“WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE to see new columns about?" Frank asked his readers.

"I would like to see a senior sex and relationships section, including topics such as dating, keeping sex alive in a long-term relationship, and talking back to media stereotypes," I responded, "and I would like to write it."

"Do it," Frank replied.

I'm often asked how I happened to write Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty, a book about senior sexuality, after being known for two decades as a fitness expert and health writer, author of five books about health and fitness. My switch to sex (as a writing topic, that is!) happened when I was 61 and four years into an intimate, exhilarating, and downright spicy relationship. We were as giddy and sexually charged as a couple of love-struck teenagers.

And yet – we weren't teenagers. Thank goodness! In many ways, sex after midlife was the best we'd ever experienced, precisely because we were older, wiser, willing to take our time, less goal-directed. We bought to the relationship a richness of experience, self-knowledge, communication skills, creativity, and a genuine delight in our own and our partner's pleasure. We had made our relationship mistakes in the past, we had experimented, and now we knew for certain what we wanted and what we had to give. Life doesn't get much better than that!

Is older-age sex the same as sex in a younger body? You know it's not! Just as we're best able to enjoy sex emotionally, our bodies play cruel tricks on us by presenting us with many physiological challenges (I discuss these at length and graphically in the book). But by being creative, loving, open-minded, and willing to talk and laugh, we can overcome those challenges and make our interactions fulfilling and, yes, really hot.

Join me in discussing the issues that face us as seniors seeking and enjoying love and intimacy in all their dimensions. Let's shout out loud against the ridiculous and destructive stereotype of older people as either sexless or pathetic for still wanting/ enjoying/ seeking sex.

If you're not in a relationship, but you'd like to be, let's talk about the experience of being "single and seeking" after 50. If you're in a long-term relationship, please share the issues you face and how you keep the fires burning. If you're in a new relationship, what are the joys and challenges? Let's talk openly about our concerns, questions, and experiences.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Copyright © 2007 Joan Price

Ageless sexuality advocate Joan Price is the author of Better Than I Ever Expected: Straight Talk about Sex After Sixty (Seal Press, 2006, http://www.joanprice.com/BetterThanExpected.htm ). Her "Better Than I Ever Expected" blog at http://www.betterthanieverexpected.blogspot.com is creating a community of people talking about sex and aging.

You can write Joan at joan@joanprice.com.