Hi everyone–
Thanks to Rosanna for visiting me. She’ll be choosing a winner and posting it in the comments!

In a recent post on Erotic vs Traditional Romance, i talked about the fact that erotic romance is not as much about sex as traditional romance. Once the “will they or won’t they” question is off the table, which in erotic romance is usually in the first few chapters, the center of the book becomes something else — will they or won’t they fall in love and reach a “happy ever after”. BUT, there are still a lot of sex scenes after that so the sex scenes must be about something other than just having sex. The scenes must advance the plot and/or reveal something about one or more characters. The reader must be compelled to read these scenes because they are so integral to the story and so important to understanding the characters. Otherwise, the reader may skip the scenes and that’s the kiss of death in erotic romance.

An example is my book, Golden Dancer. It’s a romantic suspense and a MMM menage with a lot of sex. Early in the book, the sex scenes are about “will they or won’t they”, but the big issue is that one of the three men is an investigative reporter who believes that one of the other men in the menage is an art thief — but he hasn’t revealed his investigation to his lover. So the sex scenes are fraught with guilt, torn feelings, growing attachment, angst. The sex is all about the plot and the changes going on in my three guys.

In Beach Balls, one of the lovers is hiding his real identity so every intimate scene is a tightrope of what to reveal and not reveal about himself. And very often in erotic romance, sex scenes progress in such a way as to show growing intimacy. The early scenes may be hot and fast, while later encounters are slow and sweet.

Occasionally, sex scenes are about sex in an erotic romance. They might be just for the fun of it. In my book, Volley Balls, there’s an oral sex scene that takes place behind the counter in a retail store as people go by on the street outside. In my upcoming novel, Brush with Catastrophe, two guys have some hidden hanky panky under a notebook in a lecture hall at college. Very often, these just-for-fun scenes are also designed to show how hot the lovers are for each other. But these scenes should only happen occasionally, like spice in hot chocolate.

Thanks so much for coming by. Friday begins the Follow the Rainbow Blog Hop and You DON”T Want to MISS IT! See you then!