Of travel, innocence and horse semen....

So, I took the Flyer (a fast mini bus to Brisbane airport) from Toowoomba, a large country town, and I chatted to the country people on board. Country people are interesting. I learned more about the transport of horse semen than I ever anticipated I would….but that’s another blog. Anyway, there was this 18 year old girl on the bus who was travelling to Tasmania – a bloody long way from where she lived – to visit her sister. When we got off the bus at the airport she looked lost. She confessed she had never been to the airport by herself and she was scared. I said ‘Let me corrupt you'…no wait…that’s another blog that involves a man, a handcuffs and whipped cream…and I said 'follow me and I will teach the art Amarindarism.'  This is essentially looking like you are in complete control even when you’re not. I got her checked in for the flight.  She even got checked for explosives.  That was  a bonus. At the gate she worried about the size of her carry on bag. It was large. I said ‘pretend it’s not – that it’s average – smile, chat, be confusing and that in itself will mesmerize people into believing you are no threat in any way shape of form.’ I learnt that from the Matriarch of the Jones clan.  

The thing with this kid is that she made me smile when she openly admitted to me, a stranger, she needed help. I thought, as humans, we had lost the innocence. It’s nice to see we haven’t.      

And she was only a bit corrupted. I had limited time…   

Years ago….

…there were these three writers who set up this Yahoo group so they could chat/bitch amongst themselves about writing, other writers, publishers etc. Nothing unusual there except they forgot to lock their posts and they went viral and the whole romance e-book community read a lot of stuff they weren’t meant to. Oh dear. Anyway, one of their posts I read had one of them saying something along the lines of she was off to ‘write porn.’ Yes. An e-book romance writer saying that. Shock. Horror. Ho hum. I remember that post, along with the many others I have filed away, because the writer chick who wrote it was at least honest. The more stories that get subbed to Scarlet Harlot Publishing the more I realize e-book land is equating porn for romance, in ever increasing amounts, and I’m not seeing that same parallel with established print book market. It asks the question - are e-book writers money hungry I-do-anything-for-a-buck writers? Yes. Are they pandering to women who are tired of ‘normal’ sex? I believe so. Are e-books, as one person pointed out to me, ‘corrupting the moral fabric of society’? My answer to that is for corruption to work, people must be open to temptation and you cannot corrupt without need or greed.

My point? As much as I have been thinking about the stuff that gets sent to me – and no, Harlot is not technically open for submissions because I barely have time to spit - I find I am led by business sense and the lure of $$ when it comes to publishing. Yes, I will and have published e-book porn/romance and make no apologies for it.

E-book land - Welcome to temptation.

The viability of virginity…

I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but virgins are everywhere at the moment…at the least in romance land they are. You have the too stupid to live virgin who doesn’t get the hero is after her arse until she is flat on her back under him and then you have the oh-my-god-I-need-to-lose-it virgin. Oh, and let’s not forget the virgin who stumbles across the shape shifting wolf pack of five who need a virgin for whatever half arsed reason to make their lives complete. Why so many virgins? Is it a fad? Do we want to see innocence corrupted? Do we want to go ‘aww, how sweet’ and ‘bloody hell, he’s going to put all that into her?’ Yes, yes and yes. Frankly, romance writing world has become cruder than I’ve ever seen it. Why is that? I pondered this question with a male friend. What is it women want? Why are we reading virgin books? Do we want to remember when? Do we want to see the virgin literally shafted by a wolf pack of five men? Do we see virginity as an expendable commodity to be made money out of? Do we not value innocence anymore? I don’t know. He was very quiet on the subject. Smart man.

I have to admit that this - http://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thevirginsale-668537-144.html Scarlet Harlot story that was subbed to me by an old Pommy (English) friend made me think about where I stood on the issue. Do I publish what I believe is romance or do I not be a prissy prude and say to hell with it? It may seem old fashioned but we – and I include myself - seem to be manipulating everything that has an ounce of purity in it into some dirty erotica story and branding it as romance to sell to women. As I said to my male friend, you have to wonder what women want. Tenderness? Passion? Or in the Aussie vernacular a good root and onto the next man? Is that romance or are we beyond that now if there is the promise of an orgasm?