Nerys McCabe, Author
Genre: Contemporary Romance. Sweet With Heat Romance
Publishing Type: Self-Published
Latest Book: The One
Upcoming Book: Call This Love (WORKING title)
As a romance writer, I have choices to make on how steamy or sweet my book will be. There are definite preferences by readers about how much steam they want in their books. But what about the books that fall somewhere in the middle? Author Nerys McCabe started a conversation and a Facebook group about these types of books. She referred to them as “sweet with heat.” Below is our conversation about it.
As an author or a reader, where does your preference fall?
Jennifer Franz Griffith: How would you describe "sweet with heat" as a romance sub-genre?
Nerys McCabe: Sweet With Heat Romance is basically the space between clean and erotic romance, which is a huge area and one I felt needed to be defined more. There is still quite a lot of grey area but I wanted to create a subgenre that allows for a little steam (so mostly sweet with basic sexual descriptions) or a lot of steam (so still a sweet story but with more detailed sexual descriptions but it never crosses over into erotica.)
JFG: What is your goal with your Facebook group?
Nerys: The Facebook group is a place where authors and readers can discuss 'sweet with heat romance' and what they expect from it and what they want it to become. In a way, it is the foundation of the subgenre, where like-minded readers and writers are starting to define that subgenre. There have already been some great discussions on the subject.
The group came about because myself and a few other writers were frustrated with our novels being in this grey area between sweet and erotic. I feel the romance genre has swung heavily towards erotica, particularly with indie writers, and I found myself at one point almost apologising for my novel not being explicit enough. This is when I decided that we need to define this middle ground and try to create a subgenre so that readers know exactly what they are getting and the expectations are clear from the start. I don't want my readers to be disappointed if they were expecting more sex but I equally don't want to shock readers who thought they were picking up a clean read. It will also help writers define their books as when we are marketing and promoting we need to have a clearly defined subgenre - this way we all know what we're getting.
JFG: In your opinion, how far can an author take their characters and still be considered a clean romance?
Nerys: All the way, is the simple answer but it's HOW you take the characters there that makes it sweet, sweet with heat or erotica.
In my opinion, in a clean romance, everything is implied - they might still do the deed but it is done behind closed doors, the reader never gets to witness them having sex. In many clean romances, the story finishes before it even gets to the characters having sex.
In 'sweet with heat' you get a bit more. For example, in my novel, It's Just Sex...Isn't It? One girl makes another girl reach her climax but the language that is used is very different from an erotic scene. I think that is one of the main points to make: there is still sex in 'sweet with heat' but it is the language that is used that makes it different - it can still be 'hot' with loads of sexual tension without being erotically explicit.
JFG: When do you think romance crosses into erotica?
Nerys: Again, I believe this comes down to the language that the author uses. There are certain words that take a book into erotica that wouldn't be used in 'sweet with heat'. Some of the group members might disagree with me here (I do love a good debate) but I wouldn't use words like 'pussy', 'dick', or even 'fuck' in a sexual context in a sweet with heat story. The language used would be more subtle - e.g. "he gently guided himself inside her"
JFG: Have you ever written a graphic scene in your books?
Nerys: The most graphic scene I've written was probably the one I mentioned above in, It's Just Sex...Isn't It?, and again I think the level of 'heat' is really hard to define. Some readers have told me that scene was more 'fade to black' writing whereas others commented that it made them blush. The point for me is that it's all about the characters and how their relationship develops. If they are a couple who are only 'physically' attracted to one another then the descriptions will be more explicit but without using the language of erotic fiction. If a couple has got to know one another first, and the sexual tension has built up steadily, then the descriptions will reflect that relationship. The 'heat' in 'sweet with heat' will be more or less explicit depending on the characters and their relationship. So, I guess the truth is, I will never write erotica (even though I love to read it) but my characters will definitely be having sex - Any sex can be hot, it doesn't always have to have whips and nipple clamps to make it appealing :)
Anything else you would like to share?
I have also written a Short Story which is 'sweet' in the sense that there are no descriptions of the couple having sex but plenty of sexual tension and suggestive language. This, though, I would consider sweet and clean rather than 'sweet with heat romance'. I think we will be bottoming out this exciting sub-genre for a while as more readers and writers join us.
Join the Sweet with Heat Facebook Group!
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