I’m A Bad Blogger At The Moment

So, it’s been almost two months since my last blog entry. I’ve just been really, really busy, and I can’t say it’s been writing. This depresses me. Storm Moon Press sort of… exploded at the beginning of 2013. We had a lot of submissions, lots of interest in us, plus we needed to fire and hire some new editors. My life has been a busy hell for the last five or six months, but I’ve taken steps to reduce my burdens. We have hired on new staff with SMP, and I can already see the light at the end of the tunnel.

But, today I bring you a bit of a rant. Something I’ve seen before, and saw again recently, was the… derision for books with sex in them. This is usually from people outside the erotic genres or those who write in the genres but prefer less sex. The latter tends to have those authors looking down at authors who do write with a bit more of a heavy hand.

I think my biggest gripe with this mentality is the idea that if sex is a large part of the book, the book is somehow less. Less plotty. Less character driven. Less enjoyable. It’s ALL about the sex! Umm… no. A good book can be both plotty AND sexy. Uh-huh. It can be, honest! Besides, who can say what is too much sex? Too little sex? And why must we create even MORE boxes to generalize people with? It’s infuriating. This idea that a book is less literary because it might turn someone on… that it might have the characters getting off… that it might make someone blush. The thing about art–and fiction is art–is that there is no right or wrong. No too much sex. No too little sex. No too plotty or not character driven enough. There is something for everyone.

Separating out your genre into those who are literary (based on an arbitrary line in the sand on sexual content) and those who just write commercial smut for the masses doesn’t make those doing the finger pointing any more literary. Just… live and let live. Stop trying to put others down because they don’t write what you write. It’s art, and it’s very personal, and belittling other artists is a good way to be dismissed as a snob.