Unicorns and Bisexual Monogamy: 'The Art House' Turns Two!

This month marks the second birthday (aka publishing anniversary) of my contemporary novel The Art House. In honor of this book's special day, I wanted to do a blog post about it and include one of my favorite unicorn images. This is from the cover of Heavy Metal Magazine, which I love:

The Art House is a contemporary novel, not a paranormal novel, but it does include lots of unicorn imagery. The main character, Janelle, used to have a recurring dream about a unicorn. This is due to seeing a sculpture years ago done by the mysterious artist (and main love interest in the story), Edgar. In the novel, she meets Edgar when she stays at his famous "Art House" to do a feature story on him, and those interesting unicorn dreams start happening again while she's there. The dreams ultimately end up having a deeper meaning, which you'll find out if you read the book (**wink, wink!**)

The other thing I wanted to have a quick chat about is the bisexuality of Janelle. In this story, she is a bisexual woman who has repressed her bisexuality all her adult years. The circumstances that happen in the tale encourage her to finally embrace it. This is in part due to the gentle nudging of her new friend and associate of Edgar's, the beautiful model Trixie.

But believe it or not, there is no threesome action in this book. No FFM scenes at all. The experiences that Janelle has with Trixie and Edgar are totally separate. This is an issue I wanted to bring up, concerning bisexuality, especially bisexual characters in fiction, and the assumptions people may have about them.

It seems like most erotic bisexual fiction involves threesomes. And it's true that some bisexual people are polyamorous and/or have threesomes and are perfectly happy with it. My character Trixie is in an open relationship. But there are plenty of bisexuals out there who are simply attracted to people of both (or all, if we're talking about pansexuality) genders. It does not mean that the person needs to be with multiple genders at one time. It simply means that the person is open to having a relationship with someone of either sex.

A lot of people who have read The Art House have told me they were surprised at the novel because it ended up being a very different book than they originally thought it would be. Not only is there no BDSM as one might assume from the sexy mask on the cover, it is a story about a monogamous bisexual rediscovering her soul, or in other words, a woman rediscovering what makes her heart truly sing. And it isn't just about rediscovering love and lust. There's also artistic passion and overall life's purpose. There's a lot more to the story than just sex.

Don't get me wrong. There is a lot of steamy sex in this novel... (**more winks**)...but it's not only a story about that.

If I have succeeded in piquing your curiosity, The Art House is available at multiple online retailers:


PAINTED HEARTS PUBLISHING 

AMAZON US

AMAZON UK

BARNES & NOBLE NOOK

SMASHWORDS



Thanks for stopping by!


XoXo

Scarlett

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Bisexual Health Awareness Month 2016

March is Bisexual Health Awareness Month, and to contribute, I wanted to write a post regarding one of the aspects of bisexuality that needs more visibility.

Here's an infographic from Glaad.org from a couple of years back:

All of it is important, but for this post, I'm going to be focusing on the violet circle on the bottom right of the graphic: Only considering a person either gay or straight, depending on the sex of the person's partner

I've been married to a man for the past eight years. For many, that would mean that I'm straight. But in reality, that shouldn't erase the fact that I have been in love with and/or had crushes on a number of women in my life. It also shouldn't assume that I'll never be attracted to people of other genders, be they women, intersex, or trans, during my marriage. All it means is that I chose someone who happens to be male to marry and be my partner in life.

I think in general, it's hard for people to understand gray areas, even though they absolutely do exist. We like to label things black or white, right or wrong, gay or straight. But married bisexuals do exist. Bisexuals who are in a monogamous relationship do exist (but the bisexual stereotype of not being monogamous is for another post! ;) )

Basically, being married to one gender does not exclude us from being attracted to other genders, no more than being married excludes straight or gay people from being attracted to others in their preferential gender category or categories.

It's sad to me that bisexuals have so many health problems that seem to stem from stress because they are not accepted or understood as they are. But talking about these issues and bringing them into public awareness is the place we need to start!

XOXO

Scarlett