Kissing an Alien

Think of the planet Earth. Think about kissing on the planet Earth. There are almost 200 countries on this planet and each one has different attitudes and approaches to kissing. Kissing in public ranges from being very common, to absolutely illegal.

So how should you handle it in your science fiction?

Any way you want – but make it interesting.

Kissing is a great opportunity for world building. If you're writing a first contact story, who is the first to try kissing the new alien species? What happens and what are the consequences? The person could die by toxin, or because they broke some law. Or maybe an alien kiss is the greatest high ever and it becomes a challenge to see how many aliens you can get to kiss you. Maybe the person is ostracized, or maybe just teased. These things give you the chance to not only display your society, but your character's true nature as well.

And this works both ways. You can tell the story from the alien's pov as well. If you were an alien, what would it be like smooching a human for the first time?

Even if it's not a first time, there's a huge realm of possibilities. Alien A loves Alien B but their pieces don't fit together, even for kissing. Maybe kissing causes the alien to teleport. Wouldn't that be a bummer? A society could have an entire cleansing ritual before kissing was allowed. Take a bath? No problem – except the bath is in sulfuric acid.

An alien's kiss could be addictive. Imagine a whole slave trade where the slaves are kept in line because they're dying for a kiss from their master. Or those aliens are simply the most successful drug lords ever. Flip the idea and you have aliens being kidnapped and held prisoner for the narcotic effects of their kiss.

The consequence of kissing aliens doesn't have to be the entire focus of your story, but it can add a unique layer of conflict and possibility. It will add richness to your society and can be one more hurdle you throw in the path of your protagonist.

So don't waste an opportunity. Make your kissing scenes with aliens exciting, or dangerous, or funny. Above all, make them interesting.

Clara Frost tells you all about kissing

This week we decided on a theme of kissing in books and especially kissing scenes. I have literally no experience writing kissing scenes and I was starting to worry about finding anything to say on the topic until I realized: I have the option of ringing a friend. Enter Clara Frost, romance author extraordinaire. I decided to interview her to get help in writing romance into scenes.

Fool's Gold by Clara Frost

How do you decide when the characters should be kissing and when to go further?
Authors tend to be categorized in one of two ways: plotters and pantsers. Plotters start a new story by working out what will happen in broad strokes, refining down until they know their direction for anywhere from a few chapters to the whole book, and only then do they begin writing. Pantsers write by the seat of their pants, making it up as they go along. While there are shades of gray between the two, I fall on the side of the plotters most of the time.

Because of this, I know at the beginning who my hero and heroine are, how their relationship will develop, and how far I want their intimacy to go in each scene. Take Fool’s Gold, for example. The story is about two relationships: Trent and Victoria, and Victoria and Beta. I wanted Trent and Victoria’s to be fast and steamy and ultimately unsustainable, but Victoria and Beta to start of much slower and grow into something that meant more at the end. Victoria and Trent start with a touch and a kiss and then fall right into bed. Beta, on the other hand, cares deeply about Victoria, and is afraid of hurting her, so he will hardly touch her until much later.

How much set up do you do for any expressions of physical intimacy?
This is a place where I think fiction and reality have much in common. Intimacy is as much mental as it is physical, and the best intimacy is preceded by plenty of anticipation. In fiction this may mean multiple encounters culminating with one grand climax late in the story, or it may mean a much earlier scene that is slower paced and more drawn out, but ends just as steamy.

Of course, fiction and reality are both sometimes too fast and too messy, and the consequences of a deed may be more entertaining than the deed itself.

Do you have any pet peeves regarding kissing scenes in romance or non-romance stories?
Boredom. I hate boredom in all forms of fiction, but a story that beats me over the head with how perfect a hero is, and then he turns out to be a perfect kisser, too, I feel like I've wasted my time. There are certain tropes most romances follow, and when an author can give me a new take on those tropes, I’ll love them forever.

What do you consider to be the most important aspect of scenes featuring physical intimacy?
It has to have a purpose, preferably more than one. Intimate scenes should give the reader insight into all characters in the scene, it should move the plot of the story forward, and it should surprise me. To me, there’s nothing worse than two characters meeting, go straight into a steamy scene, and then afterward nothing has changed.

Duty Honor Family by Clara Frost

How detailed do you get?
In my more recent work, such as Duty Honor Family, I've taken the approach of setting up the scene and fading to black as the clothes hit the floor. If it’s done well, the reader’s imagination will give them a far better experience than I can as the writer. The secret for me is getting their imagination to the right place.

What are your favorite kissing scenes in fiction?
Rhett and Scarlett is probably the most iconic kissing scene in fiction, though I think you can make a case for Han and Leia being a slightly re-written take on the same beats.

But for my absolute favorite, I’ll defer to William Goldman.
“There have been five great kisses since 1642 B.C...(before then couples hooked thumbs.) And the precise rating of kisses is a terribly difficult thing, often leading to great controversy.... Well, this one left them all behind.”

Clara Frost is a romance writer based in the Midwestern United States. You can follow her online at www.clarafrost.com. Her latest novel, Duty Honor Family, is available at all major online retailers, including Amazon, B&N, Kobo and Apple.

K Is For...Kissing

Any Proser worth their salt should have been able to guess what "K" word I would choose if given half a chance. I think I've made my opinion about kissing abundantly clear: it's a good thing, practically a necessity, and yet easily overdone.

By far, my favorite kind of kiss is the Kiss=Redemption kiss. This kiss is easily confused with the "I like bad boys" kiss, and yet they couldn't really be more different. For example, I'm as repulsed as a couple of jazzy songs and a carnival will let me be by the kiss (or its substitute) at the end of Grease.

But take Logan Echolls and Veronica Mars. At first, Logan's sole purpose in life seemed to be humiliating Veronica and forcing her into isolation and misery. I hated Logan. But there were glimmers of another side to Logan: a tortured, lonely soul hiding in there, somewhere. And then this:

There--do you see it? She is kissing the good part of Logan, not the bad, and he is shocked to feel that good part of himself reaching back to kiss her too. From that moment on, any writer with any brains at all would make sure that all he does for the rest of his life is to live worthy of this moment. Of course he'll do it clumsily, and of course he'll have moments where he's torn by two opposing forces, and hurts her. I'm not saying the writers at Veronica Mars nailed it. Eventually, I think they fail. But this kiss does change both Veronica and Logan forever. And that's my favorite kind.

How about you?