It's Not About Writing

My latest column is up over at Romancing The Blog. They were having technical difficulties earlier today, so if you tried earlier to read my incredible editorial (Ha!) you'll be able to do so now.

Once again Wendy's Feminist Underpants are showing. I think over the years "feminist" has morphed into a dirty word in most circles, and frankly I'm all about taking it back. Of course, I've long suspected that uppity females tend to make people nervous, so there you go.

This column came together thanks to my complete lack of enthusiasm over the watering down of the erotica market with less than impressive erotic-romance titles. Very few authors can write well in this genre (IMHO), but in New York's zeal to jump on the bandwagon some less than impressive product is out there. Of course, this is true for any sub genre that hits it big. Should all those paranormals be seeing print? For that matter, wouldn't you think I'd be able to find more quality westerns out on the market now that so few are being published? Wouldn't you think only the cream would rise to the top? Apparently not.

I will admit it also stemmed from a book that shall not be named (it's a spoiler) that featured a villain who just happened to be a sexually experienced woman while the heroine was the sweet-as-pie "almost a virgin" who needed the hero to rescue her from her own stupidity all the time (She had one sexual partner before the hero and it was just so overrated). Gag, gag, puke, puke. Seriously, I love romance novels, but when the author vilifies the chick who likes sex and has done it with other men besides the hero - well it gets my Feminist Underpants in a twist.

But I suspect I'm one of the vocal minority on that.