taste_is_sweet | The next obvious direction to take my literary career after the dinosaur porn.

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The next obvious direction to take my literary career after the dinosaur porn.

While poking around the multitude of online publishers, I came across this website. Astrea Press specializes in books that don't have sex. As in none. Whatsoever. (They refer to it as showing 'pink parts', which is kind of cute.) Personally, I love this idea. After years of fanfiction and slash, the idea of not having to write about bumping uglies is pretty cool. Unfortunately, they don't take novels with too much violence in them either. Which disqualifies pretty much anything I've ever written, ever.

BUT! They're not the only publishing house out there that specializes in these kind of romances. Even Elora's Cave, known for its erotica, has a 'Sweet' line called Blush. And then of course there's 'Inspirational' romance. Harlequin is very well known for this genre, which has way less pink--not even tongues--and way more God.

**"Come back to the church, Sarah. Or I'll eat you."**

And that, O best-beloveds, is when I realized that I'd hit a completely untapped genre, combining two of the hottest trends in publishing right now: Dinosaur Erotica and Inspirational Romance.

Isn't that beautiful? I can see you getting misty-eyed with joy already.

(The photos I used are: Two Amish Girls by Sharee Basinger, Raptor by Yinan Chen, Pretty Church by Terrence Hatch, and Rural Field by Larisa Koshkina. They can be found Here, Here, Here, and Here. At Public Domain Pictures.net.)

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Hah! That's utterly brilliant! Except, you know, dinosaurs didn't exist because of the whole creation in 7 days thing...

You remind me, I read a standard het romance today while hemorrhaging my bank account to buy new tires for the car. I plan to write about it soon because I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what the *point* of it was...

More to come on that later. But the 'sweet' romance line has a big following! Obviously, however, I'm doing it all wrong.

Actually, dinosaurs were created on the sixth day. Just check out the Creation Museum.

I always do my best to adhere to historical accuracy, yo.

;)

I'm sorry about your tires! Another unneeded pain in the ass, eh? But I'm curious about the het book you read. I bought three 'sweet romances' myself yesterday (one YA and two New Adult, which is a term I still need to look up). So far I loathed the first and am likely going to hate the second, though that's really because the blurb gave no indication of its premise whatsoever, and so far it's another version of The Island. (Which in turn apparently ripped off a 1979 movie called Parts: The Clonus Horror, so it's a rip-off of a rip-off.) Besides that, I've only read three het YA/NA novels so far, and the all-consuming nature of the love part of the story has already gotten old. So far, it doesn't seem to matter what else is going on; the only thing that the protagonists really care about is how losing their not-even boyfriends/girlfriends ruined their life. And apparently het YA romance writers have a thing for boys with green eyes. Which is LOL. At least they're not all called Gabriel or Jake. But now I think I need to buy a DSP YA novel to see if they're different.

But tl;dr: I want to find out your thoughts about the novel you read. :) If you could drop me an email/comment/im/tweet/whatever when you post it, I'd be much appreciative. :D

I have to confess, I am not interested in most YA fiction. I read and enjoyed the Harry Potter series, but for the most part, I'm just not interested in the lives of teenagers, which is probably why I haven't fallen in love with the Teen Wolf fandom like most of my friends. :-)

The het book I read started out with the usual device--opening scene at a wedding where the two men duke it out for the woman they love. The book then flips to a year earlier in which the woman and her then fiance 'take a break' so that he can figure himself out. Problem is, we never know who he is to begin with before he starts acting like a major idiot. It's a small town, so everyone blames the woman for 'ruining' this great and wonderful man. This great and wonderful man we've never met--we only see the drunken lout. She meets the new man in town, who is painted as a good guy but with weird quirks that make you realize he is not the one for her, and has a fling with him. That's as far as I've gotten, TBH.

The book started out being about so much more. About the problems of small town life and everyone knowing your business. About living out patterns of expectation and not knowing who you are or what you really want out of life. Of being afraid to have dreams. I thought these areas, mentioned in passing, would be explored in more detail but so far it is just more of the same: one character acting like a lout (really unforgivable in certain circumstances) and the woman mooning over both the men in her life.

If they hadn't established so firmly that all the woman really wants is to marry and have babies, the truly great ending for this story would be for her to realize she doesn't need any man in her life. But the author has arranged circumstances so that the woman is homeless and her job is threatened (by the loutish boyfriend's behavior endangering one of her clients, no less), so I guess we're supposed to accept that marrying is an acceptable choice for her. I just have a hard time seeing how someone can be all set to marry one person (whom they've loved FOREVER) and then in less than a year, be on the verge of marrying someone else. (Another problem I had with the Rodney McKay/Katie Brown/Jennifer McKeller thing. It makes it look as though Rodney is in love with the idea of being in love rather than either of these women)

So yeah. Scratching my head on this one. Started another story last night and the male protagonist's behavior so far is deep into stalker territory. Why is it that people think this level of obsession is romantic? I should add here, that all the sex was pretty much fade to black as well--so we can't even say this is a story written for the excitement of the soft porn either!

When I read what is at the top of the bestseller lists at times, I realize I'm never going to have a story ranking up there. Because what the vast majority of people seem to want is not what I want to read or write. :-(

Edited 2013-10-14 12:54 (UTC)

You will love my YA novel when (hopefully, God; hopefully) it's published. ::Nods firmly:: And I promise there are no dinosaurs. Not even sexy ones.

Thank you for telling me about that book. It doesn't sound like something I would have chosen, personally. But then again I grew up so far out in the country that we had to drive to the nearest small town, so I've never had that experience. But I've always hated books set later than the Victorian era where the female protagonist's only goal is teh babeez.

(Though of course is the character is written well, and wanting to be a homemaker is presented as a personal choice as opposed to an inevitable result, I can buy it. Where I live at least half the women are or have been stay-at-home-moms, so books catering to them--providing it would--are less incongruous.)

But I really hate plots where we're told how awesome a character is and then never actually see that. And yeah, stalker does not equal the kind of guy you want to make your life with. How could anyone think so?

That's just it--it felt as though the author was tossing out the "all I want is marriage and babies" to justify the heroine's decision to marry someone else. It wasn't supported anywhere by the story itself. It was just a contrived plot device.

The male MC might have been awesome but when we meet him, he's telling his finance he needs the two of them to 'take a break' and yet he gets upset when she walks out leaving her ring on the desk. We are told they have weekly meetings to 'work things out' but we never see any of that. All we see is him turning into a mess because she left him. Gah. I can't even begin...

Yeah, that doesn't sound very appealing. It actually sounds like fanfic, in the sense of the writer relying on the audience to fill in all the blanks. Or maybe they're just relying on the audience having such love for the genre that they'd be willing to go for any premise, now matter how badly supported.

You, my dear, are having waaaaaaaay too much fun with these posts. LOL In the mean time, I'm reading your dragon McShep - which is totally romantic (in a very good way). <3 One and a half YEARS!!! I rest my case. *beams*

<333

John is nothing if not loyal. :D I'm really glad you're enjoying my fanfic, and thank you for letting me know.

And yes, I am having a hell of a good time with this. I think PSE was created to make ridiculous novel covers.

It gives me great joy to see you using your powers for evil. :D

Thank you. That means so much. ::g::

Pink parts Hee! Never ever heard it/them called that before. Bless. And your artwork? I'm still hiccupping *g*

Thank you. :D

Yeah. I have a vague recollection of hearing/reading 'Pink Parts' somewhere. It does sound very, I dunno, old South or something.

Of course, not everybody's parts are pink. Which would be a hilarious loophole.

I think I was happier not knowing there was a dinosaur erotica subgenre. I was looking at those titles on Amazon with great incredulity.

Only you would think to pair dinos with inspiration. LOL! That's why I love you. ::grins::

I love you too, baby. Like a friend loves another friend. ::cough::

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The next obvious direction to take my literary career after the dinosaur porn.

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::shakes head::

Re: ::shakes head::