ADULT WESTERNS

[David Whitehead]

I've just finished reading a TRAILSMAN western, the first adult western I've read for years. The thing that's always disappointed me about adult westerns is that quite often they have very strong, well-told and original stories, but then they have to go and spoil the effect by shoe-horning in highly improbable sex scenes, all of which leave this particular reader stone-cold. Now, I can understand why there might have been a demand for this kind of thing in the pre-Internet days of the late 1970s and early 1980s, but surely we've all matured a bit by now. If you want porn, it's out there by the bucket-load. Can't we just have good, straight action-adventure western series anymore?

[Nik Morton]

I agree and sympathise. (Interestingly, in an aside in my blogspot review of a book on writing the private eye novel, contributor Lawrence Block commented that he started off writing soft-core sex novels - and the experience taught him one thing at least - to keep the action coming (!)) I suspect that there's money in erotic/porno fiction - otherwise it wouldn't proliferate - so maybe some writers would rather go that route and get published rather than hammer at other deaf publishers' doors...
Nik/Ross Morton

[David Whitehead]

I'm happy to read sex scenes if they stem naturally from the story or the characters. Indeed, slow starter that I am, I wrote my own very first graphic sex scene just a few weeks ago. My only gripe here is that the sex scenes in adult westerns have that "cold, obligatory" feel to them. Few if any stem naturally from the plot and more often than not have the jarring effect of slowing down the action and reminding us that we are, after all, reading a "product", not a book. I also wonder what, in this day and age, when porn is so readily available through the Internet, makes publishers feel that they need to add it to these stories in order to "sell" them. The chances are good that the overwhelming majority of readers want to read about Longarm or Slocum or Skye Fargo because they enjoy westerns and everything that goes with them - the fights, the chases, the scenery, the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Take out the endless sex scenes and nine times out of ten you'd have a pretty good light, tight western.

[Mark Engebretson]

For me, I grew up on westerns and while, as a teenager, a little "hot" stuff would have been attractive, it wasn't there. My thoughts are that I will not compomise my integrity for a few dollars ... there's too much of that in this country as it is. I want my books to be available to whomever wants to read them ... and not be offended. The two are listed at www.spiritofthesnake.blogspot.com and www.thegoldenamulet.blogspot.com.