THAT KISS, THAT KISS by Andrea Downing

Let's welcome Andrea Downing to The Roses of Prose today.

Recently, while having my daughter do a last proofread of a manuscript of mine, looking for typos and missing words, she pointed out that the scene describing a second kiss used identical words to the scene of the first kiss. Well spotted! But, uh-oh—another re-write.  While we, as authors, tell different stories and have different settings, and therefore different leads to the kiss, once we get there it’s very difficult to make each kiss different; describing a basic human action that occurs a gazillion times a day around the world takes an awful lot of imagination!

One of my favorite country/western songs is Faith Hill’s ‘This Kiss,’ so it seemed like a good place to start looking for inspiration. “You got me like a rocket shooting straight across the sky” could, I guess, be adjusted for a heroine, though it wasn’t quite the inner emotion I was looking for.  We hadn’t reached “perpetual bliss” in the storyline as yet, and as the second kiss, it wasn’t the “pivotal moment.” “Centrifugal motion”?  Was the heroine spinning?  Maybe…then again, maybe not.  “Subliminal”? Hmm.  Scientifically, yes.

The scientific word for kissing is osculation. Your lips, apparently, tell your brain a huge amount of information (without words!) and, subsequently, oxytocin and dopamine may be released.  If the kiss is a good ’un, and you feel safe and secure in it (very important), you’re likely to continue the relationship.  If the kiss is bad, well, adios pal…. It follows, then, that long-lasting relationships include a lot of kissing! But back to writing the kiss, did I really want to describe the release of oxytocin?  I think not.

I headed off to that universal source of all research, Google, hoping I might find some words I could employ in my description. ‘How to describe a kiss’ brought up a Wiki How-to. Amazing.  Wiki claims there are three parts to describing the kiss:  setting the scene, creating a build-up, and describing the kiss. When I saw the first part started with, “Choose who is going to be kissing whom,” my heart sank. That was long decided, and it was obvious that the scene was already set. Okay, so I moved on to ‘Creating a Build-up.’ This included the advice of having one character notice something new or interesting about the other. Really?…On, then, to describing the kiss. Wiki advises using all five senses and including placement of lips, tongue, heads, eyes, noses, hands and arms, and also describing how the kiss ends.  This all seems a bit technical to me, rather like being given instructions on how to build a toy airplane—placement of wing, nose, body, tail, and undercarriage.

I’ve decided I’m neither too old nor have been single for so long that I cannot describe a kiss. 

So here is where my research never led me, that second kiss in Bad Boy, Big Heart from the Come Love a Cowboy anthology of contemporary western romance: 

His face hovered so close to hers, she could see the tiny specks in the green of his eyes, like leaves floating on a pond. She leaned slightly into him and let her lips be captured, let his hands hold her face gently so the kiss went deeper, and his tongue found the cavern of her mouth, his lips arresting her own. K.C. felt as if that kiss went down to her toes, moved through her body like some warming drink, quenching the thirst she had for him. Her toes curled with the delight of it, and her heart ached as he pulled away.

And if you wish to read the first and third kisses, please head on to http://www.amazon.com/Come-Love-Cowboy-Kathleen-Ball-ebook/dp/B01D5876UK

COME LOVE A COWBOY

Eight stand-alone Contemporary Western Romance novellas from Bestselling and Award Winning Authors.

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Luke’s Fate by Kathleen Ball

Meg O’Brien hoped never to lay eyes on the one man who broke her heart. To her dismay, Luke Kelly arrives at her ranch a much different and broken man. Can Meg ever forgive his callous treatment of her and help Luke become the man he used to be?

Grant Me The Moon by Caroline Clemmons

All Tory Fraser intended was to show her high school history club students a local archeology dig. How could she know the excursion would involve a murder?

Three for The Win by Keta Diablo

Hollis should have known better than to fall for a bone-melting man like Stede. He’s gone now and Eli is left to pick up the broken pieces of her life.

Border Affair by Hebby Roman

When his partners’ daughter is kidnapped in México, a self-made millionaire must confront his feelings about their affair and the future of their relationship.

Leaving Necessity by Margo Bond Collins

Mac has one week to convince his ex-girlfriend Clara not to sell his oil company. In this high-pressure reunion, can they strike love again?

The Shape of Destiny by Julie A. D’Arcy

A young male shape shifter. A beautiful female ranch owner. Can love be born in a web of deceit?

Bad Boy, Big Heart by Andrea Downing

She’s a New Yorker escaping her parents.  He’s a Wyoming cowboy supporting his dad. One summer, two young people—three months to find love.

Desert Heat by Patti Sherry-Crews

A single mother struggling to keep her guest ranch puts her own desires on hold. When a handsome and persistent fireman sets his sights on her, she must decide how much she’s willing to give.

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