“All we need to do is keep fucking.”

I think of this play on the Pink Floyd song title “Keep Talking” as I prepare to put the finishing touches on my new book The Lust Series Part 2: The Reckoning. I am sitting in a Pret a Manger on 54^th and Park in Midtown having a cappuccino and considering how to repay the beautiful, talented and gracious Lucy Felthouse for allowing me the privilege of this guest blog. First of all yes, they do have Pret in New York and yes I go there because I lived in London for most of my life and it reminds me of “home”. But now I live here, writing Pulp and Erotic fiction and I must say I’m constantly surrounded by potential inspiration. Take the woman who just walked in. She’s a tall, slim brunette, wearing a Burberry trench coat that is pulled tight. If this was one of the many bars I frequent in the evenings I would introduce myself, but in my hung-over state I cradle my coffee and try to guess what’s going on in her mind. Is she thinking about an affair she discovered her husband is having? Perhaps the boss she has constant flirtation with? Perhaps something less novel worthy like a new case of raging thrush or something mundane like what groceries to buy. That is the curse that all of us face as writers, a constant obsession with the thoughts of potential characters.

The woman looks at me and smiles, to some extent I am guilty of eye-fucking her but really I’m just thinking about my book, and this blog. And then it hits me. It was some years ago that I saw a show on TV about what it took to keep a relationship together over a number of years. As a writer who constantly dwells on the realistic nature of relationships and marriage I found this show particularly fascinating. Not because of the psychological analysis that bored me rigid but because each couple they interviewed included one simple factor that kept their relationships together. All of them, and I mean all of them said their secret was that they could fuck through anything. I think they meant challenges in their relationships as opposed to a hurricane or an earthquake, but it raised an interesting point and was a rare recognition of the power of sex in our relationships.

Now I realize in my case I am following their advice although I’m a single guy, but nevertheless I can’t help but think the celebration of erotica and all of you continuing to read books like my own and Lucy’s can only help stoke the fire that may keep yourselves in happy relationships, whatever that may mean for you. So the next time you’re having a coffee in Pret, think of me and remember if you’re in a relationship all you need to do is keep fucking.

D E Close’s book THE LUST SERIES PART ONE: THE NEW PUPIL is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.