Does lesbian romantic fiction have to have a happy ending?
Unequivocally, yes. At the end of the book, the reader needs to know that the characters are together or intend to be. Q: Must the girl get the girl in the end? See above. Yes. Q: Is it obligatory to have a certain number of steamy sex (with or without the aid of a bath) scenes? This is hotly debated. Some informal polls I did on my Internet group suggested that 75% of the respondents liked or specifically wanted physically explicit love scenes as opposed to the “fade to black” off-screen love scenes. How many scenes in each novel and how graphic each scene should be depend on the plot and the author’s style. The sex should intrinsically make sense for the particular characters as to when, where, how, and how often sex occurs. I personally like to see the characters consummate their relationship on the written page, and our Bold Strokes Books readers expect that in our books. The language and degree of explicitness is up to the author. Q: Must the characters be idealized or can they be
