I was asked this recently: “In writing M/M or M/F erotica with obviously plenty of sex scenes, how do you keep the sex fresh, interesting, hot and varied??? Is this easy/difficult for you??? What kind of “tricks of the trade” do you have to employ?”

I liked answering so much, I thought I’d share here too.

I don’t really think about it in terms of tricks or anything. I think of it in terms of characters. Each person is unique and each couple is unique. I figure out pretty quickly what turns my characters on and why they’re attracted to the other. Then I use that. For me, that manages to always keep it fresh. To use the Heaven Sent boys as examples, Darien looks at sex from a different angle than Johnnie, and not just because he ends up being a bottom. He’d far prefer being caught than doing the stalking and we all know Johnnie much prefers the hunt. But even Darien and Tyler are different and they both started off het and got convinced that gay was the way to go. They think differently, so they act differently, so the sex is different. At least, that’s how I’ve always looked at it.

Even when it’s kind of the “same scene”–eg sex in a bed or in an alley–the circumstances are invariably different. Where were they before this? Have they slept together yet? Is this one of their first time? Is it day or night? Are there other people in the “house”? Even little things like is the bed made or is the window open can make a scene that’s pretty much the same as another into a unique thing.

Even in the few times that I did come up with the scene first–as in, “oh man, I want to write a scene using that toy!” (yes, it’s happened)–I immediately think of what kind of person would want to use the thing. What happened to give them the kink? Or was it a new thing that just kind of landed in their lap? Is their chosen partner for or against? Expecting it or surprised? Again, it goes back to the characters where all I said above applies.