Well, readers...I post this month from my recovery room at home, where I am nursing myself back to health from a gall bladder disaster and the resultant emergency surgery. You know you're in a bad way when your surgeon tells you, "No sex till further notice" and you don't mind hearing it!

But the show must go on for Diana Laurence, and therefore it seemed a good time to post about the flip side of erotica: not being in the mood.

It happens to everyone, surgery or no, and for hundreds of reasons. Sometimes it's because you can't have a sex life for awhile. Or sometimes it's because your sex life is too much: a friend of mine who is trying to get pregnant suggested I devote my next book to inspiring couples who are required to have sex nightly in order to conceive!

When you're going through one of those phases when the hot stuff in your TBR pile just holds no appeal, I say don't sweat it. As the Bible says, to everything there is a season, and sometimes your energies are simply needed elsewhere for awhile (like that incision in your belly button that's trying to heal).

Besides, generally speaking your libido is not dead, its just resting. Just because I'm not currently up for penning my next torrid tale doesn't mean they won't ever be another one. And even on my sick bed I've gotten glimpses that my erotic side is alive, if not exactly kicking. For one thing, I tuned in to "The Waltons" (ah the joys of daytime cable TV), my favorite show when I was in high school, and was stunned at Richard Thomas as John-Boy. I admit I had a slight crush on him at 16, but my reaction to his sex appeal (yes, even in such a wholesome role) as a sick 51-year-old actually exceeded that childhood attraction. Okay, it's terrible to say I have the hots for John-Boy Walton--please understand this is a most esthetic sort of appreciation, really it is.

But my point is, even when you're far from feeling like reading, or writing, erotic romance, the spirit lives on. You can still recognize beauty, whether it be Richard Thomas's sensuous lips or those get-well flowers from a friend. You can still feel passion, if only for the solid foods you are finally allowed to eat. You can still nurture the flames of creativity, planning projects you can accomplish once the stitches are gone.

So it your mood-dampener is surgery (check)...maybe menopause (check)...maybe winter doldrums (cripes, I have a lot of strikes against me right now!)...or whatever, don't despair. Another spring is on its way in more ways than one. In fact, I bet by Valentine's Day we'll all be seeing our juices just starting to rise.

Till then, trust that those "home fires" are still burning!

Diana Laurence is the author of the Soulful Sex anthologies of erotic romance fiction, and released her newest book Bloodchained in September 2007 (www.bloodchained.com). Diana's works are published by Living Beyond Reality Press (www.livingbeyondreality.com.)
Visit her at www.dianalaurence.com or enjoy her blog at www.eroticawithsoul.blogspot.com