Sunday Story - A Hawk Enslaved

A Hawk Enslaved has been sitting in my To Be Read pile for quite a while. I kept looking at it because I'd heard good things, yet I didn't open it. I'm not entirely sure why not. I think it may be because one of my favourite films is LadyHawke and I was worried it would ruin my memories - which is insane, because it wasn't LadyHawke at all.

This is a story of Vikings, raiders, slaves, political intrigue and a man and woman in love and trying to make it work against all odds.

It's beautifully written, with some gorgeous descriptions and phrasing.

The sexual tension drips from the page, as well as suspense tension.

And the hawking is an important but minor part of the story - no women are turned into hawks in this story.

I thoroughly enjoyed Venetia Green's A Hawk Enslaved.

Phallic Friday - raincoat-free bonking

Okay, another interesting story online yesterday. You can find it here.

An Aussie guy's over in Bali and says he's shagged over 100 women in the 4 months he's been there, all condom-free. For a TV show, he goes to get tested for everything - and finds he's STD-free. Pretty lucky huh? Or just a good story?

But the question I have is, are we going overboard with the sex protection stuff?

I know Lily and I have discussed, over and over again, the use of protection in books. And the last time I brought the topic up, I was having a dilemma about oral sex and STD transfer and if we (as responsible authors reflecting society, or whatever) needed to show our characters using protection during oral sex. The answer, from colleagues, interestingly enough was 'no'. Maybe this was because my scene bringing up the discussion of protection during oral sex was so bad! LOL.

I've been looking as I read. I haven't seen too many condoms/dental dams used during oral sex at all, in books.

Which leads me back to my question... are we going overboard with protection?

Sometimes, to make change happen, you need to shock people and push things to the limit. Is this what we've done with protection?

I think in erotic romance we probably have, or I have in my over-thinking. I think it's a tool to be used. Some couples/people may demand protection, others may not. And that's how I'm going to go about protection in my novels from now on.

In real life, I've no idea. This guy's results are quite surprising to me. Maybe he got lucky! Although, maybe STDs aren't as rampant as they were due to so much safe sex. Or maybe this is all TV spin.

I guess some people take out insurance, while others don't. It's about how much risk you're willing to take. I think my characters will be a little more risky. As for me, I'd take out insurance!

Wildlife Wednesday - Sand Crab

Can you see the sand crab in the photo?

They have incredible camouflage, don't they? I only see them when they scurry, and this one stood up so his shadow helped highlight him.

Oh, poop! I looked up sand crab and generally, the crabs called sand crabs have two distinct dots on the back of their shell. Poop! So I've always called these guys sand crabs...and they're not :( Why does Wildlife Wednesday do this to me!?!?!?!

So, it's a crab, of some sort! Okay, Google is my friend.

Maybe it's a Ghost Crab. The description sounds right and the eyes are on stalks, it's the right tiny size, the camouflage is right. But the Australian Museum site has no picture. And the pictures I've seen don't really convince me either way. But none of the crabs on here look right either (this is a NSW Dept. guide).

Oh, but one of the sites references Dakin's Australian Seashores book (another of my favourite books that was left at my parents' when I moved inland but I claimed it later, phew! What would I do without my library?), which is in my bookcase...and now I'm happy! It has a photo of my crab on page 226 and it says it's "one of the ghost crabs, so named because of their translucent cryptic colouring".

This is what Dakin says:

• They have holes in dry sand well above the high tide mark
• They burrow up to 1m deep (that's not bad for a crab that's about 3 cm in size!)
• They're swift footed and very difficult to catch
• Night time is their favourite hunting period
• they can make noise :) but very few people have ever heard it (oh, only one species, and not the one I photographed). The one that makes noise prefers warmer climes, north of Sydney.

Happy now. Thank you Wildlife Wednesday, now I'll call it a Ghost Crab and be correct!

Sunday Story - age

I'm not sure where these musings should go, so here they are.

In Australia we have a show on at the moment called, When Love Comes To Town. It's a busload of 12 women travelling to various places in rural Australia to find their perfect man (who is based in the town, not necessarily a farmer). I'd seen the ads and it intrigued me as to how it worked but the first two shows i only caught a glimpse of. Then last night, I got to watch the whole show. I'm not going to talk about the show, but something else I noticed while watching.

There was a girl aged 22, a whole bunch who are 26-30 and one aged 35. I think that's roughly the breakdown, I wasn't paying strict attention! Anyway, Miss 22 asked to go home last night because it was all too much for her - not just the competing for a man, but the competing with other women, and also being away from her family.

It was a stark reminder that at 22, you can still be really young, self-conscious, and not know who you are yet. At one stage the guy asked her if she could cook. Her answer - Mum does it all, I live at home. You know, that shocked me at first, but then I watched her, watched her mannerisms, checked out her clothes and makeup. I don't think she was lying.

She was young and not confident. She had excessively bright lipstick (as do many of the others) but she didn't wear it like she was comfortable. Her clothes were more comfortable than flirtatious (and there are some girls there with clothes that show a lot of flesh!). She didn't fit the mould of the others on the show.

The other girls are power-women. They know what they want. They know who they are. And they're competitive. I feel sorry for the guys because they probably don't know what's hit them!

It makes me so glad I moved to the country and spent my 20s and 30s out of the power-games girls play. I was the naive 22 year old and gosh, I felt sorry for her last night - but there was no way in hell I would have even applied to be on the show!

So, age matters. As a generalisation, heroines with a few more years know so much more about themselves, are confident in their own skin, and go after what they want. Young heroines are still finding their feet.