{"id":751,"date":"2009-11-07T17:00:24","date_gmt":"2009-11-08T01:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/?p=751"},"modified":"2009-11-07T17:00:24","modified_gmt":"2009-11-08T01:00:24","slug":"cocktoberfest-suspension-of-disbelief-interrupted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/cocktoberfest-suspension-of-disbelief-interrupted\/","title":{"rendered":"Cocktoberfest: Suspension of Disbelief, Interrupted"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi guys! Ashlyn Kane here guest-blogging for my gracious host, EM Lynley. Happy Cocktoberfest, everybody! Have a sausage!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

[Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win an e-book version of Bethany Brown & Ashlyn Kane’s new novel Wild Angels<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sort of new to this whole \u201cgetting paid to write about hot men having sex with each other\u201d thing, but it\u2019s pretty much the coolest job in the world. Well, getting paid to watch<\/em> would actually be pretty awesome too, but anyway. I love my job, but sometimes\u2014don\u2019t tell anyone\u2014I have problems writing The Sex.<\/p>\n

As pretentious as it is to say it, as authors, we\u2019ve got a duty to the story that we\u2019re telling to tell it right, not to sugarcoat it, to give the characters a fair shake (tee hee). But as writers of erotic romance<\/em>, well, let\u2019s just say we\u2019ve got a responsibility to the readers, as well, and readers like a steamy sex scene. At least, that\u2019s my <\/em>experience as a reader!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where the conflict comes in. On the one hand, my duty to the story and characters says I gotta tell it like it is. On the other hand, as a reader and people-pleaser (pun fully intended), I want to write marathon sex scenes, dagnabbit! So when the characters are nervous, or inexperienced, or tired, or lazy, or, say, a little over-stimulated, what\u2019s a girl to do?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s my <\/em>job to satisfy the reader, not the characters\u2019. Of course, that leads to a different problem\u2014as they say, diff\u2019rent strokes for diff\u2019rent folks. I know that for myself, as a reader, while I do love the fantasy sex\u2014going for hours, unlimited erections, Tyrannosaurus Pricks and liters of bodily fluids (ok, maybe not that last one)\u2014there\u2019s a point where I take a step back and say, \u2018Really? It was that big<\/em>? Yeah, right.\u2019 Not to mention that I\u2019ve read more than a few titles that I felt were more about the sex than about the characters, and as much as I love me some hot man-on-man action, I do actually usually read for the plot! So what the readers <\/em>want isn\u2019t always <\/em>different from what the characters need.<\/p>\n

But where is the line? Is there even one? How can I weigh artistic integrity against my implicit promise to get the reader off? It should be no contest, right? The author\u2019s first duty\u2014which totally trumps \u2018job\u2019 on the obligation scale\u2014is to the story. Of course, we can\u2019t be authors if people don\u2019t like our work, and everyone knows we\u2019re feedback whores.<\/p>\n

So speaking of\u2014I gotta know. What\u2019s too much fantasy for you guys to swallow?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Ashlyn Kane is a geeky 24-year-old with a sweet tooth and a sharp tongue. You can buy her work, including Wild Angels<\/em>, the newest collaboration with Bethany Brown, from Dreamspinner Press here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi guys! Ashlyn Kane here guest-blogging for my gracious host, EM Lynley. Happy Cocktoberfest, everybody! Have a sausage! [Leave a comment on this post for a chance to win an e-book version of Bethany Brown & Ashlyn Kane’s new novel Wild Angels] I\u2019m sort of new to this whole \u201cgetting paid to write about hot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52],"tags":[103,918],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-event","tag-cocktoberfest","tag-guest-posting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pzLgx-c7","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/751\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.emlynley.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}