There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio

What the old posts of First Page Saturday at Dear Author (and a whole bunch of other posts on that wonderful website) have taught me is that there is a whole world of crazy kink out there that had never, ever, occurred to me. I mean, stone statues as objects of desire!? Dendrophilia?! Look it up, I kid you not. Savage Love has always been my "weird stuff that exists in the world" point of reference, but romancelandia, and especially the suburb of erotica has really, when all is said and done, plumbed the depths of "weird stuff" far more effectively. Probably because it's a genre that's about extensive description at minimum, and psychological examination (for good or for ill) at best. And sometimes, it's a psychological place that makes me scratch my head in bemusement, or shrink away in horror and repulsion (you know you've got the wrong book when all you can think is "eww").

And, by the way, props to the good folks at DA for First Page Saturday. Being still in the abyss of dissertation writing, I truly relish the chance to let my inner editor off leash and sic her onto someone else's writing.