The Title Caught My Eye, 
| By | Ruth Smith – See all my reviews |
I haven’t read anything else by this author, but the title caught my eye and I decided to take a chance. I’m glad I did. The writing is excellent, the story kept me interested at all times, and I was not disappointed at all. It was perfect entertainment for a snowy weekend in the end of February, and it was a great way to escape from all of life’s little problems.
This is me and my best friend and ex-business partner, Maureen. I’m the one with the gun and Maureen is the one with the justifiably smug expression.
Maureen and I met in high school and bonded over Daphne DuMaurier, Gene Kelly and a mutual desire to wander around moors at odd hours wearing flowing capes.
We also shared a belief that we could do just about anything we set our minds to, very much along the lines of ‘Hey, let’s put on a show! We can use my parents’ barn…Sophie sews and she’ll make the costumes! And we’ll get all our friends to act!’ We ran a mystery-oriented theater troupe, did haunted houses for Maureen’s sister and her friends when they had parties, and much more.
We honestly didn’t know what we were doing or the odds we faced at actually pulling any of these ventures off, which gave us a wildly inflated optimism at our ability to succeed. And because we didn’t know any better, we generally did accomplish our goals. We also managed to drag friends/family and assorted actors and musicians along with our enthusiastic plans. Sometimes we made money and sometimes we didn’t. But no one ever complained, probably due to the quantity of freshly-baked treats we supplied.
So no no-one in our circle was at all surprised when Mo and I decided to make a movie. We dashed out a script in a week or so, cast it amongst ourselves and our circle of actors, found a friend who’d taken film courses at UCSD and had a video camera, and got to work. We knew nothing of lighting. We had no microphones and figured we do all the dialogue not caught in the actual filming after the fact (I’ve since learned it’s called ADR and have, in fact, done dubbing for other actors…but that’s another story). We found locations, including a B&B in Idyllwild, California, run by my ex in-laws, set up a shooting schedule, and set about filming. The film was called Passion’s Purple Prose and was about a young woman so caught up in her fantasies, she can’t recognize true love when it stares her in the face. I played the heroine and Maureen the best friend.
We filmed about two thirds of the script before the loss of our leading man (divorce/moving out of town) effectively put the kibosh on our careers as successful Hollywood writer/director/producer triple threats. I still have three videotapes stuffed full of footage. Every now and again I threaten Maureen with a public viewing.
I was going through a suitcase of my old writing a couple months ago and found the script for Passion’s Purple Prose, lines of dialogue highlighted in fluorescent yellow. Re-reading the script, I both winced at some really cheesy dialogue and painfully bad jokes…and genuinely laughed at some of the humor. It had possibilities. A rewrite was definitely in order, but…it had possibilities. “Hey,” I told myself. “Let’s turn this into an erotic romance! It has good characters… they could have sex…and I could pitch it to Ravenous!” So I sent the synopsis and first 25 pages of the script to Holly, changed the name to Ripping the Bodice, and she said I could use her barn if I made the costumes!
So any of you who read RtB and are REALLY curious…come visit me in San Francisco and if you get me to drink enough wine, I might just break out the original footage.
(P.S. I’m still doing a happy dance ’cause Ripping the Bodice is currently #4 on the Top 10 list and #1 in the Contemporary Romance category.)
Ripping the Bodice just hit the Top 10 Bestseller list at Ravenous this morning! Considering it’s only been up for three days, I am doing a happy happy happy dance! Even if it only stays on the top 10 for a day, I’m so chuffed to have made it there at all! Just had to share…
Or ‘Squeeee!!!’ EIther expression works. Anyway, I just got the jpg of my new book cover with Ravenous Romance and am VERY happy with it. To quote my own sell sheet:
Got sex and romance on the brain? So does Cassandra Devon. She also has hard-boiled private eyes, dashing pirates, jet-setting super spies and other sexy rogues entertaining her in her surprisingly explicit subconscious. All these erotic daydreams make it hard to stay focused on Cassandra’s current dilemma: namely, rebuffing the advances of Connor, a wild Irish rascal who wants to play the starring role in her fantasies. Cassandra is only interested in getting together with Raphael, the tall, dark and handsome man of her dreams. May the best romance hero win!
Walter Mitty meets Erica Jong in this wickedly funny and sexy hot comedy-romance from the author of Succubusted.
My original cover concept was this:
A play on a stereotypical historical romance cover from the ’80s: our heroine, Cassandra (lots of long, wavy dark brown hair) bent over backwards in the steely armed embrace of a tall, dark auburn-haired, muscular man kissing her neck. He’s either bare-chested or dressed in dashing pirate/cavalier garb. Cassandra, however, has her green eyes covered with glasses and is reading a romance novel, cover clearly visible, over the man’s shoulder. Her expression and interest are clearly more on the book than the man holding her.
While I still love my idea, I am equally fond of the cover the Ravenous artists came up with.
Ripping the Bodice will be out on Ravenous Romance…(drumroll) tomorrow! So if you like comedy, romance and a little bit…okay, a lot of sex, please check it out!
I just finished RIPPING THE BODICE, my WIP for Ravenous Romance. I am SO happy to have met my deadline and extremely proud of myself. Plus I feel like I’ve regained a long lost skill from long ago; the ability to write scenes in my head and lose myself in a world of my creation. I used to spend hours doing this when I was young; it was as vivid as waking dreams and my writing productivity was kick ass too.
Can I just say I had one day this week where I wrote 5,000 words? Good words too. In the right order and everything.
So look for Ripping the Bodice on the Ravenous Romance website sometime in February under my pen name Inara LaVey!
I am going to drink a glass of Tobin James Fat Boy Zinfandel and celebrate.