Sorry I’m so late today Kelly, due to circumstances beyond my control I was unavoidably detained and.. Well, let me tell you a story.

Picture it, a peaceful suburban setting, dogs barking in the distance and not a cloud in the sky.  Yours truly cranked up her air conditioning so she could brew up a sweet but satisfying blog about sex vs plot.  But by gosh if I’m going to talk about heated hard muscled male flesh pressing soft willing female parts without sweating too much myself and perhaps blowing a head gasket or something equally important I might wish to use later after thinking about said parts, I need my air conditioning! So, I cranked it up shivering appreciatively then as I typed the words Bring on the beefcake. everything went dark.

My first thought was Did my silly husband pay our electric bill? followed by If not, he’s going to pay dearly! Then, as I sat in the dark staring at the monitor a much more frightening thought came to me. What if my love of PWP–Plot What Plot?  *winks* had brought the wrath of  some great electricity sucking demon down upon my head?

Contrary to popular belief, I do not live in Hell, but it is hot here and the minute my  AC went off the temperature skyrocketed. I’m a woman of a certain age who is all too dependent on her air conditioning. I don’t know how the Hormonal Hatties of old did it, but I can tell you, I’m not going through my flashing years without the mod cons like freon and fans that’s for sure. 

The second my husband hit the door I told him to take me out. Not to an fine eatery, no, I made him take me to our local grocery store which had electricity where I reveled in the wicked decadence that is the freezer section.   I stayed there until he called home and found out our lights were safely back on once more.  I would like to add that our teenaged daughter works at this store, so I got to torment her in air conditioned luxury. Double my pleasure, double her pain.    

Now, as for sex vs story vs sales, I personally think that people want an escape from their own lives with the kids, the car, the crappy job, the one spouse, dog and/or cat etc.  This is why people read, or why I do and what they want is a story that is totally different from their own lives. I know that can be a pirate and a princess, or a vampire and a countess or werewolf meets girl, I love all of those.  However,  people are beginning to want all of these as well as  more thrills, more chills, more action–by action, yes I mean sex. 

Look at the movies and television, both are much more sexually and violently graphic than they were twenty, ten or even five years ago. Think about what people want today. Biggie Size me! Super Size! Extra Value!  More More More! Is it any wonder that’s being transferred to books too? If (the reader) is shelling out 7.99 or heck, these days $15.00 or more for that book, maybe they want to make sure they get more bang(ing) for their buck, right? 

Society as a whole is changing whether for  better or worse writers and consequently their books are going to have to change to reflect that or get left in the dust. E-books seemed to have made this leap easier as they seem to be the teenagers of the book world. I think this metaphor is a good one because e-books have so much growing to do, and so many growing pains behind them and oh so many to come.  So, sex vs story? I don’t really care, just give me good sex and give me a good story, as long as I don’t miss either one in the novel, you’ve done a bang up job.