Seriously.

Yes, I write romances.  Some of them are very, very hot romances.  Some are very explicit.  But at the heart of it is a romance.

I don’t set out to write super-sexy stories. Yes, I can and yes, they sell well.  But I set out to write a romance and the hot sex of it is just part of the story.  I work hard to make sure there’s a romance in that story worth reading.

Somebody asked me a few days ago on a yahoo list (I think) what I’d like to see more of or less of when reading reviews.  My answer won’t just apply to reviewers, though.  When I write a book, I work hard on it.  If somebody doesn’t like it, hey, that’s fine.  If you can tell me why without insulting me, I’d love to hear it.  Writers can learn from bad reviews…I work on things that I’ve seen reviewers criticize in my books and hopefully, I’ve improved on the problems.  Rambling…rambling…oh yeah, when I work on a book, it’s out, readers are commenting, reviewers are reviewing…I don’t want to hear about how hot the sex was.  Sorry, but there it is.  If all somebody can talk about is the sex, then I don’t feel like I did my job as a writer.

Some readers have read my stuff and think there’s too much sex, or that the plot didn’t hold.  I’m fine with hearing that because it’s something to think about with the next one.  Some readers don’t like character X because of this, or character Y because of that.  Fine.  I’ll think about it and if it’s something I agree with after thinking about it, then I’ll work on it with the next book.

But I’m writing romances.  I’m not writing erotica and I’m not writing a sexual how-to guide.  If readers like the sex, good.  I figure they probably do if they’ve read me before and continue to by my books, although hopefully they are buying them for more than just the sex. 

Personally, when I’m reading, I do gravitate towards authors that write hot, or at least I try to.  I love, love, love Lora Leigh, Mary Wine, Jaci Burton, Shelby Reed, Joey Hill…there are some others that I do enjoy reading but I’m also getting to the meh point.  Unless you’re an author I’ve read before and liked, (yes, there are more than those I listed, but I’m too lazy to list them all) I don’t look at too many erotic romance authors.

Lately, several of the books written by authors new to me left me flat.  Did it have hot sex?  Yeah.  Did it have the prerequisite hunky hero and likeable heroine?  Usually.  But the story was flat.  Seemed like too many are little more than one sex scene ~not love scene~ after another and the purpose of the plot is just to give them another chance to land in bed.    Sex scenes~they lack the emotional aspects of a well written love scene.

If some people like these, hey, that’s fine.  I’m not telling picking on anybody or anything.  I’m not telling anybody what they should or shouldn’t write or read.   This all goes back to the TT post I did, 13 reasons to read a romance and this was something on my mind anyway. 

It’s not about the sex.  It’s about the story.