Those types of scenes

A few days ago, someone asked whether my novel contained any love scenes.  Naturally the blood raced to my face straight away as I struggled to imagine a question more awkward. I already knew the answer, of course.  I had just finished the first draft of my book the day before.

Technically, a love scene may contain as little as a kiss, or simply the prospect of one.  In my opinion, a writer has the ability to pack more emotion and significance into a single scene of one embrace, as any other scene worth including. Some people (or characters) base an entire lifetime of anticipation on such a memory.

Take historical romances, for example, especially books set in the early nineteenth century.  You would be lucky to see a kiss unfold.  As a matter of fact, a wink and a smile may be all you’d find.  Nevertheless, there’s a lot to be said about the authors of these books and the emotional impact their books have on readers, written within the constraints of such polite affections.

Other examples may include inspirational novels and women’s fiction, where a kiss would be considered more-than-adequate.

But I doubt whether my friend’s question had the same meaning.

After all, contemporary romances contain varying degrees of detail what these scenes are concerned.  From some rather explicit category romances (which my novel is not) to mainstream romances, this matter is left entirely to the author’s discretion and preference, guided by the target audience of the book and what they expect.

So, in answer to the question at hand – You might just have to wait to find out.

Rest assured – if there are scenes of this nature in any book of mine, I’ll be cringing (ever so slightly) at the thought of you reading it.

But it is what it is.