New group and sex scenes

There’s a new space for authors to tell Guardian readers about their new book. Here’s the link:-http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2012/sep/05/authors-tell-us-about-your-work?commentpage=1#end-of-comments

Galilee Chapel, Durham

In the spirit of try anything once, I’ve put a few words up about Reluctance. The site declares it has come about in response to the articles in the Guardian about reviews and sockpuppetry, and has just been set up. Perhaps there’ll be no tangible result as far as I’m concerned, but it’s an interesting move in a world full of e-groups. As I write, there are something like 250 entries on the site.

Someone on the Guardian pages is claiming that accepting a free book in order to write a review is bribery. I can see their point, but I feel it will annoy a lot of people. They also claim that publishers have paid for reviews for years – it’s just that we never knew about it. There may well be more on this topic in the next week or so.

Our writers meeting didn’t have anything like enough time to discuss writing sex scenes –we only just got started, commenting on how sex was written in days gone by when it was time to depart. Hardy, as everyone probably knows, had Tess go into a wood and come out pregnant without writing a word about making love. (Tess of the D'Urbevilles)

I don't think that would do with today's readers. Our host had a copy of the notorious 50 Shades (which I still haven’t read, though I enjoyed reading the husband’s take on things : http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/aug/31/fifty-shades-el-james-husband) and we wondered why the books have suddenly taken off (is there no phrase that suddenly seems like a double entendre?) as it has. Could it be that a generation has suddenly discovered erotic writing exists? Or because with Kindles they can be read in public with no one knowing?

After all, erotica been around as long as people have been reading and writing – check out the link for proof of that, should it be needed. But one wonders how people could have remained ignorant of it for so long. Perhaps the idea that reading has almost become a lost art has had something to do with it? And maybe – here’s a happy thought – maybe erotica will stimulate (Sorry!) those people in reading lots, lots more!