Purple Passages

I am a (former) author, as some of you know!  If you've read any of my stories, you know that there were few—or actually no—purple passages in them.  Actually, I can remember a few; but they weren't that purple, really.

But I have mostly stopped writing, but I'm reading.  But when I see the word 'steamy' in the description of a story, I'm beginning to cringe.  Honestly, I've been turned off sex for more than a year, and as much as my active sex life has evaporated,  (which can be explained by a medical treatment I'm getting) my interest in reading sexy passages in fiction has also gone away. 

This is not a disaster, except that most writers feel obliged to have some degree of physical sex in the writing, which I mostly skip over.  I get the very strong impression that authors write this stuff reluctantly.  Furthermore, I think they crib these 'juicy bits' from each other, so much so that they all seem to look the same.  But don't worry; I'm not going to indulge in forensic reading.  As far as I'm concerned, the sex in WLW fiction is most definitely not the core of these stories, it is the emotional aspect of the sexual encounters when they happen. 

There is plenty to write about on this subject, namely the interplay between sex and emotion, and to what extent graphic sex interplays with it.  I don't think I'm the one to write about it.  But I ļike to write stories set in the nineties, where the US was just beginning to emerge from the old closeted world, and women and girls were being more courageous about expressing 'forbidden' love.  It certainly was a lot more romantic than it is today!

But the climax in many lesbian relationships was often punctuated with a physical encounter, a big emotional event, and often one or both of the girls were new to it, and that was part of what propelled them through into a different stage of their relationship.  Those are the stories I like best, and they're difficult to dig up. 

Well, regards to all of you, and here's hoping our semi quincentennial celebrations are satisfying, despite a green reflecting pool. 

Kay