Cheryl Holt | What DO Readers Think?
After 21 published novels, and numerous reprints of my old titles, I’m getting ready once again to contract with my publisher to write some more books. It’s always an interesting time for me, because I get to pick new characters, new plot twists, and new storylines.As I go through this process, I’m interested in what readers think. I’m renowned as “The Queen” of erotic romance, as well as “The Queen” of villains, so I write a story that’s very different from mainstream romance. My books are very plot driven. By this I mean they’re very fast-paced, with a focus on action and dialogue. They’re also very passionate and very dramatic, with extremely evil villains.
If you’re one of my fans, and have read some (or all!) of my novels, I would love to hear what you enjoy about them. For example, is it the macho heroes? The great sex scenes? The heartbreak? The drama? The villains? What do you relish the most? Also, what could I leave out or tone down?
The answers to these questions help me pinpoint the direction my books should go.If you haven’t read my books before, I’m curious as to why not. Is it that you haven’t heard of me? You don’t read erotics? You don’t read historicals? If you’re not one of my regular readers, how could I change my stories to interest you? What is it that makes you purchase one romance instead of another? Is it the cover? The back-cover story description? The author? The time period? What can I do – as a writer unknown to you – to intrigue you into becoming a fan?
Cheryl Holt
http://www.cherylholt.com/
Labels: Cheryl Holt, erotica, Historical, plots, readers, writers
posted by Fresh Fiction @ 1:29 PM
3 Comments:
Hi Cheryl!! Actually, after finding "Total Surrender" I found myself anxiously scrambling to read your backlist. I am so glad they will be re-releasing you older ones as I have had absolutely NO luck in finding them. I'm looking forward to your new contemporaries and they sound like they are going to be pretty interesting. I love the secondary characters in your books and sometimes find myself more intrigued by them than by the hero/heroine!
I just finished reading "Forbbiden Fantasy" and thought it was great. The only thing was that I felt Rebecca got off WAY to easily! My question is do you sometimes feel that you let some of your characters off too easily? Thanks!! I can't wait for "Double Fantasy"!
Thx so much for blogging with me today.
I’m so delighted to hear how much you enjoyed TOTAL SURRENDER. I won a national award for that book from Romantic Times Magazine. Their reviewers picked it as the “Best” sensual novel of ’02. So I’ve always been proud of it. I hope you’ve had a chance to read its partner book, LOVE LESSONS, which was the first erotic romance I wrote for St. Martins. For many of my fans, it’s their favorite of all my novels.
Yes, I’m told that by January ’08, all of my out-of-print titles will be available, so if you’ve been searching for a certain one, you should be able to find it.
You mentioned that you love the secondary characters in my books, and that some times, you like them better than the main characters. I feel the same way, and in fact, I judge how well I’ve written the book by how well the secondary characters turn out. I always work hard to make the hero and heroine great, but when the secondary love story is as heart-wrenching as the main one, then I know I’ve written a great book. My editor particularly loved the secondary love story in my novel, TOO TEMPTING TO TOUCH. My personal favorite was the one-armed ex-soldier in MORE THAN SEDUCTION.
You mentioned that you thought Rebecca, in my new book FORBIDDEN FANTASY, got off too easy, and you wondered if I ever feel that I let some of the characters off too easily. Yes! And you’re not the first fan who’s made that comment to me. Then at the same time, I hear that I’ve been too harsh. I’m thinking of one of my early erotic romances that was called ABSOLUTE PLEASURE. The villain was a spoiled, snotty 16-year old girl, and the punishment I devised for her was that she got the precise marriage she’d been wrangling to achieve – which was very horrid. I received flurries of letters from people on both sides of the opinion that I was either too lenient or too tough – that she only 16 and didn’t understand the true consequences of her actions.
So it’s a difficult balancing act. I have so many varieties of people who read my books – they differ in age, background, geographic area – and I have to find an ending somewhere in the middle that seems fun to me and that entertains as many people as I can.
Cheryl Holt
I just finished reading “More Than Seduction” written by you (Cheryl Holt). I really enjoyed it. I read it based on a recommendation of “Nursing Back to Health” theme on an internet forum. I really like that theme and I am reading all of the recommended books I can find. My favorites in that theme so far are “Devil in Winter” by Lisa Kleypas and “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon. I’ll add “More Than Seduction” to that short list of my favorites.
“Devil in Winter” comes close to my idea of the best “Nursing Back to Health” romance. The hero and heroine know each other before the injury. A fair portion of the book is spent “nursing.” The hero suffers a great deal and the heroine does quite a bit of comforting. I like a fever, moaning and severe pain on the hero’s part and touching/embracing on the heroine’s part. I just thought the ending was a little weak. “Outlander” was fine with the exception of Jamie throwing up way too much.
I think the illness/injury with comfort theme is erotic in and of itself. Those passages go right through me and literally give me goosebumps. In “More Than Seduction” - The part where Stephen first goes into the water and says with teary eyes, “Hurts…” and is held by Anne was just the ticket. No wonder they kiss afterward. I liked the rest of the story, too. I didn’t consider Stephen a villain at all but I guess Willie was. The drama and the heartbreak were there. I think the book was erotic in a good way. The spa was a good sensual idea for the book. I don’t think the sex was overdone either. There has to be sex. I find it hard to believe all the virgins that are having orgasms their first time in the books I read. I guess it fits the moment and the fantasy. I didn’t like Sylvia Day’s “The Stranger I Married” because there is too much sex and not much storyline. I think I prefer a Beta hero over an Alpha unless there is a really good reason he is acting like a jerk and he is able to overcome it.
The other themes I like are those of Tortured Hero and Virgin Hero (“Born in Sin” by Kinley MacGregor was great). I like it when the hero cries (weeps once really hard). And there was a topic on “Hero takes himself in hand” on Amazon and RomanticTimes forums which interests me since reading about that in a few books. One book I read had the hero releasing himself over the sight of the heroine bathing in a river without even touching himself.
I read the back-cover of books I am considering, but don’t like it when too much is given away but it needs to describe enough to spark an interest. The front cover doesn’t affect me other than make me mad when it doesn’t match the description of the characters in the book. It’s better to have no image of the characters so that I can visualize for myself.
I love historicals because they help me escape from the real world of 2007. I don’t much like contemporaries. I like the Medieval historicals the best because they lend themselves better to drama because they are more primitive. I like the Regencies also because they are amusing and sometimes funny.
I do have my favorite authors and plan on reading more of your books in the future. “Love Lessons” will be next since it was mentioned on the forums. Some of my favorites are Kinley MacGregor historicals and Julie Garwood historicals. Kinley MacGregor is due out with a new historical soon and I heard Julie Garwood is as well. I like Celeste Bradley’s Liar’s Club series. I also like Elizabeth Lowell’s Medieval series. I am more likely to read an author that keeps getting mentioned over and over again on the forums. Promote yourself and get book ideas
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