'Denver Post' Writer Sexes It Up in New Book

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'Denver Post' Writer Sexes It Up in New Book

By Barbara Bedway

Published: July 18, 2008 11:52 AM ET

NEW YORK "There's a lot of power in simple ideas," says Denver Postfeatures writer Douglas Brown. He credits his wife, Annie, for theidea (and of course, the shared follow-through) chronicled inBrown's new book, Just Do It: How One Couple Turned Off the TV andTurned on Their Sex Lives for 101 Days (No Excuses!). Given thetopic, Brown spoke to E&P via phone from the newspaper's lobby:"With the newsroom wide open, I don't feel comfortable blabbingabout this there."

Reporters everywhere may be feeling under siege from increasedworkloads and the unsettled economic climate, but the 43-year-oldBrown has a compelling reason to love his job.

Three years ago he returned from a Poynter conference dedicated tosex, pop culture, and the media, and told his wife about thephenomenon of "100-day clubs" formed by men involved inrelationships who haven't had sex in 100 or more days. Shesurprised him by proposing that the couple — married for 14years and the parents of two girls, then ages 7 and 3 —reverse the idea and have sex for 100 straight days, no matterwhat.

Brown knew he had a challenge, possibly a blog, and most certainlya book, "if it all worked out and was worth it."

It did, and it was. The blogging didn't happen, but each keptcopious notes. "That was the kicker," he notes ruefully. "You worka full day, come home, cook, clean up and get the kids to bed, andhave to get in the mood. Then after it's all over, you couldn'tjust go to sleep. You had to turn on your laptop."

At the marathon's end, Brown started going through their notes,outlining the book. Annie, who works part time for a company doingmedia analysis, had veto power over anything that made heruncomfortable. "Finding the balance was difficult," he admits. "Iwanted to push the limits on full disclosure without going toofar."

Full disclosure at the office presented a different challenge. "Assoon as we had the idea, I told my editor," recalls Brown. "He waslaughing about it. I encountered no roadblocks at the paper." Infact, editors and co-workers generally cheered him on. (The ideafor adding Day No. 101 was suggested by Brown's colleague,columnist Bill Husted, who insisted they needed "to do one for goodluck.")

"Unsurprisingly, men, both colleagues and friends, would kind oftreat it in a very joking manner," he says. "Women weren't jokingand punching me in the arm — they were more, 'How are youdoing this?'" The paper's food editor would wish him "good lucktonight." One boss briefly acted "as if I'd morphed into somehellion driven by fierce, feral loin power," he reports in thebook.

After their appearance on the Today show in June, the ribbingincreased. "I got, 'Oh, here comes the sex god,'" he allows."Obviously, comments steeped in irony."

Being a lifestyle reporter in Denver certainly had its advantagesfor the book's in-depth research. A story on herbal libidoenhancements and another about a visit to a sex shop yielded muchpractical information for the marital experiment. Additionalreporting involved visiting a dungeon with a dominatrix, a pornconvention, a stripper school, and the obligatory reporting aboutthe state of sex on college campuses.

Brown — whose memorable newspaper stories in the past includerunning with 700 free-range turkeys around Thanksgiving (andeventually eating one he named Nathaniel) and an in-depth look atthat highly fraught greeting ritual known as the "man hug" —has long realized what a good gig reporting can be. After college,he got his first job in newspapers after answering an ad for awriter in his hometown Daily Local News in West Chester, Pa.

"I walked into the newsroom, my first time ever, and said, OK, thisis a fun environment, this is what I want to do," he recalls. Hewent on to work at the Albuquerque Tribune and for the SouthFlorida Sun-Sentinel, and freelanced for a few years for TheWashington Post and other publications before settling in at theDenver Post. Now he has gone national with the "sex book," whichhas been optioned for a movie by Twentieth Century Fox.

Many memoirs these days run into fact- checking problems. Brownobserves, "We kind of realized, short of having a notary publicperhaps with a video somehow time-dated, it would be a difficultthing to ultimately prove." But the book's acknowledgements pagesurely enhances the author's bona fides: it includes heartfeltthanks to the couple's yoga teachers, as well as the makers ofincense, massage kits ("with feathers!"), India Pale Ale,thigh-high stockings, and Viagra.