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About the Texas Vampires Series: A friend and I were talking about favorite places and favorite types of romances. We both love Texas and vampires and somehow the two came together all at once in a sentence. Once they did, I knew I had to write them! But they needed to be big, strong cowboys, the kind who'd saunter into a saloon wearing Stetsons, six guns and coats, dangerous beyond belief. Where the reader would always feel that their world was right next to her own and, if she turned her head fast enough or was lucky enough, she'd catch a glimpse of them.
Being Texans, they also needed to survive on the wide open frontier when there were less than 2 people per square mile - and that included men, women and children. It wasn't a time which allowed vampires to saunter down to the nearest back alley, grab a handy criminal, and drain him of blood to get a meal. To my surprise, it did match the old, pre-Industrial Revolution vampire legends, where vampires often look surprisingly like ordinary people.
Next in the Vampire Texas series:
Bond of Darkness: Hailed as “the master of erotic prose” (Booklist), Diane Whiteside has introduced a sensual new take on the legend of vampires. Now she brings us back to Texas for an exhilarating tale of uninhibited danger and desire…
Texas Ranger Stephanie “Steve” Reynolds is on the hunt for a serial killer who is stalking innocent women in the Lone Star State. The beautiful Ranger comes to suspect the unbelievable – that the killer is a vampire.
Steve knows all about vampiros, since she has a demon lover of her own. For the past several years, Ethan Templeton has been helping her on cases when he wasn’t sharing her bed. But Steve, craving mortal motherhood, refused to get serious about the handsome vampire. Especially after she saw him kill a man she’d just arrested…
Ethan loves Steve, but he thinks nothing can come of their passion. Even if he could convince her to share his immortal life, his vampire patron, Don Rafael Perez, would execute him for transforming her.
But when the killer menaces Steve, Ethan realizes he has no choice except to risk everything. Will Steve agree to join a man she’s called murderer—or will she refuse her one chance at eternal life, lust, and love?
About Diane Whiteside: Diane was born on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, blessed with showbiz parents, a successful author for a grandfather, and four centuries of family history on this side of the Atlantic. She first trod the straight and narrow path of number crunching, graduating from UCLA with a Bachelors in Economics, although she did sneak in seven years as a Hollywood bookkeeper. She worked for several major defense contractors, blossomed as a computer consultant where she specializes in very large databases, advanced technologies, and high-end architectures, and produced lots of speeches and papers on various technical subjects. She also earned a Masters in Information Systems and completed the course work for a PhD in Expert Databases, all at the cost of never seeing a live episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Highlander.
One day, her family=s rich oral tradition of storytelling and her years of visiting historical sites throughout the American West caught up with her when a story from Old Tombstone demanded to be retold for a modern audience. Having been compelled to put her pen to fiction, Diane now writes historical romance novels and romantic speculative fiction set across the American West, drawing upon her family=s stories for inspiration.
Noticing the need to keep Diane in line during her few spare minutes, her beloved Tibetan Terriers stepped up to the plate. They made sure that Diane did everything The Right Way, which meant lots of dog walks and plenty of treats.
www.DianeWhiteside.com
Captive Dreams, Cover Art by James Griffin
Safe Sex in Erotic Romance by Diane Whiteside
The lights are low, the music seductive. She smoothes her dress down, emphasizing the rich curves of her hips, as her eyes lower. He sits, transfixed by her beauty, aching to possess her, legs splayed wide as he watches every move.
An anticipatory smile teases her mouth and she blows him a kiss, then bends to her task. He shudders in hungry anticipation, his skin hot and tight.
She glances up at him from half-closed eyes. His breath stops.
Slowly – so slowly that his heart stutters – she begins to roll the translucent veil down over the taut flesh…
Question: Was this a description of a woman teasing her lover, by taking off her silk stocking? Or was she rolling a condom onto him? And just what does safe sex have to do with erotic romance, any way?
“Safe sex” (or “safer sex”) is usually defined as a set of practices defined to reduce the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases. This sounds boring, scary, and totally not erotic, even when it’s broadened to include contraception – in other words, reduce the chances of the heroine getting pregnant. No wonder many erotic romance authors consider safe sex to be a guaranteed killer for any erotic atmosphere.
But on the other hand, romance is about the relationship between people. (Yes, I do include vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and such as people!) Making a romance erotic means showing their sexuality – the good and the bad, the critical aspects and the minor details. If a hero protects the heroine from a deadly villain, shouldn’t he also want to protect her from getting pregnant too quickly, thus giving them time to savor their developing relationship? And wouldn’t the reader at least occasionally want to enjoy the details of how the hero and heroine make this fun for each other?
There are four basic ways in which an author can use safe sex in erotic romance: for characterization, for contraception, for protection against disease, and finally, as a device to center the entire plot around.
In Linda Howard’s OPEN SEASON, the heroine is a small-town librarian, a spinster, and taken for granted by everyone. Daisy decides she needs to spice things up, including getting a sex life. In order to tell everyone she’s now in the market for A Man, she goes to the local drug store at lunchtime and buys a huge box of condoms, just to cause the maximum amount of gossip. Those safe sex supplies aren’t bought to prevent disease or pregnancy: they’re purchased with perfect knowledge of small-town life, by a heroine determined to cause a furor without openly seeming to do so. It also advances the plot because the hero catches her doing it. Later on in the same book, the same box of condoms is used when Daisy and Jack are intimate for the first time. As is typical in love scenes from a heterosexual erotic romance, the contraception benefits of condoms are made explicit – in a very funny scene! – while the protection against disease aspects are not directly mentioned.
In my novel, THE SWITCH, the hero’s eighteen-year-old son gives his single father a box of condoms, knowing his father hasn’t dated in years. This twist on the usual invisible source provides characterization for both men, as well as a look into their relationship.
Robin Schone is justly famous for her erotic love scenes, full of historically accurate contraception information. My favorite is the finale in AWAKEN, MY LOVE, where the hero uses lemon juice in the heroine’s womb, while repeatedly ravishing her. Afterward, she lies back, a blissful smile on her face, thinking of all the wonderful euphemisms she can use for marital sex – lemon maids, lemon tarts – now that she’s learned this fabulous new aspect of lemons.
Or Susan Johnson’s dashing Regency bucks, who always seem to have a sponge and vinegar handy when it’s time to show the heroine just how erotic life can be. Hmmm, there’re some gentlemen I can build fantasies around?
For a hero’s view of safe sex, in my novel THE IRISH DEVIL, the hero grew up in 19th-century slums and is extremely wary of sexually-transmitted diseases. He has always used condoms, even with the heroine. He feels like a virgin on their wedding night, because it’s the first time he’s ever felt a woman’s intimate flesh skin-to-skin before.
In the GLBT (gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered) community, it’s now customary for editorial guidelines to require safe sex practices be shown in the stories. Backed by this mandate, authors of GLBT erotic romance use safe sex in a multitude of ways. In Stephanie Vaughn’s very hot gay erotic romance CROSSING THE LINE, the use of condoms and lube underlines the developing relationship between Jamie and Ryan. Early on, an al fresco dinner turns into a very heated love scene – but there are no condoms and lube anywhere around. An extremely frustrated Jamie finally forces himself not to go any further. The reader can feel just how difficult it is for him to go against every primal instinct to do so – and yet how desperately necessary it is to protect Ryan, whom he cares about so much, even when they’ve only just met. In the final, joyous love scene, they make impromptu love on the living room sofa, using the condom and lube sample Jamie has stashed there (as he did many other places), just in case the urge should strike.
Thus, safe sex in erotic romance can be an expression of both fun and extreme emotion, just like every other element in an erotic love scene. All you need is the romance and an author willing to tell those particular elements, whenever they help strengthen the story.
And now, excuse me please; I need to return to a certain man and woman.
Her neckline gaped as she leaned over, allowing him a view of her magnificent breasts. . .
About the Texas Vampires Series: A friend and I were talking about favorite places and favorite types of romances. We both love Texas and vampires and somehow the two came together all at once in a sentence. Once they did, I knew I had to write them! 
About Diane Whiteside: Diane was born on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood, blessed with showbiz parents, a successful author for a grandfather, and four centuries of family history on this side of the Atlantic. 
Safe Sex in Erotic Romance 
In Linda Howard’s OPEN SEASON, the heroine is a small-town librarian, a spinster, and taken for granted by everyone. Daisy decides she needs to spice things up, including getting a sex life. In order to tell everyone she’s now in the market for A Man, she goes to the local drug store at lunchtime and buys a huge box of condoms, just to cause the maximum amount of gossip. Those safe sex supplies aren’t bought to prevent disease or pregnancy: they’re purchased with perfect knowledge of small-town life, by a heroine determined to cause a furor without openly seeming to do so. It also advances the plot because the hero catches her doing it. 
In the GLBT (gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered) community, it’s now customary for editorial guidelines to require safe sex practices be shown in the stories. Backed by this mandate, authors of GLBT erotic romance use safe sex in a multitude of ways. 
Mutsuki is the young president of a family business; he is a good president, but his late father wanted him to be an evil president, and Mutsuki had sworn on his father death bed to maintain the promise. But now, ten years later, he is still a good boy, and every time he tries to do an evil deed, he chickens out. More, he also suddenly faints. One of this time he is rescued by Torii, a younger man, but with more confidence than Mutsuki. And when Mutsuki tries to seducing Torii to do an evil deed, he ends up seduced himself. 
Mutsuki is the young president of a family business; he is a good president, but his late father wanted him to be an evil president, and Mutsuki had sworn on his father death bed to maintain the promise. But now, ten years later, he is still a good boy, and every time he tries to do an evil deed, he chickens out. More, he also suddenly faints. One of this time he is rescued by Torii, a younger man, but with more confidence than Mutsuki. And when Mutsuki tries to seducing Torii to do an evil deed, he ends up seduced himself.