posted on March 18, 2015 by Angela Claire

Fifty Paint Samples of Beige

By Angela Claire –

TtCS_500I am one of the millions of women who will eagerly volunteer that I haven’t read Fifty Shades of Grey. There are so many of us out there that it makes you wonder who all those other women are who have been busy making E.L. James rich. But in my case, I’m telling the truth. I haven’t read the humungous bestseller for one reason and one reason only and I think it’s probably a pretty unique one.

I’m jealous as hell.

As a romance writer who has penned many a hot alpha CEO, I can’t help but wonder why my guy isn’t earning me a hundred million dollars. I feel like I’d be reading all about Christian Grey and would just be thinking that one of my heroes was, like, so much cooler. Of course it’s possible I could think Mr. Grey was doing the whole sex thing better, but I doubt it.  I don’t get into all that dominant/submissive stuff. In fact, I think it’s kind of funny. I know I’m not supposed to, but whenever it shows up in one of my books, it’s always in the context of a joke. No matter how good my guy might be in the sack, I wouldn’t want my heroine to call him “master.” Just doesn’t do it for me.

And by the way, is that what Mr. Grey and Ms. James have over all my hotties and me? The tying up and duct tape and whatever stuff? (Actually, is there tape? That seems kind of creepy. And don’t get me started on whips.) But is that it?

See, that is why I won’t read E. L. James. I’d be too busy internally whining that I’m not selling movie rights to my books and getting on the cover of People and analyzing why not—which would not make for a very happy reading experience for me.

But I don’t in any way look down on Ms. James. That’s the really hard part to explain to non-Romance readers or writers. They won’t read Fifty Shades of Grey because, well, it’s Fifty Shades of Grey. They talk about how low-brow it is and how badly written. Again, I’ve never read the book, so I have no first person knowledge of the quality of the writing, but a ton of women are reading it so it can’t be that bad. And as to low-brow, that’s a slur against the whole romance writing genre, which doesn’t go far with me.

So I’m torn. I’m with Ms. James in spirit and also, well, kind of hate her. But I don’t hate her. I may get a vicious little spark of glee when someone jokes about “Fifty Paint Samples of Beige,” but it’s Ms. James who’s laughing her head off all the way to the bank.

(But if you do want to try out a guy who doesn’t need a whip to be a master in the bedroom, check out my tech hottie Jonathon Crestwell in Tempting the Corporate Spy, out this month from Entangled!)

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Tempting the Corporate Spy

He’s stealing more than her heart…

Whiz kid Liv Altman is working on Internet anti-piracy software that could be huge. It could also be dangerous. And someone wants it badly enough to blackmail only the very best hacker—the infamous and reclusive Jonathon Crestwell—into stealing it…

Liv usually has no trouble ignoring the computer geeks she works with every day, but her new corporate consultant is definitely not easy to ignore. He’s tall and dead hot, with deep blue eyes that make Liv think the naughtiest of HR-violating thoughts. When she finds him unexpectedly in her office one evening, things take a turn for the sexier. But come morning, Liv will discover the truth about her new employee…and what he reallywants.

Entangled / Amazon / B&N / Goodreads

 

Angela Claire

Angela Claire, like most writers, grew up loving to read, which led to a degree in English literature, which in turn led to unemployment. Not having been born to wealth, Angela developed a more practical plan for eating and paying her rent—hence the dreaded and expected descent into law school and inevitable career as a lawyer. Once she paid off her pesky yet massive student loans, Angela saved for an escape from the law profession one day. Now a multi-published author, she does what she loves, but with a little less leeway on the eating and paying rent thing. She is represented by Maureen Walters at Curtis Brown, LTD.

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