Dark on the 18th
This is just a little note to let you know that my site will be participating in the 8hr blackout in support of the anti-SOPA movement. I passionately support the intellectual property rights of creative artists. But I do not support the agendas that lurk behind the current SOPA bill. I thank you in advance […]
My First (and perhaps last) ERWA Blog post
So, today was the first of my monthy ERWA Blog posts. It may very well be my last when my co-bloggers are confronted with 2000 words of density. We’ll see. Anyway, I’ve been blogging a lot lately about the lack of well-written or arousing sex scenes in literary fiction, and musing over the possible reasons […]
Show Me, Don’t Tell Me – Unless it’s Sex.
There were some really great comments on my last post about the literary world and its aversion to including erotic sex scenes in literary fiction or eliciting arousal in readers. Laughingly, and perhaps a little brutally, I said that it might have something to do with individual authors and their own feelings of sexual inadequacy. […]
Why Good Writers Write Bad Sex: An Exploration of Literary Prudery
Last year, Arifa Akbar wrote an interesting article in The Independent: Bad sex please, we’re British: Can fictive sex ever have artistic merit? I’ll be honest, I’ve been ruminating over this piece for about a year. First, let me give you some quotes from prize-winning writers and critics as to why they purposefully write unarousing […]
Possible opening lines for Literary Erotica Novels
These days, I wax, but only out of nostalgia. _______ Lydia considered fate had been inexplicably kind to her. She’d survived the 90’s with nothing more than a mild case of chlamydia. _______ Gilles was French. But he bathed with surprising regularity. _______ On her return from the launderette, Jackie discovered strange missives scrawled on […]
A New Year and New Fun
I can now happily announce that ERWA (the Erotica Readers and Writers Association) blog is planning huge changes. For those of you who aren’t aware, ERWA is really the single most important erotic writers’ group on the internet. It’s public face has consisted of a website that featured, on a monthly basis, some of the […]
States of Grace: Reader Innocence, Happy Endings and the Writer as Responsible Sadist
“Your virtue!” said the lady, recovering after a silence of two minutes; “I shall never survive it. Joseph Andrews by Henry Fielding Academia puts a high value on the ability to read critically; to deny the text our heart and view it with an analytical, objective mind. From the early of the 20th Century onwards, […]
“At the heart of pornography is sexuality haunted by its own disappearance”
How have representations of sex become so banal, so unthreatening, so uncritical? Because the body and sexuality are liberated as signs and only as signs. Through the sign-system, Baudrillard contends, ‘sexuality itself is diverted from its explosive finality’ and transformed into ‘promotional eroticism’ or ‘operational sexuality’. “Jean Baudrillard: Against Banality” by William Paulett I’m having […]
Better Left Unsaid – Beautifully Read by Lady Grinning Soul
This Christmas, Lady Grinning Soul has done me the very great honour of including one of my stories, Better Left Unsaid, in her Christmas podcast. She’s got a gorgeous plummy voice and the podcast includes erotic poetry and stories from Jill (of Jack and Jill), Jilly Boyd, Wyeth Bailey, some lovely pieces from LGS herself. […]
Erotic Romance Readers: What does a Happily Ever After Ending do for You?
I’ve had a marvelous time in conversation with 10 erotic romance writers. Each of them have given me wonderful insights into their craft, their challenges and their unique understanding of what constitutes erotic romance and their relationship with the genre and sub-genres. One thing that impressed me overwhelmingly was how close they feel to their […]