Open Mic Spice with Sydney Croft
We’re Pregnant!
Oh, and no, neither of us is pregnant.But as we finish up the third book in our Agency for Covert Rare Operatives (ACRO) series, we’re suddenly wanting to get our characters pregnant. We’re resisting the urge (barely,) and it’s really freaking us out.
This odd urge has never happened to either of us, in any of our individual writings. So why now? Why with this particular series?
Steph’s Theory? The thing I love most about writing the male characters is creating a bad-ass loner alpha male, because they always fall the hardest when it comes to love. They fight it and they fight it and then, watching them open themselves up is truly one of my favorite moments, as a reader and a writer. So I think the pregnancy aspect ties into that somewhat – you’ve got these men who have special abilities, who sometimes have to do really bad things in order to make the world a better place – and then giving them a child adds to the complications they already have – makes life messy. It also brings out their already protective nature, ramps it to almost a ferocious level. But the thing is I really, REALLY don’t like books with kids involved. Maybe it’s because I don’t want to see them hurt and I never think of parenthood in a romantic way. So the pregnancy is as far as I’d go in having a child involved in any kind of main storyline.
With the women…well, these are the first books I’ve written where the women truly can’t see themselves as mothers – for various reasons. But when the right man comes along, the one who strikes at the very heart of what makes them female…they suddenly want to explore their innermost desires. These books are very raw and earthy in regards to the world – we used nature as a foundation for many of the characters’ abilities, so I think that maybe the characters are responding as nature intended when they come together as mates – they develop a desire to reproduce. It comes down to the basics of human and animal nature.
So what about you? Do you like to read stories where the characters end up pregnant as part of the happy ending? Do you like stories where the pregnancy plays a large role in the story from the beginning?
We’re curious! 
September 14th, 2007 at 1:19 am
I personally think I keep knocking up my characters (not literally) because my own clock is ticking.
I could be wrong because I really, really don’t like children and the thought of carrying around something tantamount to a parasite inside of my body kind of weirds me out.
*shrugs* Other than the biological clock theory, I got nothing.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:21 am
Oooh, I love me some Sydney Croft! Welcome Steph & Larissa!
After reading this post, I now desperately want to make my current heroine pregnant cos the hero would freak the hell out and it would be GREAT. See what you two just did?
It just depends on how it’s written. I’ve read some pretty corny pregnant heroine books and I’ve read some wonderful ones. I never ever mind it thrown in at the end like a prologue cos I always think, “awww.”
I’ve only written one with the heroine pregnant for the last half of the book. That book tortured me. I don’t know if the pregnancy had anything to do with it.
I say go for it, ladies.
September 14th, 2007 at 1:36 am
Hi ladies!! Welcome to NAS. We’re totally stoked
to have you here. I knocked up a heroine recently. Sometimes we just get the craving to do so. That last step in the HEA.
But I hear you. I need to go slip a condom on my hero in my WIP, because my heroine’s biological clock might as well be a time bomb in her mind. It’s just so fun to write a pregnancy moment.
I think you guys are too cool for writing books together.
September 14th, 2007 at 2:10 am
NO i dont like preg women, i didnt like beingpreg and
men lieeeeeeeeeeeeee
dont belive a word about , i cant have kids, cause buddy they sure can give them and run
September 14th, 2007 at 8:06 am
[…] over at Naughty And Spice. Steph and I are talking with the Naughty girls about knocking your characters up and why it’s fun […]
September 14th, 2007 at 8:17 am
Only ever knocked on of my characters up.
And that was a story about a couple of very ordinary people near the bottom of the heap.
They’d found each other, fallen in love and were starting a life together. Having a child was just the ‘logical’ extension of that.
September 14th, 2007 at 8:35 am
LOL, Emma! I’m with you! I’m not big on kids (I adore my own, but have a hard time with other people’s kids.) I did enjoy being pregnant, too.
Karen! Thanks for the welcome!
Glad we could make you want to get pregnant! Well, one of your characters, anyway! *g* And don’t encourage Steph…we’re going to end up with a damned nursery at our agency! 
Thank you for the welcome, Shelli! LMAO @ your heroine’s time bomb! And yeah, it is fun to write a pregnancy moment!
Ooh, Tami, that lie “I can’t have kids,” gives me an idea…that Steph will hate!
Rob, I can definitely see the natural extension thing when it comes to relationships. I actually don’t mind reading stories where the pregnancy comes at the end as part of the HEA, but for some reason, I never want to write them. Until now, with this particular series. It’s weird! *g*
September 14th, 2007 at 10:13 am
Tami my ex told me he thought he was sterile. I got two that proves he’s not.
You could not PAY me to do that shit again. I still remember childbirth and I still remember how bad it hurt. I don’t like being pregnant and I don’t like when they come out!
We’re Pregnant!
Larissa…just so you know, when I opened your blog post to put up yesterday, I nearly PISSED myself.
I think pregnancy definitely brings a whole new dimension to characters and it’s just a natural progression (for some folks).
September 14th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I’m not one for pregnancy books, though I do like some books with kids in them, if the children can be characters in their own right. They are sometimes more interesting than the adults. ;) I suppose I am suspicious of a hero who falls in love with a pregnant woman. I used to know this guy who was nuts over pregnant women, and I always thought it was kind of creepy. As if women were only attractive if they could breed.
However, I did have one of my heroines *think* she could be pregnant to add tension to the relationship once, since it was accidental, and two others who became pregnant in the epilogues and follow-up books within a series, but that was, as you say, to show the logical extension of the relationship, and at that point, those heroines weren’t the focus of the book.
I sort of like heroines, and heroes, who are very honest about being leery or completely off of kids and pregnancy, LOL — love Eve Dallas for that reason. She is absolutely hysterical about kids and pregnancy, but we know she’d be a great mom. I wish we had more of that, frankly. I don’t like all the squishy maternal stuff, and please, please don’t have breastfeeding scenes as foreplay
— OMG that grosses me out…
Okay, now that I’ve offended all the la leche people, I should probably be quiet…
Sam
September 14th, 2007 at 10:55 am
please, please don’t have breastfeeding scenes as forepla
LOL@La Leche….I doubt they’d be offended. Honestly, that’s just gross–it’s a fetish (much like pregnant women and feet ewwwwwwwwwwww) for a reason. ewwwwwwwwww
Anyone know what the actual fetish is called?
September 14th, 2007 at 11:37 am
Dude I totally read a book (written by a guy! And it wasn’t a romance) where the guy in the story was all turned on by her breast milk and was all over that crap. I totally threw up in my mouth.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Oh, ICK. Oh…. ick ick ick.
I didn’t even mean that, but oh, ICK.
I was only at the “he’s watching her feed the baby and they get turned on” stage… you guys have taken me to a whole new level of ick….
LOL
Sam
September 14th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
[…] over at Naughty and Spice - Sydney’s guesting, so come on ovr and […]
September 14th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Welcome to our blog! I loved meeting you both in Dallas, BTW! I can’t wait to read your anthology with Eden!
Anyway.
So, last night I was dead alseep with my lovely toddler cuddled beside me when bleh! He barfed up all over me, himself and the bed. He kept projecting his rancid chicken dinos and ranch dressing until about 6AM. So, maybe this wasn’t the best morning for me to be wondering if children belong in a romance, LOL! Right now I have to say no no no!
But ask me again on Monday, when he’s back at scool.
September 14th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
I know lots of men who think breastfeedng is sexy. They’ve never had had a human being attached to ther tits sucking sucking sucking for 18 months.
September 14th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Yeah Shell that was disgusting - I would’ve freaked out if I read that book!
And Sam I agree with you too - a man watching a woman breastfeed and getting turned on? Um, yuck.
Wow as usual we’ve gone off on a tangent! LOL
September 14th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
And Feist I’m sorry the little man is sick! Those dinosaur chicken thingys are bad enough going down, I can’t imagine them coming back up.
Ok I grossed myself out with my own
September 14th, 2007 at 5:06 pm
The first book I wrote had a heroine who played a surrogate mom to kids that she was trying to return to their families. The kids threw lots of extra tension in (I think) because the hero was a military man who had sworn to never have a family. I think that in some cases, kids and pregnancy can definitely work to the benefit of the story. Although, that being said, I’m so AGAINST the secret baby thing. I have a tough time having respect for a woman who can’t track down that man who ran off in the night and give him hell for knocking her up. You know?
September 14th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Hehe Amie. La leche. Okay. I have to be honest. I like secret baby books with Greek baby daddies. I think I like them because in real life if I got knocked up by some wealthy millionare while on vacation the ever after may not be so happy. LMAO. So just like a lot of things I’ll never do in real life, I can explore in reading.
September 14th, 2007 at 5:16 pm
OMG, you guys are cracking me up! The pregnancy/breastmilk fetish thing is just so…yucky!!!!
September 14th, 2007 at 5:17 pm
Howdy ~ Boy oh boy, where to start!?
I’m not big into kids (still cookin’ or out of the oven) when I’m reading for pleasure. Not to say won’t read then, but I can tell you if the book cover has a child or bulging belly on it I’m gonna put it back if there is a blood sucker right next to it.
I have read a few, that the children were key parts of the story and added that extra ’something’ - but typically those books were when my kids were still young. These days, not so much.
I’m not even sure if I could right about babies or buns in the oven, it’s not how my stories come through when the characters are telling me what to write. No, there is one, that could have a bun or twenty in the oven by the end of the series - but I’m not sure how much that would directly impact any one of the stories.
As for men and breasts - they’re facinated by them, no idea why - but I like that about them. Can’t fathom the breast feeding being sexy, oh, just the opposite - I’d expect a my guys to be a bit selfish in the sharing of that tender bit of flesh. (call me crazy, I don’t mind)
Can’t explain why the ladies wanna knock you their galz, though ‘making the babies’ would be a hel-ov-a lot of fun to write about. I’m wondering if Emma’s Bio-clock could be the answer too!?
September 14th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
And I saw this porn once….yeah, I won’t even go there. But,
September 14th, 2007 at 5:25 pm
Oh - I read that book Aura, the kids were totally a part of the story, but it was not too much. AND, they were not babies. Them’s was good kids.
Porn - that would explain so much!
September 14th, 2007 at 6:22 pm
LOL Amie I found your post in the spam filter (scroll up a ways and it shows up now!)
“Tami my ex told me he thought he was sterile. I got two that proves he’s not.
”
Umm yeah, same thing happened to me. The boyfriend was a compulsive liar though (wish I’d known earlier) told me he was sterile after a surgery. Riiiiight.
September 14th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Hi Aura and Lesa! Thanks for coming by :)
I liked being prego…not sure why. Hmm.
And I’m against secret baby, too. I mean… hello… child support?
September 14th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
I made the heroine in one of my books end up pregnant because that was the one thing she feared at that point in her life.
Otherwise I don’t write kids because my books are pretty hot and I can tell ya from experience that it’s hard to get all hot and bothered when you’re exhausted from all the kiddie stuff.
September 14th, 2007 at 7:58 pm
Waves Shelli!
Kiddy stuff is kryptonite for hot and bothered.
I might write a child into a book when my lady really wants a baby, but the child would have to be a monster - like a cure for the “I want a baby” blues some time bombs, I mean early 30’s go thru.
Don’t take that wrong, both my kids were accidents, and I love them like there is no tomorrow - but both were happy little accidents - and had they not been, then who knows what would have happened when I reached 30.
*giggles* I read Emma’s post again about Greek daddy’s. The first time I read it I was thinking Greek Godz like Zeus, Apollo and Hades. That’s a whole different kind of hell.
September 14th, 2007 at 11:37 pm
See I have two kids myself and honey I think I’m still sexy!
So far have only one book with a pregnant mc (main character) and she started off the series that way. I do plan to have more bundles of complications come by heroines’ way.
Part of it is, I personally find pregnant women very sexy. Its a sacred thing to carry life within you, like nothing someone who hadn’t can really understand.
So, in my way, I try to share that with other women, and men, who have not been there. Who have never experenced what being pregnant or having someone you love carring your child is like (or is like for some). Pregancy sucks, its messy and painful, she gets cranky and wants to eat weird thing, and then there’s those times that she wants to have sex all the time cause of the hormones (okay its not all bad then is it?). There are also moments of joy when you here her/his heartbeat for the first time or see that face on the untrasound that bonds parents like nothing else can.
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