Photo | Edmund Dulac

I wanted my story to embrace a sense of reality. The characters then could experience everything necessary to tell their individual stories. I wanted no limitations for their development and that met no limitations upon their conscious actions.

Real people are that way too (though some do not feel this to be the case). Real People’s filters most the time keep them consistent in their actions. There are times, though, when even belief and society’s limits can not dictate a person’s next action. People are who they are. Human Beings are members of Nature’s creation. This is for the good and for the bad. Story characters should be that way too – embracing both who they think they are and ultimately who they really are. Actions speak louder than words…

Before I began to write my story seriously, I read a few books on the mechanics of writing. I had of course for years read books and had favorite authors. My present writing reflects that. An author friend even said my writing ‘sounds’ like it is from a different era, which does reflect upon each characters’ authenticity. Within this idea of allowing the characters to develop without limitation as the story unfolded, I knew sexuality would have to be included. Not all fantasy has sexuality in it. When fantasy does, it usually fades to black, so to speak, to allow innuendo along with reader imagination to take over. But I thought why spoil the fun for the character? Yes, reader imagination is very much involved, but this imagination can be directed into a sharing of the experience between the characters and the reader. Really, why does anyone read a book, but to become immersed in the story?

The painting above that I tagged to this blog entry is by a favorite painter of mine – Edgar Degas (was also labeled maybe by mistake Edmund Dulac). If you ever want to read about a normal life of an artist he is a wonderful example – without incidents of missing an ear, dying of syphilis or going mad. The painting is very sensual, but again as with most art with sexual reference, parts are discretely covered up and left to the imagination. As a side note, what is discouraging in most nude art is that genitals are rarely shown. Male genitals are even more scarce in paintings. We see male genitals referenced in present day museum art mainly as ancient statues of marble with very small genitals. Heaven forbid there be erect genitals shown to invoke the true meaning of a particular piece of artwork!

In my research into mythology, I found much sexuality and even erections portrayed in art works and written story traditions. I am thinking in synopsis here it is easy to say that the Western World did a fine job of censoring sex and genitals from society’s view – whether due to religious belief or fears of the public going mad with desire – as the motivation for such censorship.

When archaeologists dug up relics of the past – I always believed I would find “all” the evidence about ancient peoples and historic societies. But I found this is not true and definitely not a truth allowed for general public consumption. Examples abound as to the extent of censorship, both in the past and even now. Pompeii and Herculaneum were pleasure destinations for sex, food, entertainment and art. If you look this up you will find a lot on the volcano and destruction of Pompeii, but not many images or research into the copious numbers of images focused upon sexuality. It would be like going to the Notre Dame in Paris and ignoring that it is a religious cathedral. Another example are the hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt. In the hieroglyphs released to the general public are the images of interactions both in daily life and of the ancient deities. In reality, there were many images of erect phallus, penetration and the celebration of fertility depicted in both the temples and public buildings of ancient times. Another thing I found humorous is the story, that even in Washington, D.C., statues were forced to wear leaves over their exposed genitals for a time due to religious beliefs about the human body. Even George Washington had to cover his nipples, since these were deemed as too erotic!

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So why not erotica in fantasy?

I then read books about how to write erotica or at the least include it in the story as a normal part of the story-line.

Edo Van Belkom wrote a book about erotica in story writing, “Writing Erotica”. The main point I took away from what he said was that the story-line should “be able” to stand alone whether the erotic portions of the story are present or not. Unless of course the author is writing a story with the main focus on describing sexual acts, then it would not matter really about an in-depth plot. Edo Van Belkom spoke about character development giving points on  how to transition the character into what ever the character wanted or needed to do within their sexuality. He was very clear about this being from a stand point of sensibility, leaving off on destructive aspects of sexuality. I gained much insight into how to express / guide the reader into what the characters wanted to share with each other emotionally and physically – while leaving the rest to the reader to imagine and experience themselves.

To answer the question of why I want to write erotic fantasy is to have no limitations on the energy and the sharing of that energy among the characters that are created within the plot. Allowing the characters to explore what they had not noticed and felt before. I wanted the characters to have what they had longed for, when there had been barriers to expressing their devotion and love to another. I wanted their love to go beyond “hand holding”or “longing”, but be of flesh-n-blood. The type of bonding, which would hold up under the worst of conditions or when the ultimate sacrifice may be called upon to protect the one hid within the heart.

So I am not writing porn or erotica for the sake of writing about sex acts. Though like I had shared before it is only natural to find people using their self imposed filters from what ever (untested) source – say that I am obscene. Nope I am not. I just want to live life – and have my characters live their own lives too. Because it all boils down to – we are born alone – we die alone – and we have only but our selves to love and offer to others. Why not care for yourself, then offer this to others? Like a person told me – none of this will matter in a hundred years, for we will all be dead. The main point is kindness and love – we are ourselves and we are others. Some day we will see that – and it will be very important. Like the air we breath, the water we drink and the Earth we walk upon.