by KJ HoweFood is crucial for sustenance. It's also an important part of our social fabric, and integral to our celebrations and holidays. Gourmet meals are slaved over for hours, the dishes lovingly selected and created, presented beautifully on a decorated table.But what if food is...
BORSCHT WITHOUT THE BELT
S. Lee Manning: Kolya Petrov, the hero of my international espionage series, was born in Russia of ethnic Russian background with a Jewish grandmother on his mother’s side. (Under Jewish law, that makes him Jewish – which he frequently disputes in conversations with his fiancée or her family.) The...
THE KICK OF A MOSCOW MULE … OR, HOW GEOPOLITICS AND HISTORY AFFECT BOOZE
Gayle Lynds: A sense of nostalgia swept over me when I recently read a story in The New York Times about the comeback of the Moscow Mule, a bubbly mixture of ginger, lime, and vodka that launched the popularity of that oh-so-Russian spirit in the United States. The Mule, as it’s fondly...
Sex and the Thriller
by Chris GoffThe Cold Hard TruthAt the Rogue Women Writer’s panel at ThrillerFest on July 8, Steve Berry (our panel master) raised the curtain on the gender disparity in writing International Espionage thrillers. It was a great discussion, with audience participation, and everyone could see that...
LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX
Want to Know What He’s Like in Bed? Read on…By Sonja StoneI feel the same way about sex that I do about weapons. No, it's not bigger is better. It’s this: Safety first. Which is why I pulled out a sleeve of trojans and a cucumber to demonstrate the proper way to apply a condom to my...
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME: HELAINE MARIO WEIGHS IN
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in CASABLANCA "Espionage, suspense, political intrigue, danger, international and evocative settings, secrets…yes. But what about romance?"--Helaine Mario Francine Mathews: Today I'm happy to introduce espionage author Helaine Mario to the Rogue Women World....
Sex In Thrillers-Not Always a Good Idea
Canova's Psyche Revived By Cupid's Kissby Jamie FrevelettiThis week's topic has been about sex scenes in thrillers. I wanted to post a racy first photo, but at the last minute decided to go with the classic sculpture to prove that even the finest art can contain sexual content. And then there's...
Sex Scenes in Novels and Film
By Karna Bodman ... We've come to expect some pretty graphic love scenes in movies (and even on some adult TV shows), and though some of my "Rogue" colleagues have mentioned him before in these posts, what better place to start a summary than with Ian Fleming's character James Bond...
SEX AND FIGHTS–BETTER IN THE DARK
by KJ HoweSex and fights are two enticing ways of cranking up the tension in novels. Why not take it a step further and do both in the dark?The most obvious way to depict sex and fights is to describe what is happening, tapping into readers' visual cues. But talented thriller authors...
WRITING SEX – AND NOT SEX
S. Lee Manning: Okay, I'll start with the question of sex in thrillers. How to write it? Whether to write it?Sex is entertaining. It gets attention. It’s pretty much expected in a spy thriller. But exactly how sex is used - how hot, how explicit - is very much a...