Welcome back my literary friends!

Content warning - Do not continue reading if you are under the age of 18. Or if you are a friend, or family member of mine.

Today we are discussing the dark underbelly of the writing world - erotica. Perhaps that is being a tad melodramatic, but there are some who believe that erotica is basically porn. And in my opinion they’d be right.

What else is erotica if not porn in text format?

But what do you do as a writer, when the majority of your readers are people you know personally? People who enthusiastically call or text to tell you how much they loved your latest book?

Do you create a pseudonym because the new book you wrote would make your friends and family look sideways at you at Christmas lunch?

What about if there are themes similar to an ex-relationship, but the book is entirely fictitious?

Do you paste in the dedication; ‘Stephen, I can only wish this was a biographical account of our sex life’?

I digress. Perhaps that is a topic for consideration at a later date.

In my brief career as an author, I have come to learn a little about the world of erotica and the ‘spice index’ that we, as a society, measure romantic novels against. So, if you too, find yourself confused about what constitutes erotica, this is my Scoville Scale for the world of spicy writing!

Keeping in mind that readers and writers may have varying opinions depending on their perspective.

There you have it friends, my interpretation of the Spicy scale in erotic fiction. What do you think? Do you agree or did I lose you somewhere between ‘family friendly’ and ‘smut’?

x A