Gratuities at your Discretion

If there’s one enduring and consistent criticism of my work that stands above all others, it is the complaint that I write gratuitous sex scenes.  (A long way behind that comes the occasional whinge about gratuitous violence too, but really, it’s the sex that seems to be upsetting people).

My response to this over the last decade and a half as a published author has been complicated and evolutionary in nature.  Right back at the beginning, so near as I can now recall, I think I felt a tiny bi...