I was deeply engrossed in a novel last night, that had me alternating between giggles and having to fan myself from the heat, so naturally today I have s-e-x on the brain. I thought this would be a great time to take a look at Erotic Fiction, a genre that can range from fairly mild encounters to all out…well, everything.

I remember long ago (I was about 12 years old), finding a stash of paperback books that had the most outrageous content I had ever read. That’s not saying much, really, having most recently read things like Madeleine L’Engle and The Hardy Boys. But finding these stories full of engorged male parts and other scintillating elements was like pure gold during that delicate part of puberty. Since then, I’ve at times steered clear of erotic fiction and at others, embraced it for its forthrightness and steaminess.

Wiki refers to the Picaresque novel as a seemingly early version of the erotic story. Originating in 16th century Spain, the name ‘picaresque’ derives from the Spanish word for rogue or rascal. This is a good fit with the many historical romances that cross the fine line between innocent match making and all out fiery love making; there’s always a rogue involved, right? From there, the Picaresque branches out to many other categories, but it can clearly be detected in popular Regency fiction. Sarah Maclean, Lisa Kleypas, and Celeste Bradley are all examples with this type of character, in varying levels of, um, involvement.

And while, there seems to have been certain stigmas in the past about reading this hot topic (or at least being discovered reading it), I notice today, that more and more of us are branching out from our comfort zone and enjoying other forms of erotica, like Male/Male fiction or Lesbian stories. Tere Michaels and Sloan Parker both write male/male fiction, while Nicole Foster and Regina Perry are authors associated with Lesbian fiction.

Erotic Romance is described by the Romance Writers of America as involving the development of of a romantic relationship through sexual interaction. Without the ‘action’ in these stories, the tale can easily fall short in interest. Megan Hart and Maya Banks are just two examples of the many authors that write plot driven tales of erotica.

While it is easy to reduce these many facets to the simple idea of ‘sex’, erotic fiction can actually encompass topics such as orgies, homosexuality, sado-masochism, incest, or fetishes, to name a few. What they all have in common, is the intent to arouse the reader, and I think also to  break down barriers about certain stereotypes,  too.  The distinguishing factor of Erotic fiction from pornography (I know there will be all kinds of spam here now :-p) is that there are plot lines involved.

About Jackie

Jackie is a quirky mom, living in Ontario, Canada. She's a bookkeeper by day and a book lover by night. She also blogs at The Novel Nation and writes occasionally for Heroes and Heartbreakers.

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