The Man With the Golden Gun Meets the Glittery Hoo Ha

Rowena's post about the love scene and its close friend the sex scene has caused some interesting thoughts to rear their heads and stand to attention, as it were. The thoughts are actually more or less clean, although I can pretty much guarantee this post won't be, as the bishop said to the actress.

First, there's the matter of the Man With the Golden Gun, who is capable of changing the most determined woman's mind once she encounters his weaponry, and all the cliches and throbbing manhoods that go with it. One of the best ruminations I have ever seen on the matter of describing the male party of the upright part in a sex scene can be found at http://groups.google.com/group/alt.callahans/msg/647f523abd7581ee?dmode=source&hl=en&pli=1 (you may need to sign up to google groups to see this) - it's the notorious Sailor Jim post to alt.callahans: On the subject of penises If you value your keyboard and monitor, do not have anything in your mouth when you read this.

Then there's the Glittery Hoo Ha, the most potent weapon in the romance heroine's arsenal. As discussed here, the Glittery Hoo Ha is capable of capturing any man, no matter how golden his gun (and we won't go into the discomfort a golden gun would cause, especially once it got glitter all over it).

So what happens when the Man With the Golden Gun meets the Glittery Hoo Ha? Usually fireworks, flagpoles, occasional hard manhoods, and assorted other entertainments found in the more interesting romance novels.

But be warned... the GHH and MWtGG are not exclusive to romance. Fantasy and science fiction have been invaded by this strange subset of humanity, and glitter trails being diligently followed by golden guns can be found in any number of non-romance books.

Examples, anyone?

Love Scenes

I should explains that Tim Tams are Australian chocolate biscuits that have to be eaten to be believed.

I saw a line in a book that went something like this -- 'She thought it was about as likely as an orgasm on a one night stand!'

This was an urban fantasy, with a strong female protagonist, who obviously knew what she liked. Romances are comfortable exploring emotions.

We write books, ranging from fantasy, adventure, SF and through to mystery. But somewhere sometime, someone is going to fall in love. How comfortable are you writing love scenes?

How far do you go? Do you close the door after the first kiss? Are you uncomfortable going into detail?

I was on a festival panel when someone asked me what was the most moving love scene I had ever seen/read. It made me realise that the scene was from a movie set in 1890. She was a widow, he was a married man, with a cold wife. He didn't want to fall in love with her. There was a scene where they were in a carriage. He lifted her hand, peeled back her glove and touched his lips to the pulse of her wrist. It was powerful because of what wasn't said, or done.

What love scenes have you read/seen that moved you?