Straight Down to the Nitty-Gritty

When my partner, Chuck Stevens, writes an erotic book he likes to get the reader involved in the narrative before he introduces the first sex scene. That’s his way of writing, and it’s in keeping with the style of his Mike Bodine erotic murder-mystery stories. But I write romantic erotica, not crime stories, and I opt for a different approach in my books. I like my leading characters to have red-hot sex in the first chapter, preferably within the first few pages. To use an English expression, I like them to have their kit off and get down to the nitty-gritty as quickly as possible. And I believe my readers want that also.

Last year I attended a course in writing erotica. It was run by a publisher’s commissioning editor who knew a thing or two about writing romantic sex stories. If there was one thing I took away from the course that stuck in my mind, it was the importance of the leading lady getting her panties off as quickly as possible. In book 1 of the Long Livery series, both main characters have sex in the first chapter, albeit with different partners. In book 2 the leading female character is naked beside a river right at the start of page one, and she has red-hot lesbian sex within the next few pages. Book 3 sees the main characters enjoying a threesome at the start of chapter one. Book 4 begins with the main female character being led into an unwise sexual encounter by the oppressive summer heat.

And it doesn’t end there. On the following pages, the reader will encounter steamy heterosexual loves scenes, lesbian love scenes and torrid threesomes. That variety seems to be what my readers want.