Guest Author: Shelley Munro!

Today's guest is my good friend, Shelley Munro. We've known each other for a looooooong time, so I'm very excited to have her guesting with us today. Shelley is giving away one of her books - read on to find out which one. Just leave a comment to enter. (Winner will be announced in the comments).

Dressed for Success

My name is Shelley Munro. I live in New Zealand and love our casual, outdoorsy lifestyle. Like many New Zealanders I enjoy sports and getting out to play in our beautiful countryside, cycling, walking and sometimes boating or swimming. I dress accordingly, love jeans and have a huge collection of T-shirts. During the summer I live in shorts and a T-shirt. When it’s time to dress up, I go smart casual, which usually means trousers and a fancy T-shirt, although I have a couple of formal dresses in my wardrobe.

Dressing my characters can be a problem because some of them plain demand posh and formal. In other words, they venture into places I don’t. Take Kate Fawkner from The Shadow. She attends lots of balls and wears designer gowns and shoes. Let me tell you it was a relief when she got into the cat burglar business and moved into coordinating black. Much easier for a befuddled author!

It’s no secret to my editor that I have problems in this area. She threatened to report me to the fashion police because I mismatched shoe and dress colors. I write mainly for Ellora’s Cave these days. Yes, there’s lots of sex, which means no clothes a lot of the time. You’d think this would be easier, but no. I get these little notes from my editor. Did he take off his boots? Of course he did, I mutter. But, oops. My wonderful editor is right. He’s doing the deed and he’s still wearing his muddy boots! In my defense characters who whip clothes off and on so often can cause confusion.

Luckily, most of my characters are like me. They like casual or wear casual to fit in with everyone else. Here’s a snippet from my Ellora’s Cave release Talking Dogs, Aliens and Purple People Eaters. Janaya, the alien heroine has stowed away on her aunt’s spaceship and they’ve just crash landed on Earth.

Hinekiri pulled a small control box from her low-slung Earth trousers. Jeans, she’d called them when she’d handed a similar pair to Janaya. “Camouflage on.”

“Something wrong, dear?”

“This damned G-thing you gave me to wear is right up my—”

It seems aliens have similar problems to me with their clothing! I don’t care for G-strings either.

Clothes are giving Nikolai, my hero from Summer in the City of Sails fits as well. He’s promised his friend and next-door neighbor he’ll keep an eye on Summer. Unfortunately, Summer is taking exception to a bossy military man and is exerting her independence while enjoying life in the big, bad city. She wants to seduce him but Nikolai is fighting the attraction.

Son of a bitch.

He did a double take. His eyes narrowed while shock punched him in the gut. What the hell was the girl wearing? He eyed the long expanse of tanned leg beneath the short hem of the tight black skirt, the strappy heels on her feet. Then his gaze lifted and paused to savor the two inches of creamy skin at her waist before he hit cloth again. What had happened to the baggy sack thing?

When Summer turned to face him his mouth emptied of every trace of spit. Her black top was sheer and lacy. And low. His gaze fastened on the swell of luscious curves before he had time to veto the move. She might be nine years younger than him, but she was fully grown. Not a shred of doubt there.
I’ve been watching Murder She Wrote and Charlie’s Angels recently. The clothes and hairstyles have really dated and make me laugh. So my question to you is do you notice clothes and shoes in a book? Do you think about reporting the author to the fashion police? And finally, just because I’m nosy…ah, curious!...what is your everyday style? What clothes do you feel comfortable wearing?

Everyone who comments will go into the draw to win a print copy of Summer in the City of Sails or if you prefer a non erotic romance, The Shadow. Your choice!

Shelley has recently completed the third book in her Middlemarch series. The heroine is an assassin and wears lots of black while the hero is a leopard shifter. When he’s not naked he’s a kitty, which makes clothes less problematic. You can visit Shelley at www.shelleymunro.com