A Milestone, and How to Choose from My Work

Perhaps only of interest to me, since the books themselves have not posted yet, but I noticed recently that my author page on Ellora's Cave is up. So that's really happening. :)

Writing for them has made me think a lot about that phrase "erotic romance" -- in my work for EC so far, it's been really true. I employ all my eroticist tricks, coming up with varied sex scenes that reveal character and move the plot along, while also building a love story that comes to fruition in a happy ending. I've enjoyed the form, and it's taught me a lot about how to plan (that belongs in another post).

I'm very proud of my work for EC -- The Fugitive's Sexy Brother is the most complex story I've written, including a villain who nearly stole my heart, a thriller plot, and three different couples who use three different styles of BDSM. I'm planning to write a lot more in the erotic romance form.

And if you like my dark erotica (where happy endings are not guaranteed), never fear. I've got two deliciously dark pieces coming out from Forbidden Fiction this year (Andromache's Prize, which drops next week, and Icarus, a retelling of the myth that is, IMO, the best thing I wrote last year). And the year is young.

One thing I've always known is that as a writer I really like to stretch into a wide variety of styles. As I've moved into publishing more stand-alone books, I've tried to group them in sensible ways so readers know what to expect. Of course, it's wonderful if you love everything I do. On the other hand, if you prefer certain styles, my current system is:

Breathless Press - erotic paranormal romance (all werewolves so far, includes HFN)
Ellora's Cave - contemporary erotic romance (realistic modern settings, ends in HEA)
Forbidden Fiction - erotica (often mythological, generally dark, sex in a variety of moods, all bets are off about how this thing will end - some HEA, some tragic)

I love the freedom this system gives me, and I hope it helps readers pick up books they're going to enjoy. I also do a lot of work for anthologies, in which case I try to follow the mood that I think fits the publisher, and am generally erotic and sex-positive.

Why Sex Writing Shouldn't Always Be Nice

I recently started reading Jean Roberta's Sex Is All Metaphors, and came across a great passage on the issue of "sex-positive" writing. As she explains, many editors ask that erotica be sex-positive, which generally means avoiding a certain standard list of squicks (including things like very extreme violence). Sometimes, the sense of "sex-positive" is extended to mean a general attitude about sex within the story -- that it should be empowering, pleasurable, and so forth.

I like to write and read sex-positive stories, certainly. I have a story for another time about how sex-positive erotica is actually what made me understand feminism and become willing to call myself a feminist.

However, not all of my writing and reading is sex-positive, and there are a lot of complicated reasons for that. Roberta gives a nice account of why sex writing needs a range that includes the very unpleasant:

If sex is all metaphors, it can't always be a simple way to get happy. Sex can be a desperate, doomed attempt to bridge a gap in credibility or understanding. It can be an extreme form of exploitation. It can be the event that turns a high school girl who is desperate to fit in into a target for contempt from everyone she knows. It can be an attempt to prove something improvable. Sex can be an act of self-hatred, or hatred of the other. It can be the means by which invading armies literally colonize the bodies of civilians, hoping to impregnate as many "enemy women" as possible. Sex, broadly defined, can destroy both body and soul.

Should erotic writers avoid saying anything disturbing about sex? The terms "adult" and "mature" are often used as euphemisms for sexual content, yet to avoid mentioning any negative emotions (guilt, hatred, rage, fear, despair, regret, etc.) in connection with sex is to limit oneself to a fairly childish view of the world.

I started writing erotica because it's the genre where I feel most honest as a writer. It's the subject on which I really have something to say. And I'd definitely be lying if I pretended all my experience with sex has been pleasant or positive. Sometimes, I feel strange about the range of my work. I worry that some of my dark work for Forbidden Fiction, for example, would freak out readers who enjoyed, say, my light piece in the Cleis erotic romance anthology, Passion. I also worry that readers who like the dark stuff will find my happy endings fluffy. But I need that full range to say all of what I have to say about sex, and I try not to censor myself in either direction.