RELATIONSHIP GEOMETRY: VEE vs. TRIANGLE

Hi, and welcome to the Inch by Inch blog tour! Inch by Inch is the third in Riptide’s BDSM erotica series The Professor’s Rule, written by Heidi Belleau and Amelia C. Gormley. Today, Sid Love has asked us to share with you some of our thoughts on the relationship dynamics between Satish, James, and the Professor. All week we’ll be touring the web giving you a behind-the-scenes look at The Professor’s Rule, including new character profiles and some very steamy excerpts. We’re also giving away not one but TWO ebooks, so stay tuned!

Thanks so much to our host, Sid Love and to you readers, of course, for coming along!

These days, ménage has become a pretty standard variation on LGBT—and M/F—storytelling. So much so that it appears to be the default. We think we understand why this happens. We want to see the sort of symmetry that comes with a completely equilateral triangle in our reading, because it eliminates the idea that one partner might have to choose, or that another partner might feel neglected or left out. Or maybe it just seems to be the ideal outcome for an HEA, where everyone is happy and secure with each other and there are no imbalances.

Whatever the reasons, it’s not the only variation of a triadic relationship. We think the sometimes-more-common V relationship gets a lot less play because it perhaps feels to readers like it can’t possibly be equal. Like, why does the “hinge” of the V get to have two relationships, but the other partners only each have one? And if one of the other two partners is a favorite of the reader, the other branch of the relationship can seem like cheating or disloyalty to the reader. The only solution to the issue that most people can see is to either close the V and make it a triangle, or to have the other partners for the second and third partners, which means it then becomes an open relationship, and readers seeking an HEA/committed ending aren’t going to like that, either.

But Heidi and I wanted to do something a little different and explore the V configuration and see how James would handle these two concurrent yet separate relationships, each of which fulfills distinct needs of his. Carson fulfills James’s need for pain and to be dominated, while Satish fulfills his need for something gentler and more stable. Furthermore, to James, is the embodiment of a pledge he’s made to himself that this time, things are going to be different between him and Carson as they try to reunite.

We also wanted to see how Carson and Satish would each react to the scenario. In fact, the deciding factor for why we chose to pursue this dynamic actually comes mostly down to Carson and the reasons he’s always steered James toward other men in the past. Carson has motivations we haven’t delved into yet at this point in the series, and those motivations play both a heavy roll in what happened between James and Carson in the past, and how James’s relationship with both Carson and Satish will play out in the future. Is Carson as okay with the other men as he seems?

So, as things stand in Inch by Inch, Satish, James and Carson have a V dynamic. Will that continue or will their relationship reconfigure to an equilateral triangle? We’ll just have to see. 😀

Contest Info:

If you haven’t fallen in lust with the Professor, yet, now’s your chance! We’ve got two ebooks to give away to two lucky commenters: one copy of Giving an Inch, and one of An Inch at a Time. That’s two chances to win! Let us know your thoughts and hopes for the relationships between Satish, James, and Professor Carson! Be sure to include your contact info (email, Twitter, or Facebook!) on this or any of the other of the posts on this tour for a chance to win. More comments=more entries, so to increase your odds of winning, be sure to follow the entire tour! We’ll pick a winner New Year’s Eve, so you can start 2014 right!

Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3)

After two long, kink-free years apart, James Sheridan has reunited with his Professor: the sexy, dominant Evander Carson. But this time, things will be different. James is older, more sure of himself, and confident that he can draw the line between Carson’s demands and his own principles.

One of those lines is gorgeous menswear salesman Satish Malhotra. After their steamy dressing room encounter, James feels an unexpected connection to Satish, and he wants to explore it further. But Carson’s involvement—in James’s life, and in James and Satish’s budding relationship—complicates things.

Carson’s penchant for using other men in their sex games has always troubled James, and he’s adamant that Satish not be just another notch in their whipping post. But when Satish learns what prompted James to pursue him in the first place, will James’s new ability to draw the line even matter?

Click here to read an excerpt or purchase Inch by Inch (The Professor’s Rule #3.)

About Amelia:
Amelia C. Gormley may seem like anyone else. But the truth is she sings in the shower, dances doing laundry, and writes blisteringly hot m/m erotic romance while her son is at school. When she’s not writing in her Pacific Northwest home, Amelia single-handedly juggles her husband, her son, their home, and the obstacles of life by turning into an everyday superhero. And that, she supposes, is just like anyone else

Her self-published novel-in-three-parts, Impulse (Inertia, Book One; Acceleration, Book Two; and Velocity, Book Three) can be found at most major online book retailers, and be sure to check Riptide for her latest releases, including her Highland historical, The Laird’s Forbidden Lover, the The Professor’s Rule series of erotic novelettes (co-written with Heidi Belleau), and her upcoming post-apocalyptic romance, Strain

You can contact Amelia on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, BookLikes, Tumblr, or contact her by email using the form at http://ameliacgormley.com/

About Heidi:
Heidi Belleau was born and raised in small town New Brunswick, Canada. She now lives in the rugged oil-patch frontier of Northern BC with her husband, an Irish ex-pat whose long work hours in the trades leave her plenty of quiet time to write. She has a degree in history from Simon Fraser University with a concentration in British and Irish studies; much of her work centered on popular culture, oral folklore, and sexuality, but she was known to perplex her professors with papers on the historical roots of modern romance novel tropes. (Ask her about Highlanders!) Her writing reflects everything she loves: diverse casts of characters, a sense of history and place, equal parts witty and filthy dialogue, the occasional mythological twist, and most of all, love—in all its weird and wonderful forms. She also writes queer-flavoured M/F as Heloise Belleau.

Chat with her on twitter using the handle @HeidiBelleau.
Browse her website at HeidiBelleau.com or HeloiseBelleau.com.
Check out her books on Goodreads.
Follow her Facebook and Tumblr accounts.
Or contact her using good ole-fashioned email: heidi.heloise.belleau @ gmail.com