just me

Although all of my stories have a HEA or HFN, I was wrong in my above definition and stand corrected. I was always told a romance had to have an HEA or HFN. I talked with several high in authority and learned this is not true. Romances have a wide variety of definition. ONLY Harlequin requires HEA and HFN. Not all romances require these endings. Some require a sacrifice on either the Hero’s or Heroine’s behalf for the other.

Look at Gone with the Wind. It was a romance and there is no HEA or HFN, yet it is listed as one of the greatest.

The dictionary describes a Romance as the following:

· A love affair, especially a brief and intense one.

· Sexual love, especially when the other person or the relationship is idealized or when it is exciting and intense.

· A spirit or feeling of adventure, excitement, the potential for heroic achievement, and the exotic.

· A fascination or enthusiasm for something, especially of an uncritical or inexplicable kind.

· A novel, movie, or play with a love story as its main theme.

· Love stories considered as a genre.

· A story of the adventures of chivalrous heroes written in verse or prose in a vernacular language in the Middle Ages.

· A fictional narrative dealing with exciting and extravagant adventures.

Such means any book fitting one of the above qualifies as a romance.

How erotic something is, word/action/scene/etc, varies with the mind involved therefore Erotic varies with the perspective of the viewer

(none of this is meant as offensive for it is the opinion of this author when her teen asked what she thought each meant)

Romance	focus on story with possible sex – hinted terminology/just past purple prose – subtle sensuality – fade to black at bedroom door/love is real – story can stand without sex/sex cannot stand without story – love & romance mandatory – happily ever after/happy for now mandatory
Sensual Romance	focus on story with sex as occasional encounter – subdued terminology – tame sensuality – enter bedroom/witness lovemaking – story can stand without sex/sex cannot stand without story – love & romance mandatory – happily ever after/happy for now mandatory
Erotic Romance	focus on story with sex as bonus – proper terminology/slang – hard sensuality – sit on bed/unadulterated lovemaking/occasional sex – story can stand without sex/sex cannot stand without story – love & romance mandatory – happily ever after/happy for now mandatory
Erotica	series of sexual encounters – blatant terminology/slang – brazen sensuality – join in/total lust – story cannot stand without sex/sex can stand without story – love & romance not needed/often not likely – happily ever after/happy for now often not likely

When it comes to character spoken or thought words, it's been said by a well-known author that a marine will talk one way while a knight will speak differently. The same goes for noble lady or female bounty hunter. Would you believe a marine would refer to his male part as a purple helmeted soldier, a one-eyed worm or a lance? No. We all know what they call that male part. How about a knight referring to his deflowering rod? He certainly wouldn't call it a lance, but he wouldn’t call it what a marine would either. The marine might say the F word, but the knight never would.

When it comes to written, not character speech or thought, then the used words are because less than a year ago readers demanded romance authors get out of the dark ages, away from the purple prose and stop being shy since they were adults and preferred to hear the correct term or its slang over the clinical or flowery words.

Erotica is not defined by the words used, but that it is sex for the sake of sex in a series of encounters. If you can skip the sex and still have a story you are most likely not reading erotica, but a romance—be it sweet, sensual or erotic, it is romance, especially if it has a HEA/HFW and a strong plot.

I hope this helps clear up much of the misunderstanding because if you ask around, erotica is commonly misunderstood and is often confused with sensual and even more often, erotic romance. There is a difference. Some will tell you the plot and sex cannot be divided no matter what. This is not true. In sweet, sensual and erotic romance, the plot is strong and can stand and the story does work with or without the sex scenes whereas in erotica the plot is far weaker and most likely will not stand without the sex. The key to determining erotica verses erotic romance, or any form of romance thereof, is love, romance and HEA/HFN are mandatory for any romance, but seldom occur in erotica. That standard has never changed. Nor will it.

What I post to the loops are two pg-13 excerpts because some groups are not in the adult category and do not wish to run the risks incurred by being in said category. Besides, I have no wish to upset a reader with my words. My posts to all my groups reveal the full genre listing, title, story introduction, hero description, heroine description, release date, complete title—which is also the purchase link, small graphic of cover, all review scores (even a 1.5 for one book), blurb, tag line and two excerpts. One shows contrast between the H/H while the second shows tenderness between the H/H. My publisher's site shows a hot excerpt and my site shows a forth excerpt. Just above that excerpt is a sexual content warning of the involved sex (straight, oral, etc). At the bottom of that excerpt is a link to the the first 5-10% of the story. In there, you will find another sexual warning that may or may not reveal a sex scene in which case you will see the words I use. If I have to go back and add specifics on what words I use, I can because I do my own webpage and updates, but there are authors out there who cannot because the cost of a webmaster averages $75.00 an hour.

In all honesty, just how erotic one one my stories is depends on the person reading it. Just as reviews will vary from reviewer to reviewer, so will eroticism vary with reader to reader. For example, A Cry in the Night.

My publisher, editor and I agreed it was 3 flames because the things it takes to be a 4 or 5 flames on my publisher's site is not in my story.

Ecartaromance gave the story a sensuality rating of sultry (couldn't find that rating chart, but it's there somewhere).

Two Lips put the story between "just a slap and tickle" to "wild as a naked game of twister" and they have one rating above that.

Night Owl Romance warned of explicit sex scenes, but didn't give a heat level.

Whipped Cream never gave a heat rating nor said anything about it being such.

JERR called it hot (3 out 4 on a heat scale).

Just how hot is it? Well, I have a sister who said it burned her fingers, another who said she loved it and a friend who said it was a good read, but wondered where the heat was. LOL From one end of the scale to the other, a book's heat and eroticism level is going to be different from reader to reader.

So tell me, do readers want the list of words I use in a story? Now, by the token wouldn't it be fair to the story for you to know in what context it was used?

The F word. Personally, there's a difference between the marine who stubbed his toe and snarled the F word under his breath and the knight who says he wants to F the heroine. The executive who wants to F his secretary and the bartender who wants to F the waitress. BTW, the exec is a cheating SOB and the bartender's been married to the same waitress he wants to bang for 25 years and she likes when he talks dirty.

The P word. Again, the marine who called the villain a P verses the street bum talking to the kitten.

As I've said before, use of certain words do not constitute erotica. It is the story within the covers. Love, romance and strong plot combined to tell a story that can stand without the sex scenes that ends with a HEA/HFN is a romance. No matter the words used. I mean honestly, if you were the heroine, wouldn't you make love with the hero? I would so why leave it out of the book when the characters lead that way. :)

Come now, do we authors control the characters? Ha! Guess again. Authors commonly lay out a plot only to have the characters scramble it. Ask the authors you purchase from how many of them write out a plot and stick to it without the characters wreaking havoc on their brain?

Mainstream	reflecting the norm, typical, conventional, middle of the road
Contemporary	existing, modern in style, present life, everyday life
Mystery	a whodunit, an unsolved puzzle
Humor	funny
Adventure	exciting experience, bold undertaking, a quest
Historical	existing or happening in the past, yesterday
Fantasy	imagination, dream, a castle in the sky, dragons, elves, magic
Futuristic	ahead of the times, tomorrow
Paranormal	scientifically impossible to explain, weres, vamps