Sex Secrets Are out of the Closet : Therapist takes the reader into the minds of patients who have shameful feelings and destructive sexual patterns.

When the repression of painful memories prevents us from functioning as sexually normal adults, says Long Beach sex therapist Carol G. Wells, we find ourselves plagued with sexual secrets.

Wells calls those secrets “naked ghosts”--ghosts that continue to haunt us and prevent us from experiencing our full sexual potential.

In “Naked Ghosts: Intimate Stories from the Files of a Sex Therapist” (Prentice Hall Press; $18.95), Wells takes the reader into the minds of five “ordinary people” who have blocked out certain events in their lives and, as a result, have shameful feelings and destructive sexual patterns.

Although the incidents portrayed in the book are true, Wells said, the descriptions of the people in the book are “composites” of patients with whom she has worked over the years.

“The goal of the book is to help adults understand the importance of childhood sexual development; that while, as adults we can’t see anything sexual in children, there is a lot of sexual development going on and we need to be aware of that,” said Wells.

Not all the examples in the book deal with repressed childhood memories. In some cases, Wells said, the painful memories happened later in life, but the person “just didn’t understand why they were so significant to create problems that they’re dealing with as adults.”

Wells said, for example, that one woman in the book who had had a nine-year unconsummated marriage had been the victim of a date rape in her 20s.

“It’s a different kind of read,” said Wells. “It’s not a typical self-help book, and it’s not a clinical case-study book. It’s more like story-telling. That’s the way it was designed, and when people read it, they’re quite surprised to find they get very involved in the stories.”

Wells, who is a clinical faculty member at the UC Irvine College of Medicine, writes a column, “Your Sex Life,” which appears in Knight-Ridder newspapers around the country. She is also the author of “Right Brain Sex: Using Creative Visualization to Enhance Sexual Pleasure,” which was published last year by Prentice-Hall Press.

Lucille Milburn Wall of Santa Ana wrote her first poem in 1931 when she was 10. At 70, she’s still at it and now she has self-published her first book of poetry.

The paperback “Poetry for People (Who Don’t Like Poetry)” contains more than 100 of Wall’s poems written between 1940 and 1990.

There are poems on everything from raising her children in the ‘40s and the difficulty people have in giving up smoking to the Vietnam War and Wall’s “thoughts at 50.” She’s written poems about a friend’s face lift and the common cold.

“There’s a little tongue-in-cheek, a little political, a little of everything,” said Wall.

With a laugh, she added that she even wrote a poem about a thumbtack hole. “I think I’ve just written about whatever pops into my head.”

So what’s been the motivation to take pen in hand all these years?

“I don’t know how a poet explains that,” she said. “It’s just there. It’s something that touches me emotionally. I’ve had to jot down things when I’m writing on the freeway, whatever.

It starts inside of you and it keeps eating at you. You have to put it down on paper.”

So why, after all these years, has she put them in a book?

“My friends kept after me, until I just thought, ‘I think I will,’ ” she said.

And how did she arrive at the book’s title?

“I have a lot of friends who say, ‘I don’t like poetry; I hate poetry,’ ” she said, noting that she received a letter from a friend who said her husband never reads poetry, “but he sat down and read me this whole book out loud.”

Wall has donated copies of her book to several libraries, including those in Orange, Garden Grove and San Juan Capistrano. It’s also available, at $9.95, at Courtyard Books in Tustin and Lorson’s Books & Prints in Fullerton.

Literary Contest: The 17th annual UC Irvine-sponsored Chicano-Latino Literary Contest will have a new twist this year: Short stories, poetry and plays have traditionally been accepted as entries, but now the contest is limited to novels.

“Now that the competition is well established, we have changed the orientation to recognize only major works in complete book form,” said contest director Juan Bruce-Novoa. “But there is no specific requirement regarding Latino content, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.”

The contest--the longest-running literary prize in Chicano-Latino literature--is open to published and unpublished authors who are citizens or permanent residents of the United States.

Cash prizes totaling $3,500 are being offered. First prize is $2,000, transportation to Irvine to accept the award and publication of the novel. Second prize is $1,000; third prize is $500.

The deadline for entries is May 31. For details, call (714) 856-5702.

Round Table West: Attorney-author Vincent Bugliosi (“And the Sea Will Tell”), actor MacDonald Carey (“The Days of My Life”), hairstylist Jose Eber (“Beyond Hair: The Ultimate Makeover Book”) and first-time novelist Whitney Otto (“How to Make an American Quilt”) will discuss their books at the Round Table West meeting on March 28 at the Balboa Bay Club. Tickets: $30 (includes lunch). Advance reservations required. (213) 256-7977.

Poets Reading: Los Angeles poet Lalaland, who has branched out into a career in stand-up comedy, will demonstrate her satirical wit at the Poets Reading meeting at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Fullerton Museum Center, 301 N. Pomona Ave., Fullerton. Also appearing: Long Beach balladeer and musician Katie Soljak. Cost: $3. For more information, call Michael Logue at (714) 441-1820.

Send information about book-related events to: Books & Authors, View, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626. Deadline is two weeks before publication.