Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts with the label Samhain

Blowing the Curtains: The Changing Demarcation Lines of Sex in Fiction

A gentleman romance reader recently emailed to say how much he enjoyed the ‘blowing the curtains’ scenes in my story, ‘ A Piece of My Heart .’ That’s to say, the love scenes. The term comes from film—the viewer follows the couple into their bedroom, then the camera pans to an open window, curtains billowing. Sex between the couple is implied but not shown. I’ll start by defining the traditional differences between romance, erotica, and porn: Romance – Romance is and has always been about the monogamous relationship between two people. The story follows the growth of the relationship and their love for each other; it’s in their hearts, in their words, in their actions. Their love is not necessarily exhibited sexually, but it has to be exhibited emotionally. And by the end, there must be an HEA...Happily Ever After. Erotica – Erotica is about suggestion, titillation, and letting your imagination fill in where the author left off. It’s about arousal, sexual desire, the use of the