By GEMMA ASKHAM
Honest literary fact: many a novel has been spiced up by the addition of a good (i.e. absolutely filthy) sex scene. Who hasn’t had to re-angle their reading matter from wandering eyes on the bus to shield content that was 100% NSFPT (Not Suitable For Public Transport)?
Then we got to our stop and forgot about it.
But if you’re the one penning the filthy fiction (filth-tion?), it must be a lot harder to step away from all those handcuffs and hard-ons and plumbers who intend to service way more than your boiler. As the 34-year-old author tipped to be the new E.L. James has found.
After topping the New York Times best-seller list with her This Man trilogy – based largely on the trouser-region of playboy Jesse Ward – writer Jodi Ellen Malpas realised that what was happening in her Microsoft Word was way hotter than what was happening in her actual home. A lot less throbbing and way more leaving the wet towel on the bathroom floor, we expect.
It turns out her real-life husband Aaron wasn’t a patch on Imaginary Sexy Husband, Jesse, so she ended their 10-year marriage.
“All my fictional men are strong, successful, sophisticated and enigmatic. I guess it’s hard for any living, breathing man to live up to such a fantasy. In This Man I created Jesse Ward, whose forceful personality was appealing to me. There is no denying I fell in love with him,” she told the Daily Mail.
“Over time I started to feel that something was missing – my normal everyday life had become a routine. I’m loving the stronger more liberated me.”
As for the next man Jodi tries to date?
Well, he better start reading now. He’s got a LOT to live up to.