Do Romance Authors Have Sex?
Leia's Perspective
I had a conversation recently with a friend I hadn’t seen in a while who had just read my first two books and wanted to know if I had more. The first thing she said, after assuring me she loved them, was, “As I’m reading I can’t help but wonder if the sex scenes are from real life.” As in my life.
Whoooaaaa.
Now I’m a happily married thirty year old woman. It shouldn’t be a surprise that I enjoy sex with my husband. That, however, has nothing to do with my books. Do you have sex that includes blood drinking, rolling around on a cave floor, hours of foreplay, multiple orgasms, and a geyser-like explosion of pleasure at the end with a man who looks like Antonio Banderas, says all the right things, touches all the right places, and cares only about your pleasure? Don’t answer that. I might get jealous.
But I don’t know if I want my friends picturing my husband and I doing the dirty (sometimes literally as I have a thing for outdoor sex in my books). First of all, I’m no supermodel gymnast with porn star moves and skin that tastes like honey. My husband is handsome, but his sweat doesn’t glisten over sun-tanned skin bulging with muscle. And if we had sex like my supernatural characters, someone would likely pull a muscle (if not end up in the ER).
Trust me. My books are fiction.
What I will tell you is this: I can describe orgasms because I’ve had them. I can write true love because I’ve experienced it. I have yet to be bitten by a vampire but I did have an erotic dream about it once. Close enough. I can depict a deep connection between two individuals because I’ve felt it. And I can write an HEA because I have one.
So do romance authors have sex? I can’t answer for everybody but I do! And like our book, 31 Flavors, it isn’t always perfect. But that’s not the point. They call it “making love” for a reason.
~~ Please hop on over to Leia Shaw's author website or her personal blog
~~ Twitter: @LeiaShaw
Cari's Perspective
Since I write not only fantasy, but BDSM fantasy set in other worlds, I’m even less likely than Leia to have done what happens in my books. I mean, goodness, I have people strapped facedown to the undersurface of horizontal crosses watching the clouds go past.
“The beams under her tilted sideways until she looked at wall, not ceiling, and then kept on rotating until the cross stopped with her looking down at the glass, watching clouds curl past below. The leather gag took the weight of her head, pressing at the corners of her lips.
Freakin’ hells and heavens above. She was upside down, and the only things holding her on were the chains and the straps on her body and spread limbs.”
So, upon thinking for some time and wrestling with my memory, I’d have to say no, I can’t recall ever having sex like that. Scratch that one off the list. Neither have I ever had a bondage picnic after landing my gyrocopter next to a riverbank. Though I’d like to…especially if I get to keep her maroon leather jacket with all the buckles, her tights and brass goggles. I’d also point out that like Leia’s characters, mine tend to have over-the-top orgasms that blur reality, cause volcanic explosions, and sometimes leave the bed smoking. I don’t seem to recall any of those either.
Damn, what am I doing wrong?
Nevertheless, if stripped each love scene back to the skin and bones of just the people, I guess you could, at a stretch, wonder if there is a basis for what I write in real life. A bit. Lol Like Leia, I base sex on the sex that I have experienced. Bear in mind that those women who write m/m sex are extrapolating also, and so do I. Most of my books have some of the story told from the POV of the man, yet I’m not a man. Imagination is king.
As long as the sex scenes stir my readers, I’m happy.
31 Flavors is different however. That book is based in reality. The sex is as close to real as we could imagine it. Alas, Sidney forgot to take notes so the itty bitty details are fictionalized and perhaps closer to immaculate than really happened. We had to take some liberties.
~~ Please hop on over to Cari Silverwood's author website.
~~ Twitter: @CariSilverwood
There are some things in life you have to try before you know how they will affect you. After 5 years of awful sex, I was ready. Bondage and spanking had always featured in my fantasies, and one day, I convinced my husband to try them.
That day was a turning point. Ice cream comes in many flavors and that’s us too -- not vanilla, maybe not Rocky Road either. We can be a combination or make up our own and no one has the right to judge us. But there will always be one question that tears at my soul: Will my husband, Nick, ever be happy with what I crave?
Bona Fide Review
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| Terrific Novella! |
31 Flavors by Leia Shaw and Cari Silverwood is a poignant journey of Sidney’s sexual awakening and the toll it could possibly take on her marriage if she reveals her predilections in the bedroom to her husband of five years, Nick. This book is very beguiling and written from the perspective of Sidney. Her personality is heartwarmingly organic. The reader is not being sold on a made up feeling person with a perfect figure and beautiful features much like a Barbie doll. Sid is a “real” person with real issues. She is someone you could easily be good friends with. She is funny, opinionated, and insecure about her sexuality, a lot like us “real” people reading the book.
Her interactions with her husband are equally endearing and credible. It is due to the organic perspective of a relationship that makes this book so unique, touching, and interesting. Loving someone is not as easy as a lot romance books depict. 31 Flavors paints love, marriage, and sex in a very authentic light. There are ups and downs, happy moments, funny moments and awkward moments in a marriage. It is this common sense, down to earth style of writing that becomes so attractive to the reader.
Reading this touching story could help other people out there to step out of their comfort zone and ask for what they need from their partners. The BDSM aspect of this book may maybe a tad uncomfortable for some romance readers. BUT the analogy of being able to translate Sid’s situation into the reader’s own life, crosses over into real-life application when it comes to expressing one’s self to a partner. This is a great read whether the reader is seeking an enjoyable erotic story with memorable characters or satisfying a curiosity into different aspects of sexuality. After all, vanilla is not for everybody.
Happy Reading from Bona Fide Reflections!!
Where to buy 31 Flavors:
Amazon
Smashwords
All Romance E-Books
(ARC was generously provided by Leia Shaw and Cari Silverwood in exchange for an honest review)
