Menage and more...

Since recently "discovering" The Good, The Bad, and the Unread, I've been poking around in their archives (I'm STILL trying to figure out the trick to navigating that site!). It turns out they had a great discussion going on The Power of Three. Be sure to check out the links for reader's opinions and the authors link has various authors discussing the popularity of menages in today's erotic romance stories.

Now me? Menage scenes truly make my knees weak and I pant out loud. What's weird is that, in real life, I think it would be more than a bit overwhelming... probably... possibly. Now in my younger days? Who knows?! The opportunity never presented itself, but I probably would have been game to try it at least once!

But why is it such a complete turn-on to so many of us NOW? I guess that would also include the question of why do we like reading about uber alpha males when in real life, most of us would probably make them swallow their own balls... backwards... if they tried all that 24/7 macho attitude with us. Or the bodice rippers- would we really want to be forced in real life (I'm not talking about role-playing with our SOs)? Or the you-are-my-true-mate-and-you-are-coming-home-with-me-now-even-though-we've-just-met stories. In real life we'd scream bloody murder while running far and fast in the opposite direction of the delusional psycho.

I think it all plays into the fantasy of being overwhelmed and swept away. Of letting go of our control. Of giving control over to someone else and/or our passions. And, I believe it only SEEMS recently popular because it's only recently that the Romance industry has discovered that there are a whole lot of us out here that enjoy and will buy erotic romances.

Ellora's Cave, with Romantic Times magazine firmly behind them, changed the entire industry. Their success made everyone from publishers to agents to writers sit up and take notice. Ironically, I now read complaints that EC is too conservative and epublishers like Changeling, Loose-Id and Phaze are pushing the envelope for erotic romances. Mainstream press hasn't quite reached the level of these epublishers yet, but they are certainly far more open and encouraging (sometimes demanding) to authors that choose to write other than vanilla, euphamistic sex scenes.

Works for me!

Today's confections honor this great leap forward in Erotic Romance...

This pic is just freakin' HOT!! But it's the only "traditional" menage (is that an oxymoron?) pic I have...

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Not that the next two aren't triple layer desserts unto themselves...

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Well, I DID title this post "Menage and MORE"!

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Now, if you will excuse me, I see a menage-in-waiting...