The Wordsmith's Forge

Here is a splendid essay about writing hot sex scenes.  I think the best part is the advice about handling things you haven't done or don't like -- which is to find someone who has and does, and ask what it's like for them.

I generally do not need to do that.  My characters -- if they are the kind to hump in front of me at all -- have no trouble communicating the jolly good time they are having.  Some of them have relatively ordinary tastes.  Others are quite eclectic.  It gets even more interesting when one or more of the participants has a non-standard set of bodily equipment.  Describing the subjective fun of organs and/or senses that humans don't typically have ... yeah, that's the challenge of writing speculative erotica.  It makes ordinary pr0n look easy.

This cartoon does a marvelous comparison/contrast between pr0n and romance novels.

janetmiles sponsored the last part of "RUT?"  Now you can read the entire crowdfunded epic on its original page.  This is a love story involving an old man, his antique cell phone, and an unexpected conversation.  The poem came out of the July 6, 2010 Poetry Fishbowl and has been posted a verse at a time as it was funded.

This poem came out of the November 2, 2010 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was sponsored by janetmiles.  It was inspired by a prompt from jenny_evergreen regarding the beautiful and amazing Forestiere Gardens.  The images made me wonder who would live in a place like that.  The obvious answer seemed to be a dwarf and an elf, and I already had a dwarf-elf-human family from "The Odd Trio" so there it went.

Three adventurers came to Cree,
Made their fortunes, and stayed to see
How they could garden a family tree.

Druga the dwarf wanted to dwell
Under the earth in stone's cool cell,
Like the dwarves of whom the legends tell.

Elan the elf preferred to live
Amidst what woods the gods might give.
Druga muttered, "... and roof like a sieve."

Hope the human prayed for relief,
Rose up with a blended belief,
And said to them, "There's no need for grief."

"Druga can have her tunnels deep
And Elan can his forest keep
All in one home where we three may sleep."

So Druga dug the catacomb
And Elan seeded the rich loam
And Hope tended their children at home.

Never say that three different kinds
Cannot reach a meeting of minds;
In the town of Cree that rule unwinds.

For here the trees grow underground
And stones are quickened with the sound
Of two children laughing all around.

Dwarves and elves and humans now stay
Happily in their family way,
Sun and shadow and petal and clay.

Thanks to a donation from the_vulture, there are two new verses in "RUT?" for you to enjoy.  This poem is almost completely visible now -- just a few more verses to go!

 ... that you are invited to break while writing romance.  Sort of like little pop cans lined up on a fence, just waiting for you to take aim and plink them off.

There are six new verses in the epic poem "RUT?" for you to enjoy!  This is a fantasy romance about an old man and his antique cell phone.

I came across this fascinating article today, "The Politics of the Desert Romance."  Now of course that title has to grab my attention, because one of my all-time favorite settings is the Whispering Sands desert.  This setting shares a lot with our Middle Eastern cultures (historic and modern) but there are enough fundamental differences that it couldn't fairly be called Arabic or Persian or Sumerian, etc.  Still, it's a desert culture, and it does rather run to romance plots and subplots, if one defines the term rather loosely in comparison to the mainstream genre.  So I couldn't resist making a few comparisons ...

The word “sheik,” originally a term of respect referring to a Muslim religious leader or an elder of a community or family, suddenly took on new connotations of irresistible, ruthless, masterful, and over‐sexualized masculinity in the West—before ending up as a brand of condoms in America by 1931.

Probably the closest parallel in my setting would be Oldren-Asul or "bandit-lord."  (The population variously consists of the decadents in the cities, the bandit tribes wandering the desert, plus the Tazha and Waterjewel.)  Let's see, irresistible?  No, very tempting some of them, but scene sketches to date include resistance.  Ruthless?  Variable depending on character, with the majority being willing to do anything to protect their tribe.  I don't think they qualify as the most  ruthless: that would be Khaafid (a decadent ruler) among villains, and certain of the Tazha among the non-villains.  
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This poem came out of the August 3, 2010 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired and sponsored by marina_bonomi.  Like "Shadow Staves," this poem touches on my desert, the Whispering Sands -- and this time you get to see the kind of omens written by that literate land.  A couple words of Seshaa vocabulary appear after the poem itself.

The dust of the desert lies smooth and dry,
Combed by the patiently murmuring wind.

If I could, I would brush away the grains of your days
And level my memory with a sweep of my flattened hand.

What is it in me that seeks your presence
As rainwater runs down to fill an empy well?

What is it in you that craves my fulfillment
As dune grass searches through sand for a drop of dew?

I do not know the answers to these questions that lie between us,
but my mind scrapes at them like fingernails over an itching sunburn.

The dust of the desert is silent except for the sound of wings,
Colorless but for a glint of gold dancing against the duff.

When I turn to see what the oracle beetle has written,
I find it tracing the elegant syllables of your name.

   *   *   *

piraan  (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “a message in sand or dust.”  This is a type of tefna  (“omen”) in which the ripples in sand or dust, or some other soft powdery substance, look like words and suggest messages to the viewer.

renapiraan  (noun) – In Whispering Sands use, means “doodlebug,” “oracle beetle,” or “insect which writes omens in dust.”  A common species has gold wing covers. 

I just posted another three verses of the ongoing epic "RUT?" in which an elderly man rediscovers his defunct cell phone, and odd things begin to happen.  These were sponsored by laffingkat.