The Erotic Geek

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I was reading a book that I really enjoyed. In fact, I read it several times. It was a wonderful love story. However, one of the characters was an Engineering major. That jarred me a little. Engineering isn’t a major. That’s like saying that Liberal Arts is a major.

Engineering is a group of majors. Entire colleges are devoted to this group of majors. Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, Computer Science, Biochemical, Chemical, Civil, and Operations Research are examples of Majors in Engineering.

Now some of these majors have overlap in what skills the student learns. Some schools require Majors in one to minor in another. But they are not completely interchangeable. The problems they solve, the abilities and skills needed, the competition in the field, the pay scale, and a variety of other factors are extremely different.

When someone tells me they have an Engineering degree in Computer Science, I have a certain expectation of what they were taught in school. I understand that they probably spent hours writing programs in a variety of languages.

If someone tells me they have a degree in Electrical Engineering, a field that over laps Computer Science in some ways. I expect they spent time in a lab with a soldering iron. I expect they used cad programs to do chip design. I expect that they were at least introduced to Digital Signal Processing and Control Theory.

The knowledge and approaches of the two people above are different.

Geek’s certainly know the difference. In fact, in typical Geek fashion, they often wouldn’t even use the word engineering. Geek’s love acronyms. I have a CS degree. (Computer Science.) An Electrical Engineer would say they have a degree in “Double E”.

So the next time you are writing a story with an Engineer, choose a major, it makes the story much more realistic.

For those of you on Fanfiction.net, I am ihli over there. Mostly I write Hotch/Reid for Criminal Minds. One of my most popular stories was called Reality TV. I posted an article about writing that story here in this blog.

When the story was over, I got tons of requests for a sequel. I was pleased and stressed. How do you follow up on a story like that. The situation was that two characters were forced to have sex with each other by an unsub. Fortunately, they secretly loved each other.

That situation was completely not repeatable.

I feared any story I did would not live up to Reality TV and the emotions it brought out in people. That didn’t stop me from trying.

I started thinking what would happen next. I ended with the two characters agreeing to have a relationship even though it is against the rules at work. Most stories I have read between Hotch and Reid keep the relationship a secret. I can relate to this, that way we can all pretend it is happening off camera on the show.

Hotch has a son, Jack. Any change in Hotch’s life will impact his son and I started thinking about how Jack might react to this relationship. Since Jack knew Spencer I decided that wouldn’t be an issue. I actually think someone who “knows everything” and can articulate it would be pretty cool to a 5 year old.

But it occurred to me, if Hotch and Reid need to keep their relationship a secret either, Jack can’t know or he had to keep the secret.

Hotch is a single dad, Haley, Jack’s mom is dead. I didn’t think Hotch could have a real relationship that Jack didn’t know anything about.

So now we are asking a five year old to keep a secret. I knew I was getting somewhere. My five year old will tell people anything and everything she knows. So will my eight year old. The concept of secrets doesn’t totally compute. Especially, not this kind, about family.

I imagine that Hotch tried to explain, this was like not telling someone what they were getting for Christmas. That if he told Hotch and Spencer could get in Trouble, with a capital T.

I also imagined that Jack was a relatively sensitive kid like my eight year old. When she gets upset or frightened or frustrated she acts out. Especially when she was five.

That became the premise for  All For Him. Jack is acting out because he is uncomfortable with keeping a secret that could get his family in trouble. That’s a lot of pressure for a little kid.

When Hotch learns this, he is completely torn. He loves his job, he loves his son, he loves Spencer. Suddenly he is in a position where it looks like one of those has to change. But which one?

That’s were I deviated from the norm. The obstacle to happiness was “a rule”. Perhaps they could get “permission” to break the rule. I started considering and researching why this kind of rule existed. Ultimately, it was about having a good work place. Would the two men be able to perform their jobs? Would their co-workers be comfortable with the situation?

One of the requests I got was for the sequel to cover how the team was reacting to the relationship. Bingo, I would have them interviewed to see how they felt to determine if the relationship would create a hostile work place.

Finally, Reality TV had  a case. I knew I needed a case in this story too. It would serve as a backdrop to show that Hotch and Reid could work together. Cases are probably the hardest part for me to write. I don’t know much about psychology but I love to watch shows about it. It makes it hard for me to write profilers on a case. However, I understand wanting to get good grades. What if I made someone willing to kill for good grades.

I wrote the interviews with the characters as one block. I wrote the case separately as one story. Then I became a quilter, cutting up the pieces and stitching them back together in an order that made sense.

I don’t think the final version had the impact of reality TV. But I do think it was a solid what’s next for these characters and I am pleased with the result.

I love the Kindle. Well, technically I don’t have a Kindle. I have an iPhone with the Kindle app. But, I love it. I love reading books electronically. I love knowing that anywhere I go, I have plenty to read.

This is especially useful in places like Doctor’s offices or in line at the grocery story. I get so little free time to read that I like to make use of those stolen moments.  

My mother-in-law also has a Kindle. This year was the first time I made use of the Amazon feature that allowed me to buy her a book for her Kindle. It could not be easier. Amazon let me specify whether I wanted an email so I could present it to her or if I wanted one sent to her directly. The email contained the information needed to download the book.

This really appealed to the geek in me. 

If you are looking for a book with lots of hot M/M/M sex scenes, this is the book for you. If you are looking for a book with lots of deep plot and angst, you want to keep looking.

Exploring Limits  by Nicki Bennett and Ariel Tachna is a book about 3 actors working on a miniseries about Camelot. Two of the actors know they are gay and decide to work together to make a play for the third actor. Needless to say, lots of sex ensues. I would even say it was fun, well written sex. It was sex with lots of variety.

I think my favorite sex scene in the book was when the three actors decide to stay in their Camelot personas, Arthur, Lancelot, and Percival, as they make love. The authors found the right balance of writing the Camelot characters and writing the actors as themselves as they played the characters.

I must admit I was disappointed by the end. The characters each thought about the love they were starting to feel for the others but they never admitted it to each other. The book ended as they were making plans for their next sexual encounter as if the book would keep going. I found out it did. There are many sequels to this book. The next book in the series is Stretching Limits. Perhaps more character development will happen there. I haven’t read Stretching Limits yet but the next time I have a hankering for some great sex, I will.