Writing (Page 3)

After writing yesterday’s post, I decided I should probably go back through Fan Mail and adjust the level of kinkiness. While Mrs. Lion and I have a domestic discipline relationship, inserting spanking into an otherwise sexy romance novel seems like a poor idea. I have to admit that the story flows more smoothly without the somewhat-jarring episodes of male spanking. It isn’t so much that spanking is to blame. It’s more that there is a lot of context needed to establish the erotic value of the practice. The book is already loaded with sex. I think the spanking scenes, while very hot to me, are probably over the top.

Since the first 75 pages are pretty much all about sex, maybe that’s over the top too. I’m not going to change that. Part of my problem is that I find it much easier to write sex scenes than to advance the mystery plot. I’m not sure what that says about me. However, I’m hopeful that the vanilla, non-sexual activities will become easier to chronicle. Maybe it’s a good thing that not many people have read the book yet. It gives me a chance to take in feedback and make adjustments.

I find it difficult to write blog posts at the same time I’m editing or writing fiction. Maybe my synapses become overloaded trying to write two things at the same time. Anyway, I’m discovering that the process of writing fiction is something absolutely alien. I love it, but it’s a lot easier writing about the real world than creating one of my own. Anyway, I decided to let you know what was going on in terms of writing since nothing’s going on sexually right now. If you haven’t read my book yet, please do. If you have read it, please review it.

Nobody is reading my book. This isn’t helping my ego. The people I know who read it liked it. One of my Twitter friends bought it and read it. She’s a professional editor. She told me the book was “entertaining.” I loved that. The problem is probably the blurb on Amazon. I’m not very good at that. I tried advertising on Amazon. Apparently, I’m not selecting the right keywords. Sorry to whine. I knew it wouldn’t be easy. It’s just hard to write a second book when the first one isn’t being read.

I’m not writing about this because I want to whine and get sympathy. I would love to sell more books. The price for the digital book is only $2.99. I don’t think it’s too expensive to take the risk of reading it. However, there is something I’m worrying about: Are there too many sex scenes, especially kinky scenes that include the male protagonist being spanked by his partner? Would it be smarter to keep the sex to standard, straight sex? You know, vaginal and oral sex instead of spanking?

I don’t feel a moral imperative to spread the word about female domination. I like writing about it. The main plot of the book doesn’t need the spanking at all. The second book-in-progress has some lesbian sex in it. I’m seriously considering dropping it. Mrs. Lion likes the first book but hesitates to push it to her Facebook friends. Is it embarrassing to admit you read a book with spanking in it? Fifty Shades of Grey included female spanking. No one minds admitting to enjoying that book.

I’m thinking and writing about this because I want to write books that Mrs. Lion and her vanilla friends can read and recommend. If I remove the spanking scenes from Fan Mail, will it be safe to tell her friends about it? It isn’t that I need to promote F/m relationships. I’m in one, but I’m not evangelical about it. Obviously, if you are reading this blog, you have an interest in it. That’s fine. I’m pretty sure you don’t share this interest with friends and relatives.

If the book didn’t talk about male submission and spanking and kept the hot sex scenes, would you tell your friends about it? I want to sell books. What do you think?