Cole Bares All

         Let me brag on myself.  Eight smokin' HOT pages.  No big deal to most of you but considering my typical glacial pace...zippity-doo-dah!
          Consider also that these same eight pages comprise a love scene that's been mostly in my head, perhaps a page of which has been on paper, for five freakin' weeks.

          This is not to say I've been doing nothing during all that time. What I've been doing is ... well, my usual, well, ah...tweaking.  Tweaking that this time caused the manuscript to double in size. Not that it was that big to begin with. But dialogue eats up a lot more of the screen than you might expect. Also word count.

          So how did this happen?  Zoe Winters, an indie writer I know from Twitter and Facebook and her novella, Kept, posted a funny interview with her hero,  Cole, on her web page.  He's a lot different from my Cole. For one thing, he's a werewolf. But I thought I'd give it a try.
          Before he could pencil me in for the interview, Cole had to have a talk with his boss.  Scary. Gave me new insight and perspective. Gave Cole a whole new angle, also a shorter fuse.

         "I don't answer reporter girl's questions, why should I answer yours?"

         "You want to get into her pants, Cole?"
          "Huh."
          "Your noncommittal grunts don't really translate well in this format."
          Turns out Cole did have a few things to say about the percolating, but going- nowhere-fast, sex scene.
         "You're putting me in a spa robe? That'll be the day, sister."

         "We want to get a good look at your manly chest."

         "And what? That's the best you can do?"
         "Come on,  Cole. I gave you Timberlands before."
         "The next time I slide that glass door open and step onto that deck, I'm barefoot, baby."
         "Right. Barefoot. Spa robe. See how that works?"
         "See how that DOESN'T work?"

         "Well, um, no. That's why it's been hanging me up for, like, five freakin' weeks!"

          "Robe drops. And?"
          "What do you suggest?"
          He whistles a little David Rose ditty made famous in a long ago Noxzema shaving cream commercial.
          "That is so not you, Cole."
          "Sure about that?"
          "Well..."
           "What if I'm after something?"
          "You mean besides sex?"

          "Yeah."

          "Hmm. Okay. Jeans, flannel shirt. Got it."
          "And lose the champagne bucket.  That's so not me, either."

        But here's the interesting thing about the scene now.  It's not just about the sex. Both characters have goals and those goals conflict. Even though they move closer, tension remains. And, of course, sex complicates everything. Which moves us forward. At last.

         Yay! Onto the next scene.