Peter Carroll is the author of Queen of Misfortune – A Lady Jane Grey Novel and Doodlebugs & Spitfires. For more information, see his website.

As an ardent writer. I am always looking for inspiration as I suspect most authors do, looking at the best sellers, wondering what makes them tick.

Sweeping the literary world right now are the books written by EL James the first entitled: Fifty Shades of Grey.

It looks to be another female author is following JK Rowling’s footsteps but with another genre, and is set to be worth a mint.

I’m thinking why cant I be there?, not primarily for the money but just to get more books read. Don’t get me wrong it is grand to be out there small time after years of trying but just the same., a few more sales would not go amiss!

So what is it that EL James has got that I am missing. I know about JK Rowling and could never hope to aspire her breathtaking imagination.

But EL James?

“She writes erotica” I was told by a literary friend.

So that’s the secret. Don’t even think about it Peter – male writers are hopeless at that sort of stuff says my friend.

Well I wasn’t really thinking about it, I am happy with my genre but never the less, her massive book sales give one food for thought as to why the demand is so prolific.

And yes, DH Lawrence who wrote Lady Chatterley’s Lover way back in the 1920’s was a male writer but given the climate then he did have problems to get it published because of the naughty content, but didn’t it do well, what do they say about bad publicity being as good for sales as good?

So why are EL James books making the top seller grade? It has to be supply and demand. And why the enormous demand for downright sexuality and erotica like it has never been erotized before!

Is it that given the high tensions of the day women especially need that to let of steam?.

I have read that guys are often unable to cope with the extraordinary pressures being put on them by their once so gentle lovers who have been inspired to exceedingly new boundaries formerly unheard of in a temperate relationship.

And EL James method is themed on the mastery of her male partner, he who is a control freak and says what and what not to do.

Well of course at my age I am well past it when a cup of tea serves equally well. And I am thinking all that energy, where did it go?

But seriously if the books are doing some good by way of eroticism and new discovery; that tired relationships are given a new spur – good for those who benefit.

Once when I was young, sex was never discussed, death was but not sex! But now it seems to be the other way around.

I pause to think; because we as youngsters were so painfully inhibited, was that good for us. Speaking for myself I lacked confidence with girls when my hormones set in and I was so very reserved, that was the influence set by my grandmother who was rigidly brought up under the cloak of Victorian values.

No sex until marriage was the byword and a big tut-tut for those, like my aunt, who chose to live with her partner unmarried.

A book like shadows would never have been published – it makes DH Lawrence look mild.

We are living in a so different society given the freedom of women who are no longer controlled by men who were the breadwinners and set to the worry of having an unwanted pregnancy because of there being no birth control.

I have to submit that EL James sales of her first three books -given the same genre – are very popular and selling like proverbial hot cakes which must prove something. It is no longer the once popular standard Mills and Boone tales of romance and loving, it is much more than that.

Scary or what?

The demand is there and the new erotic writers are jumping on the bandwagon, so perhaps it will all pass over, what do they say about having too much of a good thing – or should that be a bad and very naughty thing?

My good friend says there will always be an appetite for the good old tale of sweet romance with a happy ending. I hope so.

But I am constantly reminded life moves on and I must agree.

It is just that the immense changes in society, technology, almost everything that has changed so much in my lifetime, is amazing.

But at least folks my age have the benefit of all that which must help the writing bug blossom.

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DOODLEBUGS & SPITFIRES
Memories and Short Stories by Peter Carroll

“Doodlebugs & Spitfires” is a delightful collection of memories and short stories written by Peter Carroll, the author of “Queen of Misfortune,” in his trademark poetic and profoundly thoughtful style.

Most of his stories, previously published in limited form in local English newspapers and magazines, like “Brave New World”, “The Forties Street Tradesmen”, “Doodlebugs”, or “The Christmas of 43” evolve around his childhood in the Northern part of London during and after World War II. He describes the horrors that came with the V1 flying bombs, nicknamed the “Doodlebugs.” Heroic British pilots in their “Spitfire” airplanes would attempt to divert the flying bombs from the populated areas, sometimes successful, and sometimes not.

Doodlebugs & Spitfires is available at Amazon.Com and its Kindle store, Amazon.co.uk and its Kindle store, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.