I Met My Cover Model by Regina Kammer

In July, I went to San Diego for the annual conference of the Romance Writers of America. I attended sessions on the craft of writing, the business of promotion, and opportunities in publishing. I hung out with friends at the pool bar, watched a 19th-century fashion show, and attended the Hamilton sing-a-long.

I also watched a faux cover model shoot. With the guy who's been on three of my covers:


His name is Julian Christian. I had suspected he might be the model in attendance since the session presenters were Kim Killion and Jennifer Jakes of The Killion Group, Inc. -- the company which supplied all of the photos in the above covers (and created the cover for The General's Wife). Plus I happen to know Julian is San Diego-based.

I got to the conference room early, wanting to get a seat in the front. The room slowly filled with tittering, excited authors. And then the presenters arrived. With Julian:

He got up on the stage to begin the mock photo shoot:

Then he took his shirt off:

And when Julian took his shirt off, there was swooning, gasps, and sighs.

He posed as he would during a real cover shoot: Brooding,

shooting,

crouching (this drew breathy exclamations from the audience and a bemused look from Julian)

And then Jennifer Jakes walked around the room looking for a willing participant for a romantic suspense shot. As if we all weren't willing...
The young woman was chosen -- it happened to be her birthday! They did a romantic suspense pose:

Then Kim and Jennifer explained how they get male and female models to feel comfortable around each other so they can enact a romantic clinch like this

Another willing participant was sought from the audience for a historical or Amish romance cover. The volunteer author donned historical garb. Julian put a shirt on and played the dashing hero:

Then there was a costume change:

for a Scottish historical cover:

Another volunteer got to participate in a rather intimate historical pose:

After all the posing and the question and answer session, the authors lined up to get their pictures taken with Julian. Of course, I had to get mine taken

(thank you to Tricia Linden for taking my photo!)
Then historical romance author Sherry Ewing joined us for a threesome

I mean, we all just posed together!

It was fun, and Julian was a good sport with all the fawning, swooning female authors. He's super nice. I'm really glad I got the chance to meet the man on my covers!

p.s. if anyone knows who any of the author volunteers were, please let me know in the comments!

About the Author

Regina Kammer is a librarian, an art historian, and an award-nominated, best-selling, multi-published writer of erotica and historical erotic romance. Her short stories and novels make history sexier, whether the era is Roman, Byzantine, Viking, American Revolution, or Victorian. She’s even sexed up contemporary settings, Steampunk, and Greco-Roman mythology. She has been published by Cleis Press, Go Deeper Press, Ellora’s Cave, House of Erotica, Story Ink, The Naughty Literati, and her own imprint, Viridium Press. She began writing historical fiction with romantic elements during National Novel Writing Month 2006, switching to erotica when all her characters suddenly demanded to have sex.

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Inspiration: A Naked Guy in Zurich by Regina Kammer

In my story "Window Display" in Naughty Escapes, the heroine, Laurie, an American Ph.D. student, trots off to Zurich to finish up her dissertation. Instead of the hoped-for peace and quiet, she finds distraction in a totally hot neighbor who doesn’t bother closing the curtains when he’s naked at home.

Many of my Naughty Literati co-authors chose rather exotic locations for their Naughty Vacation Getaway stories. Zurich is generally not considered an "exotic" or even "sexy" location in which to set a romance! Exotic or not, sexy or not, the story is based on a real-life event. Not my life, though. Inspiration came from an unlikely place.

I’ll go back to the beginning.

I became a National Novel Writing Month groupie in 2006 after I did my first NaNoWriMo that November. Writing a novel changed my life. Quite literally, really. I wanted to give back. At the time I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area — NaNoWriMo headquarters — so offered to volunteer for the organization. They probably thought of me as that crazy older lady who is rather awkward around strangers, but whatever. They were (and are) a great bunch and I met a lot of fun, interesting people.

One such person was Lindsey Grant. Lindsey is the sweetest, most gracious young woman I have ever met. She has said this is due to her Southern upbringing, but I think it’s her nature rather than nurture. I would see Lindsey at official NaNoWriMo events, then later at purely social events, and she would blush at the fact I wrote sexy stories.

Lindsey’s husband Pat works for a large tech company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. About three years ago, Pat transferred to the Zurich office of the company. Now Lindsey, like pretty much everyone who worked at NaNoWriMo, is a writer. Once she moved to Switzerland — a country she knew not much about, where they spoke a language she knew even less about — she began to blog about her move and transitioning to life in a foreign country.

I’ve lived abroad before, so I followed Lindsey’s blog about settling in and navigating a foreign country because it was part connecting with a friend and part connecting with my own memories. Lindsey confronted the basics of everyday life including finding housing with the help of a "relocation specialist". The specialist found Lindsey and Pat an apartment with a view. I’ll let Lindsey tell the rest of the story:

There is a window across the street from us, directly opposite our dining table, of all places, that happens to be paned with frosted glass. Alas, this frosted glass is not very frosty. Months ago, when I was getting pleasantly tipsy with our relocation specialist post walk-through, she had her back to this very window while we chatted. At a certain point, I was distracted from what she was saying by a very clear view of a naked man in the apartment opposite. He seemed to be vigorously styling his hair.
"That’s a naked man!" I blurted.
"Where?"
"There!"
"Oh my god, it is! That’s his shower." She turned and walked straight to the window, while I went the opposite direction, toward my own bathroom, blushing furiously.
"You Americans are so prude!" she laughed. "Look, he’s washing his willy. At least he’s clean."
I was dying inside.
Since then, as if by clockwork, Pat and I sit down to eat and the bathroom light comes on, the shower commences, and we get what we now affectionately refer to as, "the show." Poor guy. Poor us! And he’s not the only one on display. Across from our balcony is yet another building with a poorly frosted window through which we saw another neighbor nakedly doing her laundry. I suppose it can’t be helped. They may very well know that their windows, like the emperor's clothing, are doing little to protect their privacy. But I still feel like Rear Window goes Euro. And I just can’t stop blushing.

Anyone who has ever lived in a dense urban setting knows this sort of naked sighting happens all the time. But usually the sighting is not when the naked person is taking a shower. (This makes Zurich sound a lot sexier, doesn't it?)

The second I read that blog post I wrote up some notes for a short story. I even asked Lindsey for permission to use the premise for a sexy story, because Lindsey writes creative non-fiction, not romance (and definitely not erotic stuff).

So all that was two years ago. Then earlier this year, 2015, the Naughty Literati came up with a vacation-themed anthology. I had a great vacation story already written and submitted to another publisher long ago, but had never heard back from the editor. So I contacted the editor and discovered my (really awesome, I have to admit!) story was accepted but publication was delayed until 2016. Which meant I had to write another story.

Luckily, I keep all my notes and snippets of inspiration in a folder on my computer. That’s when the document called "Zurich" jumped out at me, and thus "Window Display" was born!

There’s a whole other plot line in my story, centered around my heroine Laurie and her academic research. Laurie's dissertation is about the Roman empress Sabina who was the wife of Hadrian (emperor 117-138 CE). I chose that subject purposely. During my research for my historical erotic romance novel Hadrian and Sabina: A Love Story, I discovered there was not much known about Sabina. (The reasons for this are spelled out in "Window Display" so I won’t go into it here.) Which meant I had a perfectly good never-before-done dissertation topic for my heroine. Plus, I got to add a touch of history to my contemporary story, which, for a historical romance writer, is always welcome.

My excerpt on the Naughty Literati website is my version of the first glimpse of the neighbor nakedly bathing.

Naughty Escapes is now available in ebook (only 99 cents!) and print. There are 11 wonderful stories from which to choose!

What a Sexy Man Can Do For You

Sit back and fantasize with me about sexy men and how useful they can be.

Things a sexy man can do:

1. Give you a massage. Just imagine those strong, masculine hands molding your flesh as you lie serenely in a panting combination of bliss and desire. He starts by your shoulders and then his hands travel lower, lower, lower.

Are you squirming yet? How about when he begs you to turn over so he can do a complete job?

2. Wait on you "hand and foot". Picture him telling you to relax while he serves you a drink called "Sex on the Beach". Then he disappears into the kitchen to whip up a romantic dinner for two...wearing nothing but a VERY short apron, a smile, and a cute bow tie.

Did you reach out to touch his hot body?

3. Prepare a bubble bath for two. He leads you into the bathroom and turns on the tub's faucet, adjusting it so it's "just right". After adding the bubble bath soap, he removes his clothing...slowly, and swivels his body in all directions so you don't miss a thing. Next, he offers to undress you before you both step into the tub, bubbles popping, so he can help you enjoy a relaxing soak.

Do you run your fingers down his muscular body as he begins to unbutton your blouse?

4. Satisfy your sexual needs. He leads you into a bedroom where he's lit dozens of candles to add ambiance to the room. The aroma of lavender, roses, vanilla, or whatever is your favorite, mingles with his all-male scent. He's placed satin sheets on the bed...in your favorite color. You lie down, and he tells you to enjoy the evening, since he plans to cater to your every wish. Your urges and requests become his dedicated demands.

Have you told him what you want done first, fast, and all night?

Now that I have you panting with images of that special sexy man you've always desired, you can answer the questions in your dreams. You will dream about him tonight, won't you?

Marianne Stephens
http://www.mariannestephens.net
http://www.romancebooks4us.com
http://naughtyliterati.com
Naughty Literati Anthologies:
Naughty List
Naughty Hearts
Naughty Flings
Naughty Escapes