Yes, this past Saturday, about 40 friends and I got sexy down on South Beach. HUH? you ask! All those people? And CNN didn't cover this?

It was a fascinating and eye-opening day -- or maybe I should say eye-POPPING, since fellow Florida Romance Writers, friends, spouses and I spent the afternoon at the World Erotic Art Museum. When the idea first came up to tour the museum and the hold a panel and booksigning there, it sounded like fun but I really had no idea what to expect. Would I be walking into some kind of kinky sex arena, a den of iniquity? Would my innocence be forever lost?

Not so! WEAM, as it's called for short, opens its modest, unassuming storefront entrance onto busy Washington Ave. in South Beach. Inside there's a diminuative lobby ending at the doors of a mysterious elevator. The faint of heart might hesitate to step inside that elevator and push the up button; they might wonder, as I did, what exactly might be lurking up above. To them I say, Be brave! Be adventurous. And be prepared to be amazed. 

The quick journey will bring you to a 12,000 square foot museum made up of wrapping corridors and multiple rooms, each celebrating its own particular theme in sexuality. Paintings, sculptures, books, and items ranging from the practical to the whimsical, ancient to modern, tiny to huge – like the giant carved four-poster bed or the, uh, anatomical stature painted gold to set off its larger-than-life glory – brings the viewer on a graphic journey through the history of human sensuality.

You could say that the images captured in the artwork depict every sexual "angle" imaginable -- and the human imagination turns out to be vast and varied! Perhaps you're wondering if some of those images made me blush. Well, they might have except that I don't blush that easily.

But even at its most explicit, the museum exudes a sense that this is art and in no way pornography; that the displays depict what life is all about, essentially. Piece by piece, the exhibit has been lovingly put together by the owners over a period of about 18 years, and it's impressive indeed.

After our tour, I sat on a panel with fellow writers Zelda Benjamin, Jianne Carlo, Mary Ricksen, Lyn Armstrong, Linda Conrad and Mona Risk to talk about sensuality and sexuality in romance novels, from sweet to erotic. I learned a lot that day, and I hope our audience did too! And I hope that if you ever find yourself in South Beach, you'll take time to visit WEAM.