Wildlife Wednesday - moth

When I was a kid, these were my favourite moths and I called them a Jaffa Moth. I spent hours trying to breed them because I wanted to see a cocoon hatch into a moth (I had visions of the chrysalis bursting open and a half damp moth struggling out before fluttering its wings, nodding to me and flying away). I haven't seen them for years and the other week I saw one. It took me right back to my excited childhood state.

So, let me see if I can be more adult about this and find out something more about these moths.

Wow...here's a page with some great photos. But this Brisbane one could be different to my more southern one.

Okay, so not a lot of information about these guys that I could find. This website seems to have a bit of info, including:

The Caterpillars of the CTENUCHINAE family are mostly covered uniformly in dark hairs. The hairs can cause Urticaria in sensitive people. The Caterpillars typically feed and move about during the daytime.They pupate in a cocoon made of silk with their hairs matted together. The adults are small to medium in size, with wings that are black with translucent orange spots. Their bodies typically have tranverse bands alternating in orange and black, hence their name 'Wasp Moths'. However the coloration does not denote any hazard except that the moths are poisonous if eaten.The adult moths of many species in this subfamily fly during daylight hours. There are 54 named Australian members of this subfamily.

Story Sunday - what's erotic?

I read a review of The Virginity Mission (do you need the cover again, Lily? Here it is.) where the reviewer said she considered it a "normal" story and not erotic.

What is erotic (in the context of erotic romance as a subgenre of books)?

I don't really know! I thought it was explicit sex scenes where you don't use euphemisms but names of body parts, where sex is described fully, and where sex is a vital part of the story line. But maybe I'm wrong.

In my trusty dictionary, erotic is defined as: of or pertaining to sexual love; arousing or satisfying sexual desire.

The Virginity Mission is fairly tame with the sex - but she is a virgin. I don't know about you but I didn't take to sex like a duck to water. It took me a while to get the hang of being wild. There's so much to learn first up.


Maybe in the post-50 Shades world, we've moved the goalposts for erotic and it needs to be kinky sex, which I still call BDSM which is a subgenre of erotic.

In my mind there are a lot of different subgenres in the erotic category - BDSM, fetishes, oral sex, anal sex, menages or more, multiple partners, bestiality, golden showers, scat play - and those are just off the top of my head. 

In a way, I'd like normal sex to be accepted in every novel, but I think people would be too shocked. For that reason, I believe it still needs a label as a warning. Too many of my family/friends struggle to read my sex scenes because they can't handle that I wrote them (or wrote about sex).

I don't know that many people are ready for normal sex to be fully described, let alone for kinky sex to become normalised as erotic!

I think we're still in a world where sex is strange, something behind closed doors, never to be talked about - and I'm talking missionary sex here!

What do you think? How do you define "erotic" in literature?

Phallic Friday - competitive sex

I bet you're wondering what this post is about!

I started writing a story, which has ended up being two different stories. Mid-stride in my first draft a friend said, "You know, all your heroines are kind of wimpy." And when I stopped pouting and looked, they were. So I changed her to be more of a kick-ass heroine...which changed the dynamic of the story which split the story into two.

So...my kick-ass heroine (Samantha) is a retired Olympic triathlete, who meets a hunky footy player (Cooper) on a holiday. Attraction flares (or rather ignites in a huge whoosh) and they're going for it. But she's gotta be kick-ass, so the first time she has him pretty much primed ready for sex and walks away. Did I tell you she's a strange girl?!

Her action starts somewhat of a competition, which leads to a conversation like this:

The kiss heats, quickly. In no time Cooper grabs a condom, sheathes himself and probes at my cunt. We’re side by side facing each other. One of my hands on his abdomen, the other encircling his cock. I lift my leg and pause.

“We did it this way last night.” I squeeze my hand on his cock, my other hand stroking downwards towards his balls.

Cooper looks at me, his eyebrow quirked in question.

“Doesn’t it get boring doing it the same way all the time?”

“Sam, nothing about you is boring. Are you bored?”

I need a brain transplant. I can’t believe I started this conversation, let alone started it poised on the brink of more incredible sex. “Never bored. You just spur me to greater things. I don’t think we should repeat sex. I think we need to challenge each other to new things every time.” My hand cups his sac, weighing and lifting his balls, pulsing slowly against them.

Cooper’s head shakes as his lips part in a grin. “And you had to tell me this now?”

“I just woke up. My brain’s not functioning.”

With a laugh, Cooper grabs both my wrists until my hands release him, then flips me onto my stomach. “Different enough for you?” He scoops my hips up and pulls me towards the edge of the bed. On my knees, head and hands against the bed, I turn my head to watch him, waiting to see what he’ll do. 

 They have 10 days together - do you think there's enough ways to have sex that it's never repeated?

Wildlife Wednesday - pelicans

I'm making the stretch beyond my yard again today.

I've very fond of pelicans. I'm not sure if it's because if their beak (which holds more than it's belly can) or because of the book by Colin Thiele, and movie, Storm Boy. I suspect it's Storm Boy. If you have never seen it, have a look at this clip. It's a beautiful film from my childhood.

I spent many a weekend laying on a wharf trying to feed fish heads to the pelicans while my poor grandfather sweated blood that the pelicans would eat out arms off - or at least hook us and scratch us badly with that hook on their beak. I'm pleased to say we were never eaten or scratched!

I love watching them land on posts. They look like huge cumbersome jumbos and then they shilly and shally and calmly come in for the softest of landings. It never ceases to amaze me.

Taking off from the ground or water, they aren't quite so nifty. They seem to need a good big run up and a fair bit of huge wing flapping.

Here's some breeding info from the Birds in Backyards website.

Breeding depends on environmental conditions, particularly rainfall. Pelicans are colonial breeders with up to 40 000 individuals grouping on islands or secluded shores. Breeding begins with courtship. The female leads potential mates (two to eight or more) around the colony. As the males follow her in these walks, they threaten each other while swinging their open bills from side to side trying to attract the female's attention. The males may also pick up small objects, like sticks or dry fish, which they toss in the air and catch again, repeating the sequence several times.

Both sexes perform "pouch-rippling" in which they clap their bills shut several times a second and the pouch ripples like a flag in a strong breeze. As the courtship parade progresses, the males drop out one by one. Finally, after pursuits on land, water or in the air, only a single male is left. The female leads him to a potential nest site.

During the courtship period, the bill and pouch of the birds change colour dramatically. The forward half of the pouch becomes bright salmon pink, while the skin of the pouch in the throat region turns chrome yellow. Parts of the top and base of the bill change to cobalt blue, and a black diagonal strip appears from the base to the tip. This colour change is of short duration, the intensity usually subsiding by the time incubation starts.

The nest consists of a scrape in the ground prepared by the female. She digs the scrape with her bill and feet, and lines it with any scraps of vegetation or feathers within reach of the nest. Within three days egg-laying begins and eggs are laid two to three days apart. Both parents share incubation and the eggs are incubated on their feet.

The first-hatched chick is substantially larger than its siblings. It receives most of the food and may even attack and kill its nest mates. A newly hatched pelican has a large bill, bulging eyes, and skin that looks like small-grained bubble plastic. The skin around the face is mottled with varying degrees of black and the colour of the eyes varies from white to dark brown. This individual variation helps the parents to recognise their chick from hundreds of others.

The chicks leave their nests to form creches of up to 100 birds. They remain in creches for about two months, by the end of which they have learnt to fly and are fairly independent. Wild birds may live between ten and possibly 25 years or more.