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Paranormal erotica, ick factors, and how much is too much?

Thread starter RosalieStanton
Start date Dec 29, 2010

RosalieStanton

Heathen

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Dec 29, 2010

#1

I have a few publications out, and while 3/5 are paranormal romances, I haven't become too boisterous with what I've attempted insofar as the erotic scenes. I've never seen anything like what I'm about to describe in any of the paranormals I've read, nor have I seen it discouraged at any of the submission guidelines. Yet my experience in fanfic has taught me that even in vampire stories, blood is a hot-topic .

In paranormal erotic romances that showcase vamps as the main creature-feature, is it a taboo to have the vamps go down on human females during "natures special time"? I've never written this before in any venue, but it's always been something I could understand from a vamp POV (not a human POV, that DOES squick me). However, in fandom (like True Blood/the 'Dead' series, or something) I've known fanfic writers who have received responses ranging from disgust to enthusiasm after writing such scenes.

Therefore, for professional publications, would this sort of thing be acceptable if the appropriate warnings are utilized?

Thanks!

scarletpeaches

Banned

Dec 29, 2010

#2

I've always wondered about this sort of scene.

(Also - hello you! Enjoying your nookie?

)

What do vampires do when their ladyloves are on the rag? Does it make them extra horny or--

I'll stop there, lest you think I have no class.

RosalieStanton

Heathen

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#3

Personally, I'd think vamps would be like those cartoon wolves who go "AAOOOOGAH!" and jump at the chance of getting some action during that time, which is kinda why I want to write it.

You have no less class than I. LOL.

Nookie arrived today after I requested UPS to send it to work rather than home. Can't wait to start playing with it.

Anne Lyle

Fantastic historian

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#4

I would be inclined to just write it first, and then look into markets. However, bear in mind that erotica submission guidelines often state "no bodily functions, e.g. golden showers" - which sounds to me like it could include menstrual blood. The fact that vampires are a special case probably doesn't get you off the hook!

scarletpeaches

Banned

Dec 29, 2010

#5

I'd never let a vampire go down on me when I was raggin'. He might bite my clit off and I'm rather attached to it.

VoireyLinger

Angel Wing Fetish

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#6

it's not my thing but i have read it... most notably, Anne Rice had Lestat eating out a menstruating nun in one book.

veinglory

volitare nequeo

Self-Ban

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#7

It may well be a bit much for many publishers depending on how it is written. It certainly was one of Anne Rice's more memorable scenes.

scarletpeaches

Banned

Dec 29, 2010

#8

Oh. My. God.

I am so glad I stopped at TVL now. Tried QotD, couldn't get into it.

Let's just pretend the whole series stopped and started with IwtV.

Anne Lyle

Fantastic historian

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#9

RosalieStanton said:
Personally, I'd think vamps would be like those cartoon wolves who go "AAOOOOGAH!" and jump at the chance of getting some action during that time, which is kinda why I want to write it.

At the risk of TMI, it's not just blood, though, is it? There's a lot of endometrial tissue involved, since that's the purpose of it. I can imagine it being considered a kink or "lifestyle choice" amongst vampires rather than a widespread preference, kind of like reverse vegetarianism

scarletpeaches

Banned

Dec 29, 2010

#10

You could sell used tampons as popsicles for the undead. And open a Subway Sanitary Towel sammich bar.

RosalieStanton

Heathen

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#11

Anne Lyle said:
"no bodily functions, e.g. golden showers" - which sounds to me like it could include menstrual blood. The fact that vampires are a special case probably doesn't get you off the hook!

Damn. I hadn't considered that. Good point, though, on both counts.

RosalieStanton

Heathen

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#12

Anne Lyle said:
At the risk of TMI, it's not just blood, though, is it? There's a lot of endometrial tissue involved, since that's the purpose of it. I can imagine it being considered a kink or "lifestyle choice" amongst vampires rather than a widespread preference, kind of like reverse vegetarianism

That's a good point, too. I suppose I was looking at it from the perspective of the first story I saw it in. The way it was done there didn't seem particularly controversial to me....but years later I saw a thread started about the same story with readers complaining about the scene in question. It had never bothered me, but I know it can be a major turn-off for some.

Last edited: Dec 29, 2010

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#13

RosalieStanton said:
Therefore, for professional publications, would this sort of thing be acceptable if the appropriate warnings are utilized?

There is the famous scene in one of Anne Rice's Lestat novels where Lestat, who will not take the blood of innocents, is kept alive by feeding on a friend's menstrual blood. For someone who can dismiss the ick factor (I've been married a long time and it was no problem), it's actually a very tender scene. The woman is one of those rare individuals who is always giving, and this is one more time she gives to save someone she loves.

A more famous squick/nonsquick occurs at the end of Grapes of Wrath, where, her own baby dead, Rosasharn breastfeeds a man dying of starvation. This caused huge controversy when the book was first published, especially since it is the last scene. Even today, some folks would take a dramamine before reading, but it is one of the most powerful scenes in the book.

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#14

Anne Lyle said:
At the risk of TMI, it's not just blood, though, is it? There's a lot of endometrial tissue involved, since that's the purpose of it.

A starving vamp doesn't get to make fine distinctions. If I was sufficiently hungry, I'd eat a lot worse than that to stay alive.

In fact, in 1987, I had a cup of coffee in Norwich, England, that would make menstrual blood seem like champagne.

RosalieStanton

Heathen

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#15

Steinbeck's a great example. I'm not as familiar with Anne Rice (she writes my genre, but I've never been able to get into her stories).

Thanks for the input.

scarletpeaches

Banned

Dec 29, 2010

#16

dangerousbill said:
A starving vamp doesn't get to make fine distinctions. If I was sufficiently hungry, I'd eat a lot worse than that to stay alive.

In fact, in 1987, I had a cup of coffee in Norwich, England, that would make menstrual blood seem like champagne.

You sick, sick fuck.

Anne Lyle

Fantastic historian

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#17

dangerousbill said:
A starving vamp doesn't get to make fine distinctions. If I was sufficiently hungry, I'd eat a lot worse than that to stay alive.

True - but the OP was talking about vamps enjoying it, not doing because starving.

dangerousbill said:
In fact, in 1987, I had a cup of coffee in Norwich, England, that would make menstrual blood seem like champagne.

Can't have been any worse than the tea at FantasyCon this year. Simultaneously weak and stewed. Bleeargh!

milly

seeing sparks

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#18

Philip Roth got away with his MC slurping up the menstrual blood of a young female lover in his literary novel "The Dying Animal"

it was ICK but it worked somehow...and no, the MC was no vampire

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#19

scarletpeaches said:
You sick, sick fuck.

A live sick, sick fuck.

Incidentally, I've had a 50 year relationship (courtship+marriage) with a beautiful woman. You can't go that long without the occasional oral insanguination mishap. Believe me, it just isn't that bad, especially when you're insane with lust at the time.

Compare with women who are expected to swallow a bucket of mucus containing 100s of millions of little wigglies on a regular basis. That squicks me.

OK, now who's the sick, sick fuck???

Still me? I can live with that.

scarletpeaches

Banned

Dec 29, 2010

#20

God, I'm just glad I'm way moar classier than any of you tampon-sucking sickos.

dangerousbill

Retired Illuminatus

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#21

Anne Lyle said:
Can't have been any worse than the tea at FantasyCon this year. Simultaneously weak and stewed. Bleeargh!

Okay. You forced it out of me. This is the whole sorry tale of the worlds worst cup of coffee:

This happened during a trip to England in 1987. We were staying at a B&B in Lowestoft, where a Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Fisheries laboratory is located. With our British colleagues, we were studying leakage of radioactivity from a reactor in northwest Wales. It was a two-week trip, and on the first Friday, we found ourselves with a weekend to kill. Our hosts suggested that we visit nearby Norwich, an ancient city in the center of East Anglia.

The only practical train to Norwich on Saturday left at 6:15 am, too early for our hosts to feed us, and as it turned out, too early to buy food at the station. The train took us very slowly to Norwich, and on arriving, we set out in search of food. Instead, we came upon the famous, and very old, Norwich Cathedral.

Kent immediately wanted to tour the Cathedral. Kent can survive for weeks on a bunch of celery, and his greatest fear is falling into a soda straw and drowning. He has no need for food, and never drinks coffee. I'm not so fortunate.

We toured the old church, inspecting tombs and effigies of dead Crusaders (1). There was bomb damage remaining from World War II, and a few historical exhibits. All the while, a headache started in the front of my head, grew slowly, and finally became a pounding agony.

I needed coffee.

I tore Kent away from the last of the tombstones he was memorizing, and we burst out into the sunshine and late morning air. The sun only made my headache worse.

Across the road was a row of up and down houses and shops, and a prominent, hand-lettered sign, "Teas".

"Kent," I said excitedly. "They'll probably have coffee, too."

"I'll watch," said Kent, who would leave filet mignon on his plate and eat the parsley.

We went down the steps to the dank pit, and pushed open a poorly fitting, heavily painted door. Inside was a tiny damp space with a little counter, lit by a half-watt bulb.

"Is anyone here?" I said, as desperation crept into my voice and the headache began to make my vision blur.

A little leprechaun stuck his head through a tiny door. "Can I help ye, Guv." (2)

"Do you have coffee? Please? Already made?"

"I'll have it in a tick, Guv."

He disappeared into the back. A moment later, I heard a dry grating noise. I recognized it from my years in Newfoundland. It was the sound made when scraping instant coffee from a jar, where the dampness had hardened it over the years.

Mr. Leprechaun stuck his little white head around the corner. "Will ye be having cream in that, Guv?"

"Please."

Now came a plop, plop, like a cow evacuating itself on a concrete floor. The smiling little man brought out a styrofoam cup and presented it to me. He was proud. I must have been his only customer of the day.

I looked in. Curds of soured cream floated on the surface, colored weak brown by the coffee. The smell of foul milk curled my nose.

But coffee is coffee. I pushed back the curds with my upper lip and gratefully drank. It tasted even more terrible than it looked, but in moments I could feel the caffeine easing its comfortable way into my nerve endings.

"That'll be 50 pee, Guv," he said.

I gave the man a pound coin. He took it in the back and did not return.

Out on the street, as my headache receded, Kent said, "Look at it this way. It's 50 P for the coffee, and 50 P for the story of the World's Worst Cup of Coffee. You can't buy that kind of tale. You can tell it over and over for the rest of your life."

And so I have.

Note 1: I have it on good authority that all of them are dead. War is hell.
Note 2: Yes, I know. 'Guv' is pure Cockney, and never heard outside London. Except this fellow.

RosalieStanton

Heathen

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#22

dangerousbill said:
Compare with women who are expected to swallow a bucket of mucus containing 100s of millions of little wigglies on a regular basis. That squicks me.

OK, now who's the sick, sick fuck???

Still me? I can live with that.

Who's hungry?

katsincommand

Writer, Not Quitter

VPXVI

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#23

:roll:

I was supposed to be revising my story over lunch, but this thread has been quite the entertainment, treading on things that could be uncomfortable for some... but sometimes things need to be said.

scarletpeaches

Banned

Dec 29, 2010

#24

How do you know your man's got a high sperm count?

You have to chew before you swallow!

*rimshot*

singsebastian

New kid, be gentle!

Super Member

Registered

Dec 29, 2010

#25

While I enjoy Anne Rice, I miss a lot of stuff she writes because the language is kinda vague for me. So I'll read something, think its something quite innocent - yes, I knew the sex happened - and then find out some very odd things. *lol*

Anyway - if its done tastefully.....than I don't see why not. If you have any questions you could just e-mail the Publisher and get a definite answer on 'bodily functions'.

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