X is for Xu

One of the first things I researched for my debut novel was the Greek system.

Being British, I knew very little of sororities and fraternities – we simply don’t have them over here, although they sounded like a great idea for university students to have a tailor-made social life. That said, we had plenty of societies at the one I attended, so maybe we don’t need them. Nevertheless, they provide good fodder for erotica.

It’s all those frat parties and images of girls floating around in baby doll nighties. However unrealistic they might be, it’s very easy to take a cliché and build on it – threesomes at a kegger, hot girl-on-girl sex between roommates, sneaking frat boys into your bedroom or having some maybe-we’ll-be-caught sex in the garden. My debut novel involved some menage sex in a sorority house and almost included a scene where they got caught in the lounge, except it was ultimately excised when the plot took over.

I also stuck with it for the Campus Sexploits 3 anthology, where I had two drunken roomies having sex in various yoga positions. Well, all that ashtanga I did had to be good for something, right?

I’ll always love the idea of the Greek system and college-based erotica. And I’m not the only one – Louisa Bacio’s “Sex University” was released around the same time as my debut.

Maybe I should have gone and studied in the US – experienced it first-hand!