sexuality in art

image from Canstock

In a world as divided on sexuality as ours is, any writer or even artist will have to decide whether they express sexuality in their work or avoid the issue. It is possible to write books with no sexuality at all or with just the implication some might be there. Think back to the days of Gunsmoke when Marshal Dillon had a girlfriend who ran a bar and maybe a bordello but did anything ever go on between them? You could imagine what you pleased. A writer of romances or any genre, except erotica, has that option.

Once the writer has written the book and a sexual relationship is there, then the question of covers arises. Famous writers, who sell books on their reputations, don't need anything to tell the potential reader what will be inside. For those not so well-known, a cover is part of what alerts the reader to what they will find and this benefits reader and writer (writers do not want disappointed readers).

How readers see covers has been an education for me. For some, a sweet cover with a man's shirt buttoned to the neck would be better. And that is probably true-- if the book is a sweet romance with no sex, but when someone writes what I do, I think a cover should depict the energy of the book. My sex scenes are not graphic, but they are there.

In the culture in which I live, nudity is suspect (especially male)-- even if it's just the guy's chest. Violence is fine but absolutely no bare skin of desirable parts (and a man and woman both have desirable chests). I ran into this zeitgeist with my painting and sculpture. I got past personally worrying about it with both.

Besides doing sculptures of nudes of both sexes, I also painted women and men without clothing (some more discretely than others). I did it when I felt it better told the story-- and I always felt my fantasy paintings or sculptures of people told a story often ambiguous but nevertheless a story.

Currently I don't sculpt or paint mainly due to time constraints and also with sculpture, it takes up a lot of space in the house. I don't sell the work nor do I hang the nudes here or in our Tucson house because I know that kind of art offends some people.

A story that goes along with it involves my going into an art gallery and seeing a clay bas-relief of man and woman that I liked. As I discussed it with the owner, she said a mother had come into her gallery with two sons, saw a nude male sculpture, and expressed her offense as she took them right back outside. These were boys. Shouldn't they know already how nude men look? This thinking regarding nudity-- partial or otherwise-- goes way back in our culture and not apt to change soon.

So by the time I got to putting my books out, I knew sex would be a public issue. I took time to think about it, as who likes to have people think poorly of them? It took me awhile to decide how much sex would be in the published books. 

What I decided is we need more depictions of healthy sexuality-- the steamy, consensual, responsible kind, which is not abusive nor manipulative. I am not trying to write about sex as it always is but as it can be. I also don't write about casual encounters, but that doesn't necessarily mean married. When the sex occurs, it's when it naturally would for these two people. It also does not solve all their problems as if by magic. It is part of a whole relationship-- not all of it.

This year I had brought out a series of asexual novellas-- fantasy western contemporary. When I decided to put them together in one book, I added back in the sexual encounters I had glossed over and only suggested before. I frankly liked the book better. It felt more complete. I then pulled the novellas as I didn't want to confuse readers. They get all three in the book but they also get the whole enchilada for each of the three couples.

Where it comes to reading someone else's books, I don't buy them based on sweet or spicy. I buy based on wanting a certain type of story. If there is too much sex in a book, dragging on and on, I'll skip those scenes. I also don't mind if there is none. It's not a factor to me. What is a factor is responsible behavior in hero and heroine. If it's not there, I will toss a book into the garbage, and if it's an eBook, it's getting deleted.

Since my stories do have sexuality in them, my covers show that. I don't put out covers hoping they will sell a book-- although I do take into account what readers enjoy in a cover.  Creating covers is recreation for me and changing them once in awhile, even leaving behind a cover I liked for something new, is a nice break from writing. Every cover out there on my books is one I like-- yes, including all those bare chested, hunky guys ;).

covers covers everywhere and not a ... never mind

I know. I know. I've written about this all before; but this business of book covers is still mystifying me. As I get closer to putting out the first historical, I'd like to have all historical covers have a similar look. It seems more important for them than it did for my contemporaries. I thought I had it figured out as basically I had already created all of them... That's always good for a -- wait 'til you see this idea.

Along came reading criticisms of using too many images of Jimmy Thomas-- who puts out a lot of the images that are on indie romance covers (two of mine and more would be on the historicals). He is on them because he looks like the heroes and he provides reasonably priced, creative images with emotional impact and artistically framed. Why is it that bad to see him on so many covers? Was it okay for Clark Gable to play more than one hero? Ryan Gosling? on the other hand-- is it bad to see him on all of them? Well was it okay to see Clark Gable play a lot of heroes which he wasn't? It's called-- use your imagination.

Anyway I wrestled with the subject of covers in the middle of the other night, and it dawned on me that for about six months, one of my books, Second Chance, had been without a person on the cover, had been a little artier, AND hadn't sold a single book during that time. Was the problem that the cover moved away from the romance genre? I got lots of compliments on it... except compliments don't sell books.

Now an owl on the cover was very apropos for what the book is about. Second Chance takes two characters from an earlier book, Moon Dust, and brings them together in a romance set eight years later. The hero runs a wildlife rehabilitation center. So an owl on the cover is a winner, right?

Wrong apparently. It didn't tell enough of what the book was about. If you write sci-fi, your cover has to depict it. I wasn't writing a non-fiction book about wildlife rehab centers even though I did have some of my own experiences with them in the book. It was a romance. It was about a young man who had done all he could to rehabilitate himself from early mistakes. It was about a woman who was dealing with a broken marriage and raising a daughter with an ex husband at odds over how to do that. Second chances all around.

So I went back to its original cover. Basically it's more true to the story probably as this is a guy, 28, who works as a short haul truck drive to support his real love-- the rehab center as it gets its feet under it. He is a hunk. Will the cover stay this way? Maybe and maybe not. It is one plus with writing ePublished books. It's up to me.

The middle of the night when I told Farm Boss what I was thinking, after we both had awakened at the wrong time, he said, you really are a disturbed woman to have something like this fretting you in the middle of the night. I said, no, I was a lucky woman that I have something that excites and interests me this much at my age-- and that I can do something about.

More coming up on covers-- and this time about the book that really has never sold much. The following video is for Second Chance.

finding inspiration from nature

Often, my own writing inspires ideas for this blog. Although I'll be researching/tweaking/editing, I am finished with another rough draft and for a bit might have to depend on my own life for topics-- do I have an 'own life' right now? 

In order to be sure I still did, Sunday I was out at Finley, a nature preserve about twenty miles or so from our place. The birds were in high excitement with thousands of geese flying, landing and taking off. I don't know but many may be on their way north. What an exciting season.

In Finley, there are some regular residents. To just sit and listen to all the birds, to watch for the one moment something happens, that's why it's wonderful to go to such natural sites. And why it's so important they remain available for wild and migrating birds. It is a creative space that inspires me every time I am there.

The sounds of hundreds of birds landing and lifting off from the water, their wings beating the surface as they call cannot be duplicated. It has to be experienced. It must be thrilling for them also as they act together on some unheard (by us) signal.

We took quite a few videos and can't say any totally told the story of what it's like to be there. The following link is to a piece of that feeling: 

March 31 at Finley 

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November at the Oregon Coast

A week-end at the Oregon Coast with the family where we experienced pretty near every kind of weather possible for a coastal late fall. It was a good time with the grandkids, kids, and for thinking. As usual, I took a ton of photos. The quiet time without my computer was something I needed.  I returned to the farm feeling  inspired about life, beauty and possibilities. The Coast, in all its moods, is always rejuvenating to me.

Excerpt from Sky Daughter

Seeking peace in Idaho's mountains, Maggie first shoots a stranger, then saves his life. She's pulled into danger, passion, occult secrets; a world where no one is who she thought.

Once in awhile, experts suggest it's good to put out an excerpt as a way to give readers a taste of your writing. All of my books on Kindle offer the first chapter as such a sample, but I thought it'd be fun to pick a scene to stand alone.  I can't say it's a favorite. I like them all, but it's one I particularly relate to and think readers here might also.

In this simple scene from Sky Daughter more is revealed as to who Maggie is, what she is learning about the life she has chosen and who her grandmother had been. That it's about gardening is a bonus.

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In the kitchen, Maggie picked up the flats of plants she had optimistically grown from seed. The first little plants had gone outside too soon and had their leaves blackened by a late frost, but she could protect these no longer. Most likely the deer would eat them before they got settled in, but she would give them a chance, a moment in the sun.

  Planting was part of the heritage of her grandmother. The urge to continue the cycle of growth, of planting and sowing ran strongly through her veins. After so much loss, so many aborted opportunities and lives, she had a need to see life reach fruition.

  Working in the sun-warmed soil, Maggie put everything from her mind except weeding carefully around the lavender plants, loosening the soil by the rosemary. She hummed as she worked, then came words about planting and releasing to grow. As quickly as the words came to her, they were gone. She sighed. The song would’ve never satisfied her managers anyway.

   She dug a hole for one of the marigolds, threw in a bit of fertilizer and then tamped the soil back around the tender plant. Planting meant a belief in the future, a desire for improving the present, and a reaching back to the past. It encompassed all of life to sow it with the hope of someday reaping.

   She sat in the garden when she had finished, feeling the warmth of the sun on her skin, the coolness of the soil beneath her knees. Why were tears running down her cheeks?

   Maggie girl. The words seemed almost real. She closed her eyes as she again heard her grandmother’s voice, seemingly could almost smell the blend of soap and the fragrance of herbs that was so much a part of every memory she had about her. She could feel the touch of that precious hand on her shoulder, soothing and giving her subtle energy. God, she missed that woman. She remembered her grandmother’s tall form as she would walk across the mountain, calling to Maggie and taking her with her into the woods, teaching her about the woods plants, which ones healed, which ones could be used for a fever, which ones poisoned.

   When had she forgotten the names, forgotten those words? She had been taught so much and it seemed it was all gone. She remembered one of the many conversations.

   ‘Dream, Sky Daughter, dream of the future and of all that will be.’

   ‘Grandma, I don’t remember my dreams.’

   ‘You must try harder. Dreams are the spirits speaking to you. They are your power.’

    ‘Mama says they’re not.’

    ‘Your mama had to follow her path and you must follow yours. They are not the same.’

   ‘How do you know?’

   ‘I know and you will too when the time comes.’

   ‘How?’

   Her grandmother just smiled. ‘You will.’

   ‘You could tell me now.’

   ‘No one should tell another their path, Sky Daughter, but someday you will know yours.’

   Maggie felt tears running down her cheeks and wiped the back of her hands across her eyes, to brush them away. “I miss you so. I thought you’d be here to teach me, to always tell me. Why did you have to go?”

   A hummingbird buzzed her, warning her off from the area, letting her know she was intruding on protected ground. Somewhere nearby was probably its nest. It was operating by instinct as she had found herself doing with Reuben.

  She looked toward the forest. She tried to force a change in reality, to go back in time, to see those, who had gone, come walking toward her. They would be laughing and talking about how much fun they would have had on a picnic at the falls. Her childish voice would be raised in excitement as it had been in those days of feeling so protected and loved.

  She waited, but all she could hear was the sound of a raven calling from higher up the mountain, the angry scream of a hawk, and the soothing tweets of smaller birds in nearby bushes. Never again would her loved ones be with her, and she had to face that reality.

Sky Daughter, a paranormal romance based in Idaho, is available at Amazon Kindle