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Feature Friday - Guest Post by Selena Laurence (and get a free book!)

18 Oct 2013
Feature Friday is a brand new item on Bookish Treasures. Every Friday I will be featuring an author through either an interview or a guest post. If you are interested in taking part please send me an email.

This week I am featuring Selena Laurence, an author of NA contemporary romance who is just about to release her newest book Camouflage which is a prequel to the awesome sounding Hidden (which is free for this weekend!).

 

Camouflage by Selena Laurence



Synopsis

Gabe Thompson enlisted to help out his buddy, but three years later he's 100% US military bad boy, serving in the desert of Afghanistan where the days are hot, but the nights are hotter.

Alexis Garcia is out to save the world. The University of Texas freshman has come to Afghanistan to do aid work with the United Nations. She's all about the peace, and she has no use for the camp's biggest, baddest, gun toting player.

But, sometimes camouflage is more than a color, and people aren't what they seem. When conflict develops not only between Gabe and Alexis, but also all around them, they're forced to look deeper, and what they find will rock their worlds and change their hearts forever.


Add it on Goodreads!

Get book 1 Hidden for FREE! Amazon | Amazon UK

Sex in NA by Selena Laurence


           There is a furor this week about sex in fiction and online sales. I’ll spare you the details, and this post isn’t really about that, but rather about the presence of sex, graphic and otherwise, in New Adult fiction.

            Most readers who are familiar with the term New Adult, know it refers to a genre of fiction about characters between (roughly) the ages of eighteen and twenty-four. These characters are necessarily, dealing with the types of issues new adults do – romantic relationships, higher education, jobs, family issues, finding out who they are in the world.

            The first popular novels categorized as New Adult were primarily contemporary romances, and often contained graphic sex. Because of that, some people believe all New Adult fiction contains high levels of sexual description, and that simply isn’t true. New Adult simply refers to the age of the protagonists and the types of issues they are working through.

            I am first and foremost, a romance writer. I also happen to love the New Adult genre and the age group. I might even be related to a couple of kids that age (no, I won’t tell you how old I am!). Thus, when I started to write New Adult novels, I knew there would be sex, and probably a lot of it. Why? Because it’s part of romantic love, and in the initial stages, it’s a big part.

            Some people might qualify the sex scenes in my books as “graphic,” but to me, particularly in my New Adult novels, what they are, is honest. I use the words that real people that age use, and I try to describe the acts as realistically as possible, because to me, that’s part of feeling what the characters feel, and part of what enables the reader to be IN the story. This isn’t the only way to portray sex in fiction – it’s just the way I prefer.

            What I don’t ever do is use sex gratuitously. In other words I don’t have sex scenes simply to get people to read my books. They serve a purpose, almost always as part of the act of falling in love, but sometimes as a way to show a character’s personal deficits – yeah, the hero in my newest release, Camouflaged, has a scene like that. It’s also not a way to explore the more, shall we say, unusual aspects of human psychology. I leave that to erotica writers. Let’s just say I’m not that creative!

            As readers, what do you look for in sex in fiction? Heat? Kink? Love? Tell me all about it. I’d love to hear your views!
 

About the Author


Selena Laurence lives in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and spends a hell of a lot of time at soccer games, on her laptop, and reading. She requires a Mocha Latte every day to function, keeps a goldendoodle at her feet most of the time, and has more kids than she knows what to do with. Her husband, Mr. Laurence, spends as much time as he can at the office and the gym in order to avoid the kids, the dog, the laptop and the reading, but he always shows up for the soccer games, and he makes a mean Mocha Latte.

Selena can help you Escape the Everyday at these online locations:
www.selenalaurence.com

Twitter: @selenalaurence

Facebook: SelenaLaurenceRomanceAuthor

Email: author@selenalaurence.com

Get it for free!

1 comment:

  1. Thanks, Ellen! And thanks to Bookish Treasures for having me!

    ReplyDelete

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