Lip Licking in this #AuthorLife

It's Friday.

TGIF.

It is my day of rest writing-wise yet has since become the best day to blog.

Still reading, of course.

Another free download (via BookBub) in the Contemporary Romance genre of the Western variety.

Directly after viewing the cover of said freebie, I swiped my Paperwhite and read the author's little note:

"If you find any errors, please e-mail me . . ."

And, I got scared.

I began to read her story, and I am finding errors, but I doubt they are of the variety for which she wishes an e-mail notification.

However! This has nothing to do with today's blog post.

What I'd like to touch on today are a few more of the creative words being tossed about in a storm-churned sea of the writing I've encountered for awhile now. Or, should I type a while now since it is preceded by a preposition?

Only “a while” (two separate words) can follow a prepositional phrase. 

For as long as I can remember, awhile was and always would be one word, but then suddenly I began to see it as two, to which I simply chalked up to another of those silly, modern College-type creations of the AP/IP variety and let it go at that.

For this blog post, however, I did a little research and discovered where the issue arose and why, now, all we see is a while and never awhile anymore.

As far back as 2010, there are article posts about this topic, and the issue is a new one on me.

Of course it does, and yet . . .

Let’s stay for awhile. WRONG

Let’s stay awhile. CORRECT

So, how can awhile mean anything if you aren't permitted to use the word after a preposition? This new 'law' makes no sense, and so I will not be separating the word for the sake of a prepositional phrase.

Nonsense.

Moving right along.

Another interesting conundrum in the Romance Novel reading/writing scheme of things is this:

Lip Licking

It is becoming rampant in romance novels.

I even went so far as to people watch in this regard just to see if I was, perhaps, overlooking something extremely important and yet too subtle to really notice prior to its having been drawn to my attention.

Here are my findings:

If you're angry, annoyed, irritated during a conversation with one or more people, you MIGHT end up biting one side of your lower lip (to keep from lashing out at the offending party).

The lips are sometimes hidden (by a hand or by turning away from people) to stifle or hide a yawn, a sneeze, or a cough.

Even to hide a laugh/smile, but then the person doing the smiling/laughing isn't as likely to turn aside or even away from their friends/family members.

Bad habit would include (especially in our cold-clime areas) licking dry lips in cold weather.

Most often, though, the lip licker is in a restaurant environment where food is either deposited somewhere along said lips, or when delicious food is being presented to a starved patron and they are inhibiting drool.

I've seen people suck in both upper and lower lip (usually while bobbing in place and with their hands inside their coat pockets), and I've seen people bare their lower front teeth while pressing them against their upper lip (perhaps to stifle a yawn?).

A woman will 'pop' her lips after applying lipstick.

She will also use a finger to wipe, clean, or reapply chapstick, lipstick, balm, gloss (whatever) but rarely, if ever, by using her tongue.

I have not seen anyone -- male or female -- lick their lips in front of the opposite sex, and not even prior to a kiss.

Yet, it occurs in just about every romance novel I've read of late, and it confounds me as to why.

This must be another of those 'editor trope' things, eh?

So, let's be real about this, shall we?

Stand in front of a mirror and lick your lips. Then ask yourself one, simple question: how sexy is it?

If the answer is 'not', consider some other 'trope' to fill in the required word count, and if the answer is yes, might I suggest you attempt the practice in public, everywhere you go, and see if you either attract or repel people?

If this doesn't work to convince you how silly the act is, then ask yourself why you are licking them in the first place. What is the motive? The reason?

Stare at some hot guys in magazines or online or in person and count the number of times you've licked your lips.

If you are like me, the count should remain at zero, but then I am fully aware of my not being or thinking or even doing as all else tend to, so . . .

Today is another #PitMad event, which brought to mind my past attempts at getting noticed that way and having failed.

Without a finished, unpublished manuscript at my disposal to participate this time around, I don't feel so heavy about failing again, which is good for my flagging ego.

However, I was browsing the entrants on my Twitter feed and came across a promising post by an editor at a Publishing house who is looking for romance novel materials!

I have saved her email address and will, eventually, learn how to suck it up, get it done, and write a synopsis for both published novels and send them her way.

Who knows, right?

TheJaggedWord.com

Lastly, and I don't know how much good it will do me to put this here, but I spent two days this week trying to find some way to get my two published novels read by 'BETA' readers.

I joined Ladies Who Critique and posted a request, but that was two days ago and have received zero replies.

I also did a Tweet with a request for a BETA reader for either novel and received zero replies.

Anymore, I feel like a tiny particle caught in a tempest of successful, popular, and noticed folk, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up. I just don't quite understand how everyone else manages to get what they want and I never do. It's obvious I'm not doing it right, and it is painfully obvious I'm never going to figure out what the secret is to success, either.

Onward, Ho!