Sedonia Guillone

No sooner had I finished writing Men of Tokyo: Sudden Heat than the edits for Kiss of the Werewolves came into my mailbox the very next morning! So, I’m in edit land for a few days. Nothing much I can say about that except for when I’m working on edits, I always feel pressed even though it’s not like I’m being put on a deadline.

After I turn that in, however, I do plan to work on Fantasy Thief. However, I’ll prbably end up getting more edits for Danny’s Dragon and then, I just want to work on the prequel to Barely Undercover that I started penning a couple of months ago, Barely Covered. .
First of all, I love Damien and Kaz and wanted to spend more time with them. They have a great rapport, sweet and humorous in addition to the fact that the events which brought them together are, in my humble opinion, worth another story. Basically, the premise is that Kaz first sees Damien up on stage, doing his strip tease and falls in love with the sight of him. Unfortunately for Damien, there’s a big drunk galoot in the audience who takes a shine to Damien and tries to get close to him in a very bad way. Kaz comes to the rescue and Damien, whose been afraid to get close to anyone because of hurts in his past, has found someone he feels safe enough to let go with and give a private performance to. The only problem is that Kaz is hard to pin down. He’s in love, but not so sure that a romance with a guy will fit with his up and coming career as a detective. Will he have to choose or can he have both? The choice is his alone and we can only hope he’ll do the right thing.

Whew – I just finished typing the last scene in Men of Tokyo: Sudden Heat. I think the whole novel is going to end up at 80k, which is over 300 pages in print. I’m quite happy with it. I really grew to love all the characters and felt for them in their struggles. That really made all the difference in the process of writing, as did the invaluable encouragement from my critique partner and from my beta-reader.

However, finishing a novel is always a mixed bag. There’s a sense of relief that it’s finished and can be turned into the publisher for the next stage of production. I always look forward to getting the cover and to release day. But there’s also a let down. For months, I’ve been with these characters, getting to know them, love them, struggling with the process of expressing their experience the best way possible. And then, suddenly, it’s finished. I feel weird, like I’m drifting around without anything anchoring me. I do my best to put my attention onto the other things I have to do, preparing meals, cleaning the house, and, of course, getting to work on the next book, which, in this case, is probably going to be Fantasy Thief. Can Sedonia get into Harlequin Blaze? We’ll see.

Major bummer! After keeping after the manager of Books A Million, I followed up today and he told me that they’re not buying this book for signings. Strange, because they stock it on the shelves. Anyway, would have been nice if he’d called and told me. This after I already alerted two of my publishers to put the date in the next newsletters. I’ll just have to wait until…I don’t know when.

In the meantime, I have plenty of work to do. I’m writing the last couple of scenes for Men of Tokyo: Sudden Heat and the book is going to come in at 80k word lengthwise. For those of you who don’t know, this is about the equivalent of a bit over 300 pages in a trade paperback. Probably my longest yet with the exception of Kiss of the Werewolves which is actually two novels combined into one. Also, I’ve made some changes to Fantasy Thief. Thought it would be fun to make the hero a Scotsman from Glasgow. My plan is to get to work on that one and shoot for Harlequin’s Blaze line since it seems to fit the parameters of what they’re looking for.

I’m also still glowing from Madame Butterfly’s review of Sudden Bliss as well as the two Recommended Reads from Joyfully Reviewed. They all came to me in a cluster and DEFINITELY gave me a boost of enthusiasm. I’m also reading another Inspector Chen myster by Qiu Xiaolong. This one is entitled A Loyal Character Dancer. I can’t explain it, but Qiu’s style just really helps the flow of my writing and he is so amazing at weaving an intriguing mystery, unwrapping it at just the right pace and injecting poetic phrases here and there. Very amazing!

Well, I’ve finally managed to get a mostly firm date for my book signing. Yay! At this point, it’s December 6, 2008 at the Books a Million in Delray Beach, Florida. Time to be announced. I’ve had to keep after the managere there because, well, bookstore managers are incredibly busy. This is a good thing, in my opinion, but annoying when you are trying to get a book signing set up. The featured book will be Secrets, volume 25 although I’m hoping to have copies of my other books as well. So far, the reviews have been excellent for “Wicked Delights” including this one from RT: Each story is a light and quick, and all are filled with plenty of hot sex. Readers will have a good time since there’s something for everyone, from contemporary to paranormal.
— 4 Stars, Romantic Times BOOKreviews
Also, I received my author copy the other day. THAT was an amazing feeling!

Okay, I’m also totally bragging at this point, but the White Tigers books have gotten more kudos.

Both Men of Tokyo: Sudden Bliss and Men of Tokyo: Sudden Surrender received Recommended Read from Joyfully Reviewed!
“Sudden Surrender becomes a heart-warming and fiercely erotic love story. I enjoyed the mysticism and magic between Kiku and Yuzo, but be forewarned…e-book readers might need battery replacements, the love scenes are so hot! I was so immersed in the loves and lives of the men at the White Tiger, that I didn’t want Sudden Surrender to end. All the books in the White Tiger series can definitely be enjoyed as stand-alone reads, but I love the connection and the overall completeness of finding out the story of each man at the White Tiger hotel. Sudden Surrender is a Joyfully Recommended read!”
“The emotional journey Koji and Naoto take during Koji’s enforced one week vacation is full of sweet highlights, sexy and erotic explorations, and great m/m action.

I very much enjoyed Sudden Bliss, and the romance and seduction between Koji and Naoto was perfect and beautiful. Have you ever had a lover refer to your lips as “cherry blossom petals, only a million times better”? Sudden Bliss is the first book in the White Tiger series, and is definitely enjoyable on its own, but I am looking forward to reading more about the comings and goings of the men at the White Tiger!”

But Like I say each time, the reason these particular reviews are so happy for me is because I’ve poured my heart and soul into this series to a depth I’d not experienced before. Not that I don’t give everything I have to each story, it’s just different. I don’t know how to describe it. If you’ve ever read Mary Renaud’s books (Fire from Heaven and The Persian Boy among her other historicals about ancient Greece, Rome, Alexander the Great, etc.), you’ll see if you read her first romances when she first began and then these historicals after she’d travelled to Greece and found her writing voice, the inspiration levels are just so different. That’s the best I can find to describe this experience and I’m thrilled that it comes through to readers. Of course, I’m grateful as all get out that there are people out there who read my books and enjoy them.

Lyn Taylor has done it again with Danny’s Dragon (coming January 2009 to Total-E-Bound)! This cover is precisely what I envisioned. It’s absolutely perfect. Makes me want to read the book, lol.

In other tidbits, I received my author copy of Secrets, vol. 25! This is so exciting I can’t tell you. I can’t wait to walk into Books-A-Million or Barnes and Noble and pick one up off the shelf. So help me, if there’s someone in the aisle, I don’t know if I’ll be able to prevent myself from turning around, pointing to the book cover and saying, this is me. I wrote this!

I’m also closing in on the end of Men of Tokyo: Sudden Heat. My beta-reader told me this morning that Quan Chan is her favourite character of mine. I’d have to say he’s become one of my favourites as well. Like I’ve been saying, it took me a while to connect with him but now that I have, wow! He’s delicious and sweet and just an overall beautiful human being. (If I may say so myself, lol)

I stumbled across this astonishing review on Madame Butterfly’s blog. She’s not officially a reviewer, she just loves romance books and writes reviews because she enjoys it. The incredible part for me is that she has lived in Japan and is very knowledegable about Japanese culture. So getting her stamp of approval only added to my jubilance!
Men of Tokyo: Sudden Bliss is an incredibly sensual and deeply erotic love story that stole my heart. The setting, the story, the characters, are all written with such depth and soul that I was blown away, really; absolutely in awe. Ms. Guillone totally captures the essence of the Eastern mind and culture, particularly the Japanese, and brings its uniqueness so vividly to life through the characters and love story. Plus, there’s some really delicious man/man loving. I just adored this book.

Koji is a typical Japanese salary man who sacrifices his personal life to service of the company. By choice he works from sunrise until late into the night every day. Even more so, he’s an extremely conscientious person and feels responsible for all the lives of the patients at the hospital if he fails to keep their computer systems going. When he’s told by the company’s CEO that he is going on a forced vacation because he’s an asset to the company and they can’t have him burning out, he’s horrified and feels shame. But he manages to get the CEO to agree to send him to The White Tiger, a ryoukan in a part of Tokyo where gays hang out, instead of the company hotel.

Naoto is an employee at The White Tiger and is assigned by Kiku sensei, the hotel’s owner, to take care of Koji. Naoto has had his own issues. His lover was murdered by Yakuza and he’s never gotten over it, feeling survivor’s guilt. When he meets Koji though, something starts stirring in him and he wants nothing but to care for and help heal this lost, stressed out being.

As these two come together, they must decide whether or not to go with their hearts even if it means disappointing those around them and for Koji, coming out.

I don’t even know where to begin talking about this book. There are just so many things I can say about how it affected me and yet, much of it falls within the realm of trying to describe the intangible.

The setting: The White Tiger is a hotel where men can go to be “taken care of.” It’s in essence a brothel/spa for gay men if you will. But it’s totally different than any similar type of place in the west. First it’s run by Kiku. Kiku was a former powerful Yakuza who wanted out of that life for a more simple and spiritually fulfilling life. He’s an older wise man who’s kind of psychic and he uses sex and TLC to heal broken and fragile spirits.

Most of the workers there were men saved by Kiku after some traumatic experience having to do with Yakuza. There they are trained in meditation and the art of using sex for healing the soul. I know you might be rolling your eyes here, but Sedonia Guillone keeps this part of the story very reverent and it never enters into crude or base territory.

**This is totally believable to me because actually, in Japan, service is an ingrained quality in everyone; it’s expected and even men are quite caring in that manner. And The White Tiger being a ryokan is especially noteworthy because ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel and personal service is expected and given in such places as opposed to a western style hotel where service is less intimate. Not only that, spiritual concepts are infused and intertwined with every day acts and way of thinking in Japan, so I never had to suspend disbelief that such a place could be more spiritually oriented.

The characters: Koji and Naoto are just so sweet together. Naoto’s heart breaks and opens at the same time as he reaches out to Koji, who is so tense and wound up, carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders. All through this story Koji is driven by duty. Duty to the hospital patients, his job and his family, but particularly his father, who beat him regularly and wants him to get married. He’s basically sacrificed who he is essentially for obligation. And he’s hiding the fact that he’s gay, which is also killing him.

As Naoto helps him relax, it slowly comes out that Koji was in love with his step mother who died and that there were definite, strong, romantic and sexual feelings between him and his step mom. She was the only one who stood between him and his father and she loved and protected him until she died. Koji is still mourning her death deeply. So when Koji sees Naoto for the first time, something deep in him responds to Naoto, whose long hair and soft, loving energy reminds him of his step-mom, even though he’s not so consciously aware of it.

Naoto is in deep need of healing himself. He’s still haunted by his love for his murdered lover Lee, and feels loyal to him even though he died years ago. He starts falling in love with Koji’s innocent and conscientious manner and finds himself struggling to not cross the line as Koji is just a client. He’s also feeling guilty that he might be betraying his former love by having such feelings for Koji. But as he and Koji open up to each other, he slowly accepts that it’s time to heal and let go.

Being the type of hotel that it is, of course their first interactions are sexual in nature and the way these two are together sexually is so intensely erotic, passionate and caring and they find they cannot stay away from each other; there’s such a deep need on both their parts to be together. This part is so poignantly and hotly written. The sexual/ romantic dance between Koji and Naoto is very tender and giving and their ache for each other burns hotly as they deal with social pressures that would keep them apart. Wow, just wow.

There isn’t one bad thing that I can say about this book. Nothing. It was all good. Men of Tokyo: Sudden Bliss is just so beautifully and gratifyingly written. Between the characters being so real and compelling, having a profound complexity about them, and the intense passionate sex and love story, this book grabbed my heart and ran with it.

**And just a personal note, I really enjoyed all the little details that were thrown in here like the mention of Ueno Park, sitting on blue tarps and drinking and singing karaoke during O Hanami. Ueno Park is THE place to go for cherry blossom viewing; it’s where it’s all happening. So I could see Koji walking around in that and what it felt like to him. And I used to party a lot around (Ni) 2-chome in Shinjuku. So these details totally added to the story making it very realistic and satisfying for me.

Sex rating: commando/ tantric. Very hot, intense and passionately tender m/m love, anal.

Grade: A+

If you haven’t watched this BBC series, I completely recommend it. There’s been a version made recently in the US and I saw the first episode but continued with the BBC version which takes place in Manchester.

I have to say it’s really the best TV show I’ve ever seen (just my personal feeling, lol). Basically, the premise is that Sam Tyler (the guy in the top photo) is a cop in present day who has a car accident and wakes up in 1973. He’s still on the force and is faced with a superior, (Gene Hunt, the gov, in the other photo- who’s the best character in the show and one of the best created for TV) who beats up suspects to get answers and doesn’t do anything by the book which makes them clash constantly although they respect and trust each other.

Each crime they solve is somehow related to Sam’s situation and throughout the show he can sometimes hear the life support machine his body is on while his consciousness is in 1973 trying to figure out how to get back. It’s really intelligent, funny, creative and well done. There were only two seasons made of it and I’m on the last episode of the second season in which we find out the answers to the whole thing. I’m sorry to see it ending. I enjoy watching certain shows but never so much as this one. The other thing I’ve enjoyed is hearing the old David Bowie tracks they play, like “Life on Mars,” “Starman,” and “Jean Genie”. I was a MAJOR David Bowie fan back in high school – that was in the mid-80s when he made his comeback but I listened to his older stuff as well.

But, yes, in between, I’m hard at work on Men of Tokyo: Sudden Heat. I’d say I have really just a couple more scenes to write and then it’s ready for a go-through before sending to my editor at Total-E-Bound. I forgot to mention in the last post that one of the things that has also made the story flow better is that I finally clicked with Quan Chan. It took longer with him for some reason. He was a character whose depth took longer to reach. Don’t get me wrong, he’s hot and sexy, but he’s…unusual and quieter than all the other characters. He didn’t just jump out at me. I had to go to him, rather than he come to me the way Kiku, Yuzo and all the others did, with their more outwardly dynamic personalities.

I am so grateful! The difficulties I’ve been having writing seem to passing. I don’t want to give myself a kena hura (Yiddish for the evil eye) but the areas in which I was stuck in the story are unplugging and I’ve managed to get my daily quota of writing done for the last couple of days. I do pray this nice trend continues.

Reading that mystery by Qiu Xiaolong really helped. He has a wonderful voice and it resonated inside me. I love when that happens. The other helpful aspect is that his books take place in modern-day Shanghai and much of Sudden Heat takes place there. It’s very helpful to set the surroundings in my mind since I’ve never been there. Okay, Gackt has nothing directly relevant to this post other than I love looking at him.

Oh, well I can say that he has an album coming out I think in December of this year and I can’t wait. Other than that, I will reveal that I wrote him a fan letter recently and I’ve been feeling like a heel because I don’t want him to think I’m wacky.

Walking around in Savannah last Saturday, there were dogs everywhere dressed in costumes. It was so adorable! Turns out it was “Wag-o-ween” where people bring their dogs in costumnes and trick or treat around Savannah. Really cute!

Sorry I haven’t posted in so long but as usual, it’s been difficult to get Internet while I’m in Georgia. I do have a Blackberry but for some reason, I couldn’t log in to my blof in order to update. I’ll have to figure it out.

I did manage to get writing done even though I was busy painting a fence and doing all kinds of domestic things. A lot of the writing process lately has been internal – figuring out the story arcs and internal conflicts of the characters. They’re much more complex in Sudden Heat than in the others, as I’ve said I’m dealing with issues of life and death and that causes me to dig deeper even than in the others of the series. But I’ve finally got the rest of the storyline in place with just a couple of spots that I need to sort out internally and then I can write to the end. I must say, it’s never been quite the struggle in the past as it’s been with this novel. I suppose all I can say about it is that in the end, it will be really good!

I’ve also found a writer whose work has a good influence on my writing. His name is Qui Xaolong, a writer originally from Shanghai who now lives in the US. Currently I’m reading one of his Inspector Chen murder mystery series, Red Mandarin Dress Inspector Chen is a remarkable character, very sympathetic and a man who really loves and respects women, so he’s a winner! I’m really looking forward to reading the other books in the series. Just a warning: there are some grisly scenes with murder victims and descriptions of meals prepared while the little critter is still alive. Not for someone who will get upset by these images.

Anyway, as always, thanks for visiting my blog and I’ll write again soon!

LOL. Bet that heading got your attention! I was jubilant to have written those scenes in A Werewolf for Christmas that I’d been so worried about. I worrie dand worried and prayed for the words to come and they did. Truthfully, I was pleased with what flowed out and I hope the editors at EC are pleased also. I wrote a bubble comment in the text to my editor to the effect that the scene I was working on was doing it for me so hopefully, it would do the same for the reader.

Other than that, I’m just enjoying Georgia. It’s nice to have some quieter days after the chaos of the last couple months and this difficult year. I tell you, I no longer take any peace and quiet for granted and I don’t ask for excitement. Life provides plenty of it and sometimes, it’s not the kind of excitement you want.

Thankfully, my inspiration has returned and the rest of Men of Tokyo: Sudden Heat has come to mind and is ready to be written to the end. I had a wonderful beta-reader whom I will reveal later, an awesome erotic romance author who loved what I’d written so far and her encouragement really helped enormously. I’m incredibly grateful to her.

That’s all for now. I’ll update again as soon as I can. Hugs, Sedonia

Currently reading:

Crooked Cucumber: the Life and Zen Teachings of Shunryu Suzuki
Watching: Life on Mars the British version. Incredible show!
True Blood – sexy vampire series on HBO
Waiting for: Gackt’s new album. I had a dream about it last night that it was incredible. I could see the cover in my mind and everything, lol