Too sexy, or not sexy enough?

I finished The Manic Pixie Dream Girl Murders yesterday.

I was amazed at how well it came out.  I wasn't certain that I hadn't gotten in over my head.  I wasn't dealing with hyper-intelligent rampaging wild pigs here.  I was dealing with Sex.  And Love.  And the eternal "war" between men and women.

So I was worried about the sex.  I didn't want to be offensive.  And I was worried that I was stepping on a sexual political landmine. The possibilities of being politically incorrect were huge.  (I'm going to need Lara's take on that to see whether I did either thing.) 

I had a sex scene in the first chapter.  Not overly graphic, but definitely a sex scene.  Perforce I was using more four letter words than I was used to. 

Oh, well, I thought.  It's a story of a Succubus, a creature who preys on men's sexual desires, who sucks their very lifeforce.

Then there was a sex scene in the second chapter, and on it went.  Even when there wasn't a full-blown sex scene, there were paraphrasing narratives, and of course just a discussion of the whole thing.  It all seemed necessary.  Not the point of the story, but necessary for the plot to work, for the character motivations, and the overall theme.

I started reading it over last night, and the sex doesn't seem over the top, but integral to the story.  The plot and the characters are more important than the sex, in other words.  I think it all works.

So the only thing I'm worried about now is -- I love this book, I think it works -- but it isn't representative of my other work. So I'm worried that it's too sexy for those who've read me before.  At the same time, I'm worried it isn't sexy enough for those who find it because of it's content. 

Weird place to be.

I believe a book exists outside of myself, and if it is fully formed it deserves to see the light of day, so I'm going to publish it one way or the other.