"My Cougar Journey" with Morgan K. Wyatt

Morgan has some creative & cute giveaway prize pack baskets that's she's giving away to a lucky commenter. Each basket includes a stuffed cougar (beanie baby), dark chocolate, bath salts, flower seeds and (possibly) a bracelet. Make sure to leave your email address with a comment to be entered. Contest ends Monday, March 19, 2012.

I am a historical romance writer, not an erotic romance writer, and I have a half dozen unpublished books to prove it. When I saw the submission call from Secret Cravings, I read it, and considered it. The email came through one of my writing groups. It wanted stories about women in relationships with younger men. There is new phenomenon out there called cougars, where the older female pursues the younger guy.

Well, I thought I’d give it a try even though it was way out of the ball park as far as historical goes. The prompt for submission told me the hotter the book the better. Whoa, an entirely different angle for me. I have friends who write some pretty hot stuff, even with three ways, but not me. I am the type of person who did the fade to black. My couple who did the deed would wake the next morning to birds chirping that’s the only clue you’d have that they spent the night together.

The concept of writing about older women dating younger men wasn’t a hard one for me since I’ve spent a few years in the dating world. I chose not to write about the aggressive man eater who chases down her prey with a promise and a wicked smile in her BMW convertible. Nope, my characters were pretty normal as opposed to the obvious stereotype.

Ashlee, my heroine in RELUCTANT COUGAR, is surprised that a younger man would approach her, so much so that she brushes aside his advances. Men are willing to go out with anyone who strikes their fancy. They don’t ask a woman’s age or what she does before contemplating asking her out. This is a hard concept for both Ashlee and me. I even asked several men about it to confirm this. Yes, they’d go out with women older than then, but; they didn’t want women that acted older. Men who choose to date older women want vibrant, interesting women. Read: men don’t want to date a different version of their mother.

I wrote my first erotic romance putting in all the fears I had about dating younger men.  Ashlee questions what she is doing, until she starts to fall for Nick. I didn’t go with the obvious cougar type, but allowed the relationship to develop on its own just like any other relationship.

Reluctant Cougar was an interesting writing change for me. I have two more cougars novels published by Secret Cravings including CUB IN BLUE and PUPPY LOVE, and two more in the works. The experience has been fun because it has stretched me as a writer. At first, I rejected the idea of the cougar romance because I only saw it from the television angle. I chose to write it from a normal woman angle, someone like me. I dated younger guys before, not because I ran them down, but because they asked me out. In fact, I am marrying a younger man in less than two months. So I would have to say I definitely embrace the image, or at least my version of it. 

Blurb

The very last thing Ashlee expected was to meet a hot, younger guy Nick, at her boyfriend’s funeral. The tall, soft-spoken man comforted her with stories of her boyfriend since he studied under him. Grateful for Nick’s help and the shared connection they both shared with the deceased, they kept in contact.

Ashlee managed to ignore his hints for drinks and meetings putting it down to politeness. He felt sorry for her. There was no way he could be interested in a woman at least a decade older than him. That was until her work posse caught scent of the story and urged her to give the

man a chance. Ashlee knew she had to be the most reluctant cougar in the history of womankind, but what did she have to lose?

Available through Secret Cravings Publishing

About the Author

Morgan as a child had to suffer through movies with clueless heroines rescued by smart men. Her mother dutifully read her stories where princesses waited for princes to jumpstart their lives. There were no proactive female role models in the media at that time, with the exception of Wonder Woman. It is for this reason, and that it is fun, Morgan writes about strong women going after what they want, which is often a delectable cub. Those who wonder if the cougar tales have any reality to them should remember that writers often put themselves into every story they pen, even if it is a secondary character.

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