Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, writers rushed to include fiery sex scenes. Sex sold books and by God, if readers wanted it, they were gonna get it.

And they did. In the sixties and seventies, anything went - and often did.

When I think of sexy stories, one in particular stands out in my mind, a 1963 novel titled "Eternal Fire" by Calder Willingham. That one pressed every button I had - and a few I didn't know I had. Willingham later distinguished himself as a screenwriter - among his credits was "The Graduate" in which several smoking scenes depict a young man's girlfriend's kinky mother seducing him. Yeh! It's gotta be a little bit warped or it just ain't that sweet.

Since those days, however, graphic sexual situations have become somewhat cliched and fallen into disfavor with editors, gradually diminishing in print popularity even as television becomes more and more suggestive. After all, how many different ways are there to hook two people up? Okay. It turns out there're a lot more than I ever dreamed but face it, by now they've mostly been done to death and it's darn hard to avoid cliche.

Still, some manage - like sex between a priest and the woman he's counselling - to heat things up enough to make the reader sit up and take notice.

You probably won't see a guy writing that scene, though. Today, only women seem to be able to get away with writing sex. Let a guy try to slip in a "blushing nipple", and agents (75% liberal women), editors (99% liberal women) are likely to throw the book across the room in disgust.

Let's face it. Anyone can write sex good. After all, it's a topic close to our hearts and one with which we're presumably well versed. Good isn't the same as tasteful, though. It seems to boil down to this. Guys tend to be more graphic. The Gals tend to set the situation and leave the grimy details to the imagination, and that's what makes their way more acceptable - if at the same time less titillating.

The advice is this. Put the scene in but write it like a woman would. The word we're looking for here is "tasteful". But remember, it's only hot if there's something a little bit warped about it.

How to do tasteful and warped at the same time? Ah, that's the question, isn't it. But try anyway. You know you want to.