I started thinking the other day about the titles of my novels. And I began to wonder if they'd attract more attention if they had the usual generic names and cover images like all the other erotic novels out there. You know, the ones entitled "The Halfbreed and the Hooker" or "Passion on the Plains" or "The Kiss of the Cowboy". And pictures of sexy partially-clad men and women crawling all over each other.
I'd surmise they were filled with explicit sexual scenes. (And I probably wouldn't bother cracking them open for that reason.) But I'd be astonished to find there was more to each story than just hot romance. I'd be pleasantly surprised to find a plethora of colorful characters interacting in an exquisite dance demonstrating the beauty and the ugliness of life, the joy and the sorrow of relationship, the power and the helplessness of individuality.
My novels have hot romance and explicit sexual scenes. It can't be helped. The storylines have to do with a midnight cowboy, after all. But I put most of my dirty imagination into the bedroom antics of Will and Chris. He gave up his sordid career for her, remember? And I can't possibly turn him into a boring married guy, can I?
I can't delete or sanitize that intimacy. Real and beautiful romantic relationships depend in large part on the ability of the partners to satisfy one another in the bedroom. They just don't advertise it. (If they respect and admire each other, they sure as hell don't.) But the fact that it must indeed occur has led me to prove it in no uncertain terms. Mister and Missus Boone fuck like crazy and they enjoy every delightful minute of it. Just like real people in love.
As for my titles, they are meant to tease. To make potential readers curious. They don't offer page after page of lusty lovemaking. They offer thought-provoking and complex stories that titillate the mind as well as the stuff where the sun don't shine.
The first novel deals with an impossible coupling. The second with how that relationship moves to the next, and nearly improbably, level. The third with the expansion of that singular romance into a wider realm of love beyond the bedroom. The fourth, a full-circle blending of the here-and-now with the past. A fifth novel, still in the works, pushes the emotional journey onward. And a sixth, also in the works, will touch upon past lives and how they led to the people Will and Chris are now.
Only two don't bear titles inspired by Kahlil Gibran. Guess which two. They could have, I suppose, since his works apply to every aspect of our lives, our relationships.
If you expect 370 pages of bodice-ripping smut, don't read my novels. If you want to take a journey down a prairie rabbit hole into a world that will leave you laughing and crying at the same time, feel free to check them out. They'll change your perspective about life and love, broaden your emotional horizons, improve your ability to communicate, give you a little hope in humanity. And maybe even add a little spice to your own private rendezvous with that special someone in your life.
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