INTRODUCTION
You hold in your hands the sixth volume in the Hot Blood series.
When we first conceived of an original erotic horror anthology, little did we imagine the chord it would strike in readers’ hearts—and elsewhere. We wouldn’t have guessed that the original Hot Blood would spawn an entire series, that reader interest would actually multiply with each new book.
But what exactly has led to the Hot Blood series’ amazing success? Like any quality anthology series, it has showcased many of your favorite authors, introduced you to exciting new talents, and presented multiple treatments of a particularly engaging theme.
And that theme happens to be sex. Readers everywhere are interested in sex, whether they’ll admit it or not. But the Hot Blood series follows a tried-and-true formula, and after watching a highly touted “erotic thriller” film that fell flat on its face (a turkey by virtually anyone’s standards), a few things dawned on us that we wanted to share.
First, this star-studded movie was only “erotic” because of its gratuitous sex scenes. The coupling of its characters had nothing to do with the story itself. Cut the sex scenes and you’ve still got essentially the same story. In other words, Hollywood used sex to overcome a weak script.
Second, the erotic aspect of the movie never really jelled. All we saw was two sweaty actors groping each other, the actress displaying full frontal nudity while the male star’s body was never once displayed in all its assumed glory. After a minute or two of witnessing the kissing and fondling of unseen body parts, we grew bored, and worse yet, felt cheated by having to fill-in-the-blanks, imagining what wasn’t being shown. In other words, it was all tease and no delivery.
And that brings us to the Hot Blood series.
One of the trademarks of the stories in these books is that sex is a crucial plot element. Take out the erotic content, and the story collapses. Sex is never gratuitous in a Hot Blood story; it’s the engine that drives the car.
Second, Hot Blood stories don’t “pull out” at the last minute. No coitus interruptus here. While never pornographic, these stories allow their writers to describe sex in its endless variations in minute detail. Unlike Hollywood, we give our readers credit for being adult enough to appreciate the elements of eroticism that keep the stories moving.
Chances are you’ve never thought about what makes the Hot Blood series work for you—you’ve just enjoyed the stories. If so, we and our writers have accomplished our goals.
And of course there are other reasons why these books have been so popular, beginning with our writers and ending with you, our readers. We thank you all for your continued support, and for making Hot Blood, the original erotic horror anthology, what it is today.
Stay tuned. There’s more to come.
Jeff Gelb
Michael Garrett