Author Jennifer Shirk's Me, My Muse and I: Robin Bielman

Hi, all! Happy Monday!
I'm excited because my Bliss Entangled Publishing sister, Robin Bielman, and I have a little "Bliss Kiss Off" giveaway going on this week!

Robin has a new Bliss romance out called Kissing the Maid of Honor and since, well, my Bliss romance is called Kissing Kendall, we decided to combine KISSING forces—romance author style!

All week we'll be hosting a rafflecopter for a $20 Amazon GC. Giveaway will end Sunday, May 26 at 11:59 PM EST and winner will be announced on Monday, May 27th.
GOOD LUCK!

So to kick off this "KISSING" week, I figured I'd give my rundown of kiss types I've seen (and enjoyed) in romance novels/movies/TV.

Seven Kinds of KISSES to recognize in romance

1) The Unexpected Kiss: This is a good one. The hero and heroine are mentally about as far away from kissing each other as they can possibly be, yet, somehow, their lips accidentally meet through situation or proximity and then...WHAM, suddenly this accidental kiss starts giving them ideas—like how to do more of it together!

2) The Diversion Kiss: The hero and heroine deliberately kiss each other in this one, but with ulterior motives—to each make someone else jealous or to fool other people that they actually have real feelings for one another. But they're the ones who get fooled!

3) The Coming in Hot Kiss: Ever hear this phrase? Yeah, this kiss has the accuracy of a heat-seeking missile. Your characters have a carpe diem moment and have an unbelievable urge to join their lips together as soon as possible. This kiss may or not be planned, but they have been thinking about it for a while, which is why there is so much heat when it finally happens.

Here's an example on this from my book, Kissing Kendall:

She met his smoky gaze and a little traitorous flutter of anticipation settled in her stomach. “Brad—”
Then there was no more anticipation. No more waiting.
She wasn’t sure who kissed whom first—their lips seemed to have met in one fluid motion—and now she clung to him, kissing him with all the demand his lips had for hers.
Brad’s hands traveled up and got caught in the waves of her hair, holding her close as he continued to explore every inch of her mouth. The urgency of his lips overwhelmed her. She had never felt so wanted or so thoroughly kissed before in her life, and she gave herself freely to his passion. It had been so long since she’d felt this way. She had no idea what Brad was thinking, but she shocked herself at her own eager response to him.

4) The Tentative Kiss: This kiss is especially sweet and seen a lot between your characters if they're friends first or sometimes if one of your characters is emotionally scarred, insecure, or maybe young and inexperienced. It's brief but can still make an impact with a reader.

5) The Temporary Insanity Kiss: Both your characters may be perfectly normal law-biding citizens. However, join their lips together and suddenly all reason goes bye-bye and they're tearing each other's clothes off—sometimes in the most inappropriate place and time.

6) The Steam Engine Kiss: This kiss is like a train starting up. It moves slowly, gears warming up, then once it gets a good momentum going—look out—because there is no stopping it. This is a combination of a tentative kiss which turns into a temporary insanity one.

Here's an example of this kind of kiss from Robin's Kissing the Maid of Honor:

"Hey. I think it’s dinnertime. Should we head to the main house?” she said.

“Not yet.” He scooted closer. His hand on her shoulder stopped her from rising. “There’s something I need to do first or I’m going to go insane.”
His brilliant green eyes didn’t just look at her, they seemed to look inside her—a gaze that touched her heart and claimed every piece of it. She stared back for achingly long seconds, wondering what he was thinking before she glanced at his mouth. It was so very, very close. All she had to do was lift slightly and his lips would be hers again.

He brushed the back of his hand across her cheek and pulled back slightly, as if giving her time to reconsider their position. Desire rushed through her at his sweetness.
“Do it,” she whispered.

7) The I'm In Love Kiss: This kiss can be shy or hot depending on your character's personality, but it always contains a certain degree of tenderness and emotion which lays your characters heart on the line (without any words needed) for the reader to see.

At this point, you're probably thinking, that's quite a kiss analysis. But when you write sweet romances, kisses are pretty much all you've really got going, so you tend to spend a lot time thinking about them! :)

How about you? Do you have a type of kiss to add to my list?
What's your favorite type of kiss to see between romance characters?

And now for something REALLY fun!
Robin and I have pitted two of our favorite ON-SCREEN KISSES against one another here. Robin thinks Luke and Lorelai from The Gilmore Girls have it going on, while I'm all about Jim and Pam from The Office!

Help us decide once and for all and cast your VOTE!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Kissing The Maid of Honor is available at these fine e-tailers: