Taboo Themes

I like things that tend to squick a lot of people out. I love reading and writing same-sex incest (and I have a big soft spot for twincest in particular). I love intense BDSM. I like bloodplay and breathplay. I like slavery (to an extent, when well written and supported by excellent worldbuilding). I like religious characters/figures made into sexual beings who love and want despite their religious restrictions. I like darkness and evil and have a soft spot for bad boys. I'll even read a main character death and cry along with the other characters. There's very little I won't read—even if some of it I don't wind up enjoying.

By the same token, I'll write those things, too. I have a married quad in one of my upcoming fantasy novels that's a set of triplets and their fourth, and all are sexually intimate with each other. I have another fantasy novel that stars a triad, two of which are twins who—gradually and through the encouragement of their shared lover—become lovers as well. I have one fantasy novel where one of the main character's dies, leaving behind their broken lover. I have BDSM stories in the works that are as dark and deep as one can go. I've got slavery and kidnapping and the corruption of a priest, all in various stages of development.

I don't think I'm alone in loving those taboo topics. Not in the gay romance community, anyway. XD I love writing them. I love reading them. When the story is compelling, the characters deep and rich, and the main theme a taboo, I'm drawn like a moth to a flame.

Admittedly, I've found very few books that focus on a taboo topic to be any of those things. Usually, those topics are used solely for the shock value. The characters and stories aren't nearly as developed as they could have been, and the worldbuilding tends to be lacking in many ways. Still, I keep trying! I keep buying the books, I keep reading them, and then I make notes to myself when I'm disappointed about why I was disappointed and how I would correct that… and then I wait for a plot bunny to strike so I can do the taboo theme 'right'. (I say 'right' the way I do because I'm sure many people would debate with me on whether or not I do said topics right.)

In the end, I write what I want to read. Sales don't mean all that much to me. Yes, when I sell a thousand or more books of a title, I get giddy and grin like a moron, but I don't delude myself into believing sales equal people liking my book. It's why I don't give any credence to bestseller lists. But, in the end, I'm happy with my books, with the themes I tackle, and I'm not about to leave the taboo behind anytime soon.