repeat over and over at the moment of orgasm? I mean, how would poor @’s lovers deal with this symbolic name? Does this symbol scream passion? I don’t think so.

Are there names that are just not sexy? I don’t know. I would have said “Fritz” wouldn’t be a good name for a hero, until I watched The Closer – Fritz (or as they often call him, Fritzi), on that show, is completely hot. Howie is another one that probably wouldn’t win the sexy name sweepstakes, but I think a lot of folks probably think Howie Mandell is attractive. How about a Stan, Percival or an Arthur? Female equivalents?
I’m wondering if off-the-tracks, retro geek names are actually becoming more sexy than the more stereotypical hero names like Jared and Hawk. Even “The Rock” goes by his own name, Dwayne Johnson, in movie credits, but I have to admit, The Rock is sexier. However, I find Henry a very sexy hero name. Dick, I think is the obvious non-choice for hero names.

Preppie names, Biff and Tad, I can’t imagine ever being sexy. They are usually bad guy names to me. It’s something to do with plaid jackets and shirts with little symbols on them.

What character names do you find sexy or not? Have you ever been surprised by a name that shouldn’t have been sexy, but became that way, like Fritz? Do you have favorites? What would your pseudonym be if you had to pick one, or if you just wanted to change your name? Let’s talk names….

First of all, I have to apologize for not being around much this week. A brand new Imac has finally replaced my poor, old, ten-inch laptop!!! Can you say twenty-inch screen? But it’s taken me a while to transfer everything over, and I lost a few emails in the process. I also lost all my email addresses so I have to manually add them all back. Oh well. Did I mention the twenty-inch screen? And it’s fast. I have no idea why, but it is.

Anyway. What I want to discuss today is pubic hair.

So. We all have our little extravagances, right? Some of us get bi-weekly pedicures, some of us get our hair colored every so often. My little extravagance is facials. I get one about every eight weeks or so. Needless to say, over the past few years, I’ve gotten to know my esthetician pretty well. She makes my face look as good as possible. She steams me, scrubs me, molds my brows with an artistic hand. Last month we started talking about bikini waxing and I told her I’ve never had a bikini wax before.

She was appalled. She started telling me about how much easier it was to get waxed, how the hair follicles become fainter with every session, how clean a girl feels afterwards. So I agreed to schedule an appointment to have my first wax job. I mean, I like to be clean as much as the next girl. Clean and pure, that’s me.

So I made my bush whack rendezvous for a few weeks later. Meanwhile, I had to grow the thing out, to give her some leverage and all. It was annoying, but I did it. Finally, the big day arrived. I showed up at her salon and it was kinda awkward. I mean, for years I’d been seeing her for all things above the neckline and now I had to get naked and bare all.

“Um.” I looked at the wall. “What do I do now?”
“Well, do you want a Brazilian?
“Sure!” Brazilians are sexy! And I speak a bit of Portuguese.
She smiled. “Then take everything off and get on the table!”

I think I blushed. I got undressed (except for my black wife-beater) and climbed onto the table. I lay there all exposed as she went about her business. I think she was melting wax or something. It was strange to just lay there on the bed in my tank-top, with my hoo-ha all out in the open for the world to see. Except she wasn’t the world, she was just this lady with whom I’d discussed daycare and the weather.

Then she slapped the hot wax all over my privates. At first I was a bit embarrassed, but after about ten minutes I just wanted it over with. I was holding parts open for her so she could get in real good. She’s really detail oriented. Leave no valley untouched and all of that. Then she was done. Olá!

So now I’m clean and pure. Are you?

I think I am.  I think I’m turning into this little old lady before my prime ‘cos I’m feeling like the most forgetful creature in the entire world.

Ahem, like this blog post. I completely forgot I was supposed to write it! It dawned on me literally two minutes ago!  Aaack – if my head wasn’t attached, I’d probably lose it.

I’ve noticed lately I have to make lots of lists.  Lists for my lists, even. I bought not one, not two, but THREE organizational/date planners for the house, for my writing business and for the kids’ schedule. That’s rather ridiculous, don’t you think? Hell, I think so, but guess what – I’m gonna end up using all of those planners, I’m sure of it.

So do y’all feel the same way? Are you forgetful and constantly doing things like, “OH MY GAWD I GOTTA TAKE LITTLE MAN TO THE DR TO CHECK HIS TB TEST!” Cos I just did on Monday.  Completely forgot about it.  I do remember that I have to take middle child to the doctor today.  And I need to bring her shot records.  I even wrote down a note that says “bring shot records.” You know, cos I’m so forgetful.

Tell me I’m not alone in this.  Please.  I’m beggin’ ya.

Ok get your minds out of the gutter.  I’m not talking about that kind of girl time, though I suppose I could  :sup:

I’m talking about spending time with your best girls, sans children, or other leechy critters, to do  whatever you want and not have a curfew.   Now, I’ll admit, I’m a bit on the old side, so even though Dennie and I hit the bar once every few months, I always feel like a creature from another planet come to observe and take notes.  Then, recently, I cheated on Dennie with Lynn.  We went to see Nancy Drew.  Yes it was corny, and silly but there was definitely some nostalgia there and we had a good time.  We went away vowing to do it again (because none of us ever gets out).  So, on my birthday I asked the both of them out  :tmi:  to the movies (this way I didn’t feel like I was cheating) because I really wanted to see Stardust and I knew it was something the boy-leeches woulnd’t want to see.  And even though I didn’t feel good, I was determined to do something fun for myself on my birthday (damnitalltohell!).

So we hit the movies, with a stop-off at Carrabas to while away some time over dessert and decided that we should do this once a month.  I think, as important as it is to make time for ourselves (something else many women don’t do enough of), it’s important to connect with your girlfriends too and just hang out, see a movie, go have a drink…whatever and remind yourself that yes you DO have a life outside of that husband and children.

So when’s the last time you had some high quality girl (or guy!) time?