Welcome friend and author Brian Centrone with a few words concerning his new short story collection, Erotica which features seven stories, one for every sin.
D.H. Lawrence got in trouble over it. Anne Rice used a pen name to write it. E.L. James made a fortune off it. No one can deny that sex sells, yet it remains controversial. The mere mention of erotica sends literary noses pointed toward the heavens in a triumphant stance of superiority. For the majority of the literary world, erotica is not literature at all.
The truth is that some believe erotica is cheap. They dismiss it with other genre writing like Sci Fi or Romance. Many see these types of stories as inferior to scholarly or academic works. I disagree. I won’t argue that some erotica is pure smut, merely words to get off by, but not all, and certainly not mine. I believe that there is such a thing as “literary erotica,” and I consider my work to fall into that category. Why? Because I write erotic stories the way I write any fiction. I use the building blocks of literature to craft and develop tales which seek for more than just to lube a reader up. My stories aren’t about sex. They feature sex, yes, and prominently—that’s the nature of erotica—but they are always about something more: love, relationships, self-discovery. [Read more…] about Oops, I Didn’t Know I Couldn’t Write About Sex
I wanted to write this guest post to discuss the future of LGBT characters in literature. I have to admit that we’ve come a long way; much further in books than in film and television. The explosion of new queer characters is amazing, especially in the male/male romance genre. And not only are droves of books being written, they also seem to be selling well, if Amazon sales rank is any indication. Now, there’s definitely nothing wrong with a good male/male romance (I’m currently working on one myself) and there’s nothing wrong with books that center around a character’s sexuality. I just wonder if we aren’t lacking in LGBT characters in mainstream books though. In almost every genre the characters are assumed, by default, to be heterosexual unless deemed otherwise at some point in the story. 
We humans evolve from broken relationships, we grow into the people we are, and are to become, from how, and how often, our heart is broken. The irony with this post is that not only is there an entire museum dedicated to broken relationships, but that it sits in Zagreb, Croatia the setting for my next novel, Summer Symphony. The new novel deals with… (drum roll please) a broken relationship, a broken man, a broken woman, a broken marriage and all the outside forces that conspire to shape how those inside the relationship should view themselves. 
Anyone have one of those – a muse that does housework? No? Me either. In fact, when I get done from the real job I come home and look around and shake my head, (especially if I’ve been travelling). I wonder why my muse can’t at least do the laundry, or…some damned thing.
Next year seems like a million miles away in writing terms. Talk to a publisher, book marketer, or an editor and they turn and look at the production board and shake their head. All the work before the holidays – release dates, deadlines, where’s the effing MS you promised…