Isn't It Obvious? Is on NetGalley

And an essay of sorts on queering "straight" sex

Hello, friend. Thank you for joining me on this virtual coffee date.

Today’s Drink Special: Isn’t It Obvious? is ‘read now’ on NetGalley for 48 hours

This is designed to get early buzz going. If you read and like it, please consider pre-ordering a trophy copy for your shelf, requesting at your local library, and/or telling your friends about it. Download it here.

There’s also an ongoing Goodreads giveaway that I posted about on IG. Enter here.

Good Ol’ Black Coffee: Isn’t It Obvious? sex scenes, a craft analysis.

Okay, it’s not going to be a FULL craft analysis, but this topic has been on my mind and I wanted to talk about it. I also want to preface this by saying I know I am by no means the only author to be approaching it this way, but I do think it’s still outside the norm for mainstream m/f romance.

IIO? is my second m/f pairing, but my first where both characters are bisexual. Their queerness is central to the story: Yael would not have started and Ravi would not have volunteered at the book club otherwise; Ravi would not have wanted to sleep with both Yael and her male roommate otherwise. More than that, though, their queerness is essential to them, and I didn’t want any part of their story to give the impression otherwise. That includes, of course, the way they think about, talk about, and experience sex. I didn’t want to simply avoid aggressively heteronormative approaches to sex. I wanted to actively subvert them, in a way that felt authentic to the characters and to my own style.

I’ve mentioned that I think IIO? is a bit “spicier” than my other two, and this is why.

figure 1. a text i sent ava wilder in september of 2023

Okay, maybe not entirely why (please see Figure 1. above), but a big part of it. I’m not saying it’s impossible to challenge the typical heterosexual sex scene script you see in romance novels without upping the heat level from where I started, but I wouldn’t have been able to execute my exact vision had I not done so.

Some of my approach, of course, was in the physical sex acts they engage in. In the first sex scene, there is no P-I-V intercourse, and it is very much treated as a full sex scene. Not foreplay that was interrupted, not things they choose to do because they “don’t want to have sex yet.” Sex, period, AND it is talked about by them as such.

figure 2. a message from elizabeth ann (@eliz_reads_books)

This was noted by a very early reader who won a bound manuscript in an auction (see Figure 2. above), and again by Brittani from Lavender PR, and I was so happy to see that it was landing outside of the small circle of author friends who’d already read it. Both characters, during and after the interaction, name what transpires as sex.

Later that day, upon realization that they don’t have any condoms, they explicitly acknowledge that for both of them, what they’ve already done is often the complete picture of what sex looks like. Their entire respective sexual histories don’t disappear now that they’re sleeping with the person (spoiler!) they’ll end up with.

In this current wave of mainstream contemporary romance, there can tend to be a general avoidance of the main characters’ sexual history. It’s referenced, sure, but the reader isn’t necessarily meant to picture what might have been done and with whom. This is why, when I chose to open the book with Ravi sneaking out of Yael’s bedroom after having a one-night-stand with her roommate, my lovely agent felt compelled to warn me that this could be off-putting to some readers. My response, essentially, was [Bad Bunny voice] “I don’t care” (about those potential readers’, not Jess’s opinion. It is actually very important to me that she love my work and root for my MCs to end up together). He is a sexual being, who is *gasp* not saving himself for his one true love, AND, *gasp*, many of the people he is not saving himself with are cis men! The reader first meets him, confronted with the fact that he very much does not exclusively have P-I-V sex, and that is still true when it comes time for him to have sex with his love interest.

For her part, cis men have represented the minority of Yael’s sexual partners. It’s not said so bluntly as that in the text, but the only ex of hers who is referenced is a woman, and there’s a joke about understanding a teenager who considers herself a 5 on the Kinsey Scale (Yael would probably be more of a 4-4.5, not that the scale is especially scientific, but I digress). And this matters when it comes to her sexual relationship with Ravi, because P-I-V intercourse with a man is something she has not done in a very long time.

I debated forgoing on-page penetrative sex entirely, but ultimately I decided to challenge myself to include it and still have it feel, at least to me, in keeping with the previous sex scene and the characters’ queerness. It also lended itself to a line I am particularly proud of (see Figure 3. below).

figure 3. what i think is one of the hottest lines i’ve ever written.

When they do decide to have penetrative sex, Yael confesses her nerves doing something she isn’t really used to doing. She feels safe enough to do so with Ravi, against all odds, and that’s a component of what makes the interaction so intimate. Her lack of recent experience is directly because of her queerness, and she can trust him with that information in part because he is queer, too. There’s no “can’t wait to finally have sex” after they’ve been blowing each other for chapters on end in either character’s internal monologue, because to them, this is just a different sex act, not THEE sex act.

Ravi and Yael are queer as hell, and to put it in Elizabeth Ann’s words, they didn’t forget that just because there’s a penis and a vagina in the room.

A Biscotti with Your Coffee

Books: I just read GIRL NEXT DOOR by Rachel Meredith for a blurb and LOVED it. It was as a debut that felt truly original and the plot was gripping - both things I’m not necessarily looking for in a romance novel but was genuinely delighted by nonetheless.

Music: Bad Bunny Tiny Desk Concert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In “VOY A LLeVARTE PA PR,” there’s a lyric that goes aprovecha, quе estoy soltero, single and between the words “soltero” and “single” there is what I assume to be a woman’s moan layered in. And in the Tiny Desk concert, he did the moan himself, and then laughed through the next couple words afterword like he’d been a little bit nervous to do it. I just love that so much. He was like, “okay, I’m not asking one of my band members to do it, but this is essential. The lyric is NOT aprovecha, quе estoy soltero, single; it’s aprovecha, quе estoy soltero, [MOAN] single and it must be done.” Incredible. And that is not anywhere near the best part of the set.

TV: I just watched the first episode of The Studio and I’m loving it so far. The long single shot scenes are such an interesting way to capture the frenetic energy of the storyline.

Mwah,

Rachel Runya Katz