Hello! Here I am for my monthly spot on Love Bytes, grateful to Dani et al for the opportunity as usual. I wrestled control of the PC from Lou Hoffmann, as she’s been hogging it, working on things related to her just-released Wraith Queen’s Veil. That’s the second book in The Sun Child Chronicles, and I’m afraid before I can start sharing Lou Sylvre’s thoughts about the sex-scene panel that never was, I must offer up a few bits of Lou Hoffmann news.
First of course, the release, from Harmony Ink Press, but I already mentioned that. Also to be mentioned, she’s got a blog tour going on, and here’s where you can find the tour schedule. Next, there’s a really good deal available on The Sun Child Chronicles books: get 35% off both or either at Harmony Ink or Dreamspinner with checkout code SUNCHILD2. Finally, the Wraith Queen’s Veil release blog tour giveaway, with four prizes and a bunch of chances to win.
Now, to the matter at hand, the Sex Scene Panel—oops! No. First, thank you everybody for your thoughtful and fun comments on last month’s post. The winner of the $10 GC is Ami! Congratulations, Ami!
Now, at last (deep breath), The Best Sex Scene Panel that Never Was—
A few weeks ago, I attended Gay Romance Northwest (GRNW) in Seattle, Washington. It was a half day con this year, and I enjoyed it a lot. As part of my participation as an author, I was one of the panelists on: ”Queer Swords and Odd Flowers: Sex Scenes in LGBTQ+ Romance.”</strong. I want to be perfectly clear, the panel did happen, and it was good. That’s why I call it the “best” sex scene panel that never was. You can listen to the whole thing here:
But it wasn’t the panel I thought I was signing up for. When I responded to the organizer to let my interest be known, the panel was to be about “writing” sex scenes. I’d hoped to have discussion about why sex scenes are important in our books, about what they accomplish in terms of the books development, how best to do that, and where to put them in. We did skirt some of those topics, but I don’t feel we really went there.
So to put it simply, the panel that was wasn’t the panel I expected, and the panel I expected never was. Okay yeah, I had fun with that.
In the interests of balancing the was and the wasn’t, I’m going to ask myself one question I would have liked to explore deeper during the panel and then, yes, I’m going to answer myself. Keep in mind, I’m not writing as some ultimate authority, I’m only answering the questions on behalf of one author. I’d very much like to hear from you, though. If you were attending a panel on writing sex scenes in gay fiction, what would you ask?
Q:Why (other than the fact that they are hot and fun) write sex into M/M romance?
A:A simple answer—sex is part of adult reality for most people, and I believe most people see it as deepening the bonds between two people when it is couched in a romantic story.
To take that answer further, I write sex into my stories because it is the best place to show certain kinds of development—emotional changes or the character’s recognition of those changes, for instance, or complications of commitment because of something said or privileges allowed, a character facing change or fear or growth within himself, or the reflection and response of one character to something revealed through that intimate scene. 
Take for example the scene I read during the panel in Seattle. As an aside, it was sadly two lines too long for the (for some reason) extremely strict application of the two-minute time limit. Those two lines are included here, however, because the last one is the most important part in relation to the type of development I mentioned above. (Note, this is unpublished, my own writing for a story I’m cowriting with Anne Barwell entitled Sunset at Pencarrow.
Rusty had woken up some hours into the night to find moonlight bathing the hut’s interior. It silvered everything it touched, and the brightness seemed to compel Rusty to wakefulness. His cock pulled at his attention, straining toward Nate as if it had found a home. Rusty might have tried to mentally talk the unruly beast down, show it which head was running the show, but a draft stirred the air, and he caught Nate’s scent strong in his nostrils.
They’d fallen asleep lying alongside each other on top of the sleeping bags, covered with their thin blankets. Rusty hadn’t wanted to break the connection with Nate—even if it had been nothing more than sex. They weren’t spooning, not quite that intimate. Yet when he woke with the smell of Nate and sex permeating the darkness he became a slave to it, couldn’t seem to stop himself from wrapping himself around the man. He may even have groaned as he pushed his erection against Nate’s prickly-haired thigh. Of course Nate woke up, and before Rusty could even start to think or talk, Nate took his lips in a hard, biting kiss. Heat surged through Rusty, and he broke away to follow his nose down to Nate’s cock, which was already leaking precum and gleaming in the moonlight. The sight and smell of it entranced Rusty like a hypnotist’s gem, and he lowered his mouth down to savor the taste. He knew right then that the memory of blowing Nate would be burned into his brain as one of the hottest things he’d ever done. When he could no longer stand the lack of friction on his own cock, he reached for it, but he didn’t get through more than a few strokes before Nate moved, flipping around to a sixty-nine position.
In the past, Rusty always thought sixty-nine sounded better than it actually turned out to be, but this wasn’t like that. He was so entranced with the taste and feel of Nate’s cock in his mouth that the slow-burning fuse centered at his groin was secondary.
Until it wasn’t.
He exploded at the very same moment that Nate’s cum shot against the roof of his mouth. After a few follow up licks, Rusty rolled onto his back, exhausted and amazed. “Never before,” he mumbled, and that was the bona fide truth.
This scene is from a story about two men who don’t want to get involved—not with each other, and not with anyone. I’m sure you can see the hints that their determination to stay aloof is failing, at least on Rusty’s part? Just words: “didn’t want to break the connection,” “as if it had found a home,” and of course, the memory would be “burned into his brain.” The contrast between Rusty’s past experiences takes it a step farther, and when he says, “Never before,” that’s a strong hint to the reader that something basic has changed about the story Rusty is living.
So I’ve given you a simple answer, a deeper version of that, a shorter version and an example. The sum of all that is simply. Sex is part of the story.
There you go—my single-question-and-answer-alternate-reality-version of the sex scene panel. If you have a question you would have asked the panel, put it to me in comments. I’ll do my best to answer, even if all you want to know is whether, indeed, I’ve read Brokeback Mountain.
That’s it for my post this month. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope to see you in comments, or if not then next month. Best wishes until then.