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Passions and Provocations

Alive and Thinking in Cyberspace: Pam's take on just about everything

Sexy Braininess, in Many Voices

February 28, 2011 – 1:58 pm

Congratulations to Linda, from Fontana, CA, for winning my just-finished contest, where I asked entrants to tell me briefly, in their own words, why booklovers are such sexy people.

I picked Linda randomly (such being the rules of my contest page), but her entry was certainly striking: It’s “because,” she said, “we know everything from the book of love,” an answer that spans centuries of great thoughts from the classical philosophers to brilliant R&B cut of my youth, Who Wrote the Book of Love?

I’ll be posting other similarly striking responses through this week, while I prepare the next contest — which I’ll put up this Friday.

But right now I gotta go, to put Linda’s prize in the mail: two lovely bookloving romance novels the brilliant Miranda Neville, one by me, and a little excellent chocolate, to make the experience that much sweeter.

By Pam · · Posted in Contests, Sexy Braininess · · Comments (1)

Time is Growing Short

February 21, 2011 – 8:21 am

Just one more day for the passionate bibliophiles among you to enter my current contest and win autographed copies of two of Miranda Neville’s smart and sexy historical romances – The Wild Marquis and The Dangerous Viscount, both of which take place among a community of Regency book collectors, and both of which I loved and recommend most heartily to… well, exactly to the sort of dreamy, romantic, very readerly reader who likes my stuff, which is, after all, why you’re visiting this site in the first place, isn’t it?

Not only that, but the winner will also get an autographed copy of my story of love and sex among booklovers, set in France before the Revolution, The Bookseller’s Daughter. Oh, and some chocolate, too.

My contest is easy and fun — this time you don’t even have to read an excerpt (though of course you can, if you want to). Just tell me, briefly, in your own words, why booklovers are such sexy people. And then (yes, it gets better!) double your chances to win by visiting Miranda’s lovely site and entering her twin contest.

But you’ll have to hurry. Because both contests end at the stroke of midnight, tomorrow, February 22nd.

By Pam · · Posted in Contests · · Comments (2)

A Movie Valentine

February 14, 2011 – 8:23 am

I write, I sometimes say, because I can’t dance.

Whatever wonderful bodily in-sync-ness, with the world, with a lover, with oneself that the best dancers have… I most emphatically do not have, except when it comes to words and sounds and sentences.

That’s where I can dance, and (in the mysterious ways of desire) that’s what makes me love what I can’t do even more passionately. Which is what makes me want to share this movie dance valentine with you today.

From the not-very-good 1958 movie version of the great musical Damn Yankees, the witty, sublimely sexy dance duet by Gwen Verdon and her husband and choreographer Bob Fosse — occasioned, with utter narrative clutziness, when some nonentity played by Fosse unaccountably wanders onto the screen to do this “Who’s Got the Pain When They Do the Mambo” routine with the movie’s female lead, Lola, played by Verdon.

Maybe Tab Hunter, the male lead, was originally supposed to be in the routine, but just couldn’t carry it off. Who knows? Fosse’s performance isn’t credited — but though his being there makes no plot sense it makes every kind of erotic sense, this routine being so much sexier and so much more about how beautiful Verdon really was than any of the other more stereotypical postures Lola assumes through the rest of the movie.

They dance so gorgeously, so seamlessly, so knowingly together here that I’m even moved by Fosse’s thin voice and thinning hair (the reason, in case you wondered his choreography does such great things with hats).

But then, at this point in my life I’m especially moved by reminders of the passing of time and the ephemerality of life. Not to speak of the spectacle of longtime spouses showing their mutual appreciation through art and creativity.

And yes, it was Michael who introduced me to this video clip, which you should check out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIiZuAVZH4w”

And happy Valentine’s day, to Michael and especially to all those creative spouses out there.

By Pam · · Posted in I Lost it at the Movies · · Comments (0)

And a Little Inspiration

November 29, 2010 – 3:12 pm

…for anyone who’s ever contemplated giving up on a novel:

Even if you insisted on finishing your novel, what for? Novels sit unpublished, or published but unsold, or sold but unread, or read but unreread, lonely on shelves and in drawers and under the legs of wobbly tables. They are like seashells on the beach. Not enough people marvel over them. They pick them up and put them down. Even your friends and associates will never appreciate your novel the way you want them to. In fact, there are likely just a handful of readers out in the world who are perfect for your book, who will take it to heart and feel its mighty ripples throughout their lives, and you will likely never meet them, at least under the proper circumstances. So who cares? Think of that secret favorite book of yours – not the one you tell people you like best, but that book so good that you refuse to share it with people because they’d never understand it. Perhaps it’s not even a whole book, just a tiny portion that you’ll never forget as long as you live. Nobody knows you feel this way about that tiny portion of literature, so what does it matter? The author of that small bright thing, that treasured whisper deep in your heart, never should have bothered.

Of course not. Not.

From Lemony Snicket’s Pep Talk, on the National Novel Writing Month website. Read the whole wonderful thing here (with special thanks to Molly Weatherfield‘s readers Bob and Reese, each of whom who took the trouble to write to me this week, and made me understand once more just how true and beautiful what Lemony has to say is).

By Pam · · Posted in Molly Weatherfield · · Comments (0)

More on Other People’s Books

November 27, 2010 – 6:23 pm

Adding a link to a book review I published last summer in the online Journal of Popular Romance Studies.

The book’s called A Vindication of Love: Reclaiming Romance for the Twenty-First Century. The author’s Cristina Nehring. Needless to say, Nehring never once mentions the popular romance genre or its not-too-shabbily sized readership. But there are other things to be said about her book as well.

And while I was updating my essays page, I also added a link to some of my earliest, but still-useful (at least to me), thoughts about SM erotica.

Hope you can find something useful here.

By Pam · · Posted in erotic writing, Theory, What I'm Writing · · Comments (0)

Losing it at the Movies

November 26, 2010 – 4:18 pm

What did you think of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I?

Come on over to History Hoydens for my take.

By Pam · · Posted in miscellaneous · · Comments (0)

Double Contest for Booklovers — Come Play With Us

November 24, 2010 – 10:00 am

My first response (besides sheer delight) to The Dangerous Viscount, my friend Miranda Neville’s latest book, was to want to take notes.

Or outline it; make charts or graphs. Whatever it would take for me to figure out how she made something so light-hearted and entertaining so smart, believable, and wonderfully well-plotted.

But for right now, I’m simply going to tell you that I happily gobbled down this feast for anyone who loves books about lovers who love books.

Miranda lets us — and her hero and heroine — in on the thrill of rare book collecting and the practical uses of period erotica. Her hero Sebastian is the sexiest book nerd to pass through my hands (I wish) in a while, while Diana has just enough willful worldliness (which is to say less than she thinks she has) to fall hard and happily into Sebastian’s world before she’s quite sure what hit her.

As a former bookseller myself, I’m already a goner for any kind of bookish setting or plot. But in truth (and isn’t it always that way?) it was Diana and Sebastian who caught and kept my attention.

And after I’d written to Miranda to sing her book’s praises, it was especial fun to learn by return email that my favorite scene in The Dangerous Viscount was also Miranda’s. And might be yours.

Anyway, here’s a chance to find out. Well, actually 2 chances, because starting this morning, November 24, Miranda and I are running parallel contests, with twin sets of prizes. That is: each of us is giving out 3 autographed books: Miranda’s The Wild Marquis and The Dangerous Viscount, and my book-loving historical romance, The Bookseller’s Daughter. Plus some chocolate.

Sound like fun?

For Miranda’s contest, go to http://www.mirandaneville.com/contest.php

For mine, go to http://pamrosenthal.com/contest2.php

And special congratulations to Joy in Redmond, Washington, happy winner of my just-completed contest.

By Pam · · Posted in Contests, The Bookseller's Daughter, What I'm Reading · · Comments (0)

It’s a Date!

November 22, 2010 – 12:12 pm

I’m delighted to announce that those of you waiting for the mass-market edition of my RITA-winning THE EDGE OF IMPROPRIETY can have real date in your sites. May 2011 — or as Amazon has it, May 3, 2011, and available for pre-order now.

Check out my in-the-works page for more information, and do let me know what you think of the sexy new cover art!

By Pam · · Posted in Telling a Book by its Cover, The Edge of Impropriety · · Comments (0)

Once is Not Enough

November 5, 2010 – 9:04 am

I had a fantastic time delivering my “Imagining Sex” erotic romance writing workshop last week.

Twice.

First at a monthly Maryland Romance Writers meeting and then at New Jersey Romance Writers’ fantastic Put Your Heart in a Book Conference. They were great, smart audiences at both venues — if you’ve done any teaching, I’m sure you know the feeling, when your points are connecting. Great. I’d love to do it again sometime soon.

But meanwhile (as promised) here’s the supplementary reading list from the workshop.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Pam Rosenthal: Imagining Sex
Tiny Little Reading List

How to Read/Write a Dirty Story, by Susie Bright
~ Susie’s been writing and speaking about sex, sensibility, expression, intelligence, and well… freedom for decades. Funny, brilliant, essential – even if she does think erotic romance began and ended with Robin Schone. Oh, well. Skip that chapter, but read the book.

Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex, by Sallie Tisdale
~ Built around an essay first published in Harpers, about a simple and sensible, if radical idea. Tisdale knew that her own sexual desire was a source of mystery to her, and she had learned that pornography—that much-maligned technology for seeking, pondering, and choosing what we actually like sexually—had something to teach her. The original essay caused a scandal, and for my money, it’s still the core of the book. But I also like her further discussions of technologies of desire: the whole subculture of sexual arousal—sex stores and sex workers and sex zines—including a loving report on the art of selling dildos at Good Vibrations.

“The Romance and the Empowerment of Women,” by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, in Dangerous Men and Adventurous Women, ed. Jayne Anne Krentz
~ Why the bodice-rippers worked (even for some feminists).

Molly Weatherfield, “In Bed With Groucho And Harpo: Thoughts About Irony, Humor, And S/M Pornography”
~ My first (and in some ways best) try at an essay about hardcore erotic writing, repackaged as a blog post here.

Molly Weatherfield, “The Mother of Masochism,” originally published in Salon.com
~ Salon’s title, not mine. About the writing of Story of O — in tribute, on the occasion of the author’s death. You can find a link to it here.

George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”
~ Romance writer Janet Mullany brought this one into the conversation for me. You can read it online here.

Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way.
~ A richness of excellent ideas and provocative thoughts.

By Pam · · Posted in Carrie's Story, Conferences, erotic writing, Molly Weatherfield, Sexy Braininess · · Comments (2)

Sense and Sensuality Basket Contest Update

November 1, 2010 – 2:27 pm

And a sheepish apology.

Because, dear bewildered contest-lovers — you are not going blind.

My current contest should indeed have ended on October 3 (as you were quite quite sure my contest page said), and not November 14 (as it clearly says now).

Apologies. I messed up. So intently was I preparing my erotic writing workshop for the wonderful Put Your Heart in a Book conference in New Jersey (and my “dress rehearsal” a few nights before, to an equally smart and receptive audience of Maryland Romance Writers, not to speak of the Jane Austen presentation I gave a few nights later in Media, Pennsylvania).

I’m not an extemporaneous speaker, you see. And hardly a Powerpoint expert. So these things take me way more time and mental energy than I tend to expect (especially while I was also preparing to visit large numbers of family along the mid-Atlantic coast, and when my back went out quite miserably, and I could only sit at the computer for an hour or so at a time).

Oy (well, at least I haven’t forgotten how to speak East Coast). And so, having totally missed the contest expiration date, I had to pick a new one. November 14.

The good news, though, is that my back got better about two days into the trip (no doubt due to the ministrations of My Daughter-in-law the Doctor). Though actually, it started to feel better when my 2-year-old granddaughter Sasha very sweetly held my hand.

More good news is that the presentations went off well. The New Jersey conference was a delight…

…and finally, that more of you get a chance to enter the contest and maybe win the prize — my Sense and Sensuality Gift Basket, containing sexy, savory, and scented delights that recall the hottest and tenderest moments from my romance fiction, plus autographed copies of all my romance novels (check out the amazing copious details here.

And for those of you who missed the erotic workshop presentations and want more info about them, I’ll be posting my reading list here tomorrow.

By Pam · · Posted in Conferences, Contests, erotic writing, It's a Family Affair · · Comments (0)