But Sammi is laying in bed in the cabin, or was at the start of the scene.

How does Krampus get close enough to use a "power Dom" voice on her?

This is what's occupying my brain tonight.

I also know that Krampus is going to arrive and — well, not ravish her, because that's not how he rolls, but he's certainly going to get her hot and heated and disoriented with how she's feeling.

Afterward, Tommy is going to "take charge" and Dom her. Afterward, they're going to cuddle and relax.

And maybe one day, if I'm lucky, I'll be good at these rules as well.

Not today, though.

A good pro-tip is that if your story doesn't turn YOU on, it won't turn anyone else on, either.

"But I wrote great sci-fi or fantasy!"

Cool! That doesn't mean it's erotica.

You can write a great romance and have mediocre erotica and do well. You can write great sex and mediocre romance and do well.

But you can't have both be mediocre or your readers will not enjoy the story, no matter how interesting everything else is.

If you want a smut story to do well, you need to either follow the classic romance arc or write REALLY erotic sex scenes, but you must do one or the other.

If it doesn't have those things, it's not a romance. There might be a romance or romantic feelings between the characters, but if those aren't the focal points of the midpoint or the finale, it's not a romance

Heck yeah! Love me some sportsball!

It's really nice.

Like, the heart of winter is usually my worst time of year for those feelings, but this year it's not been so bad.

I know that they're true, and I'm at peace with that.

Aww, right back at ya!

Christ I hope that's not true. Like, I'm sure someone said it or implied it to them, because it's too tactical to just be off the cuff, but I hope that's not why they're a literary agent.

"I became a literary agent to crush dreams" would be such a depressing way to live.

On the one hand that's a great way to say that. On the other hand, it's kinda rude as fuck.

"You aren't where we need you to be at this time, but I'd love to hear back from you later"

Also, I slipped up and forgot that this coworker likes to tell the bossman things that I thought I said in private, so that's gonna be a fun conversation to have later.

Christ but I need a better job.

Same.

I did talk to him about it later, because I figured that it'd be better to at least try to reason with him, and there were a great many "I don't understand why you're upset, I'm helping you" vibes from him.

We'll see if I got through to him.

Yay autism.

And you can't get upset when I ask you to stop doing my work! Either I need to be the one to do it or you need to be the one to do it, but I need to know what the fuck to expect!