Guest Post and Giveaway: Roni Loren

Please join me welcoming Roni Loren to Debbie's Book Bag today. Roni is the author of the erotic romance, Crash Into You and she's here to tell us a little bit about how she created the elite BDSM retreat, The Ranch, a focal point for the action in her latest book. The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Roni's book, see details at the end of the post.

How I Built a BDSM Ranch (In My Head)

So one of the questions I inevitably get asked when people find out what I write is—so what kind of research do you do? Now if I was writing historical romances or something, this would be a pretty innocuous question. But because I write erotic romance, the question often comes with a wink wink nudge nudge.

Well, there is a fair amount of research involved. Though I’ll never tell how much of that is hands on or not, lol, I can tell you how I came up with the idea for The Ranch—the resort that my series is based around.

My husband and I are big concert goers. It’s one of our favorite past times. And about two years ago, we went to concert for a local rock band that was held out in an open field on a ranch out in nowhere Texas. There was nothing around for miles. You looked both ways and all you saw was land and open sky. So, of course, what does my writer mind automatically think? Boy, if you wanted to get away with something or keep something hidden, you could definitely do it out here in plain sight.

That’s how the idea for The Ranch first came to me. I’d read a lot of erotic books, which I really enjoyed, that were centered around BDSM clubs. But I wanted to take it a bit further. I wanted it to be a more all-encompassing experience. At this resort, you wouldn’t have to worry about prying eyes. If a scene needed to take place outdoors, it could. It gave me a lot more flexibility as a writer.

There are, of course, some places that exist like this out in the real world. Hedonism comes to mind. (Come on, you know you watched those late night HBO specials that used to feature it, lol.) But I wanted a place where money was no object and where the people there could basically have whatever fantasy they wanted (as long as it was consensual, of course). I didn’t want the “let’s have a big naked beach party” kind of place. I wanted something refined and specific—a place where people who were probably conservative professionals in their everyday life could indulge in their darker, edgier sides.

So I honestly didn’t research real life places to base The Ranch on.  I made sure all my BDSM ps and qs were in order (like no alcohol at the resort, rules and contracts for play, safety measures, etc.) then I let my imagination run free and created a place my characters would want to hang out at.
And hopefully, it’s a place readers will want to hang out at too—at least in book fantasyland. : )

If you created your own imaginary resort, where would it be located and what kind of place would it be? Was anyone else watching those HBO specials back in the 90s (or was I the only one compelled to watch people who had no business being naked on TV)?

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:

The publisher is sponsoring a giveaway for one copy of Crash Into You by Roni Loren.

~ You must be a GFC follower or E-mail subscriber to participate.
~ US and Canadian Addresses only (publisher request)
~ The deadline to enter this giveaway is Midnight EST January 20th.

1. Please answer Roni's question about the kind of imaginary resort you would build.
2. Please fill out the FORM.