Do Opposites Attract?

Do Opposites Attract?
By N.J. Walters

We’ve all heard the cliché before. But is there any truth to the statement that opposites attract?

Yes and no.

Being attracted to someone who is opposite in you in every way is natural. They’re different and exciting. A taste of the forbidden!

It’s why movies and books are filled with stories about the “good” girl attracted to the “bad” boy. Just the thought of the leather-clad loner, winding down the long highway on his motorcycle, his long hair flowing in the wind, is enough to make us all stop and look. What’s his story? Why is he on the road? What deep, dark secrets are in his past. Every woman wants to be the one who will tame this road warrior or at least go on one of his adventures with him.

I’ve used that storyline once or twice myself. Seth in “A Love Eternal,” my story in the Ellora’s Cavemen: Legendary Tails IV Anthology is such a man. He’s mysterious and dangerous in ways that the heroine, Genevieve can’t even begin to comprehend. She knows she should be frightened of him. Instead, she is drawn to him. He takes her on a wild ride for one night that could end sooner than either of them thinks.

My Shadow Ryders—Gideon from “Shadows Stir,” my story in the Ellora’s Cavemen: Dreams of the Oasis IV Anthology, and Blade in the upcoming Beyond Shadows—are dangerous, leather-clad warriors from the Shadow Realm who will fight to protect the women who are destined for them. These two women—one of whom is a cop and the other one who is an accountant—get far more than they ever bargained for with these extraordinary men.

What could be more romantic?

But what about the salt-of-the-earth guy who is dependable and hardworking. You know, the kind of man you can count on in a crisis. He can be just as exciting as the leather-clad warrior. What happens when an apple farmer hires a new housekeeper, who just happens to be a New York designer on the run from a stalker?

That’s the premise for Jackson’s Jewel, the latest edition in my Awakening Desires series from Ellora’s Cave. Jackson took over the family farm and practically raised his younger siblings. Now that they’ve both married and moved out, he lives there alone. His sister hires a housekeeper to give him some temporary domestic help. Unfortunately, the woman she hires, Emerald Jewel, is on the run from a stalker. The apple farmer and the designer. The country mouse and the city mouse. These two are definitely opposites. The sparks fly between them immediately and neither one of them can resist the lure of temptation.

Maybe it’s their differences that attract them to one another. But it’s what they have in common that keep them together. No matter how different people are on the outside, it’s what inside that counts. Both Jackson and Emerald believe in the importance of family. They are both hardworking and reliable and have goals they want to achieve. It’s these things that will allow them to get past their differences to have a chance at a relationship.

The differences between people add spice to any relationship. It keeps them both guessing what the other person might do, what they are thinking. Those things will keep a couple interested in one another for years.

The waitress and the millionaire, the lawyer and the cop, the heiress and the carpenter—the list is endless. While opposites do attract, it’s the underlying similarities that will help keep them together once the initial heat dissipates—assuming it ever does. :-)


Emotional~Sensual~Satisfying Reads!
http://www.njwalters.com/
http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/awakeningdesires/ (newsletter group)
A Legal Affair—Samhain Publishing
Lily Blossoms—Ellora’s Cave

The More The Merrier!

The More the Merrier!
By N.J. Walters

Ménage a trois…how exactly does it work?

Hello! Remember me?

I think I lost you all for a moment as your mind wandered off, no doubt engrossed in the possibilities. All that naked flesh coming together, hard chests, broad shoulders, sculpted muscles, lips touching, hands stroking, limbs entwining, soft moans…

Ahem! Sorry about that. Where was I?

What I really meant was how does an author make us suspend disbelief enough to make a ménage a trois acceptable, even believable to the reader, who might otherwise have a hard time with the concept of a threesome?

The author can do this in various ways depending on if the book is an erotic romance or a straight work of erotic fiction. In erotic fiction the act itself is the goal, in an erotic romance the ménage a trois must be an integral part of the plot, ultimately leading to a happily-ever-after. That takes some work. The last thing you want is for one character to feel shut out—hurt by the lack of emotional or physical connection with the other two in the ménage.

I’ve written a few ménage a trois books. The best-known ones are probably the books in my Tapestries series. The basis of the series is a magical tapestry, which takes women from different places and times and whisks them to Javara, a world that resembles Medieval Earth. In Javara women are scarce and brothers must compete sexually for the honor of claiming the woman as wife. Only one man can marry the woman and all children from the union are his, but he must share his wife one night a week with his brother(s).

When the heroine of Christina’s Tapestry, Christina Beaumont, finds herself in this strange world, she is overwhelmed by the ardent attention of the two brothers, Jarek and Marc, as they each seduce her. What would be unthinkable in her world is, the norm in theirs. The warriors hold Christina in high regard and treat her with honor at all times. The longer she is there, the more normal the situation becomes to her.

Zarina is a warrior from a desert tribe in my fantasy/ménage a trois Three Swords, One Heart. She is a strong woman and a capable one, who is exiled from her tribe when her father dies. Alone, she battles to survive in a brutal world. Malik and Kalis, the two heroes, believe that she is the warrior woman who can break the curse that has plagued their family for generations. To do so, they both need to bond with her and gain her love. Zarina needs to be strong enough to stand side-by-side with these warriors if they are to have a chance at a life together, but her insecurities might be their downfall.

My latest ménage a trois is Amethyst Moon. Archaeologist, Olivia Fifield, finds herself transported to the world of T’ar Tal after she makes an exciting discovery in an Egyptian mastaba. The future of this world is uncertain, but Olivia and her amethyst bracelets are the key that might save them all.

In each case, I’ve taken the heroine outside the norm, to another world where the rules of normal society no longer apply. That is probably the easiest way to handle the societal problems that being part of a ménage might present. We may live in modern times, but this is not the kind of relationship that would be readily acceptable by the bulk of the population.

But some authors do set their ménage a trois books in contemporary times. This takes a lot of skill, especially if there is to be a satisfying happily-ever-after at the end. Many writers will use brothers or best friends as the basis for the ménage. In the end, the reader has to accept that the unusual arrangement works for this group.

As a writer, it’s a challenge to pen a ménage a trois, whether you do the more conventional two males and one female, the less common two females and one male, or even take it one step further with four or more participants. Not only is it much tougher to keep track of all those body parts, it’s a challenge to make the emotional connection between all the parties involved deep, meaningful and very real. Because, in the end, that is what any good relationship is all about. Without that, no book will satisfy, but if it’s done right, the results can be a highly erotic read that will make your pulse pound, your body ache, and your heart soar.

Emotional~Sensual~Satisfying Reads!
http://www.njwalters.com/
http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/awakeningdesires/ (newsletter group)
The Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke—Samhain Publishing
Amethyst Moon—Ellora’s Cave