THE Kiss by Kaye Spencer

I've written couple dozen romance short stories, books, and novellas. Some have been published or will be re-released in second edition, some are yet to be published, but many, for a variety of reasons, will remain unpublished and tucked away in the File Dungeon deep inside my computer. Regardless of their published status, they all have one attribute in common.

Kissing

Not just any kiss, but THE kiss—the first kiss.



I've written stories with simple plots to plots that take an Excel spreadsheet to keep all the details straight. I have a gunfight that includes a herd of phantom cowboys chasing a phantom herd across the sky. I can write a scorching love scene that will make your toes curl or a romance so sweet you'll sigh and murmur, ahhh. I've written a tragic love triangle that will have you grabbing for the tissues at the end. There's a 150k family saga languishing on my computer, because I love revisiting and rewriting the story so much, I can't bear to part with it (I know, it's one of those idiosyncratic author hang-ups.) Then let's throw in a steamy contemporary vampire/cowboy story for good measure.




But the kissing scene—the kiss that clinches the romance between the Hero and Heroine—holds me up every. single. time.

Writing The kiss can't be too detailed in the physical mechanics or it loses the romance of the moment, but neither can it just be "...and they kissed", at least, not for the first kiss. In whose point of view should it be? What is that character thinking, feeling, wishing or yearning for? Which one instigates the kiss? What's going on around them? What do they hear, smell, see? Where are their hands? Are they standing body-pressed-to-body or is there distance between them? Are they completely embracing or just 'holding' onto each other? Are the characters close to the same height or is one significantly taller than the other? It makes a huge difference where they put their arms and how they have to bend their necks to make that kiss happen. Are they standing? Lying on a bed? Leaning across a fence or side-by-side on horseback? And of course, the debate of tongue or no tongue, which can easily become an ewww factor, and yank the reader from the moment.

Here is the Hero and Heroine's first kiss from my forthcoming Prairie Rose Publications release, The Comanchero's Bride.

Ultimately, my goal in crafting THE kiss is to get as close to perfection as I can, because we all know since the invention of the kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the most pure. This one left them all behind.





Until next month,

Kaye

www.kayespencer.com
Twitter - @kayespencer

Note: The Princess Bride gifs from giphy.com

Have Wand - Will Travel, by @JacquieRogers #Halloween #Western #Romance

Website | Pickle Barrel Gazette

Have Wand - Will Travel
by Jacquie Rogers
a short story in
Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico: Vol. 2

It’s always fun to just let your hair down and write a fun story without regard to genre expectations and preordained story elements. That’s exactly what happened with Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico—two volumes of stories where the PRP owners (Livia Reasoner and Cheryl Pierson) turned us loose. In retrospect, that was very brave of them.

I’ve wanted to write a story that incorporated Paladin from Have Gun – Will Travel for a long time, but never had the opportunity. Thing of it is, you just can’t improve on the original Paladin played by Richard Boone, so exactly what do you do? My answer was to make him a mage. Only this mage isn’t so handy with his wand as he is with his gun. The first scene is a take-off of the TV show, but everything else, including the hero’s personality, takes a left turn.

His name is Tremaine Ramsey and he rides a horse that is a centaur-unicorn-horse shifter named Abraxus. He and Tremaine have been partners since their school days, and Abraxus is never shy about giving Tremaine a hard time. In fact, Abraxus was pretty sore at me for not making him the hero. See? He’s trying to take over now. Anyway, Tremaine has taken a vow of chastity because he’s convinced that his father’s womanizing ways is what led to his loss of powers and subsequent downfall.

What started out as a take-off of the TV show ended up being a mash-up of Have Gun – Will Travel, Narnia, and The Princess Bride just as soon as Nora Castle came on the scene. I envisioned her as Susan Pevensie from Narnia, but Nora had a different set of tools, including a wu shu iron fan, and lifelong martial arts instruction by the Castle cook, Chan Li. And in the very first scene, some unplanned Beavers of Extraordinary Size showed up. Who knew.

I can’t imagine any other western romance publisher letting me get away with all this, but I have to say Have Wand – Will Travel was one of my very favorite stories to write. Ever. And then it got even more weird when the evil sorcerer showed up with his griffins and a few other scary critters. I also had a good time with Yort Smith (originally named Troy but I already had a T name so reversed it) who is the Castle foreman in the summer and a dime novelist in the winter.

Off we go on an adventure—sometimes scary, sometimes thrilling, and always romantic.

Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico, Vol. 2

Halloween short stories by

Cheryl Pierson, C. Marie Bowman, Jacquie Rogers, 

Kaye Spenser, Kristy McCaffrey, Kathleen Rice Adams

What better way to spend Halloween than with some handsome cowboys and feisty heroines who are determined to fall in love despite their supernatural powers—or lack thereof? Halloween’s a good time to take a chance on love—and to see what these Cowboys, Creatures, and Calico Vol. 2 stories might reveal to the unsuspecting reader—you!

Cheryl Pierson’s Spellbound will have you on the edge of your seat as safecracker Brett Diamond and witch Angie Colton take on a border gang leader who is pure evil. Can Angie’s supernatural powers save them? No matter what, Brett and Angie are hopelessly Spellbound.

C. Marie Bowen’s Hunter and Lily Graham is an unforgettable tale of a beautiful school marm’s love for her children that surpasses all. When a Cajun bounty hunter known only as “Hunter” shows up, Lily Graham knows he, and no one else, can help her save a young girl.

Have Wand — Will Travel 

is Jacquie Rogers’s offering about a handsome young mage, Tremaine Ramsey, who has a wand and knows how to use it…sometimes. Will his magic be strong enough to pull off a daring rescue of his father from the evil Gharth? Or will he need the warrior Nora’s love to help him see his Fate through?

Will Kaye Spencer’s character, Mercy Pontiere, be able to break a centuries-old curse and find true love all at the same time? It all depends on Reid Corvane and what he’ll do For Love of a Brystile Witch.

In Kristy McCaffrey’s story, The Crow and the Coyote, Hannah Dobbin is after an evil Navajo sorcerer who murdered her father, and she’s determined to see him dead. But she’ll need a bounty hunter, The Crow—to help find this vile man. With Hallowtide upon them, more evil is afoot than they can handle; but love will find a way.

A failed bank robber, Tombstone Hawkins, along with a fake gypsy fortune teller, Pansy Gilchrist, set out to make both their deceased fathers proud in one final spectacular heist. Family Tradition is Kathleen Rice Adams’s tale of the discovery of true love amid the commission of a crime—or the failure to commit a crime—while being overseen by the ghosts of the couple’s fathers. How can there be a happy ending? It’s Halloween, and anything can happen!

Available in digital at:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Kobo | Smashwords

*Also in Print*