S.W. Blayde's Blog

My latest novel, "Lonely War Widows," has been published. It's my first Historical Fiction novel. "The Breeder" took place in the 1880s, but it was a period piece, not a historical novel.

"Lonely War Widows" takes place during WWII through 1948. There are real people and events (hence the historical) but it's fiction.

It's by far the longest novel I've written. But that makes sense since it spans seven years.

I published a novel today titled "The Breeder." It takes place in the Old West in 1882, but it's not a Western. The time period was chosen because it needed to occur before artificial insemination came about.

The ASIN at Amazon is B08CSVXR58

At over 102,000 words, this novel is longer than my others, but there's no fluff. It took that many words to tell the story. This is the blurb:

Horse rancher Pete Wheelson is in love with Amanda, the schoolmarm in the 1880s Old West town of Lonesome Flats. When Pete proposes marriage, Amanda confesses her love for him, but tells him that she can't marry him because there's someone else. When Pete discovers who the other person is, his life is turned upside down. Pete's life is further complicated when he rescues a mother and daughter from a band of outlaws and falls for the daughter. Pete had always believed there were two kinds of women, the saloon prostitute and the wife, and that their views on sex were different. He learns how wrong he was.

As with other S.W. Blayde's novels, this one contains explicit sex. But it's not porn. The sex is necessary to tell the story, just as graphic violence is used in novels with violent plots. The story takes place in the 1880s Old West, but it's not a stereotypical Western.

I finished and published my new novel — "High School Massacre" — after more than a year of sweat and tears and joy. It's the second in the Lincoln Steele series and the longest novel I've written.

There's graphic sex in it, but as you can tell from the title and cover it's more a mystery/thriller than erotica.

It's available on Amazon in ebook. In the U.S., the direct link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07XGBLDM9

For other markets, simply go into your Amazon website and search on the ASIN, which is B07XGBLDM9

As I'm writing my latest novel, I had an epiphany. I'm definitely not a commercial author. I'll explain.

I write erotica (which I do not consider porn although prudish people would). I also write thrillers. My current work-in-progress is a mystery/thriller. But it's an erotic mystery/thriller because, well, I write erotica and it has explicit sex scenes.

So here's my dilemma. For those readers looking for erotica, it's not page after page of sex. For those readers seeking a mystery/thriller, they may find the explicit sex vulgar (an actual word used in an Amazon review of one of my novels). Isn't that a lose/lose for a commercial author? (That's rhetorical.) A commercial author would target one type of reader and write for them. I don't. I write what I believe makes a good story.

My first novel was rejected by a traditional publisher of Romantica (Erotic Romance) because the heroine committed adultery. That's a no-no in the romance genre. I discussed it with the publisher's editor who said their readers were typically housewives who were turned off by adultery. She wanted me to change the heroine from a wife to a fiancé (I guess it's not adultery if she's not married). I explained why it would hurt the story and she agreed so to preserve the integrity of the story I self-published it. I didn't buckle to the commercial rules back then and I don't intend to now.

I try to write a novel on par with a traditionally published one. I self-publish simply because the explicit sex is still not accepted by traditional publishers.

After writing the novel "Steele Justice," I really liked the Lincoln Steele character so I began another novel in the series. But after writing around 40,000 words, I got writer's block so I took a break and wrote another story with the character, a novella length one. The result is a novella I published today called "Death of a Hero."

It's available on Amazon KDP (ASIN = B07NZFB386). The Kindle Edition price reflects the shorter length. It's also available on Kindle Unlimited.

Now I need to get back to the one I put off and finish it.

I'm more of an introvert than an extrovert so blogging doesn't come natural to me. But here goes…

What's the difference between erotica and porn?

I once read a quote from someone who said something like: "Erotica is better written. Porn pays better."

I say it's in the eye of the reader. I consider my novels erotica; others might see them as porn. For many of the former, erotica arouses but the sex occurs behind closed doors.

I don't believe it's how graphic the sex is. I believe in plot and character development, and, in erotica, the sex scenes contribute to both. If they don't, and the sex is simply for the sex, to me that's porn.