The Morning after the Night Before

So, how do we all think that young Joe McElderry is feeling this morning having won Britain's biggest talent contest? Pretty good, I’d wager. Shocked? Certainly. Terrified of what’s to come? Probably. But pretty good nonetheless.

The real winner last night though was, of course, Simon Cowell. Ten million phone votes at 35p a call? That’s… a lot. £3.5million. For those of you on the other side of the pond that’s somewhere between $5.5million and $6million depending on current exchange rates. Then there’s all the sales from Joe’s single which will inevitably be Christmas number one and probably the ‘fastest selling single of all time” or some shit like that – it usually is.

I did find it amusing that Simon kept saying “this is the closest contest I think we’ve ever had” when in actuality anyone with two ears who wasn’t tone deaf knew Joe was going to win from about week three.

But I do wonder how long he’ll last. We shall see.

I thought that the best performance of last night was Alex Burke & JLS doing their mini-meadely. That was really good. And then Simon pulls Paul McCartney out of the bag as the last big surprise act. How’s he going to top that next year? Dig up John Lennon or Elvis and reanimate them for the evening?

I tell you what though, I wonder if, ten years ago (give or take) when Simon Cowell agreed to be the forth (and least well known) judge on some little show call Pop Idol, he knew it would turn him into a global superstar. Pop Idol was, of course, massive and the Simon was the star of the show with his frank (and sometimes hurtful) comments. Naturally, when the Yanks decided to pick up the show as American Idol they recognised Cowell as the star and signed him up. The rest, as they say, is history.

For me, there were two moments that stood out in that first series of Pop Idol. Gareth Gates’ first audition, with that 30 seconds or so of silence when he struggled to say his name than sang so well afterwards, and, the moment that made Cowell and Will Young for me, when Cowell called Young’s top 50 performance ‘ordinary’ and Young answered him back. Classic TV. I’d give you a You Tube link but for the life of me I can’t find the clip anywhere.

Changes Afoot

If you’re reading this on the Blogger or MySpace versions of this blog then you may have noticed a few changes. First off, those menu buttons at the top of the page have changed colour, being now an attractive shade of blue rather than dark grey. Also, the logo at the top of the page now reads “marcnobbs.co.uk” rather than “marcnobbs.com”.

Yep, I’ve come over all patriotic and stuff. :-)

Actually, the change is because I’ve moved my website to a new host and with the hosting came a free domain registration. Since I couldn’t be having with the hassle of moving the .com domain, I opted for .co.uk instead. The old .com domain now redirects to .co.uk as well.

Why the change of host? Well, this new host offers more features. The website needed a refresh, which you’ll see if you click on any of the buttons in header (or here if you’re on SOL, Soulcast or Zoo). So while refreshing, I thought about what else I could do.

For example, I’ve started a Marc Nobbs Wiki. It’s not much right now, which is why there is no link to it on the website, but over time I’ll expand it. Or you can. It is a wiki after all, and therefore it’s collaborative. take a peek at wiki.marcnobbs.co.uk.

See that? It’s a sub-domain. My new host provides me with unlimited sub-domains. So blog.marcnobbs.co.uk currently redirects to the blogger blog. In time I may move this to my new webhost using a WordPress solution, but I need to monitor bandwidth for a couple of months before I do that. I also need to consider what will happen to those people who have subscribed to the blogger blog – I don’t want to lose them by moving.

I’m also considering homogenising all the social network sites, eg twitter.marcnobbs.co.uk and myspace.marcnobbs.co.uk – but that may be a step too far.

Now, I really must go and do some writing… I mean work. Yes, I must go and do some work.

The AWARD WINNING “Kissed by a Rose”

Yes, it’s true. It’s True. Kissed by a Rose was been voted Erotic Novel of the Year for 2009 by the members of the Romance Erotica Connection.

As you can imagine, I’m stoked. I’m also very humbled, this award is a great honour for someone like me. I’d like to thank everyone who took the time to vote for the book – as I’m sure would Adam and Chloe.

If you haven’t read Kissed yet, then you can purchase a copy here. Or, if you can wait, you’ll be able to pick up a print copy of the book sometime next year. Phaze have confirmed that they will be taking the book to print and I’m currently going over the manuscript one last time to make sure it’s as clean (in the typos sense – not the sexual sense, lol) as it can be. I don’t have a date for the release of the print copy just yet, but when I do I’ll let you know.

I’m also waiting on a release date for Eternally & Evermore in electronic format. All I know so far is it will be ‘next summer’. Again, more details when I have them.

Is there such a thing as too much sex?

I’m not talking about real live, obviously. In the real world, I think everyone agrees that you can’t ever get enough of a good thing (and sex is certainly a good thing – if you’re doing it right). No, I’m talking about sex in fiction. Is it possible to have too much sex in a novel.

The reason I’m thinking about this is that recently, in a few things I’ve read, I’ve found myself scanning over, or even skipping, the sex scenes in order to get back to the story.  Let me try and explain.

At the start of this year I made a conscious decision to add to my reading list some of the much loved ‘epic’ stories that are about in the ‘free’ erotica community. I mentioned this earlier this year on this blog. I’m talking about the likes of BlueDragon’s Ordinary Sex Life series and his John Billionaire series. Wizard’s Trailer Park series is another.

And, of course, any exploration of ‘epic’ stories on SOL wouldn’t be complete without Frank Downey’s Dance of a Lifetime, which is excellent, by the way. Yes, Frank’s style is a little too sickly sweet sometimes, and he has the habit of doing things with his prose that really annoy me (not least of which is using bold for emphasis – and using emphasis far too often), but boy this guy can spin a good yarn. If you haven’t already wasted the many, many hours it takes to read this, then you really should. You won’t be disappointed.

The latest series I’m tackling is Nick Scipio’s Summer Camp.

Now, Ordinary Sex Life, Trailer Park and Summer Camp are all “coming of age” stories. They are told by a first person narrator – a teenage boy – and cover that period in his life when he grows from a boy to a man and discovers all about girls and the fun things you can do with them. Dance of a Lifetime could be called “coming of age” if you stretch the definition but it’s more of a “star crossed lovers” tale.

Because OSL, TP and SC are about a young man discovering sex, there is a lot of sex in them. With many multiple partners – often at the same time. But as I’ve read each of them, I’ve found myself scanning the sex scenes rather than reading every word. I’m looking to see if the scene in question is significant to the story, or just there for the sake of having a sex scene.

Don’t get me wrong, all three series have the elements of good fiction – good, interesting plots, lots of conflict and characters that develop as the story unfolds – but sometimes the sex seems to have been ‘tacked on’ to the story, possibly because author feels it’s been a while since we had a sex scene and this is a sex story, after all. But sometimes, the sex scene is essential to the story, because it contains a crucial plot point or character development, and those are the scenes I’m looking for when I scan. Those are the sex scenes I want to read because they progress the story.

For me, too often, the sex is getting in the way and, honestly, I’d rather just read the story.

I’m not doing these stories down. They are all very good, very enjoyable and I’d recommend them to anyone (okay, maybe not anyone but you know what I mean). That’s why I’ve included the links. I’m just trying to illustrate my point that it is possible to have too much sex.

Too much sex is something I’ve tried to avoid in my last two novels. Or rather, sex for the sake of sex is something I’ve tried to avoid. Instead, I’ve tried only to include the sex scenes that I think are relevant to the plot and character development.

Kissed by a Rose is ninety thousand words and fifty three chapters long yet it contains only thirteen distinct sex scenes. It alludes to a lot more, but only thirteen are described in any detail. That’s because the reader only needed to see what went on in those thirteen scenes. All the other times that Adam and Chloe had sex, it was not as important to the plot or their individual development.

Eternally & Evermore is also around the ninety thousand word mark, and is fifty-two chapters long. But in this one (due to be released by Phaze Book next summer) the first sex scene doesn’t happen until chapter chapter twelve – almost twenty thousand words into the book. The next sex scene doesn’t happen until chapter twenty-three (and that’s only a dream). In fact, there’s only six explicitly described sex scenes in the whole of the book, each one of them serving a purpose to the story and none of them there just for the sake of having the characters screwing.

So, to answer my own title – yes, there is such a thing as too much sex. Or rather, for my tastes there is. But what do you think? Have you ever thought about it? Feel free to let me know what you think.

Two Big Announcements

Yesterday I received a very, very exciting e-mail which contained two huge pieces of news. I couldn’t say anything yesterday until I’d confirmed some of the details, but now I can make the following announcements.

Firstly, Phaze Books have agreed to pick up my latest completed manuscript, Eternally & Evermore, for publication as an e-book in the summer of 2010. That’s all the info I have in terms of a release date as yet, but I’m just happy to know that the work has found a home. This will be the fourth book of mine that Phaze have picked up.

“Eternally & Evermore” is the story of Will Brown and Amy Robinson. We first meet them as teenage sweethearts who promise to be together for all time. But then we skip forward twenty years to find that although their lives have taken radically different paths, when they are reunited, their love still burns brightly.

I believe it’s the best thing I’ve ever written by a long distance. Full of passion, littered with light heated moments, but most of all it’s a rollercoaster thriller as they fight to overcome the obstacles in their way – including the best antagonist I’ve ever created.

Here’s the blurb for the book.

Love doesn’t make the flowers smell sweeter, Love wakes you up to the world around you. Love won’t make you flawless, but Love will take away the fear that holds you back. Love isn’t the destination, Love is journey you take with the one person who cares about you most.

Twenty years after promising to love each other “Eternally & Evermore”, teenage sweethearts, Amy and Will, are reunited to discover their love burns as strongly as it ever did. But while Will is a successful lawyer, Amy has walked a tougher path. What secrets does she harbour? What ghosts litter her past? And what horrors will they have to endure before they can finally be together “Eternally & Evermore.”

The second piece of news is that Phaze have expressed an interest in taking my last novel, Kissed by a Rose, to print. Kissed by a Rose was released as an e-book in June of this year, and I’m thrilled that Phaze have the confidence in the story to consider releasing a print addition. As yet I have no details of a release date or a potential price point, but, frankly, I’m just too busy being excited by the idea for that to matter right now. I can’t wait to see Adam and Chloe in hard copy.  When I get more details, I’ll be sure to pass them on.