Guest post and free excerpt from romantic suspense novella "Bliss" by Spencer Dryden

Bliss is available now from Breathless Press. 

  

Hello all. My name is Spencer Dryden.

My novella "Bliss" is a dark story of a woman's struggle with sexual shame. My main character, Christina McArdle, is experiencing an enviable amount of career and social success. However, inwardly she's very troubled. Her husband, Ben, has lost sexual interest in her. She doesn't have the tools to deal with her fears, so she goes to a shrink, where dark secrets from her past are revealed.

The interesting question I was asked for this blog post is "Why did I write this story?" The simple answer is: I thought I could. I have great reservations about writing from a female POV, but I had some insight into Christina's character. Once upon a time, a long time ago (the late '70's), I coached a women's basketball team. As I got to know the young women better, I was surprised to discover how many of them had been assaulted or raped as tweens.  The incidents were dismissed and memories packed away. Society laid the blame on them. Now as adults, it came back as trust and intimacy problems for them as they began exploring serious relationships. Christina McArdle has a similar character arc.

Instead of a 100,000 word novel of agonizing self-discovery, I threw an additional hurdle in front of her—a misogynous pastor on a sexual purity kick among the men of the church where Christina and her husband Ben attend. Sinister elements emerge. Christina must cast out demons of past and present or lose the love of her life. You'll have to read the rest.

This leads directly to the second question I was asked: "Were there any important lessons you learned along the path to publishing?" In a word, yes.

The first is: follow the muse. "Bliss" was outside of my normal writing focus, but I had a strong sense of the story, a believable character arc and a good conclusion. I got stuck several times for long periods but kept whacking away. It ends up being first in line of my work. Go figure. If it's in your heart, get it on paper.

Second is, properly categorizing the story when doing a submission. I had started out with the notion of writing an erotic romance. Feedback from crit partners and comments from serial publishing on a private list server, ERWA, told me the story was resonating with women. Off I went to find a home without much thought.  Two erotic publishers rejected the story. It took a couple of rejections to realize I had written something else. The central theme of the story is about sex, but it is not erotica. There is a central love story, but it's not the stuff of  romance novels.  A crit partner suggested that the plot was closer to mainstream than to erotica or romance. I went on a search for a publisher with that in mind. To my good fortune, Breathless Press has a line called Covert, which is romantic suspense. Bingo. It was a mere four weeks from submission to contract.

Third is the advantage of working with an established publisher. My editor, Haleigh Rucinski, was marvelous. Her sharp eye and gentle manor made for a much better story. Despite numerous edits and crits prior to submission, the red ink flowed like a river. A good editor does more than blot out the stains on the fabric of the English language. She was invaluable in helping me fill the potholes of continuity, eliminate head hopping and sudden shifts from third person to omniscient.

I got great cover art from Virginia Miller and now I'm treated to savvy marketing by a bevy of professionals. For all the allure of indie publishing, I know at this stage of my career I could not have pulled all these elements together.

Thanks so much for your attention. If you'd like to reach me, you can find me through my website: http://www.fictionbyspencer.com/ 

I am on twitter  @SpencerDryden and on Goodreads, Google+ and Facebook under Spencer Dryden. 

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Excerpt from Bliss

Dr. Rachel Morissey touched Christina's arm gently and handed her another Kleenex.

"Mrs. Mc Ardle, I'm a sex therapist and not a family doctor. I find that I need to speak about sex bluntly in order to get through people's resistance." She searched Christina's eyes to see if she was tracking. It had been a hard first session, Taking the first steps in breaking down resistance, confronting demons, bringing up painful personal memories always brought tears.

"Sexuality is a hard discussion topic for couples. I don't mean to diminish your pain, but so far it's like so many others. When you're young, sex may be clumsy, but quantity is a quality all its own. So is time. Now you're thirty-five, a working professional mother of young twins, with an at-home husband. You're both living in a different world from your parents, and there are a lot of demands on your time that sap sexual energy. In this phase of life, you have to be much more intentional about sex." Dr. Morissey paused again, waiting for Christina to process. "Lying in bed in the dark, waiting for your husband to initiate sex, isn't a good strategy for fostering intimacy."

Christina wiped away another nagging tear.

"But there's something else I need to explore," said Dr. Morissey. "I am wondering if you were ever raped or sexually abused?"

"Why? Is that important?" asked Christina.

"Very. It often creates problems with intimacy years later. You seem almost fearful of sex."

Christina hung her head. "I was nearly raped once," she whispered.

"So you were assaulted."

"I guess."

"Mrs. McArdle, I'm sensing a lot of guilt here. Physical contact without your permission is assault. It's another person's crime, not yours. You said nearly raped. What happened?"

Christina shuddered as she recalled the forbidden memory. "We had a boy in our neighborhood that was a bully to the boys and terror to the girls. Nobody would do anything about him. Our parents told us to stay away. But he would hide out and grab girls, rip their clothes off, and grope them. It happened to many of my friends."

"How old were you then?"

"Eighth grade."

"Did he actually do forceful penetration on any of his victims?"

"You sound like the police now."

"It's an important distinction, especially with a minor perpetrator."

"No. He didn't."

"What happened with you?"

"I was taking a shortcut home across the athletic fields one evening. No one was around. He jumped out from between the outbuildings, threw me down to the ground, and jumped on top of me. I tried to fight, but he had his hand on my throat."

Christina unconsciously reached for her throat and pulled on her necklace.

"Sometimes I can still feel him squeezing my throat," she said through closed eyes. "I couldn't breathe. I tried to scream but couldn't. He was pressing down on me with his crotch between my legs."

"Were his pants on?"

"Yes, but he was humping me like some kind of animal."

Christina gasped as if she were going to scream. "Finally, he leaned down and put his cheek next to mine. I was hysterical with fear, that's why I did it."

"Did what?"

"I bit off a big chunk of his ear."

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Bliss

$2.99

ISBN: 978-1-77101-258-4
By Spencer Dryden
Heat Rating: 3
Word Count: 20322
Release Date: April 18, 2014

Christina McArdle must cast out the demons of her past and present or lose the love of her life.

In the prosperous community of Bliss, New Hampshire, in 1995, Christina McArdle is living a feminist dream. In short order she has become the first female partner of the venerable, male dominated CPA firm of Driscol, Ryan, Jensen and Palmer. The honor was followed by her selection as the first female member of the prestigious Maplewood Country Club.

But Christina fears that her career success has come at a terrible price. Her husband, Ben, has lost sexual interest in her. Unable to ignite his passion for her and desperate for understanding of her own inhibitions, Christina turns to Dr. Rachel Morrisey, a sex therapist, who helps her uncover dark secrets from her past. Christina's path to recovery is blocked by a misogynistic pastor who traps her and many other women of her church in a shame bind that serves his perverted interests.

Her path to freedom requires Christina to break bonds from past and present or lose the thing she loves most in life—the love of husband and family.