Elle 0:00
Hello and welcome to steam scenes live but fall in love New England. This is the very first time I'm recording in front of a live audience. Everybody clap so we know you're here to hear. I'm your host, Doug Rocco. And joining me today for this crazy experience is Lisa Olech. Thank you, Lisa for being here.

I really feel like I need the applause sign right. Like if you ever been to like the TV tapings, and they have the applause I feel like I need that. Okay, so we're gonna jump right in. Usually, I read the bio, I know that we're like a little tight on time for that. So, um, Lisa writes a lot of great books read them. You have, but you have written a ton of books. And just you have written a ton of books. And you wrote contemporary before you went to pirate.

Lisa 0:52
So technically, I was published in contemporary before pirate but I really cut my teeth. On my first pirate book. I, I wrote it for seven years, I made every mistake that you can ever make in any book I made on that book. But

Elle 1:09
tell me what give me a mistake. What mistake did you make?

Lisa 1:12
I started the book in the wrong place, like 100 pages versus versus the wrong place. And I had a critique and she's like, you started the book in the wrong place. And she's like, just put the bitch on the boat. And I'm like, but she has to, I'm dealing with a high born woman in northern England and she's got to get to the boat. She's like, just put the bitch on the boat. And that's 100 pages. She goes well, you can use some of it later, but put her on the boat.

Elle 1:48
So you put the pitch on the bow did and what happened when the pitch got on the boat.

Lisa 1:52
She was a still way and and yeah, she was she was everything that she was all the bad luck. She She shouldn't have been on the boat to begin with. She was a redhead, which in pirate land is akin to, I don't know, some some horrible thing but

Elle 2:13
okay, so wait, backup backup backup. So this was the first book he wrote?

Lisa 2:21
Well, the first book I wrote is kind of like the first pancake you make, you should just throw it out, just keep going. So that book will never see the light of day it's under a bed somewhere collecting dust. But there were some really great scenes in it that I have cannibalized and put into other books. Then I wrote my first pirate book and I just kept writing and learning my craft and and like I said I worked on that book for seven years. And I started writing contemporary as well and I wrote picture me naked and I submitted picture me naked to two contests. One in Tampa, Florida, one in Houston, Texas. Same pages same day, same everything. Tampa hated it. I mean, like hated it.

Elle 3:14
How do you know they hate it up because

Lisa 3:16
one of the judges gave me a score of 30 out of 100 and told me I should throw it away and start over. She was brutal. She was brutal. And but Houston loved me. I mean, they loved me one of the judges in Houston gave me 103 out of a score of 100 because she could give extra points for exceptional writing.

Elle 3:41
Okay, wait a minute. Do you have any idea why there were such extreme reactions to this particular like like Tampa was like and that but Houston was like bring it on. I can only

Lisa 3:53
imagine Okay, cuz I really don't know but I think it's I think it was the sexual part. I think I think the folks in Tampa were a little bit more tight knit um, then Texas but I have no idea but because I won and I won in Texas and got before my publisher and that's how I got published.

Elle 4:18
Wow So wow, okay, so when you say it was maybe too sexy it was too sexy for

Lisa 4:31
sure shirts for that too sexy for Tampa

Elle 4:38
sexy

Lisa 4:40
and it's funny because when I wrote picture me naked a lot of times when it when I was a baby writer and was learning like the book before pitch me naked. I had a real problem with POV I kept head hopping. So I wrote pitch me naked in one POV. Just as a just as an exercise, and I also wanted to find where my heat level threshold was. Hmm. So, um, I, I pushed that level as far as I was comfortable. And then I thought this is way too hot. I have to back it off because I wasn't reading erotica. But I had really pushed the limit on it. And when it one, the publisher came back to me and said, We really like it. Can you make it hotter? Well, yes, I can. Finally you

Elle 5:36
should act.

Lisa 5:37
As a matter of fact, I believe I still have that file. And, and I said, so give me my parameters. What's my, what's my perimeter? She goes, have you read erotica? And I said, Yes. And she said, Don't do that.

Elle 5:51
Hmm. So why did you Why Why did you pull back in the first place? I didn't think they would publish it. So it was It wasn't about a comfort level for you. It was it was about what will the publisher pick this up? Is this gonna Is this gonna fly?

Lisa 6:05
Right to make it more saleable? Okay. Yeah. All right, cool. What I was, I was in the swing of 50 Shades when everything went hotter. And so I got caught up in that. Okay. And the publishers wanted

Elle 6:21
hot. So why did you decide to do the contemporary rather than the pirate light? Like if you have if you've been a cleanser? I understand that actually.

Lisa 6:31
Slightly add Oh, look a chicken. So it gives my brain a break. Okay. There's a lot of research that goes into pirates. There's a lot of research that goes into historicals. If I don't have to, you know, if I can just write I, you know, it is a palate cleanser for

Elle 6:52
me. Okay. All right. Cool. Okay, so then you've always written high heat level, or was this in in the contemporary this first contemporary? Was that the first time you actually wrote the 16th? Zen or were you writing it into that seventh year?

Lisa 7:05
Oh, no, I've always I've always written I like a good sexing I really do. And my theory is, if you've waited 100 pages, it better be damn good. Because you've waited 100 pages. And if I've done my job I've built you up to you really want it to be good. Right? And if it makes my knees sweat, then hopefully it'll make yours. Yeah. So

Elle 7:32
what I mean, okay, so what makes your knees sweat?

Lisa 7:40
Um, I don't know. I mean, I, in comparison to a lot of the erotica, that that's out there and that I've read, you know, I do write very vanilla, but I think it's hot.

Elle 7:53
Right? Well, I'm kind of curious too, because you had a publisher that said, I want you to write really hot and your line is here, like the line in the sand is erotica. And I'm kind of wondering what would have tipped that over?

Lisa 8:05
Word use? Situation use? I can't use toys. I can allude to toys, but I can't use them.

Elle 8:17
Okay, so we have we have a room full of a room full of readers. And a room full of a half half readers, half writers. I don't know. I assume we're reading writing romance. We're reading romance. So it's all readers, some writers. I had no idea that toys could tip you over into the erotic category.

Lisa 8:40
And there's certain words, there's certain words I can't use. There's certain situations I can't use. Can't. That's a loose cat.

Elle 8:51
Can't air quotes,

Lisa 8:54
air quotes can't. And and I you know, I don't I don't know that I would come to be comfortable crossing over into erotica. But like I say, I take it right up to that line. And occasionally we'll just dip a toe over.

Elle 9:11
So you will you will you all you'll just kind of test it you'll talk has anybody, like, has feedback ever been like too dirty? Never. Nice. Okay. We're learning how far we can go.

Lisa 9:26
I think I think it's like anything, you know that that you're given the rules, right? The rules and if you break the rules brilliantly, you get to break rules.

Elle 9:36
So okay, so this is this fascinating part of your bio, is that you're also a justice of the peace. So she marries people, married people.

Lisa 9:50
It's perfect. If it's the perfect side gig. It is the perfect side gig. And it's the perfect job because I step in 15 minutes before the ceremony. I'm not involved in any of distress. You get to see the bride walk down the aisle. She stands right in front of me. And 20 minutes later, I'm like, Can I have my check? Thank you very much.

Elle 10:10
I got married by a JP Yep. And well, I got married by Elvis. And then I got married by a JP because when you do it in Vegas, it's actually not legal. Elvis cannot legally marry you. You need a JP. And I gotta tell you, I really dug it. It was like literally a five minute gig. Yeah, she was just in the back of the chapel. And she's like, you're also happy and it was so happy and she was like, Mary Yes,

Lisa 10:35
it's the best part and and I'm such a sucker for romance. That's why I write romance. And I watched my couple exchange. They're both and I watched them look at one another. And it's that's it for me. It's It's perfect.

Elle 10:53
It's perfect. I love what a what an awesome side hustle for a romance writer. Absolutely. Right. Not so cool.

Lisa 11:01
But I keep like I ask every single one of my couples How would you meet? I'm waiting for really good, cute meet story. And they're lousy. They're horrible.

Elle 11:09
I will talk after I have a good one. I have a good one. I think mine is so romantic. I married him after three weeks. Oh, there we go. Insta love is real. So when somebody when you write Insta love, and someone's like, that's not real. Oh, yes, it is. 21 years. Wow. Congratulations.

So watch next week, I'll be like, Oh. So you're JPN you're writing out your your writing your JPN. But did you always want to be a writer? No. My other life. I'm a doctor, a neurosurgeon. Oh, nobody

Lisa 11:54
went out. I am an artist. First and foremost.

Elle 11:57
Oh, well, that makes sense now, and

Lisa 12:00
I had my own stained glass business for 25 years. And I Okay, this is the weirdest story. Um, I was doing a self chorus called the artists way. Yes, I know. Yes. And the artists way, if anybody doesn't know it, it's about bringing more spirituality into your work. And it's a self, it's a self cut. They teach it in in at university as well, but but you can do it on your own. And part of it is to nourish your creativity, like you would nourish your body. And so part is you had to have a purposeful artists date every week. And it didn't need to involve a lot of time or a lot of money. But it needed to be purposeful. So I saw this ad on community TV, because I live very close to a university. And it was a writing workshop, and was called the bad girls writing workshop. And it was three hours 10 bucks. There's my artist state for the week, I had never been to a writing anything, anything. This was only 15 years ago. So

Elle 13:17
So and seven of it was spent writing the pirate book.

Lisa 13:22
So I went to this workshop completely oblivious of what to expect or what to do or anything. And it was actually a class on writing memoir. And that if you told your story, and you were you stay true to your story, you were going to piss somebody off and be the bad girl. Hence the name of the hence the name of the workshop. And she's throwing out these little five minute prompts. You know, when was the last time you felt this write that. And five minutes later, she throw it Another prompt. And her prompt was that there were certain times in your life where everything makes sense. And everything becomes an everything comes into focus. Right that and I had recently lost my father. And I wrote about the night he had his stroke. Now, my father was not a very nice man. And but we were all there. And I realized that when it was my turn to go into see him that I was still afraid to be in the room with him. Oh my god. So I wrote this. This is this was what I wrote. And she stopped the class and she said, Okay, we're gonna take a break. And when we get back, we're all going to share Oh, that was my reaction as well.

Elle 14:44
That's what that's why I don't go to writing classes because I don't like the share part.

Lisa 14:47
I had. I had a full sweat panic attack. And there were six people in the room and I sat way in the back and I couldn't get to the door. without, you know, I couldn't inconspicuously

Elle 15:05
sneak out.

Lisa 15:07
Like you had to stare. Ox. Yes. And so I read what I had written. And I, by the end of it, I was crying. I looked up, everyone in the room was crying. And the instructor came up to me after and she said, You need to keep doing this. And I said, Thank You know,

Elle 15:35
I'm an artist.

Lisa 15:37
I'm here. Yes, I am here on a whim. I just, you know, thank you. But no. And she, she was a Brit, and she had the most delightful accent. She said, I don't bullshit people. You know? I wouldn't ever say that, ever. And I said, Truly, I'm not a writer. I have, I don't know anything. And I said, I don't even know where the commas go. She said, Fuck it. That's what your editors for. And three of the other six people in the room after asked me to join the Writers Group, amazing. I'm like, you realize that I'm not a writer? I'm not a writer.

Elle 16:23
I mean, did you? Did you like enjoy writing classes when you were in school? No, you hated them hated. This is so fascinating.

Lisa 16:30
So So I went to this writer's group. And what I had written in that workshop was so emotionally driven. And I wasn't the type of person I never wanted to be the type of person to open a vein and bleed all over page and that wasn't who I was. Let's see if they think I can write funny. So I wrote. In about five seconds, I sat down and wrote this thing about Cinderella, and how she discovered Prince Charming had a foot fetish. And she hopped her TR and ballgown, and started FGM Inc, fairy godmothers Incorporated, and that gave low interest loans to other female entrepreneurs. And I went through the entire list of princesses, and how their princes had not measured up to what they imagined.

Elle 17:28
Please tell me this exists somewhere where people can read it takes me

Lisa 17:31
on it's in that

Elle 17:34
I would read the shit out of this. I don't know what that would you should I would.

Lisa 17:41
And how, you know, like, Sleeping Beauty discovered that her prince preferred her motionless in half bed and half dead in bed. What is that? You know, even the princess with the mother in law with all the all those crazy peace, she's now mattress queen in seven states. And I just, I took each of the princesses and I went through and I took it to the group and they went nuts. They went nuts. So I'm like, okay, I can write funny. So I started doing shorts, I started doing memoir. And then I heard of this crazy thing called NaNoWriMo. Novel writers month. And it starts on November 1. I heard about it on Halloween night at quarter 10. And I thought, why not? Let's try this.

Elle 18:33
I'm not doing anything anyway, for November, like, wow. Ask you at what point because you said you hated writing in school. And at what point? Obviously, you must enjoy it now. Because you do it. Like at what point did that shift for you? Where you went from? This is a chore to this is something I love.

Lisa 18:52
It was it was honestly, the the instructor of that workshop seeing something in me that I did not see myself. And I remember saying to my husband, what have I got to lose here? Truly what have I got to lose? Let's see if she thinks I can do this. Let's see if I can do this. And here we are. Here we are working on my 15th book. And I love it. And when I when I started writing novel lengths, this amazing thing happened. I get into the zone and especially doing national novel writers, man, because you're it's a marathon and you have to get in the zone. Otherwise you're never going to finish. But and then I let it cool off. I set it on a shelf for a couple of months. And when I go back. I'm surprised I don't remember writing some interesting. It's always the best parts. Yeah, and every book I've ever written. It's very cliche. Ha, but this, the characters take over. And they surprise me, they will take a left turn where I didn't expect a turn to happen. And I'm sitting there at the keyboard. I'm writing this, but I'm surprised. And that to me tells me that the Muse is shown up. And here's your magic. Do you plot? No? No, no, I have a basic idea. Generally. I at least know one of my characters before I jump into the pool, but I know basically, where we're going, I just don't know how we're gonna get there.

Elle 20:41
So for this first Nano, just to jump all over the place. How many words did you get down that month? What do you remember what your first word count was on that one?

Lisa 20:51
I hit 50. You did hit the 50. I hit 50. And I wrote it and I was liking it. It was like, Okay, this doesn't suck. This is okay. But I ran out of story. Around 42 Ooh, so close, so close. And I was brain fried. I was, I was sparks there was just off the ends of my hair. I was so fried. And I'm like, I'm never gonna make it. I'm never gonna make it because I've run out of story. And, and, you know, we're talking. You know, that's a lot of words. I can't just plump up some descriptions. You know, I can write fuck, you know, 80,000 times, but you know, it's not going to work. So I went to bed. It was two in the morning, and I went to bed. And at 5am I bolted straight up, scared my husband half to death. And I went I ran downstairs and by eight o'clock it was done.

Elle 21:55
Oh, man. Yeah. Extraordinary. Okay, was this the this was the first pirate book?

Lisa 22:01
Nope. This was the first book. It was a contemporary. Like I said, it'll never see the light today. Cuz now I know how bad it is.

Elle 22:09
What did you write? Did you write Open Door sex scenes in this one? Yeah. Okay, I did. Okay, so I'm guessing you were probably a romance reader. Yes. Okay. All right. And so there was no question you're always going to write in this genre. If you're writing you're writing romance.

Lisa 22:23
Well, I write romance because it has a happy ending. You know, that's just what I want. And and you know, you've been with your husband. 21 years, I've been with mine. 41. Wow. He's my best friend. And he's why I write romance.

Elle 22:44
All right. So I'm curious. I'm curious about a lot of things. Is there a difference between writing the sex scenes for the contemporaries versus writing the pirate sex scenes? Yep. Tell me more.

Lisa 23:04
First up, sex scenes for me are very difficult.

Elle 23:10
They are do you do? Does it slow your word count? Because it seems like you have a massive, your output is extraordinary. And if you can write 1000 words in three hours, be like, I haven't even had my coffee yet. I'm like, okay, that's amazing. So So does it slow you down when you get there? Oh, yeah. What are you struggling with? Do you think

Lisa 23:32
there's so much that goes into those scenes? There's so much you're not it's not just the mechanics? It ever. It's, it's all the emotion. It's, it's your characters coming together for the first time. But they're also bringing all their baggage. They're bringing all their past relationships. They're bringing all their you know, do they have body issues? You know, and that's one of the things How does my character feel standing naked in this room?

Elle 24:02
Oh, that's a good question to ask. Right? That is a really good question to ask.

Lisa 24:08
Because I mean, picture me naked. I took a nudist and threw him in with a woman who had serious body issues. It was so dark in the room. He couldn't find the bed. Wow. Okay, so how does this character feel standing naked in this room? And so you bring all of that into that scene. So there's so much and then I feel I am so limited in words. This is a hand. These are fingers. There's not another word for that. That's sexy. Right? You know, digits is not a sexy word. It's not. And you can only use hands and fingers so many times. Yeah, on a page. So it It I, I can write a book in a month. But it takes me seven days to write 16. Wow, yeah. Wow. Because it really does slow me down. Wow. But I think sex should be slow Anyway, don't you?

Elle 25:17
Well, it depends.

Lisa 25:21
I don't write quickies that way.

Elle 25:23
Cookies can be really great. fan of the Quickie, I got a lot going on. Let's go. Go

Lisa 25:32
back to your question. I mean, contemporary versus historical, contemporary, I'm always dealing with a condom. Yep. Which, you know, like, in real life, you know, throws you off the off the track a little bit. historicals I'm dealing with virgins, unless I have a really good excuse for her not to be a virgin. Interesting. Okay. All right, because a woman's value was so tied up with their virtue. There's only so many different scenarios that I can paint that she's not a virgin.

Elle 26:08
So I'm always curious with historical writers, how you kind of reckon that because you have your characters, unless you're writing that sort of, you know, marriage of convenience, and then they fall in love or, you know, whatever it is like you are having this sort of sex out of wedlock thing. So how do you? How do you kind of reckon with that as a writer with that issue in terms of history? The historical most of momento?

Lisa 26:34
Well, it depends on the story. Depends on the character. But you know, it was funny, my first the first pirate book, because all the romance novels I read, you know, back in the 80s. First off, they started with rape scenes. Yeah, most of the time, they were horrible. Yeah. And second, what always irked me was the fact that the Virgin hit the moon on the first shot. And I'm like, No, this is not reality. Yes, I understand romance novels, you know, aren't reality, however, it always bothered me. So when I got to write one, she didn't. And my editor sent it back three times. And she said, we see where he is. From completion. But we're not seeing her. I'm like, Yep, no.

Elle 27:38
So you say you stopped your you dug in on that?

Lisa 27:40
I did? You did. Okay, I did. So three times. I said, don't get me wrong. She had a good time. And she's a really quick learner. But no, she did not. She did not.

Elle 27:53
And they did not force. They weren't like morons. Like you were

Lisa 27:57
they? They didn't force me. And

Elle 27:59
that does shift the reader expectation a bit. Right. And so I'm kind of curious, was there ever a response to that good, good, or ill? You know, no, no, just no response whatsoever?

Lisa 28:11
No response. That's really interesting. So but yeah, it came back at me three times. I thought it was very funny, because I didn't explain the first two times I didn't explain. Like, she didn't climb X. No, no, no, correct. You're correct.

Elle 28:28
You didn't imagine that she did not climb.

Lisa 28:32
Back and she didn't know she didn't. She didn't. And then I had to explain because, you know, obviously, they were gonna keep right, pushing the point. Or

Elle 28:42
do you continue to put that element in your books and that element of realism that we don't always climb? Or women don't always climax when they have sex?

Lisa 28:51
Right. And, you know, sometimes a lousy encounter. Right is funny.

Elle 29:02
Yeah. Can be fun. Yes. Yes. It can be.

Lisa 29:05
Be funny. So you know, I think you should use it all. I really do. Yeah. And, I mean, I absolutely loathe writing virgin sex scenes. I really hate them. Yeah.

Elle 29:17
So then how do you how do you I mean, you're writing them? Obviously, you are writing them? What do you dislike about them?

Lisa 29:24
Just the whole whole business of it and and having it having it be realistic, and yet you know, having her

Elle 29:40
have a good time, we'll see. I mean, I think that's my question, right? Like, has anybody lost their virginity and actually was like, wow, that was great.

Lisa 29:48
I actually did a workshop in Maine and, you know, stood up with my opinion that you know, women don't hit the moon on the first shot, and I had a woman say all I did, I'm like full throttle off. Yeah, we are not worthy. But it you know, again, it depends on the character. Um, you know, I've had characters that I've had do a lot of self exploration first Yep. So, um, and that are less uptight about sex that, you know, go into it a little bit easier. But, you know, for the most part, and I have written some sex scenes where I know one in particular that that she had a good time. She had a real good, so

Elle 30:44
this character deserves to have a good time and she's gonna have a good time.

Lisa 30:48
She's a pirate.

Elle 30:50
Okay, so you do right because this is this is the thing I love it when you get a book that kind of revert like it offends your expert like I want to I want to read about a woman pirate. There were women that were women pirates. Yes. Back in the day.

Lisa 31:05
The most successful, most brutal pirate in history was a woman.

Elle 31:10
Yes.

Lisa 31:14
Yes, her name. Her name was Chen chi, she sailed in the South China Seas. She was saved from prostitution by her husband. He had a fleet of 2000 ships. He died in battle Three years later, she literally put on his armor and took over his fleet. And by the time she had three separate countries that were trying to stop her because she was so powerful, and wreaking such havoc. By the end she had over 8000 ships. She had 80,000 Men, under her command, amazed she was brutal. She was fierce. She wore two twin cemeteries. And if she didn't like you, she would just take your head off. Literally.

Elle 32:03
I need to read more about she she was

Lisa 32:06
brilliant. I based my fifth Captain so the scarlet Knight heroine are amazing. But she was she was she was the biggest, baddest, most successful pirate in history. And China came to her and said how do we get you to stop? How do we how do we stop

Elle 32:27
an entire country? entire country woman brought an entire country to its knees.

Lisa 32:33
She her fleet was bigger than theirs. And like how do we stop you? And she said, all my men go free. So out of 80,000 they hung maybe 200 Not bad. Yep. She said I keep every penny. Every penny and you leave me alone. Excellent. And she bought an island off of Canton. She married her first mate. She opened a brothel and a gambling house in looped into her 60s.

Elle 33:02
She is my hero. She is my hero.

Lisa 33:06
She's amazing. She's amazing character.

Elle 33:10
I know I would see that movie. I absolutely would watch the show probably 17 times in a row.

Lisa 33:16
So I took her and I threw in. I have a character that I love. I absolutely adore. I raised him from a pup he he came into the second book in the series as a child because there were children on pirate ships as well. But he was deaf. And I raised him to be a captain and use his disability as a as a positive thing. And you know, you tell somebody, oh, I have a deaf pirate captain. They like what? Excuse me, but he cut his teeth on the rigging and he you know, learned how to fight and he was brilliant. And he has dreads and he's gorgeous. And so I took that heroin and I threw I literally threw him on her shore.

Elle 34:16
Amazing. I'd love that. Okay, we wouldn't be steamed sands without a steamy scene. So I we have a bit from the pirate war white. Can you set this up for us? Where are we in the scene?

Lisa 34:31
Or are we in the scene?

Elle 34:33
We're in a bedroom

Lisa 34:34
or in a bedroom or in a bedroom. My heroine is the daughter of my first pirate couple. She has she has decided that she's going to chase her destiny and becoming a pirate. And this is a my heroine has broken her heart before and and she's now kind of come into her own. And this is their first sexing.

Elle 35:06
Okay. I'm curious. Why did you pick this one? I liked it. That's reason enough for me. Let me say, Okay, I'm going to start start a little bit later down so, my god roomful of people. Alicia unbuttoned her breeches and a maddening rush before lifting her shirt over her head, and tossing it among the growing pile of garments littering the floor. Richard stopped his gaze lowered to admire her breath. She could almost feel his stare caressing, caressing them. Her nipples tightened. A quick flash of modesty had her covering herself, but Richard wasn't having any of it. He shook his head slowly and held out a hand to her when she took it. He pulled her gently to he pulled her gently to her feet. He was beautiful in the soft haze of light. a sprinkling of fair hair across his chest caught the lanterns low and turned golden. He was leaner than she expected. The plane of his abdomen reminded her of the ribbed sand on the beach after the tide. I loved that. I love that. I read that like 16 times, like, I was like, Oh my god. Brushing her braid back over her shoulder, Richard trailed a single fingertip along her collarbone, and down the valley between her breasts and to hook into the waistband up for breeches. You're beautiful. I was thinking the same about you. She smoothed her hand over his chest, the criss pear tickled her palm. His gaze never left her as as he gave her waistband a playful tug. Take off these terrible trousers. Alicia mimic does action and can get the waste of his breeches in response, you first and he did. Having never seen Parker naked before he took her in the dark garden. She before he took her in the dark garden. She had nothing to compare. But Richard was far larger than the Greek statues she'd seen drawn in her mother's art, her mother's art books. Of course, those depicted in stone were obviously flaccid, and Richard standing before her in flesh and bone was so obviously not. Are you going to take them off or shall I tear them off myself? Alicia fumbled with the twin row of buttons holding the front flap before pushing the waistband down. The fabric, hugged the swell of her thighs and buttocks so tightly and the day had been close and the day had been close and warm. Unlike Richards it took a bit of time and maneuvering to shed them actually love that you did that. It's like you know you take a shower and then you put your clothes on and you're like this fit yesterday. I don't understand. At one point, she turned her back to shimmy shimmy them down over her legs only to her strangled mon from Richard behind her skirts are so much quicker. She teased over shoulder kicking them away. Alicia straight and took a steadying breath and turned around Richards gaze swept her from top to toe and back. The only sound in the room was the rising cadence of her breathing and the pulsing of her heartbeat in her ears. Surely he could hear her heart trying to beat its way from beneath her ribs. Alicia tees the leather tie on the end of her hair before removing it. And unfading her unruly braid. Running her fingers along her scalp. She gave her hair a quick shake. Richard groaned again. God help me Alicia. Are you trying to kill me? God help us we saw Are you trying to kill the pacing, the pacing? God the pacing. It is so languid and slow and sexy. And like, this is you know, this is a good chunk of text. And are we naked? Yeah. Like not like we aren't we are just a bear. Like, like, there's still like, she still has to take the thing out of her hair, you know? So um, this is this takes a lot of patience as a writer, I think. Because I'm, I'm a little bit of the I want to get to the good shit. Like I'm not like it but this is the good shit. Like, let's face it, this is the good shit. This is why we write what we write. So I know that you say you have a hard time writing these, do you? Um, I guess I'm kind of wondering like what the structure is there for you. Do you write the COC and whole and then add this in? Or are you are you or is this just is this where you're going? Like, is this all coming out as you're going as you're writing or do the mechanics I guess first?

Lisa 39:42
I don't do the mechanics for us. I really I it's funny. My process generally is I drop in my dialogue first. Okay. I hear dialogue first. And so I'll put that in. And then I build around that so Um, and this this one. She is not a virgin. She the Parker reference to the pirate. Yeah. Richard had just broken her heart prior. And she needed to prove to herself that she was desirable and tees demand during a dinner party and ended up in the garden with him. And he basically took her over garden bench and some blinds, little fumble. And that's how she lost her virginity. So so I didn't have to deal with the version I did in that scene. But

Elle 40:43
yeah, that on the page, you wrote that into the book. Okay, okay. Yeah.

Lisa 40:48
But no, I generally write a sex scene, you know, well, start to finish so

Elle 40:56
amazing. Okay. So obviously, we're in Elise's point of view, and then you swap the point of view. And now we're going to be on Richards. Alicia stood before him more stunning than he ever imagined. Richard watched the words tumble from her lips. Their effect was like a jolt to his chest. i I love you as well. Dammit. He stammered like a green book. What was wrong with him? He wanted to pull her into his arms. But as he reached for her, he hesitated, as if touching her would shatter the illusion like glass. Was he trapped within a dream. She was close enough to smell smell the sweetness of her skin. See the flecks of gold in her eyes? God what was wrong with him? He was a confirmed rake or rogue. He'd had dozens of women. Why did the sight of this one make him feel like a fumbling novice because you're alone. Because it was her Alicia because she was offering him everything. He wanted everything he desired, because he had allowed himself to believe he'd never have her and had purposely blocked this possibility from his mind, but never from his heart. And here she was naked, glorious, presenting herself to him, proclaiming her love for him. And all he had to do was reach out and take her. So this was amazing. Like, I love this look like I was just like, oh, Richard, you know, and I'm like, confirm rake my ass. He's the romantic. The way right, their internal lives is really spectacular. Thank you. And I'm always like, I'm info dumping, like, so I'm like, how do you how do you make sure that that's not happening? Because that's totally not what's happening. I don't know. You're asking the hard questions.

Lisa 42:56
I just, you know, I I I joke that that I am an estrogen Island. I have. I have three brothers. No sisters, two sons, no daughters. So I know men. I know men. And I like to think that I write men well, because I I've been scraping testosterone off the walls for years. But so i think i I'd like to know, I'd like to believe I know how they think. And so it's it's easy to kind of slip my feet in their shoes and amazing. Yep.

Elle 43:43
All right. I have a question for the audience. I've got I've got one. We've got like five minutes left. And I've got one little bit that I can read or if do you guys have questions though, because if you have questions, I'd love to work here and take them if you have a question, or would you rather have me read something a little dirty? Dirty some dirty here we go. All right. Oh god, she arrived against him. Alicia lost herself to her passion she tugged at his hair and held him to her breasts. The muscles of her sheath clenched about his fingers. As she opened her legs even wider for him. She was magnificent. Each touch met met with a heated reply a sigh or a moon or an arching of her back a roll of her hips an upward press against his penetrating presses. Please, she panted and tried to move him into position. Richard raised above her and relish the beauty of her face in the throes of passion. His slick fingers withdrew to swirl over her swollen flesh, faster and faster still her until her climax was upon her. Then in one swift move, he settled between her quivering thighs and pushed into the toe. witness of her. She gasped as he drove himself as deep as he could. You guys are happy that I that you've picked us I know. Alicia snails raked at his back and clutched his buttocks as he withdrew and plunged into her again and again and again. Richard could feel the building of his own release. He cursed himself wanting to make it last, wanting to lose himself in her body, and in this moment forever. But when Alicia bucked underneath him crying out his names the walls of her vagina clutching at his cock, he lost the last threat of his control. He pumped into her again stronger, thrusting his hips forward, driving her deeper and harder, until at last his body poured his hot seed into her impulsed release as his world ignited in a flash of color and spark. Richard dropped his head to her shoulder still joined with her his body reverberated with the aftershocks of his release. His arms trembled with the effort of holding his body over hers. Dear God, released his hand released her get her grasp on his hip and dropped to the mattress. I just died. I don't know. Lifting his head he met her gaze, kissed her before pulling out and collapsing into the tight space beside her. What didn't you know? That it? It could be like that. She sighed and closed her eyes, the warm Musk of sex surrounded them. Sweat glistened on their skin, her her combs shimmered on his cock. He wanted her to explain. He wanted to ask about that man who had taken her first. What what it had been like he had pleasured her as well. But as the questions burned in his brain, he didn't want to know. Don't ask, is it always so? Explosive? Letters had fall back or so bloody fast. I've had faster she murmured. Don't ask this was you were she rolled onto her side and ran a hand across his chest? Perfect. That was perfect.

That was really great. And you know what I really love about this, that I know I need to be more conscious of like, you know men are sensitive to and men question their everything about you know, was it any good? Did the my partner have a good time was this like, and so you kind of see that insecurity. And I love being able to see that insecurity because even though he's a self professed, Rogen rake and all of those things, is he really, because I don't think he would care about any good

Lisa 47:54
was like too fast. Here's what she thinks. Yeah, he

Elle 47:57
cares what she thinks. And so it's like, yeah, Richard, you're not the one. You're not the one. Lisa, thank you so much for doing this. This was fun. You're like I broke my charity with you. So I really appreciate it oh my god actually. I broke my cherry with all of you to go. So technically this is a reverse sesh a reverse harem. Isn't reverse I don't know we haven't heard full of women and it was delightful. you everyone for being here.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai