Who can recommend good books to study for love scenes? I'm talking about simple "Kissing" scenes mostly, but also scenes involving "implied" sexual activity.

Everything that I write in this area comes out incredibly cliche. Like the: "She melted in his arms" crap.

Suggestions are welcome.

Michael Stackpole has some very well done love scenes, although he might go a bit more in depth than you want. His DragonCrown series has the best examples I think.

"She melted in his arms" I love that phrase. I makes me think of the poor hero holding an armfull of bloody tallow.

A lot of John Grisham fictional law based books have random bits of sex in them. IE there is a song that ends by the couple making babies, and i do believe that is the wording <They practice making babies earlier in the book>, Grisham has a rape scene in the beginning of one of them, because it plays out for murder later, and therefore its a big part of the story. Grisham can get pretty nasty.

As far as kiss scenes go.... i can't think of any just now, ill get back to you.

I try to make them interesting, no cliche stuff. I get a bit florid in the prose, but I make it an odd situation. I've written a few so far, including a trans-species lesbian kiss, one which is a wager on kissing ability, and one where a character rushes to the doctor afterwards thinking that a giant brain tumor is the only explanation for why she would kiss *him*.

War of the Flowers by Tad Williams has some fairly good kissing/love scenes. It is a stand alone novel with a modern day Hero. It is one of my favorite fantasy novels actually because it's quite different from anything else I've read. And is obviously targeted to older readers.

Here is a first kissing scene from a New York Times Best Selling Author of Romance. Nora Roberts.

Quote:

He slid closer and kept his eyes on hers, ignoring the waiter who tidily served their coffee. "But you're a scientist. You experiment. Why don't you give experiencing a try? With me." She looked down, watched his fingertip toy with hers. And felt the slow heat of response creep into her blood. "That's a very novel, if roundabout, way of suggesting that I sleep with you." "Actually, that wasn't what I meant—though if the answer's yes, I'm all for it." He flashed her a grin as she shifted her gaze warily to his. "I was going to suggest that we take a walk on the waterfront when we've finished our coffee. But if you'd rather sleep with me, we can be in your hotel room in, oh, five minutes flat." She didn't evade when his head lowered to hers, when his lips slid lazily into a lovely fit over hers. The taste of him was cool, with an underlying promise of heat. If she wanted it. And she did. It surprised her how much, just at that one moment, she wanted the flash and burn—the demand that would override the tension inside her, the worry, the doubts. But she'd had a lifetime of training against self-indulgence, and now she laid a hand lightly on his chest to end the kiss, and the temptation. "I think a walk would be pleasant." "Then we'll walk."

See how the kiss isn't what is important? What is important here is how the characters are reacting to each other and the little glimpses of their personality we see in this action/reaction.

Here is a kissing scene I wrote:

Quote:

Something inside him snapped. He stalked towards her and grabbed her arm, wheeled her around to face him. Then, without preamble, he kissed her. It was an angry, ruthless kiss but still just as passionate as the first one had been days ago. Instead of fighting or pulling away she kissed him back with just as much force as he was giving her and just as much anger. Teeth collided, lips bruised, bodies twisted and nails dug into flesh. There was pain and pleasure and punishing. When they finally broke apart she looked stunned but no less pissed off. "Now you can walk away." He said. She did but this time her steps were a little less confident and little less stable.

*shrug* I don't know. I hope this info helps.

I'm surprised no one mentioned anything about Anne Rice, considering form what i hear she began as an erotic writer. I'm not exceptionally familiar with anything though, sorry.

Anne Rice is generally overdone, as far as I"m concerned, in her sexual writing. She has excellent work in the "Beauty and the Beast" series, if you like BDSM, but as far as a general kiss, not so much in my opinion. The exception to this would be "Cry to Heaven", which has some excellent scenes.