Daniel Silva signing THE DEFECTOROriginally uploaded by freshfiction Photo collection from the Daniel Silva signing in Dallas. Check them out and watch for a special contest in August to win the copy of THE DEFECTOR Daniel signed to a “Fresh Fiction Fan!” Visit FreshFiction.com to learn more about books and authors.

In its various forms, love scenes are probably one of the most discussed topics at romance writers’ conferences. Love scenes are an integral part of romance writing yet for some writers the thought of writing one can strike the same amount of fear as the dreaded synopsis. I can’t tell you there is no reason to be afraid, sex, unlike synopses, can actually have fearful roots. But I can tell you that there was a time when I found writing love scenes to be rather uncomfortable, yet now they tend to be one of my favorite scenes to write. My journey through them isn’t important, and frankly I’m not sure why everything has changed, so I can’t offer you a step-by-step guide. I can tell you that the first one I wrote (many years ago now), I just typed as fast as I could to get through it as quickly as possible. When I re-read it, it was riddled with clichés and purple prose and had zero emotion. Needless to say it needed a lot of work. The first step to writing love scenes (okay, so I lied, apparently I am giving you a step-by-step guide) is to ignore those…