Back from Romantic Times

Back from RT (okay almost 2 weeks now!), and hard at work on revisions for The Club, my upcoming book from Dell.
The Romantic Times conference was a terrific experience. I love meeting readers, and when they are thrilled to meet me, I am just so touched, astonished, and delighted. I’m glad to say I saw Colette and Kate Pearce at RT, and I loved Colette’s panel on the new directions for historicals. I think three members on the panel were writing erotic historicals, proving how popular the genre is.

I also had my picture taken with cover models Fabio and Adrian Paul, which was fun (I’ll be posting those on my website soon). The book signing was a blast—it’s always a little intimidating to be surrounded by hundreds of other authors. So it was a thrill to have so many readers stop by and pick up one or two of my books. And one of my favorite parts of the signings is the chance to chat with the authors around me. We’re in alphabetical order, so you get to meet authors who write completely different genres.

I was on an Erotica panel--writing first person point of view in sex scenes. Before the conference, I mulled over this for a long time. I’ve not actually been published in first person. All my books have been third person, with the heroine and the hero (or heroes) as narrators. But I began writing erotica in first person, with the narrator speaking directly and really intimately to the reader. I realized writing in first person helped me develop my voice.

I dug up one of my really early erotica manuscripts to take a look. It was intriguing to see how the first person point of view gave an strong element of mystery—after all the narrator (and reader) can only interpret the other character through action and dialogue. The readers never get to see in any other character’s heads, so they are as much in the dark as the narrator. Here’s an example:

"The screen sends blue light throughout the room; the undraped windows are black, blank. Jon's lying on the couch, wearing striped blue pajamas, and strangely, as much as I want to join him, I feel paralyzed. Reluctant to interrupt his privacy. And I decide to let him make the choice. I sit down on the carpet a few feet in front of him. If he chooses to, let him approach me. It never occurs to me that my action may set up a barrier—as though I don't want him to come to me. Watching the screen but not seeing it, I wait, enjoying the feeling that he is behind me, watching me.
After a while, I turn around. The couch is empty, he's gone."
—From "Brash", (a work in progress) © Sharon Page

It was terrific to be on the panel with such incredible authors—Cheyenne McCray, Angela Knight, Kimberley Kaye Terry (a fellow Aphrodisia Author). Author Barry Eisler was on our panel—it was cool to get the male point of view (and to see him blush now and again). And Renee Bernard was our great moderator.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you like your erotica—any preference for first person or third person point of view? Or do you like both? Do you feel erotic romance works just as well in both first and third person points of view?