Wednesday, February 23, 2011

A purse by any other name...is still a purse



by Evelyn Q. Darling
Romance Reporter At Large

This reporter was dashing here and there yesterday from one errand to another when disaster struck at my local market. You can’t lug around a big ole purse and not expect the inevitable not to happen.

The strap broke.

Out went my entire life, spread across the dirty linoleum like a social networking nightmare. Notes, lipsticks, coins, cell phone…everything fell out. Junk I haven’t seen for months (years?) went flying from one end of the floor to the other. You’d think someone had just broken a piƱata the way the clerks came running to my assistance.

Which made me wonder: what does a contemporary romance heroine carry in her purse?

Or to take it a one step further: what three things can’t she live without?

This reporter says a cell phone, credit card and lipstick.

And if you’re writing erotic, condoms.

But remember, we said only three items. Makes it more difficult. Here’s the deal: You can’t eliminate the condoms--safe sex rocks!--so if you were writing a contemporary erotic romance, what item would you eliminate--the cell phone, the credit card or the lipstick?

And why?

Think about it. Then read my answer below.


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This reporter would keep the cell phone and credit card and eliminate the lipstick, then I would use the credit card to buy a new, red-hot lipstick!

9 comments:

Cara McKenna said...

Ditch the cell phone! She could ask a handsome stranger to borrow his. Plus, fewer distractions later on.

Wynter said...

I'd get rid of the phone. No going without lipstick, sorry! And you can make a call from a pay phone (if you can find a pay phone!) with a credit card - I think.

Jina Bacarr said...

Cara, I love your logic with ditching the cell phone! Not only does she use her lack thereof to meet a handsome stranger, but no interruptions later on! Exellent choice.

Jina Bacarr said...

Wynter -- second vote for no cell phone! Very interesting...maybe we're not all as eager to be connected as we think we are.

Or the connection we want most is a physical not a digital one.

Thank you both, Wynter and Cara, for your insights!

Dalton Diaz said...

See, I'd ditch the lipstick. Her cellphone is her connection to the real world, very important if hooking up with a stranger. What if he turns out to be weird and she want to get out of there? How does she get her safety call from her gal/guy pal? Credit card falls under the same category.
Lipstick, while nice, is not a necessity for safety. Then again, if all goes beyond expectation, as it tends to in a erotic romance, she could use the lipstick to leave her phone number on the bathroom mirror. Hmmm. May have to rethink that one.

Jina Bacarr said...

Dalton, I love how you've turned our erotic romance scenario into a mystery complete with lipstick on the mirror!

Good job...now the question is: what color lipstick?

I'm voting for Sinfully Red...

Dalton Diaz said...

Oh, most definitely. Good choice.

Anonymous said...

I would eliminate the lipstick...and buy flavored chapstick. LOL

Jina Bacarr said...

Evolet -- love the chapstick idea! Seems our heroine is going to be a very busy lady...