Slightly Off the Mark

• Fri, 00:34: RT @dtcav: from @MarkRHunter #Indiana #Winters, or: Why Aren’t We Living in Florida? https://t.co/9RMjeSsOMV #humoroutcasts

I keep forgetting to warn people about my newest novel: There is sex in Radio Red.

That warning might seem unnecessary: After all, it's a romance novel, even if I prefer to call it a romantic comedy just to be more specific. But romance writing has diversified quite a bit over the years: Some is heavy with the sexy stuff, some "sweet" with no sex at all. They're humorous, tragic, Christian, gothic, Amish, and every sub-genre imaginable. (Sometimes it's even written by men.) All of mine have some degree of mystery in them, but "romantic-comedy-mystery" was a bit too clunky. So being in the romance genre doesn't mean it has to fit expected conventions.

My first romantic comedy, Storm Chaser, had one brief almost-sex scene in it, kind of a second base thing. Its sequel, The Notorious Ian Grant, had no sex at all, which is kind of strange considering Ian is a celebrity bad boy. My other fiction, The No-Campfire Girls, is a young adult novel, and I am not going to tackle sex in a book about teenage girls. Nor is there any sex in my Storm Chaser related short story collection, although in the final story a person could jump to that conclusion.

On the other side, none of our non-fiction books have anything to do with sex. Maybe they'd sell better if I added some ... hm ... I'd like to announce that my next book will be Sex in Indiana.

Anyway, some of my readers might not like to read sex scenes, so I thought I should throw in the warning. Who knows? Maybe it'll attract new readers. But it fit with the characters and the story, which for me is the important part.

What do you think about sex? I mean, in fiction?

My interview with Eric Olson will be up on WPTA, ABC21, tonight at 5:35 p.m. -- then it will go up online Monday, if all goes well. That's for Fort Wayne viewers, of course.