The Love Scene by Angela Crook

 

 

 

Love is in the air. How do you feel about writing sex scenes in crime fiction?

 

As I sit here writing this blog, exactly one week ahead of Loveapalooza, aka Valentine Day, the lyrics from “The Love Scene,” an R&B classic, by the criminally underrated singer, Joe, is running through my mind on repeat.  “Let’s make a love scene,” he croons. Pleading with some lucky lady as he stares into the camera, sex beaming from his eyes. By the end of the song, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that most of his fans, (overwhelmingly female) are already bobbing their heads, wondering how do I sign up?

That’s the goal, right? When we sit down to write our characters into the bedroom, or any number of other places, we want the reader to come away feeling something of a little tingle. For me, this is one of the hardest jobs in writing. You would think that it wouldn’t be too much of an issue as a writer of dark thrillers, but oh, how wrong you would be.

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My debut novel, Hurt Mountain, tackled some of the darkest topics in writing –a serial killer, kidnapping, and children in danger. It was a lot, but the heart of the novel was the love story between my main characters, Olivia and Brandon, and their journey back to each other. So, yeah, sex had to happen.

In this instance, the sex was of the closed-door, fade-to-black variety, where we know sex has happened, but we get no details. Maybe that’s somewhat of a cheat, but for crime fiction, I like it that way. Mostly, because I want the visceral reaction to be saved for the crime portion of the novel. Love is grand, but murder is where the excitement is, am I right?  

So, a complete opposite from when I’m writing women’s fiction. Then I want more. More tongues, more hands in places we need not talk about here, every detail displayed right on the page for the reader to gobble up. And walk away wanting love, or sex, or both. Having said that, I’m still not in any danger of encroaching on erotica territory. But I do alright.

One of my favorite Hurt Mountain scenes to write was the reunion scene when Brandon and Olivia come together for the first time after many years of separation. That moment when Olivia asks Brandon back into her bed was the culmination of a subtle, quiet courtship that started in the beginning chapters of the book, where they come face to face. Brandon reaches out to her in a moment of protection but has to curb his instinct to put his arm around her waist where it once used to live. That was the beginning of the love scene that carried on in drips throughout the book until it reached its climax. Judging by the reviews, readers loved it.

So, I guess there is no wrong way to go for me. I can do aggressive, or I can do demure, but if I listen to my agent, Paula Munier, and I do, the love scene is a necessity.

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