Thursday, November 22, 2007
Are You too Sexy for your Market?--veinglory
After reading Karen's blog about twincest I began to wonder. Where are our squicks? I came across twincest, wincest and all sorts of -cests as Con-txt. (But seriously is fandom disappearing up its own jargon?). It didn't shock me much partly because there are sibling romance and/or sexual in fantasy books, in history and in recent times right here in America (e.g. see the nonfiction book Farm Boys).
But we all have our squicks. Mine would be real rape and most types of unsafe sex in contemporaries. Others would probably draw the line in other places: smoking fetish, pregnancy fetish, bestiality, necrophilia? But I think the interesting thing is that almost any squick can be a good and necessary part of story if the story is written to require it. David Feintuch likes spanking, Diana Galaldon likes to work in some rape of a male... but they are good enough writers to take most mainstream readers along for the ride.
In erotic romance there seem to be two competing forces. One is the desire to read something a little salacious and daring, and the other is to not jump into the perv-pool with both feet. But now the genre has been around long enough that a book that is mainstream for some is pretty shocking for others. My question is, what taboo have you written about but left on the hard-drive--or thought about writing but not written because you think it might be a kink too far for the market? If there was too be an erotic romance anthology called 'Jumping into the Perv-Pool with Both Feet' what story would you submit? ¶ posted at 6:40 PM by Emily Veinglory
After reading Karen's blog about twincest I began to wonder. Where are our squicks? I came across twincest, wincest and all sorts of -cests as Con-txt. (But seriously is fandom disappearing up its own jargon?). It didn't shock me much partly because there are sibling romance and/or sexual in fantasy books, in history and in recent times right here in America (e.g. see the nonfiction book Farm Boys).
But we all have our squicks. Mine would be real rape and most types of unsafe sex in contemporaries. Others would probably draw the line in other places: smoking fetish, pregnancy fetish, bestiality, necrophilia? But I think the interesting thing is that almost any squick can be a good and necessary part of story if the story is written to require it. David Feintuch likes spanking, Diana Galaldon likes to work in some rape of a male... but they are good enough writers to take most mainstream readers along for the ride.
In erotic romance there seem to be two competing forces. One is the desire to read something a little salacious and daring, and the other is to not jump into the perv-pool with both feet. But now the genre has been around long enough that a book that is mainstream for some is pretty shocking for others. My question is, what taboo have you written about but left on the hard-drive--or thought about writing but not written because you think it might be a kink too far for the market? If there was too be an erotic romance anthology called 'Jumping into the Perv-Pool with Both Feet' what story would you submit? ¶ posted at 6:40 PM by Emily Veinglory
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I've written incest, twincest and I don't think I'd ever submit those anywhere. As far as taboos, I know my co-author and I purposely never gave an age for one of the MC's in one of our historicals, but we both agreed that, at least in our view of him, he was at least a few years under our modern age of consent. But, since that's such a taboo that some pubs claim they'll report you to the police if you send them anything with an under 18, regardless of time period, we just didn't name his age and let the reader decide for themselves how old he might be. But, historically speaking, he was definitely NOT 18.
I am perhaps not the best person to answer this, given that quite early in my career I had to rewrite one scene before my publisher could accept the book...
I have a story with teenage characters (15 and 17) who develop and maintain a sexual relationship at boarding school. I love the story and am torn between raising their ages to make it work for most publishers or trying to sell it as is. At the moment I'm leaning toward the former, but I don't have the heart to do it yet.
In the context of a historical, yeah, I have a most definitely underage character who would've been sexually active. (married at seven, actually.) Not that I planned to go onpage with it, but it would've been...known, especially as she gives birth at thirteen.
For the perv-pool...I'd likely take a scene from a recent WIP which was borderline snuff/necrophilic and write it all the way and see what it did to the character...
For the perv-pool...I'd likely take a scene from a recent WIP which was borderline snuff/necrophilic and write it all the way and see what it did to the character...
Come on in the perv pool, the water's fine.
The one that I will never finish--let alone submit--is the incestuous necrophiliac bukkake. He's raising his twin sister from the dead, and it requires a great many infusions of his life essence.
In regular titles I've written pegging, circus freaks (including the world's smallest woman who uses her husband, the giant's, penis as a stripper pole), amputees and sex with the Devil.
I jumped in the perv pool with both feet when I was about 14, and I've been doing laps ever since.
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The one that I will never finish--let alone submit--is the incestuous necrophiliac bukkake. He's raising his twin sister from the dead, and it requires a great many infusions of his life essence.
In regular titles I've written pegging, circus freaks (including the world's smallest woman who uses her husband, the giant's, penis as a stripper pole), amputees and sex with the Devil.
I jumped in the perv pool with both feet when I was about 14, and I've been doing laps ever since.
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