Rhian asked me a good question in my call for blog topics. (Got a topic you’d like to see me blog about? Put in the comments…PLEASE). Who puts the kink in erotic romance? Do authors really sexplore to gain fodder, do they borrow from other authors? Where does it come from?
I get this question a lot, actually. Newspaper interviewers have asked me this. Here’s what I say…. (of course, I can’t answer for all erotic romance authors, just moi).
My kink comes from everywhere.
I will say right off that my husband and I have a great sex life. We have always had snapping sexual chemistry and are well suited to each other in this area. So, yes, I do get some of my inspiration from my personal sex life. Both physically and mentally, since my husband will work through scenarios with me, er, orally. (Stop it! I mean as in conversation.)
But, no, I haven’t personally gone out to research everything I write about. Sorry to say, I’m just not that deviant. Rather than a sex kitten, I’m more your regular thirty-something woman you see pushing a cart at the grocery store. Sorry to destroy anyone’s illusion. Heh.
I have always had a great imagination and I’ve always enjoyed research of the bookish variety. These two things together are really where a lot of my kinky scenes come from. I research women’s sexual fantasies, the ones they don’t talk about out loud — bondage fantasies, menage a trois, female/female encounters, ect. I have an article I wrote about some of the most popular female fantasies. I should dig it out and post here sometime.
By the way…I can NEVER get any readers to talk about female/female encounters, but, (oddly enough, hmmm), it’s a top sexual fantasy for most women.
Anyway, first and foremost I define my characters. The plot grows from there. Though sometimes I’ll start out with a specific fantasy in mind — like menage a trois, or BDSM, or male/male.
So basically, my kink comes from everywhere — my sex life, books and research, and my imagination.
Great question, Rhian!
Hmm. Ironically, most of the women I’ve heard talk about fantasies say they’re more interested in M/M than F/F. Maybe it’s a demographic thing? Not quite sure there; it’s a pity, though, because being far more lesbian than straight myself 😛 I wish I could find more F/F romances out there. (Esp. kinky ones. Ah well.)
by Nonny May 16th, 2007 at 7:30 pmHeya, Nonny — I should have clarifed my comment.
EC says that F/F doesn’t sell, which is why you don’t see a lot of it release there. They don’t tell the authors what to write, but obviously we want to write what people want to read. I would love to write more F/F, but not if there’s no readership for it.
When I do research into women’s sexual fantasies, F/F ALWAYS turns up as one of the top ones. However, while I can get readers to talk about almost every other “kink” (if you want to call it that. Probably the wrong word) under the sun, I can’t get them to talk about F/F…unless it’s to say they don’t like it.
So either what I read on women’s fantasies in general is flawed, OR EC’s readership likes F/F more than want to admit. However, you’d think that in that case, there’d be the sales at EC to back it up, you know?
So maybe the bulk of EC’s readership for some reason really doesn’t like to read about F/F. Maybe for some reason EC draws that particular demographic. *shrug* I’m not sure.
Too bad because I think they’re fun to write.
by anyabastblog May 16th, 2007 at 7:41 pmYeah, I’ve heard that comment about F/F not selling from more than one publisher; from a marketing perspective, I understand that there’s not much point in releasing something that won’t sell.
It’s possible that the demographic that polls in on these surveys doesn’t read much in the way of romance or e-books. Most of the women I know who have talked about F/F sexual fantasies are younger women, who very often don’t read romance, let alone e-books. That’s just personal anecdotal evidence, so it’s well possible that I could be totally off, but if it is in fact the case, it would explain a lot.
by Nonny May 16th, 2007 at 7:49 pmThat was a great question from Rhian, though that is no shock. But F/F was a lot more interesting thing in my younger wilder college days, at least when it did come up in drunken co-ed dorm conversations. But, I bet, women just like guys would like to see more F/F and then some good M/M books. But what do I know, Im no author and I seem to be rambling.
by Sparky Duck May 17th, 2007 at 1:56 pm