Trope-tastic Tuesdays: Silver Fox

Before we get to this installment of Trope-tastic Tuesdays, a quick announcement: the newsletter subscriber bonus is going to be changing in a few weeks, so if you haven't already signed up and received your free copy of Sweet Escape, don't miss your chance! You can use the form that's over there on the sidebar, or this sign-up link.

Onward!

Trope: Silver Fox

Description: A person—often male, often with gray or white hair—who, despite their age, is still regarded as being attractive and charming. Silver Foxes are distinguished and powerful; after all, being older has its perks. If the Silver Fox is a love interest, the other half of the pair will usually be younger, though it's not required. To qualify for this trope, characters have to play by the rules - they have to *look* older, not just *be* older. No thousand-year-old vampires who look like they're in their 20s allowed, etc.

Allegedly, the female version of the Silver Fox is the Silver Vixen, but I'm going to be honest here, I don't think that idea is nearly as popular, which I'll expand on below.

Examples: Oh, hell, just take your pick of older actors who only seem to get better with age. There definitely isn't a shortage of them.

Pros: None of us are getting any younger, right? It's nice to know that even as we age past what's considered the "standard" ideal of beauty, there's still a chance others will find us attractive. In romance especially, this can be used as a shortcut to help establish a power dynamic, for better or worse. If a Silver Fox is in a relationship with another character, chances are he's not going to be the passive, submissive one.

Cons: Time for the standard disclaimer about how all appearance-based tropes for love interests are highly subjective! Okay, that's out of the way. The aforementioned power dynamics in the "pros" list can also be subjective, and it can veer into problematic territory if the Silver Fox is using his age and assumed privilege to influence his partner to do things she may not really want to do.

I said I'd come back to the gender issue; as much as TV Tropes may try to convince me otherwise, I do feel like this one favors the men, and I'm not sold on the "Silver Vixen" thing. I mean, a good number of the women on their list of examples didn't have gray or white hair. I suppose we could debate whether the "silver" part is supposed to be taken literally or if this is all just about a general persona. Regardless, there's a whole lot to unpack here about how society sees men aging vs. women aging.

(If someone knows the difference between "Silver Vixen" and "Cougar", PLEASE enlighten me.)

Would/Did I Use It?: I do have a few entries for this trope! First up is Colin, one of Celeste's potential love interests in Blazing Justice. He's older than her, he's her boss, and yup, he's got the hair. It's no secret that other women in the office find him attractive, too. Lucky her.

I'm going back and forth on whether Edwin from Closing Montage qualifies. He and Abigail take a trip through the highlights of their lives via virtual reality, so obviously he's an older man by the end, but she's aging, too, so there's no contrast there. Additionally, there's one point where he questions whether she's still attracted to him in his older form (SHE IS!), so his lack of confidence may prevent him from being a true Silver Fox.

Bonus mention of Aras in Out of Orbit - he's over 500 years older than love interest Jasmine. Despite the fact that he may not look so old to her, he's considered to be in the older age range for his species. Plus, since he's the ruler of his planet, he's got the elevated status that contributes to this trope. While he doesn't have any hair, his skin is silvery gray, so I will insist that counts and add him to the end of this list. :D

Trope-tastic Tuesdays: Hot Chick in a Badass Suit

(Parts of this were originally posted on February 7, 2013)

Trope: Hot Chick in a Badass Suit

Description: No link to the trope this time, because apparently in the years since I wrote the original post, TV Tropes has decided a list of women suits isn't trope-tastic enough. I still think it's a valid way to convey some information about a character, so good thing I have my description handy:

The Hot Chick in a Badass Suit means business - don't mess with her, or you will probably regret it. She's successful and she's confident in both her profession and the way she carries herself. While short skirts are a possibility, she can look just as good in a long-sleeved pantsuit that covers her chest, because her tailor is just that talented.

Examples: Agent Scully from The X-Files, most of the female lawyers on Law & Order, with special shoutouts going to Abbie Carmichael and Alex Cabot, because damn, those were some enviable suits. (Update: Let's add Connie Rubirosa to the list of notable ADAs with badass suits on Law & Order)

Pros: Want to instantly make the audience think "strong female character"? Put her in a Badass Suit. If she's wearing a Badass Suit, we can assume she must be intelligent and have at least some level of personal skills, as she's advanced in her career enough that the suit is deemed necessary to appear professional. Also, if she cares about her appearance and the way she's perceived in said career, we know she's passionate about something.

Cons: As was even covered in at least one episode of Law & Order, to some people, HCiaBS can equal "uptight bitch". I personally hate that it's an issue, but this is a list of cons, so I should point it out. One person's "strong female character" is a misogynist's "uppity woman who needs to be put in her place", after all. (*grumble*) I guess this might be a case of making sure you know your audience in order to determine how the HCiaBS is going to land.

Would/Did I Use It?: Years later, I do have some of my own examples to contribute to this trope! (Take that, TV Tropes!) The obvious one is Celeste, the main character of Blazing Justice, which drew a whole lot of inspiration from my love of Law & Order, so we can all see how I wound up there. I won't tell you in which ending(s) she keeps the Badass Suit on and in which one(s) she trades it in for something else. ;) I'd also make the case for Astrid from Hunting Astrid - while she's not in a full suit while at work, she's wearing a dressy blouse, pencil skirt, and heels when she makes a presentation to applicants to the company she works for, future love interest Tabitha included. Later on, Tabitha even comments on enjoying seeing her out of her straight-laced business attire while on a date, so I'm going to say this one's close enough to count.

Dominance

Yup, you can keep your minds in the gutter, because this post is about exactly what you think it's about: which characters dominate your sex scenes? As I was chugging along on A Flame Among the Stars, I started thinking about how in most romances, one half of the couple is usually more forward or dominant than the other. Sometimes it's evenly balanced, sometimes it pings back and forth...and sometimes what happens outside the bedroom is different from what happens inside.

 

For a fun experiment, not only will I be exploring this in terms of gender, but also the point-of-view, as I have a hypothesis.

A Flame Among the Stars: This is a lesbian romance, so both halves of the couple are female. Meg, the POV character, is definitely the more dominant one for most of the book, though Celendra gains confidence and starts taking charge at points. What got me thinking about this whole subject is that it had been a while since I wrote from the POV of the more dominant character, but more on that later.

Hunting Astrid: Another lesbian romance. The book is from Astrid's POV, but Tabitha takes the lead for most of their intimate encounters. Again, though, Astrid has her own moments of being in control by the end.

Blazing Justice: This one's interesting because we have one POV character (Celeste) with three different endings. Without giving two much away, in two out of the three endings, the men are clearly more dominant, but it's more evenly matched in the third.

Fire Beyond the Frost: More lesbians. Catalina (POV) has no problem being in command of an operating room or jumping into action in case of medical emergency, but she's always been far more reserved in her personal relationships. This actually doesn't change much throughout the book, but Sari's there to guide her along nonetheless.

Closing Montage: Hmm. After some consideration, I'll say that Abigail (POV) and Edwin are pretty evenly matched, but I might give a slight edge to Edwin. It's close, though.

Seductive Suspect: Adam calls the shots as soon as he gets Veronica (POV) into his bedroom, hands down. This was one of those instances where I had that scene all planned out in my head for a while, but since I write in order, it took me a while to get there. Even so, I didn't lose any of my enthusiasm for it, and Adam's running this sexy show.

Out of Orbit: This was fun because both Jasmine (POV) and Aras are absolute powerhouses in their roles/careers before they meet, so what happens when they finally get together? The answer - Aras is the one in charge, but Jasmine doesn't mind in the slightest.

Flight of the Dragon Queen: Here's another one where it might be too close to call between Caleb (POV) and Alizeira. If I absolutely had to choose one or the other, I guess I'd say Alizeira is the more dominant of the two, but really, it's by the tiniest of margins.

Elysium: This one might buck the trend in multiple ways - not only does the POV alternate between April and Drew, but they each get their own sex scene where they're the POV character and each one is the more dominant one when we're inside their head. Again, it's a small difference, but that's my analysis.

Second Skin: The POV alternates between Anna and Brendan here, too; however, once they're behind closed doors, it's from Anna's POV, but Brendan is more dominant.

So, what have we learned? For the hetero romances, I thought the men would be more dominant, but while it skews a little in that direction, it's not always the case. What appears to be the bigger predictor? The POV character.

 

I'm too lazy to go through and tally it up, but it does seem like the POV character is less likely to be taking charge in the sex scenes. In a way, it kind of makes sense - it might be easier to envision yourself in a character's place when something is being done to them, rather than having them being the one doing the...doing. I won't get too far into fantasies and preferences and whatnot here, but if you're reading romance for an escape, letting someone else come in and handle everything can sound appealing. With the POV character, we see, hear, and feel everything they're experiencing; it's not that we, the readers, always want to take on a passive role in our own lives, but I can see how it's logical for the POV character we're reading about to be on the receiving end of all those fun sensations. You could argue the opposite, of course, and I don't think there's a right or wrong answer. In the future, I'll be paying attention to this when reading romances and trying to determine who's more likely to play what role with regard to POV.

(I'm not going to start unpacking menage romances...yet?)

Racing Toward the Finish (or, Link Party!, Part the Next)

Hello, my lovelies! I hope this winter holiday season is treating you well, or whatever 2020's version of well is. As we race toward the end of this year, I've been racing toward the end of my work-in-progress, Elemental Forces. Even without having gotten to the very end yet, it's the longest thing I've written by a wide margin since the kids were born 5.5 years ago, so that's exciting. I don't want to jinx anything or invite more misfortune into this year, especially after what happened the last time I did that, but I will say that I think I will hit my goal of finishing up the main writing of this book by the end of the year. (Will I get it fully edited and ready to be shipped off by then? Ehhh, let's not push it.)

Since I've been working like crazy on the book, I don't have an interesting blog post ready to go. But it's been a while since I last posted, and I do have an assortment of fun links and promises of more in the future. I'll drop these here for now to hold you over, and if I don't manage to check in before then, enjoy the rest of your holiday season and Happy New Year!

Blazing Justice at The TBR Pile - As the name might indicate, the reviewers over at The TBR Pile have been busy busy busy this season, but they finally got to Blazing Justice and loved it! Their 5-star review of it means it'll be entered into their Book of the Month contest at the end of December, which I will absolutely keep you posted on. (Now would be a good time to follow me on Twitter if you haven't already done so, as I've been hanging out there a lot this pandemic.)

In January, The TBR Pile will also have a feature on Hunting Astrid, complete with a real blog post I wrote. As always, stay tuned for further details!

Speaking of Hunting Astrid....

Best Lesfic Reviews - I get nervous about submitting to review sites, because of course I want people to read and review my books, but they're not obligated to love my every word, and I know I'm not supposed to interact with reviews anyway, and so on. Best Lesfic Reviews is critical yet fair, so I was especially nervous here, and then pleased with the outcome. Again, I know I'm not supposed to interact with the reviews/reviewer, but I did wind up having a nice conversation with her via email, and it was fun to get her ideas for future installments. (Oh, did I mention my editor suggested this could have series potential? YIKES.)

Broome's Books LGBTQ+ Book Reviews - Another great summary and review by another great person I'm glad to have met. And now my own to-read pile is getting longer and longer thanks to the rest of her site! Years ago, I dabbled with posting book reviews as part of my site here, and it is really hard to keep with everything, so I'm so appreciative of readers who take on this often thankless task.

Blazing Justice - Available Now!

 

It's release day! As promised, my little experiment with Choose Your Own Adventure-style romance is available on Kindle now. Free for Kindle Unlimited people, $2.99 otherwise, because formatting this thing was its own adventure. I'm working on setting up some promo events, so as always, watch this space. (Standard reminder about signing up for the mailing list.)

In the meantime, here's the blurb and excerpt. Happy reading!

Blurb:

One murder case, three sizzling endings….

In the suburbs of New York City, prosecutor Celeste McConnell is called to a crime scene in the middle of the night. The gruesome stabbing is the most brutal murder the quiet little town has seen in many years, and both the police and the District Attorney’s office are determined to arrest and convict the killer. Celeste is resolved to follow the proper procedures and seek justice for the victim, but as the case progresses, she wants to be sure the right person is held accountable for the crime.

Choose Celeste’s path in her quest for the truth and decide who she can trust the most. Whether she follows the lead of her suave, assertive boss at work, confides in the charming and sweet detective assigned to the case, or embarks on a thrilling adventure with the potentially dangerous murder suspect, each unique ending offers an unforgettable night of passion for Celeste and her chosen partner, as well as a conclusion to the murder case that brought them together.

Excerpt:

Chaos erupted at six o’clock on the dot, when several things happened all at once. “This is getting ridiculous,” Lattimer said. The force with which he stood up sent his chair skidding backward into the wall. “I don’t know what else I can tell you, and I’d really like to go home now.”
 

My cell phone rang again. “Celeste? What is going on over there?” Hints of annoyance tempered Colin’s voice. “I expected to hear from you by now.”
 

As I filled him in on what had happened since arriving at the police station, two more officers entered the room. They spoke with Captain Redding, whose eyebrow shot up at whatever they told her, and she looked over at me. “Hold on one second,” I said into the phone.
 

“They came from the crime scene,” the captain told me. “And they found a bloody knife in a garbage can behind Nick Lattimer’s unit. We won’t know if it’s Sherri Strahan’s blood until the tests come back, but….”
 

“Right.” I turned my attention back to the phone. “I don’t know if you heard any of that, but what could possibly be the murder weapon just turned up near Lattimer’s apartment.”
 

“Hmm.” Colin sighed. “Between this discovery and the thing with his brother, it’s enough. I don’t want this guy disappearing on us.”
 

“Got it. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”
 

Lattimer paced back and forth behind the table. “You can’t just keep me here like this,” he said, moving toward the door. “I’m leaving.”
 

That was my cue. I entered the room; now it was my turn to block his path. For a fleeting moment, our gazes locked together. His gold-flecked eyes burned into me and my breath caught in my throat.
 

“Miss McConnell?” Delgado said, shattering the growing tension.
 

I looked away and swallowed. “Arrest him.”

Change of Plans, and a Sneak Peek

Over the past few months, I've been discussing releasing old projects that never found a home, plus the new situation of having the rights to a lot of my old books revert back to me when the publisher closed and having to decide what to do there. I thought I'd had a plan for at least what to do next, but as we all know, plans can change in an instant.

I was chatting with friends in an online group about a month ago, and some of them mentioned how fun it would be to have a book that was like those Choose Your Own Adventure books we all read as kids, but an adult romance. As luck would have it, I had exactly that sitting in my files. A number of years ago, I wrote the story for a particular website that dealt with CYOA romance, but then the site shut down, and I didn't think I'd be able to successfully shop it around anywhere else, so it's been sitting untouched...until now!

One friend did mention that she'd read an Austen-esque CYOA romance; when I did some poking around on Amazon, I found a couple more, but not a huge amount. I went back to my Word document to reread and decided I still liked the story and characters, so I abandoned my plan to re-release The Edge of the Sphere at the end of the summer and focused on cleaning this up instead. I think it's a fun concept, and who knows, if other people feel the same way, maybe I'll think about writing more of them.

 

This is just the sneak peak, so for now, I'll just mention that I have the book up for pre-order on Amazon, AND I'm also trying something new and I have a few ARCs available on Booksprout. If you find joy in reading books before anyone else can and writing reviews, go take a look!