Let's Talk About Sex

If I had to use one work to describe my internship at Cosmopolitan, it would be Sex.

Those of you who are Cosmo readers may be familiar with the "Red Hot Read" section in the back of the magazine. For those of you who are not familiar, "Red Hot Read" features a steamy, sexy, and sensual "love" scene from an upcoming novel.

My job as the Books Intern was to sort through every single trashy romance novel, aphrodisiac cookbook, and how-to-knit your own lingerie book that arrived in the Cosmo office and find the sex scenes. (Please, don't tell my grandmother.) I called myself the Sex Books Intern, I thought it described my position much better. No pun intended.

I sat in Workroom C of the Cosmo office, which was basically a closet with a chair, desk and computer hidden amongst towering bookshelves. I don't think anyone but my boss knew I was there. I was often kicked out asked to leave my workroom when Editor In Chief Kate White's hair and make-up people came. My workroom would then become a dressing room and I would be a lost intern without a place to work. 

Everyday of my internship, I was to read, recap, and rate the books and the sex scenes. Needless to say, I learned a thing or two about how-to turn on your man and how many adjectives could be used to describe sex. Some of them would make Helen Gurley Brown herself blush. 

After several weeks of reading, recapping, and rating, my editorial dream came true. I was given the opportunity to write. 

"Working Girl One," my boss said. "I need you to edit this." He placed an upcoming "Red Hot Read" in front of me. "Also, we think it needs something more, so we need you to write a paragraph or two."

This was an opportunity of a lifetime; a lowly intern gets to write for Cosmo. Okay, so it wasn't my own story and my name wouldn't appear anywhere near it. But this was pretty exciting and a nice change from reading about sex all day long.

"We need you to write some more foreplay, I marked were it needs to be added," he said and walked away. 

Foreplay?

"I can do this," I thought to myself and took a deep breath. "I'll draw from personal experience." Let's just say, that didn't really get me anywhere. Thankfully, from reading foreplay and sex scenes for weeks and weeks, I was able to write something decent. As embarrassing as it was to write the foreplay, it was much more embarrassing to stand over my boss's desk as he read the foreplay I had written.

He must have like it because soon after, for the same "Red Hot Read," I was asked to come up with a few headline and sub-headline ideas. Patiently waiting for him to read those was just as embarrassing. But, it was worth it. The foreplay, headline and sub-headline I had written all appeared in the January 2007 issue of Cosmo. 

New Year, New Man, New Desires