So I came to Atlanta to attend my first Moonlight & Magnolias Conference this weekend. I had a lot of romance industry firsts this year. I attended my first RT Booklovers Convention, my first RWA National, I won my first major industry award (the RT Reviewers Choice award), and lots of good stuff like that.

The main reason I decided to come to M&M, though, was because SLOW SURRENDER was a finalist in the Maggie Award for Excellence, in the newly offered erotic romance category. And the reason I entered the Maggies in the first place? Was because of how badly everything shook out with the Rita Awards this year.

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Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

Many people have asked me who I would cast in a dream movie version of the Struck by Lightning trilogy. When Slow Surrender first came out I had posted the following:

Well, my basis for my male main character is a young David Bowie, but he’s too old to play this role now by far! A contemporary actor who could pull it off… maybe Cilian Murphy if you lightened his hair?

The female main character, Karina, who narrates the story, is a little trickier. I don’t describe her in great detail since the book is from her point of view and I want the reader to be able to see herself in Karina’s shoes. I picture her as a small woman. A good fit would be Nora Zehetner (she played Eden on Heroes and Dr. Reed Adamson on Grey’s Anatomy).

Now that the final book in the trilogy is coming out (Slow Satisfaction) I figured it was time to put my Google-Fu to some use and look for more possible images.

Several readers have told me that in their minds, they’ve already cast Benedict Cumberbatch as James. He’s a versatile actor and I’m 100% sure he would excel in the role! I went hunting for an appropriate image.

The other actor I mentioned above is Cilian Murphy, who I just learned from Wikipedia was in a rock band before he turned to acting!

“Cillian Murphy OIFF2012” by Odessa International Film Festival – http://oiff.com.ua/ru/2012-festival/photovideo/. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

You know who I think could pull off Karina’s cheeky personality really well, though? How about the now twenty-something Emma Watson?

Hm, especially since Emma is often seen in slightly kinky fashions, like the ankle chain high heels she was photographed wearing in New York City in 2012, in chain mail for the cover of Vogue, a barely-there black lace number, or the heavy chain necklace she wore in Marie Claire.

A few readers have told me that in their minds they’ve cast Benedict Cumberbatch as James. Something tells me Mr. Cumberbatch would have a lot of fun with the role. There’s probably no part he can’t play, though! Quite a talented man, Mr. Cumberbatch.

Okay, but what about the supporting characters?

For Becky, Karina’s roommate, I’d cast Constance Wu, an actress i discovered in the web series Eastsiders by Kit Williamson. (It’s a fab gay web series, watch it online here: Episode 1. Kit, the writer and one of the main actors in it is now on Mad Men.) Constance has also been in Torchwood, CSI, and various other shows and movies.

Harder to cast is Ferrara Huntington, the former starlet turned media-mogul’s wife, who is the antagonist in this story. Really, Ferrara is like everyone else in the story: looking for love. But she’s looking in the wrong places. I cast Monica Bellucci here, but I think there are many actresses between age 35 and 40 who could pull off the slightly menacing sensuality that Ferrara exudes.

What about you? Who would you cast if you were directing a movie of the Struck by Lightning books?

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

Here’s a compilation of all the essays I wrote on BDSM, romance, etc. and all the interviews I did during my blog tour launching Slow Seduction.

Jan 28: Interviewed by Audra North
“James is trying to teach Karina that it’s very important to love the WHOLE person you’re with, not just their submissive side or their dominant side.”

“The key to the change in Karina is not that through the BDSM ‘training’ she’s learning what her dom likes. It’s that she’s learning what SHE likes.”
Read more at Wonkomance.

Jan 29: Interviewed by Alison Tyler
“I feel like my whole generation of BDSM kinksters has moved into being foodies. In our 20s we were on the forefront of taking/teaching classes and designing new SM toys and combining our geekery with sensual adventuring. Now that we’re in our 40s it’s the same only we’ve replaced kinky sex with gourmet food.”
Read more at Alison Tyler’s Trollop Salon

Jan 30: On Kink-Positive Writing and BDSM, Guest Blog
“Can you imagine if contemporary romances portrayed sex as something the heroine was merely supposed to ‘endure’ for the sake of the hero’s passions? Lie back and think of England? No, books these days tend to portray sex as something the heroine enjoys, and loves, needs, and wants with the hero. Well, BDSM is sex.”
Read more at Exploits of a Chick Lit Aficionado.

Jan 31: Interviewed by Pamela Richardson
“These days I know Robert Pattinson is the thing, but the desperately sensual movie vampire of my teen years was David Bowie in The Hunger.”

“The romance genre has a lot of hero types I would never want to ‘submit’ to in real life: many of them seem like domineering assholes, frankly, and that’s not to even mention subgenres where the hero is an actual rapist. But I also recognize there’s a vast divide between what I think is valuable in a life partner (or play partner) and what works as fantasy fodder for most people.”
Read more at Badass Romance

Feb 1: Reviewed by Jeannie Zelos
“It’s such a treat to get an author who’s clearly put a lot of thought into how to portray sensuality and passion, without just giving us constant, in-your-face, boring-after-a-while sex. … I really enjoyed that Cecilia has taken a different direction with this book. When she does do sex, then it becomes something to be treasured, something special and revered, a magic moment between two lovers, more than just another quick shag, and fits the novel perfectly.”
Read the review at Jeannie Zelos blog

Feb 2: The Power of Fanfiction: The Power of Squee, guest blog
“My job as an erotica writer, I have always felt, is to stir the passions inside the reader. If the reader isn’t holding her breath, clutching her heart, or squeeing with pleasure and glee at what I’ve put on the page, then I’m simply not doing my job.”

“Writing fanfiction sustained me in those dry years [of my career]. It kept my writing chops in shape and it actually honed my ability to induce squee.”
Read more at The FanVault blog

Feb 3: Why Writing About Female Submission is a Feminist Act, guest blog
“As Karina learns, dominance and submission doesn’t mean James dictates her every move. It means they have a framework within which each partner has agency. Unlike ‘traditional’ relationship structures, which hand the majority of the power and privilege to the male partner, in a BDSM relationship the power is split in a systematic way.”
Read more at the I.G. Frederick EroticaWriter blog

Feb 4: Sex City Radio podcast: listen to my segment of the show at Sex in Words

Feb 4: Blog Post: Pre-Raphelite Art in Slow Seduction
Sometimes things I invent for the sake of plot of convenience in my books… turn out to be real. Blog post with lots of photos of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings and galleries where scenes take place in Slow Seduction. Read more & see photos: http://blog.ceciliatan.com/?p=1683

Feb 5: BDSM Romance: It’s Everywhere Now, guest blog
“BDSM is a bit like Mexican food. To some it seems strange and exotic. Why would you put hot peppers into food? Don’t they hurt?”
Read more at Tilly Greene’s Hot Thoughts

Feb 6: Interviewed by Kerry Adrienne
“All I saw was Karina pulling the marble out of James’s pocket and putting it in her mouth, the big moment in the scene where they meet in the bar.”
“I knew I was trying to write a BDSM book: most people minds would have gone straight to the dungeon or to handcuffs or a spanking. My mind went somewhere else completely.”
Kerry Adrienne’s Escape Velocity blog

I’ll be taping an appearance on Susie Bright’s podcast “In Bed With Susie Bright” later this month, as well.

And then there is the two-part video chat I did on uStream, now on Youtube:

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Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.

Hear a hefty sample chapter of the Slow Surrender audiobook, featured as an episode of the Nobilis Erotica Podcast! Nobilis Erotica is also listenable through their iPhone or Android apps, bringing out fresh erotic fiction audio every week.

The Slow Surrender episode is a full hour, so settle in for a nice listen while we follow Karina and James on a hot night out on the town.

The audiobook edition of Slow Surrender was brought out by Tantor Media, who will also be releasing the Slow Seduction audiobook on Jan 28th, same day as the paperback and ebook.

Mirrored from blog.ceciliatan.com.