Thursday, May 29, 2014

T-Man: Sex! (Sex?!)


Since posting this, I've removed my books from Amazon, and am moving them to Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press.  They're all pdf ebooks, all free, and always will be.

T-Man, my second novel, has sex in it.  Yes, sex.  So the questions I had to decide as an author were, should I include any (the answer was yes, but the question is still worthwhile), if so why, and how explicit?

Include?

Throwing in some sex might seem like a no-brainer, but that's not necessarily so.  I'll get to three reasons in the next section.  A fourth is pretty simple.  One person's oooo is another person's ewww.  You might find a sex scene pretty exciting.  Someone else might, too.  But will all your readers?  Because, if you gross some out, they are unlikely to ever read you again.

So it's not an idle question.

If So, Why?

In college I used to joke that I'd write a best-seller someday, with the title Gratuitous Sex.  (The sequel would be Obligatory Violence.)  Which, of course, sums up the issue: is there an actual reason to include sex, or is it purely gratuitous (i.e., thrown in just for notoriety/sales)?  And the way to approach that issue is:

  • Is the sex needed for the plot?
  • For the characterization?
  • Because readers expect it?
Is it needed for the plot?  In T-Man, the answer is yes (mostly).  I can't get into it too much here without spoiling the novel, but I wanted a mechanism for what makes him "T-Man" (he gets a reputation for being an investigator so good he's practically Telepathic Man).  The mechanism needed to be better than the old, tired, "There's a mutant strain in his make-up which it makes him different."  (That's an Alfred Bester reference, not bad grammar!)  (Okay, maybe it's both.)  The reason involved physical contact...and the most, um, thorough physical contact is sex.

So, basically, if the plot requires it, you include it.

Is it needed for the characterization?  This is a trickier question (and is "no" in the case of T-Man).  After all, you can establish a character as a woman-chaser or man-chaser without cutting to the chase, so to speak.  You can establish someone as a sadist without inducing violent nausea in readers, as well.  So including sex scenes for characterization is going to require some justification.

Do readers expect it?  In a modern romance novel, they pretty much do, so go for it.  That's what they're looking for.  Sex scenes are all...part of the service.  If, on the other hand, you're writing a biography of some general, maybe not.  Lord Wellington might have told a would-be blackmailer "Publish and be damned," but that doesn't mean the rest of us should.

How Explicit?

Now we come to the really difficult question.  There's several answers, I would say:
  • As explicit as readers expect
  • As explicit as you can pull off, and
  • As explicit as all your readers will enjoy.
If you write something more explicit than your readers expect, you're likely to put them off; I wanted a ____ story, not porn!  If you write something more explicit than you can manage as a writer, you'll be unconvincing, even awkward.  (I made T-Man somewhat explicit to begin with; it's always easier to delete later than add in after.  When I started doing revisions...I didn't think the explicit scenes really worked.  That stuff is trickier to write than you'd think.  So I toned them down a lot.)

Finally, you don't want to be more explicit than your readers will enjoy.  This gets back to the oooo vs. ewww question.  Whatever you write, you'd better like it yourself; but if you want it to be read, the readers' wishes are the ones that count.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

T-Man

Cover by Garrett W. Vance


His own mother hasn't been willing to look at him since he was five years old.  He and his twin sister have a connection that seems almost psychic.  He realizes that close physical contact can let him know what others are thinking as well.  His sister's different from most.  He's different.  But how?  And why?

He and his sister never knew their father, and their mother won't talk about the man.  What they first learn only deepens the mystery.  Could that have anything to do with how they're different?  Maybe.  But how?  And why?

They live in a more bureaucratic world.  Mandatory service.  Rules.  Licenses.  Their world is different.  Could the difference be connected with theirs?  Seems tenuous, but possible.  Is so...how?  And why?

Trooper McInnes finds his talents lend themselves well to soldiering.  Investigator McInnes becomes so good at detection that he gets a reputation for being practically telepathic.  But he has to overcome the doubts his mother unwittingly saddled him with.  He has to overcome the mystery that surrounds his and his sister's birth.  He has to overcome the obstacles the world puts in his way.

And he has to overcome the temptations that close physical contact can lead a young man into.

How will he make his way to adulthood?  How will he make his way in his world?  Find out, and find out why he's called—

T-Man

Note: He isn't called T-Man as short for transman, because he isn't one.  There is, however, a transwoman in the story, among other gender issues. 

Since posting this, I've removed my books from Amazon, and am moving them to Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press.  They're all pdf ebooks, all free, and always will be.