Scenes We Love ~ No. 1

by Janine Ashbless



You wanted a surprise? Well it's not a secret that I don't like kissing. But when I came to pick my favourite movie clip for Lust Bites I just had to pick the kiss above from The Whole Wide World.

The film is based upon the real-life relationship between Novalyne Price Ellis (played by Renee Zellweger), a school-teacher and aspiring writer, and Robert E. Howard (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) an established writer for pulp fiction magazines, in the '30s. Yes, that Robert E Howard: the one who wrote the Conan books. (Don't knock him just because he was a genre writer!) Why's it so hot? Because it's one of the very few Hollywood movies that convincingly sees yearning lust from the point of view of the woman. Novalyne is the desirer, not the desiree. She is politely but desperately gagging for the handsome, brilliant, but alarmingly difficult Bob. But he has serious issues, to put it mildly. And this kiss is the closest she gets to turning friendship into the love she wants.

I just love the sense of aching frustration and tragically thwarted passion in this film. It's a real tear-jerker. And this kiss makes my stomach do that funny crampy pain thing. Every time.

Coming Attractions

It's a mystery... Oh, it's a mystery... Please excuse the singing but that's exactly what this Monday's post here at Lust Bites appears to be. The crystal scrying ball has failed. I'm hoping it's a post about naked butts, or maybe something about tasting forbidden apples, hence this weeks inspiring piccie. But whatever it turns out to be, I'm sure it'll be worth stopping by for.

On Wednesday, the gorgeous Kate Pearce is back again to tell us about her latest release, Simply Sinful. Which I'm sure contains a fair quotient of naked man flesh.

And on Friday in the smut slot, dotty former librarian Portia da Costa will be giving us a sneak peak at her new release In Too Deep, set in a library. I swear my local isn't nearly so much fun. There certainly aren't any hot Professors lurking in the basement!

See you there...

Madelynne xx

There were three in the bed...

by Kate Pearce


At the end of 2005, I had written a couple of books, (four no-hopers), and one erotic historical, Eden's Pleasure, which was published by Ellora's Cave. It featured a set of identical twins, Gervase and Gideon Harcourt. Gervase was the hero of Eden's Pleasure but everyone was fascinated by his darker twin, Gideon, a man for whom sex had a whole different meaning and usually centered around men.






But how the hell was I supposed to write a book about a guy like that? Me? boring mother of four, suburban housewife, aspiring author etc etc, you know me, right? But I wanted to write about him-I love dark tortured heroes, especially ones with complex sexual hangups. And then there was the other thing-was it even okay to write about two men getting it on in a romance novel?







At that point, fate helped me out and I came across a copy of Emma Holly's 'Cheek' book Menage This book came out in 2004. As usual, Black Lace were 'way ahead' of the curve!



Not my favorite cover, but the book? It was as if a light bulb went off in my head and said this is the way to do it, this is how you make two men having sex romantic The book inspired me to try and write something myself so I wrote Antonia's Bargain And, for me, that book was a turning point in the evolution of my voice and my style.





Here's a little excerpt, which I think explains the sexual complexity of my characters quite nicely.:

“The interesting thing is, I think I have found what I want.”
Peter cupped Gideon’s balls. “A man or a woman?”
Gideon reached across to slide his fingers beneath the open neck of Peter’s shirt. He tugged gently on his nipple ring. “A woman who only chooses to acknowledge me when she is dressed as a man. Take off your shirt.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised. A woman masquerading as a man would suit you perfectly. “
Gideon raised an eyebrow as Peter continued. “I know you’ve chosen to bed mostly men in the last few years, but I’ve never believed your heart was in it.”
“You haven’t?”
“Just because you’ve tried to convince yourself that you prefer men, doesn’t mean that it is the truth.”
“And how would you know this?”
Peter locked gazes with him as he removed his shirt to display his lean muscular chest and scarred skin. “Because I spent ten years of my life in a Turkish brothel and I’ve been in every sexual situation imaginable. You use men because you believe they can’t hurt you like Caroline did. If you truly preferred men, you’d let them fuck you as well and you don’t.”
“Perhaps I’m one of those men who believe that if they don’t allow themselves to be fucked, it means they aren’t a sodomite.”
“You’re not like that. “
Gideon let out his breath. How was it that Peter thought he could see things so much more clearly than he could? “Does that offend you?”
“Me?” Peter grinned. “No, because I have no preference either way. I’m happy to fuck or be fucked by either sex.”
Peter was tanned darker than Gideon, a legacy of his years in captivity. He knelt between Gideon’s outstretched legs, the crown of his long cock already showing through his unfastened breeches. He tugged at the fastenings of Gideon’s breeches. Gideon stayed his hand.
“Wait. Why are you so certain that you are right?”
“Why are you even asking me that? It’s very simple. Despite all your lovers, how many men have you fallen in love with?”
Gideon stared at him, his thoughts in turmoil. “None.”
“How many women?”
He shrugged. “Only my wife and look what came of that.”
“And now you are obsessed by another woman. I rest my case.”
Peter removed his hand from Gideon’s breeches and knelt up. “Are you worried that this woman truly prefers to be a man?”
“In the sense that she prefers her own sex? No. I think this is more of a way for her to explore her own sexuality and avoid the things that frighten her.” Gideon frowned. If Peter was right, she sounded just like him. “But that is certainly something I should investigate.”
Peter groaned as Gideon leaned forward, sucked hard on his nipple and slid one hand down the back of his breeches. “God, I’ve missed being touched.” He shuddered as Gideon gently squeezed his balls. “If she trusts you, surely you can persuade her to want you as a woman wants a man?”
Gideon’s cock swelled at Peter’s obvious pleasure. “She wants me, but I have already promised her I will not take her virginity.” He took Peter’s hand, placed it over his covered cock and waited until he began to move his fingers. “Hoist by my own petard.”
Peter grinned. “Your petard feels remarkably fine to me. Let me attend to you.”
“Let’s see who gets attended to first.”
Gideon shoved Peter onto his back and straddled him. He pressed his satin covered cock against Peter’s half-uncovered erection and enjoyed the pressure and roughness of the rocking motion. Satin against skin, smoothness against hot hard flesh. For him, touching a man could be so much simpler than touching a woman. There was no fear of being too rough or too demanding. No fear of becoming emotionally involved. A man simply used his own strength to control his lover. With a hoarse shout, Peter grabbed Gideon’s arm and rolled him onto his front. Gideon’s shirt ripped as it was pulled over his head.
Face down on the carpet, Gideon shuddered as Peter dripped warm oil on his naked back. He tried to roll over. Peter held his arm clamped to his side and brought his knee up and planted it on Gideon’s back. Gideon grunted as his hips and swollen cock were ground into the carpet.

Back then, I thought I was ahead of the curve, not as far ahead as Emma Holly, but still keeping up- but now male/male subplots are becoming commonplace in erotic romance books. Note, I say sub-plots. I'm not talking about m/m love stories, I'll let Erastes cover those.

The main surge for the inclusion of m/m subplots came from the online publishers such as Ellora's Cave, Amber Quill, Loose-Id, Phaze and Samhain to name a few. And I think the initial interest flowed across from slash fan fiction, which often starts trends which gradually bleed into the general reading public's tastes. Online publishers are also more likely to take a risk and try something new, more established publishers have been slower on the uptake.

Here's what Raelene Gorlinsky, Publisher from Ellora's Cave Publishing Inc, had this to say when I asked her about the rising interest in m/m:

Stories with M/M and especially M/M/F are still hot sellers for us. The ménage that includes both explicit M/M and M/F sex is the more popular of the two. From what we can tell, most purchasers are heterosexual women. What little we’ve heard from gay men is that the stories are not particularly realistic in their portrayal of the emotional aspect of a M/M relationship. The stories more reflect a woman’s fantasies about two men together.

And she makes an interesting point. This is fiction written for women, not gay men. and why are women so fascinated by what two men get up these days? I've often heard the comment that one hunky hero is good, two is better-and I can see that, I really can.

It's also interesting that the more traditional New York publishers are also expanding into this area. I also write for Kensington's ultra hot and erotic Aphrodisia line, and not one author I talked to who writes for the line has ever had an editor tell her to take out any subplot or scene including m/m, m/f/m or m/m/f. But read the back cover of any Aphrodisia and note that those subplots are generally not mentioned upfront. Getting these books into big stores still requires a certain amount of finesse and careful packaging.

Emma Holly has continued writing for Berkley Sensation. Fairyville features fairies, vortexes and lots and lots of sex, particularly m/m sex wrapped up in a unique and fascinating story. Bantam have added erotica titles such as Eden Bradley's Dark Garden Even Harlequin have got into the act with their Spice line, where upcoming author Victoria Janssen told me her eunuch on eunuch action went through without a word. (Can't wait to read that one!)

So why do we like it so much, all these men, when in real life, would we really put up with two of them?
How did a trend which started only a few years ago end up taking over the erotic romance industry and becoming almost mainstream?
And what on earth will happen next?
Kate wants to know...

Tell me and because this is the 500th post, you might win a copy of a book of mine of your choice.

Crush Wednesday: Leonard Cohen

by Madeline Moore



Slowly you come to me/ Slowly we shed/
The clothes of our doubting/and slowly are wed




Famous Troubadour

It’s four in the morning
but everything's okay
I’m writing you now just
to say ‘Happy Birthday’

Toronto is steamy
I like where I’m living,
they’re busy on Clinton St.
all through the evening

I hear that you’re working
writing your poems, singing in Europe
You were robbed of your savings, G-d!
I hope you’re keeping some kind of record

Yes, and John came by just to drop off the girls
we’re finished as lovers, for sure
It’s been good for us, we have grown
Apart, and for good.

I loved you, as John did,
your songs were about us,
destructive, creative
and tortured with love/lust

You were part of our courtship,
and part of our wedding
still we weren’t prepared for
the pain of our ending



And you treated all women
to a sip of your life
I took more than my share, now
I’m nobody’s wife

Well I see you, hair grey and wrinkly face
Silent One so full of grace
Well I’m dry again but
now I know how to wait

He took all of your albums
I knew they would help him
He cried all the time, just like me


It cost us so much
to be free of each other
a home and a whole family

It’s hard when you’re young
it gets soft later on
so much to collect, then
so much to be gone

Yes and thanks
for the trouble you took for us all
for showing us it's okay
to fall, rise, and fall

I’m so happy you’re happy
an old monk who’s still sexy
and living among us again

I said, ‘Leonard I love you’
at the time of our meeting
I feel like we’ve always been friends

John and I aren’t pals
No secrets, no sighs
but we talk and last night
we laughed at his lies

And thanks
for the poems and songs that you write
for helping us give up the fight
We're beautiful losers, like you.

Sincerely,

M. Moore



Some of my favourite quotes from Leonard Cohen's work:





Boo hoo. Sob sob.

Confusion is a butterfly net for magic.

- novel - Beautiful Losers

I fought against the bottle, but I had to do it drunk.
Took my diamond to the pawnshop, but that don’t make it it junk.
I know that I’m forgiven, but I don’t know how I know
I don’t trust my inner feelings, inner feelings come and go.

That Don’t Make it Junk – Ten New Songs

And he gave the wind my wedding ring

– By the Rivers Dark – Ten New Songs




I followed the course/From chaos to art
Desire the horse/ Depression the cart

– poetry - Book of Longing








Even though she sleeps upon your satin
Even though she wakes you with a kiss
Do not say the moment was imagined
Do not stoop to strategies like this

You who were bewildered by her meaning
Whose code was broken, crucifix undone
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving
Then say goodbye to Alexandra gone.
Say goodbye to Alexandra leaving
Then say goodbye to Alexandra lost.

- Alexandra Leaving - Ten New Songs



Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in
That’s how the light gets in

-Anthem - More Best of Leonard Cohen


Visit this site for all kinds of information about LC.

Like love, I could go on and on, but that's enough out of me. I'm gone.
It's your turn to talk! Favourite quotes? Memories of Leonard? Anecdotes? Thoughts on his artwork or the movie soundtracks that use his work (there are 40 of them!)?

Oh! Just one more thing.



Leonard Cohen will be 74 years old on September 21. So, from all of us at Lust Bites to you, Leonard:

Welcome Jamaica Layne

Hooray - we've got a new author to welcome to the lineup of Lust Bites: Jamaica Layne.

And she nearly died getting here ...

In now-traditional style we thought an interview was the best way to get the low-down, so here goes:

Tell us a bit about yourself, Jamaica!

I’ve been writing professionally for about 12 years, and wrote very unprofessionally (angst-ridden teen poetry, kiddie plays, etc) for basically my entire childhood and adolescence. I majored in English Literature in college and graduate school, and for a long time saw myself as a "serious" literary author writing dark, meandering work that nobody wanted to read. It wasn’t until I realized my writing talents are far more in line with popular fiction and playwriting that I began to find success.

Before trying my hand at novels, I worked as a professional editor and financial journalist in Chicago’s fast-paced LaSalle Street financial district, and also worked for a variety of software companies as a technical writer. I also worked as a freelance journalist on the side, writing lifestyle features for the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, New Art Examiner, Cat Fancy, and many other publications. I also am a successful playwright, having had my plays staged professionally all over the US and world (New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, Toronto, the rural UK, and elsewhere). I did all that writing under my own name, "Jill Elaine Hughes". When I took a stab at writing erotica, it was so different from all the writing I’d ever done in the past that I thought it best to create a pseudonym---another "brand", if you will. Hence, all my erotica writing is published under my alter ego, "Jamaica Layne."

So how did you pick your pseudonym?

I chose "Jamaica Layne" because I wanted to write erotica under a sexy "literary porn star" name. I chose Jamaica after the Caribbean island, with its sexy reggae music and tropical paradise, and Layne because I wanted to work the verb "lay" in somehow.

What have you had published in the erotica field? What’s coming out next?

Market for Love is the first erotic novel I had published, and it is due out from Virgin Cheek on October 14, 2008 in both the US and UK. I also recently signed contracts to produce six new erotic novels with Ravenous Romance, a very promising new US-based epublisher of erotica that was founded by several former publishing executives at large NYC publishing houses. I also have a new literary agent, Lori Perkins of the L. Perkins Agency (having fired my former one because he didn’t understand the erotica market). Ms. Perkins and her associates are working on getting several erotic and romantic manuscripts in my "backlist" published, and are also working with me to create proposals for future works. Right now, I have proposals out for an erotic memoir, as well as an erotic "police procedural" detective novel that involves a young Chicago female vice cop infiltrating a prostitution ring----and liking all the sex that undercover work exposes her to.

How and when did you start reading erotica?

I started reading erotica at a very young age----twelve or thirteen. My first foray into the genre was with D.H. Lawrence’s classic Lady Chatterly’s Lover, and it just went from there. My father and former stepmother were very into sex, sexuality, and free love, and they had bookshelves chock full of sex manuals, erotic coffeetable books, and erotic"trash" fiction (the "dirty books" of old-time porn shops) and I sneaked those books off their shelves and read them all voraciously. In college and after I became drawn to erotic "high literature"-----works by Anais Nin, Henry Miller, James Joyce, Catherine Millet, Margaret Atwood, and also to fantasy and science fiction with sexual elements----works by authors like Marion Zimmer Bradley and Anne McCaffrey, among others. I’ve also been a fan of the romance genre since high school, from the trashiest contemporary books all the way back to Jane Austen. When romance novels started getting sexier in the late 90s, I found them very tantalizing and read them by the busheful. But I never thought of taking a stab at writing erotica myself until fairly recently.

How did you get into writing erotica? You write in other genres too, don’t you – what do enjoy about each? Is the writing experience different?

I frankly started writing erotica because the novels I was writing in other genres that I enjoyed reading and writing the most (chick lit, contemporary straight romance, some fantasy and science fiction) just weren’t selling. I had an agent who liked my work a lot but didn’t know how to sell it, because the editors he sent it to kept rejecting it and saying it wasn’t "quite right" for regular romance or chick lit or genre work. Something was always missing, but we could never quite put a finger on what. I’d been reading erotica for awhile and on a whim, took a stab at writing it. I found that I really enjoyed creating complicated plots that were driven by sex scenes, and had a great time writing the sex scenes themselves. For the first time in a long while, I was really, really excited (mentally and physically) about what I was writing. But when I completed the manuscript for Market for Love my agent declined to represent it! (he said, "erotica isn’t for me.") I then proceeded to send it to Adam Nevill at Cheek on my own, and he bought it! Adam was very enthusiastic about my erotic writing and has become a mentor of sorts.

I asked my former agent to negotiate the contract for Market for Love, which he did, but I gradually came to the realization that if I was going to pursue erotic writing as a career, I needed new agent representation---preferably with an agent who understood the erotica genre well. That’s what led me to fire my old agent and seek out my new agent, Lori Perkins, who is arguably the top agent in the world for the erotica genre----she knows it in and out and has been selling it for years.

So I discovered I had a new talent! This erotic writing work of mine has really taken off, and seems to be the genre that I write best, because it’s certainly the work of mine that is selling the most----I’ve recently landed contracts for six books to be released over the next year, likely with more to come!

What are your favourite genres within erotica?

I like contemporaries the best, since that’s what I write the most of myself. I also like paranormal historicals, especially set in the Middle Ages and general timetravel plots. I write (and read) everything from general "vanilla" hetero sex scenes to ménage to moderate BDSM, always with the woman dominating. The novel I’m writing right now for Ravenous Romance, Knight Moves, is about a 21st-century New Jersey Turnpike worker who gets kidnapped by a time-travelling knight from the 12th century, where he makes her his personal sex slave in a huge harem he keeps trapped in his castle. But the heroine learns to make the best of a bad situation by becoming a much-in-demand dominatrix, and uses her newfound power to both have a lot of hot sex with a lot of hot sexy knights, as well as to free herself from servitude and return to her own time.

What are your writing rituals? Do you have a special time of day or place to write?

I try to write every day, which is tricky sometimes because I am the mother of a toddler. My husband and I recently bought a new home, which has a huge third-floor "studio" of sorts where I’ll be writing, and also has plenty of room for a playroom where my son can occupy himself safely while I work. If I can write 1000-1500 words a day, I’m doing very well. Sometimes on good days I can surpass 2000 words. Now that I am under contract to write so many books in such a short time, I’ll probably need to up those targets.

What's the person or thing that inspires you most?

I’m inspired the most by my inner storyteller. I have an almost pathological drive to write, and that drives me more than anything external from myself.

Who do you read purely for fun?

Graphic novels and comic books, especially Elfquest. I’ve loved that comic since childhood. And it was one of the first comics/graphic novel series to depict explicit sex in a positive way. I also love the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith, as well as anything else that piques my fancy. I kind of go in phases. I’m in a Nora Roberts phase right now. I’m also a big fan of Sara Gruen, who I know personally through some writing orgs I belong to.

What are you working on at the moment?

In addition to the Knight Moves novel and the proposals I mentioned above, I’m also developing a series for Ravenous Romance called Vital Signs. This will be a series of five books all taking place in and around a small community hospital in rural North Carolina. The first book is complete and will be released by Ravenous in serial form beginning December 1. The series will release new chapters every week, much like a television series. I can best describe Vital Signs as a much sexier version of Gray’s Anatomy, except it’s located in rural America instead of Seattle.

What is your relationship with the wonderful world of blogging? Are you keen on techie web stuff?

I do a lot of blogging. I have a blog under my own name, where I write about my place in the publishing world as well as life in general. I also do a little blogging as Jamaica Layne on her myspace page. I’m not a super techie but I think I need to work on that, now that I have so many books coming out, I will need a more sophisticated Web presence. I plan to contribute to Lust Bites at least once a month.

Is there any erotic theme you haven't yet written about but feel you want to?

I haven’t written a straight lesbian erotica story (though I’ve written books with one-off "experimental" w-w love scenes). A playwright friend of mine is editing a lesbian erotica anthology for Cleis Press right now and asked me to contribute something, so if I can find the time around all my other deadlines, I will write one for her book.

What makes you angry?

Social injustice, lying, and bad government policy (which we’ve had a lot of in the US over the past eight years!)

What makes you happy?

Writing, being with my husband and son, exercise, and reading.

If you were somehow to meet your romantic/erotic hero ... What would happen?

I would probably drop dead of a heart attack from too many orgasms.

Cats or dogs? Werewolves or vampires? White wine or red? Tea or coffee?

I prefer cats to dogs, werewolves to vampires. Red wine, and green tea. I hate coffee.

Thanks Jamaica, and welcome aboard!

Myspace (as Jamaica) : Blog (as Jill) : buy at Amazon US : buy at Amazon UK

Coming Attractions

Interview: on Monday, A new Lustie with the fabulous pseudonym Jamaica Layne, bravely submits to a barrage of questions. Find out all about the writer behind the book-with-the-sexy-cover-of-which-Kristina-and-Mathilda-would-approve, Market for Love.

Crush: on Wednesday, Madeline Moore waxes poetic on writer/singer/ladies man/monk Leonard Cohen. Just in time for his 74th birthday, too!

Commentary: on Friday, Kate Pearce tackles the topical issue of male/male sex in an erotic romance.

Yes, it's another informative and entertaining week on Lust Bites, the blog on everybody's lips.

On Patrol with Erotica Cover Watch

I’m Kristina Lloyd and I’m a hornymanoholic. My friend, Mathilde Madden, suffers from the same problem.

You wouldn’t believe some of the places we have to hang out to get a fix. It makes us feel weird and freakishly oversexed.

Imagine our plight: another late night of smut writing and we decide to take, um, a break from the words. So we google, say, ‘stud muffin’ or ‘david boreanaz naked’ or ‘army boy gang bang in a warehouse after they have all got in from the mud and are really really angry’.

And where do we end up? Yup, gawping at gay porn.

Many of us have heard the phrase ‘I’m a gay man trapped in a woman’s body’. It’s understandable where the confusion arises but what this assertion actually means is ‘I’m an ordinary woman living in a world which refuses to accept I love sex and frequently have the horn for men.’ Mainstream depictions of sexiness often bypass female desire entirely because they bypass the jaw-dropping, mouth-drying, knee-weakening sexiness of guys. Typically, sexiness equals curves, breasts, hips, lips and knickers. If you’re a straight woman and you want unashamed muscle and some sexiness your way, then you must make like a minority and go to gayland. Why, when women are over half the population? This surely ain’t fair.

It’s much the same in bookshops (although obviously there is a lot less cock) with sexy gay fiction being where it's at. Mathilde and I read and write smut. This gets us hot. But the covers of erotica leave us cold and frustrated. They feature near naked women and are aimed primarily at straight men.

Sure, if you’re a bi woman, you might like the picture too but presumably you’d be equally happy with a gorgeous guy. And it’s odd, isn’t it – suspicious even – that on erotica covers, the only aspects of female bisexuality represented are the ones that heterosexual men get off on quite majorly? How jolly convenient! Because the fact is the preponderance of the female form in erotica isn't an act of generosity towards women who like women, anymore than the plethora of hot-honeys-go-pussy-crazy porn is about lesbian consumer choice. It's just a side effect of what straight men like.


So Mathilde and I have been wondering why there are practically no men on erotica covers. And we realise it’s simple: as everyone knows, if a straight man looks at another man in an arena that could be construed as sexual, his penis falls off dead! And since nobody wants bookstore owners to be continually having to sweep up the penises in the erotica section (it’s bad enough there as it is), they put the hot-hunk covers out of harm’s way, in places where no self-respecting straight man would go ie. in gay fiction and erotic romance.


Erotica and erotic romance are different beasts (though both are making two backs). Erotic romance, as you probably know, is a smutty offshoot of the traditional romance genre. Broadly speaking, the narrative is driven by the development of potentially loving and long term relationship between a him and a her (with occasional twists, extras, spankings and even lashings of lube). Sex, or the hunger for it, is a hot horny part of that burgeoning relationship, and of other hook-ups the protagonist may have before she snags her main man.

In erotica, lust has the upper hand. Love may or may not be present but the story is driven primarily by sexual desire, often kinky, and the quest for its fulfilment. Of course, that doesn’t mean erotica lacks emotion, passion or empathetic characters. Negotiating the journey to sexual completion can be incredibly fraught, joyous, intense, and intellectually and emotionally-involving. Love and lust are both deeply profound and complex subjects.

Remember that old chestnut, ‘Girls use sex to get love; guys use love to get sex’? Sometimes it seems we’re still stuck there: erotic romance prioritises love therefore it’s for women; erotica prioritises lust therefore it’s for men.

The book covers say as much with their images of hot hunks on erotic romance, images of hot babes on erotica. The message seems to be it’s only legit for women to look at a bit of brawn with the safety net of love, sunsets and a happy ever after. Sure, these things are fine. That’s what romance is about. But haven’t we had enough of the notion that women only like sex with hearts, bows and violins? That we can only fuck with one eye on our future prospects? That lust is strictly for the boys and that women can’t go gooey over a beautiful male body sans sunset?

Why are there rarely any men on the covers of erotica? Why does the genre insist on fetishising only the female form?

The question becomes increasingly pressing when you look at the phenomenal growth in the numbers of women writing and consuming erotica. Erotica’s readership has changed hugely in recent years but the covers are still languishing in the past. They appeal directly to men while fobbing women off with the notion that they can identify with the half-dressed object of many a man’s desire. And if you don’t identify, then what? You can fuck off back to romance where you belong? Keep on trespassing on gay porn?

Hey! We’re women, we’re here! We like to look and lust just as much as guys do. And we reckon the objects of our desire ought to be getting a lot more cover space. We want more sexy guys in erotica, more muscles, more couples - more equality, goddammit!

Sure, some women like looking at other women and we’re not knocking that. But how come that's all we’re allowed to look at? What about those of us who are (oh God, the shame) straight? What can we feast our eyes on?

So Mathilde and I are launching our campaign to Banish Inequality on Covers in Erotica, Porn and Smut (BICEPS)! Please check out our brand new blog, Erotica Cover Watch. On Erotica Cover Watch, we’ll be highlighting the problem of erotica’s persistent sexism by bringing you regular doses of cover-snark, rigorous debate, rage, laughter, hope and dirty filthy photos of hot handsome men in teeny tiny pants. We really hope you’ll add your voice.

Head on over there now to have your say. Vote in our big BICEPS poll!

And if you want to beef up your blog, add this gobbledegook to your sidebar:

<p align=center><a href="http://eroticacoverwatch.wordpress.com/"> <img class="aligncenter" src="http://i391.photobucket.com/albums/oo359/biceps_photos/biceps%20branding/Banish.jpg" border="0"></a></p>

and you'll get this lovely link:

It’s easy for us all – readers, writers, editors, publishers, booksellers – to feel as if our hands are tied (cue bondage joke), as if we can’t affect the status quo because its values are too ingrained in our cultural psyche.

But we can change this. Bit by bit we can all have an impact. We can get rid of those weary ideas that erotica services only men, that women are objects to be looked at while those we lust after enjoy the power and privilege of looking. In content, erotica is increasingly wonderful. It’s imaginative, varied, arousing, stylish and daring, and it’s no longer the preserve of The Boys’ Club. It really is time the covers caught up.

Let's Banish Inequality on Covers in Erotica, Porn and Smut!