Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Author's Corner. Summer is winding down and things are heating up for me. I'm making final preparations for DragonCon and CopperCon, which are coming up the first two weeks of September.

I just received my program schedule from CopperCon and it's very interesting. Some of the topics I'll be moderating are "Should Critics be allowed to live?" "Are you sure you want to go there?" and "Romance vs. Erotica". There are four additional panels as well. This is a great chance for me to meet many of the fans in attendance, so I'm really looking forward to it. CopperCon is in Phoenix from September 9th to 11th.

DragonCon is the over Labor Day Weekend Atlanta and should be awesome. They have some very popular stars on their guest list again this year, notably Kevin Sorbo, Marina Sirtis and Gigi Edgely among others.

I'm still waiting anxiously for a response from one of two publishers regarding my new book, Eye of Icarus. Typically, they take 4-6 months to respond, so I could be waiting possibly as long as December. Meanwhile, I've been busy on the second book in the Space Frontiers series, Dangerous Liaisons. I'm dying to reveal details about both stories and the characters but I'd hate to do it too soon and leave everyone waiting too long for the books to be published.

I've received additional responses from producers and development executives expressing interest in the Fractured Time screenplay. One of them appears interested in all three screenplays and the TV series as well. These things seem to take forever to happen but that's the nature of the beast.

As you can tell, I'm learning to show a lot of patience. There's a lot involved in publishing books and taking a screenplay to a motion picture. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Meanwhile, I'll just keep on writing.

Regarding the Eye of Icarus, I have recently completed a screenplay for it. Because of the way it's written, there will be a second screenplay for it, entitled "Leviathan". I couldn't do a TV series with it and it broke into two halves quite well.

Based on many of the new science fiction movies I've seen on television, I really think my screenplays have a shot. There aren't many that really satisfy me as a science fiction viewer. I really believe they can fill a certain void that we all crave.

For this month's writers' tip, I'm going to talk about story content. One of the upcoming panels I'm doing is about romance versus erotica. I've had quite a few people ask me about how I handle scenes of sexual content. This is a delicate area that you as a writer need to think about carefully.

Romance can enhance your characters emotions and their relationships. It defines a character's role all the way through the story. Even if the role changes, there is a degree of impact on the reader as a result of that change. For instance, if a bratty, troublesome girl goes on to rob a bank it has minimal impact because she's already stereotyped. If she was a really good person and turned bad, that has a huge impact on the reader. Suddenly several questions come to mind: What happened? Is this the start of a new way of life for the character? What will the other character reactions be? Can she be saved?

Erotica presents more of a one time encounter. In most cases, not all, there is a lack of emotion and purpose to erotica. Some say it's a form of art. But what impact does it have on a story? It is a one shot deal that makes its mark and disappears. When would you use erotica in a story? That's up to the author. It can be used to draw a reaction in a story, perhaps to be thought provoking. But what does it contribute to a plot? Probably not much.

Just like any other issue, there's a gray area where certain scenes can be somewhat romantic and somewhat erotic. Where do you draw a line? That's what determines how to make your story better or take away from it.

In using romance, you don't have to provide specific detailed content. You can allude to a sexual encounter as a result of a romance and the readers' imaginations can fill in the actions based on their tastes.

If it's erotica (think art), you would need quite a bit of detail as to what is taking place. Beware - sometimes you can provide too much information or detail. You can also become offensive to your readers as well. In general, most people respond well to romance, while some won't respond well to erotica.

You can spice up a story with romance but don't bury it in erotica. Think of a movie that's moving along at a good pace and a sexual encounter comes up. The next five minutes of filming is dedicated to showing you every detail of that encounter. Now the movie rolls on. When it's over, you ask yourself, "Was that really necessary? Couldn't they have stopped after they got under the sheets?" The most common remark after this kind of scene is "The movie would have been fine without it."

I know some people enjoy this, but I think that a well-written scene can stimulate a reader's imagination enough to more than satisfy that person without having to spoon-feed each detail. These are just thoughts for you, as a writer, to consider. Thanks again for joining me.

- Michael D'Ambrosio

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