Sin Shame Sex and Erotica

I have an article in ERWA's Smutters Lounge this month called "Sin, Shame, Sex and Erotica"

The article came out of a discussion we were having on the writers' list about who we wrote erotica for and whether eroitca should be "sex positive"

Somehow that got us into a discussion about people who read our stuff but would never admit it in public and whether or not this made them up tight hypocrits.

I found myself writing about sin and shame and secrecy and how they relate to sex and erotica.

When I'd finished I realised that I'd written something that explained, to me at least, why I write some of my stories and who I'm writing them for.

Here's how the article starts:

I write about sin, shame, and secrecy a lot, not just because we're told that we should write about what we know, but because I think sin, shame, and secrecy shape the experience of sex in the lives of many people.

As a lapsed catholic it seems to me that these three form a sort of unholy trinity in our hearts they track the struggle between the pursuit of grace and the pursuit of happiness, the tension between the physical and the spiritual, and they explain the supreme gratification of doing something wrong that is nice.

Follow the link to ERWA if you'd like to read the rest.

While you're there, take a look at JT Benjamin's "All worked up about profanity" It will make you smile as well as making you think.