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With Three You Get Romantica
Where Do I Fit?
It seemed a rather appropriate question for an introductory post. Hi, I’m Xakara and I write Erotic Paranormal Romance. Or do I?
I know that it’s Romance because it deals with developing relationships and has an HEA. I know it’s Raranormal, because well, the half-blood shapeshifters gave it away. But is it Erotic? What makes it Erotic?
This week online I kept running into people, who for one reason or another, were searching for the definitions of Romantica versus Hot, Steamy or Sensual Romance. I agreed with many of the criteria I read different places, but it muddied my concept of where I fit, especially where the definitions clashed with what I write.
Only Erotica had a clear consensus on what it was and that it was separate from romance by its focus. The sexual journey emphasized over the relationship, and the lack of an HEA gets erotica kicked right out of the big bed of romance. I can definitely eliminate that choice. But from there it gets confusing.
Erotic Romance is hotter than hot, with a good deal of extremely explicit sex, described in frank and graphic language. It explores of all sorts of relationships such as menage, bondage and submission, embracing sex in many of its varied forms. Emotions are there, but sex and desire are a primary focus. Okay, I’ll buy that.
Hot Romance is full of very explicit sex and passion with the same frank language and graphic details. Hot differs in that emotion and desire are of equal focus, and the kink factor is absent. Sure, sounds good.
Steamy Romance has moderately explicit sex with less graphic details. The language is milder and more euphemistic, (without defaulting to throbbing members and heaving bosoms). Hey, I can accept this too.
Now I won’t even get into Sensual and Sweet because no matter how confused I might be, I am by no means that confused. I left these behind even before getting to the first love scene and nurture no delusions of otherwise. :)
I write m/m/f, sometimes with another “m” or “f” thrown in for good measure. I have three so far so with ideas for four more, it appears to be my thing. (Was that my editor who just ran by with her face in her hands?). By the preceding definitions I write Erotic Romance because ménage falls under kink. I don’t use explicit language to describe the sex, so I also qualify as Steamy.
::Moving both hands as if balancing a scale::
So if I’m Steamy as defined by my language, and Erotic as defined by my couplings, (or is it triplings?), does that by default make me Hot? It seems like it should work that way right? Or is it just me? :)
I like the Erotic title, it means I don’t have to fear the reader’s reaction when my heroines and heroes don’t choose between their lovers but pick all of the above. However, I use the title cautiously because I don’t know if the reader will be disappointed when they aren’t greeted with the language that “Erotic Romance” brings to mind. (Not an “F-Bomb” to be found along with a decided absence of rooster and kitty-cat references).
But in the end, I’d rather come off tame to a prepared reader, than end up scandalizing one looking for something more mainstream. So I write Erotic Paranormal Romance…of a specific type.
If my hot, male-on-male-on-female scenes make me an Erotic writer no matter what, then is there room for Erotic Romance/Romantica to have a spectrum all it’s own? Is it possible I write Sweet Romantica?
(Okay, no, that’s my editor running by with her face in her hands)
Once you stop laughing at the concept of Sweet Romantica, throw in your two cents, (or buck-forty as the case may be), and help me find my place on the bookshelf.
Hope you enjoyed my debut here. Perhaps it wasn’t a traditional introduction but you learned a lot about how I think. (Not to mention, you were given great insight into my parenthetical nature. * grin *)
Genre Ramble Done
~X
~Xakara
“Fiction With An X-Factor”
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Geez, X…making me think on a Friday night!
Labels of sexual heat are so frustrating. I think they’re suppose to make it easier on the readers, but harder on the writers!
But, hey, can you imagine the sexual tension in a “sweet romantica”???
The whole “wanting” of these forbidden things (i.e. two men at once) would be putting your characters through pure torture and your reader. I always thought Jane Eyre leaned a little in this direction because there was this taboo factor with Rochester…almost a master/submissive undertone to his treatment of Jane.
Welcome to the Samhain family, X. I look forward to the release of your book.
LOL Well, that was one convoluted explaination. All I can say is, I don’t buy books by labels but the appeal of the content, the characters and the HEA. I’ll buy another book by that author if I am satisfied when I put the book down. As for your place on the bookshelf, I’d say Erotic paranoramal with a touch of sweet. ;-)
Angel
Hi X!
Hmm…its hard to classify without having read a sex scene from the book, but if the sex is not very explicit, I’d lean more toward the steamy category. Yes, kink can be steamy if its not told in very explicit detail. If you get into some good detail, then I’d say erotic. Hot books (Red Hots on the Samhain rating scale) have both very explicit detail and more than just one or two encounters.
It’s a difficult issue, and quite frankly, a single book can be called different things by different sites, lolol. I quit trying to label mine and just write what works for me. I have to have the HEA, a necessary thing for me, so I don’t just read sex for the sake of sex. That said, a great sexually erotic romance works for me everytime.
Everyone has a different idea, and even the Romance Writers of America are having a hugely tough time with the catagorization as they try to decide how to add erotic romances to their contest list, and whether it should be considered a separate catagory.
Thank you for coming to comment everyone. (Must remember that teary purple smiley works.lol)
Currently my personal label for my writing is Open Door Paranormals. There’s sex and you’re present for it but it’s not explicit.
After that, I leave it open for the reader to decide. (cuz I sure don’t know)
~X
If it’s good it’s all those things.. sweet, sexy, hot, spicy, bold, tempting. I have no idea if you can put a label on a realistically written book, whether it’s paranormal or not. But, I’m not sure if it can qualify for the label sweet romance if it’s got m/f/m/f/m/f there, though the action could be construed as saaweeeet! How about lifestyles of the hot and sexy?
I think poly can be sweet. :)
But no, I was speaking of creating the new genre of Sweet Romantica, as in Sweet Erotic Romance, not trying to say my polys qualify as Sweet Romance. But my, wouldn’t that be a hilarious mix up?
Yeah, I’m being mean. ;)
~X
Yeah, labels are difficult. Whether it’s what genre does your book fall into down to heat levels.
I spent months when I first starting writing frustrated because all of the crit groups I tried to join said because I wrote f/f (okay only two women at the time and total HEA) I need to send my work to an erotic group. The stuff there was all very graphic in language (lots of kittys and roosters there) which is a bit of a turn of for me personally. I also resisted the idea that two woman in love is any less simply romatic then a man and a woman (Heck I still do resist that idea). Then as my muse began to poke at me to spread out into more poly concepts, I became interested on finding where my work would fit.
I kinda term “Spicy Romantica.”. What ya’ll think of that one?
Try writing an MMF with no sex. Thank the gods Samhain has a place for that too.
Veinglory : Okay. You win. Your catergory is by far the more confusing with the current industry guidelines. I’d label it sweet because it had no sex but the MMF aspect doesn’t allow for it. (We should stage a march or something).