Publications update!

I have a few new short stories out and upcoming.

"Vanilla." May 2011. Dream Lover: Paranormal Tales of Erotic Romance. Cleis Press. Kristina Wright, editor.

"Crimean Fairy Tale." August 2011. The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance. Sonia Florens, editor. Running Press (USA)/Robinson (UK).

"Under Her Uniform (Hailey's Story)." May 2012. Spice Brief. Harlequin. Available only in electronic format. This story involves characters who appeared in The Moonlight Mistress.

"The Airplane Story." June 2012. Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians. Cleis Press. Sacchi Green, ed.

My regular blogging continues here.

"Writing Explicitly" at Kate Elliott's blog

Today, I'm posting on "Writing Explicitly" at Kate Elliott's blog - visit, comment!

Happy Thanksgiving!

And in other news, Erotic Exploits is now available for the Nook. If you have a Nook, and are willing to download the free sample, please let me know if the formatting looks all right or is terrible. The preview function does not seem to be working for me.

Speculative Erotica Markets -- Philcon 2010

Almost every year at Philcon, I moderate the panel on selling fantastic (science fiction and fantasy) erotica. It was interesting this year to note how the panel topics have shifted over time: print to electronic to self-electronic.

For several years, after I first began to publish erotica, just before the beginning of the twenty-first century, at science fiction conventions I would give talks or host discussion groups on selling science fiction/fantasy erotica. I would focus on short stories, in particular selling sf/f erotica to mainstream erotica markets, also discussing sex in science fiction/fantasy in general. Once I'd sold novels, I added in chat about print publication, and my experiences writing erotica for Harlequin.

For the last few years, another local author, Stephanie Burke, has also participated in the Philcon panels; she focuses on electronic publishing, mostly in erotic romance, and talks about how she broke into and continues to sell to those markets.

This year, for the first time I found myself discussing self-publishing at the panel, as well. It seems to be the year of it. I read an interesting article in the Novelists, Inc. newsletter about how cover quality can influence sales of Kindle/Smashwords/etc. books; if you've received back the rights to a novel from your print publisher, usually you will need to do a new cover. Some writers have seen significant sales increases simply from getting a new, better cover that looks good as a thumbnail. One of this year's panelists was L.W. Perkins, a cover artist for numerous small presses and for electronic press Liquid Silver (please note her site is undergoing renovation at the moment; I gave the link for future reference).

I've been following reports from fellow writers who've experimented with electronically publishing novels or short stories they were unable to sell elsewhere, or that were out of print; sometimes they have significant sales. I've been following discussions of using free Kindle downloads to encourage sales of an author's backlist.

Last year, I didn't have any of that information. This year, discussion of these possibilities is becoming more and more mainstream.

Rachel Kramer Bussel interview

Please welcome my guest, Rachel Kramer Bussel! Rachel and I met almost a decade back, when we were both reading our stories from Best Lesbian Erotica at Bluestockings in New York City. She graciously consented to answer some questions I had about the process of editing and her latest anthology, Passion: Erotic Romance for Women.

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How do you choose a focus for an anthology? How did you choose the focus of Passion?

I try to look at what readers might want to read, what I’m interested in, and what would be fun to work on. I like having a theme but it’s tricky because you don’t want the stories to be too similar to each other, so a theme like passion and erotic romance is wide enough that there’s room for plenty of variety.

I’ve done a lot of kinky anthologies and wanted to try something a little sweeter and more romantic, though there is definitely kink in it. I was surprised to find that it was a challenge to write my own story, “Five Senses,” but it also brought me to a range of new authors who work in the erotic romance field, something I’m looking forward to continuing with 2011’s Obsessed anthology, and another erotic romance book to follow.

How does your original idea for an anthology translate into the call for submissions, and into the stories you eventually choose?

Sometimes it’s a more exact match than others, and that process has gotten refined over time. I put out very detailed calls in terms of what they should look like but regarding content try to leave plenty of room to allow authors to come up with whatever strikes their fancy.

To me the beauty of editing an anthology is that so much of it is based on the writers’ creativity; they always come up with a cool take on my original idea that I never could have foreseen. One great example of that in Passion is Jacqueline Applebee’s story “My Dark Knight.” I know nothing about Renaissance Fair type of play but I didn’t need to to appreciate her story, which also touches on the uncertainty of new relationships, especially where you really like someone and aren’t sure exactly how they feel about you. I look for stories that have a real-life nuance to them, where even if the plot is outlandish, there’s relatable emotion between the characters.

What's the hardest part of choosing stories? The most fun?

The hardest part is rejecting stories. I hate that, and sometimes it makes me want to quit editing anthologies because it’s not fun at all, but I also know I’ll always be working on new anthologies so I can pass along those calls for submissions.

The most fun part is finding a story that just nails the theme perfectly and is so wonderful I want to read it to everyone I know. Those are the gems and make the very time-consuming process of reading submissions a joy.

How do you choose the order in which stories appear? What input does the publisher have into the final product?

I tend to select the first and last stories as ones that will, respectively, suck the reader in and leave the reader satisfied but maybe wanting a little more, and beyond that, I don’t have a highly scientific ordering process. I add stories as I go over a few months of editing, and at the end may move them around. I like to build up to the more intense stories, but a lot of it, for me, is actually pretty random.

Cleis Press rarely alters the order of the stories, though they do have final approval of manuscripts and sometimes stories get cut for space or if they aren’t quite a fit with the book. I appreciate this attention to detail and think it makes the books truly beautiful, inside and out. They find outstanding cover photographs and work hard to create quality, memorable books.

What was the first anthology you edited? How did that come about?

I co-edited the anthology Up All Night: True Lesbian Sex Stories, and was brought on board by co-editor Stacy Bias. She asked me to help and that book includes stories by Tristan Taormino and L. Elise Bland. That came out in 2004 and then soon after I started editing anthologies on my own, like Glamour Girls: Femme/Femme Erotica and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z.

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Thanks, Rachel! I'm looking forward to the anthology!

My Smashwords Experiment

Recently, I decided to experiment with Smashwords and Kindle publishing. So far, I much prefer the interface and FAQs on Smashwords, though I've been told most people sell more copies through Kindle.

For my experimental book, I compiled all of my lesbian erotica that was also speculative fiction (some science fiction, some fantasy). All of these stories were originally in print.

Here's the result, Erotic Exploits. You can download a free sample that's 25% of the total, which means at least the whole first story.

Table of Contents:

"Free Falling"
"Camera"
"Wire"
"Toy"
"The Princess on the Rock"
"Place, Park, Scene, Dark"
"Mo'o and the Woman" (also available for free online, elsewhere)

If you buy or download, please let me know how the formatting came through on your device.

How Many Sex Scenes?

I recently read a contemporay romance and got into a brief discussion about the sex scenes.

I'd been perfectly comfortable with the amount of sex that was shown. The story focused on the two characters' relationship issues and issues that were them versus society; basically, Love Against the Odds. So far as sex went, they didn't really have any issues. They were physically compatible from the moment they met, and didn't have much trouble affirming their love physically. They were shown kissing, they were shown in bed with fades-to-black. It was clear they were getting along fine so far as sex was concerned. I was okay with not knowing explicitly what they were doing.

Another reader, who'd also liked the book, wanted at least one sex scene to be slightly more explicit, suggesting that the sex scenes ought to match the emotional intensity of the rest of the book, which is quite long and definitely weighted on the emotional side of the characters' relationship. I can see that, too. Balance isn't a bad thing.

However, I think it's also okay not to have explicit sex scenes in a romance novel. This book was marketed as a romance, not an erotic romance. Enough of the characters' erotic relationship was shown, I feel, for the reader to have the necessary information about it. I think it worked...but I can also see the other reader's point. The book could have been much richer had the couple's problems in their public lives been reflected in their private lives, with commentary in both directions.

However, perhaps the book I'm imagining would have been another book entirely. After all, it's not my book I thinking about. It's someone else's book. My book would have been different in many ways.

Have you read books that you thought didn't show enough sex? What made you feel that way?

Be vewy quiet; I'm adding geeky detail!

There are various schools of thought about adding historical detail to fiction. Sometimes you want more detail, sometimes less; partly, that depends on the book's genre. For example, in a Tom Clancy novel such as The Hunt for Red October, there is a lot--a lot--of detail about nuclear submarines. But if you're reading that book, it's likely that one of the reasons is because of all that lovely, crunchy technical detail.

Historical novels need historical detail. But how about historical erotica? How much historical detail does there need to be?

drumroll

There should be as much historical detail as I want. And the geekier, the better.

If the details I choose to include are not what the reader expects, that's all to the good. Those details will stick better for being unusual. (cf. the picture of a horse wearing a gas mask.) And because they stick in the reader's mind, they're more useful for building up a picture of the time period, and also a picture that feels deeper and richer than whatever generalized ideas the reader might have had. (What does World War One mean to you? Trenches? There was fighting in the mountains of Italy, as well. And in Africa.) I feel anything that brings the reader more completely into the story is a good thing.

The more geeky the detail, the more that detail feels specific. Specificity is important; the more specific, the more vivid and immediate the image becomes in the reader's mind. You can say, there were birds. Or you can say, she remembered the poignant cries of bitterns and the song of reed-warblers, and the occasional slow dignified silent soaring of a heron towards the far horizon.

The more specific the detail, the less often you have to use detail, and the more subtly you can use it.

Related Posts:

Historical Detail in Fiction.

Research: When to Stop.

Writing for Women, Writing for Men

I read about a workshop at the RWA Conference whose topic, I think, was writing for women versus writing for men. I didn't attend, so the actual title didn't stick in my mind. However, it sparked thoughts, and I of course had to pour those thoughts into a blog post. With a hot picture of Josephine Baker wearing a top hat.

I write for women. At least I think I do. The line that publishes my novels, Harlequin Spice, is aimed at a female audience, so by default that says I write for women, right? I'm not sure what that means, exactly, beyond "books most women will like," which to me also suggests "books some men will also like."

I've had reports from a few men who've read either The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover or The Moonlight Mistress or both. Most have been boyfriends or husbands of female friends who'd bought the book. All of the men whom I've heard from, about five, so it's not a large sample, have liked the books; most commented not only on the stories, but on the erotica. They commented very favorably on the erotica; more so than some female readers who told me they were uncomfortable with the language I used.

I didn't really expect to hear anything from male readers, especially not that they'd liked the sex scenes. Possible factors include 1) these particular men like reading erotica in general, and are willing to talk about it; 2) my direct language in the sex scenes appeals to men; and 3) they were just being nice.

I don't really have any conclusions. Though I do wonder how I might market my books more effectively across genders.

Thoughts? Comments?

"i like my body when it is with your body," e.e. cummings,

i like my body when it is with your
body. It is so quite new a thing.
Muscles better and nerves more.
i like your body. i like what it does,
i like its hows. i like to feel the spine
of your body and its bones,and the trembling
-firm-smooth ness and which i will
again and again and again
kiss, i like kissing this and that of you,
i like,slowly stroking the,shocking fuzz
of your electric fur,and what-is-it comes
over parting flesh....And eyes big love-crumbs,

and possibly i like the thrill

of under me you so quite new

--e.e. cummings

Eroticism in To Have and To Hold by Patricia Gaffney

I recently read Patricia Gaffney's To Have and To Hold for the first time. If I'd only read the first section of the book (a bit less than half), I could easily interpret it as an erotic novel, though one without much explicit sex. To explain why I think that, first I have to talk about the book as a whole.

There's a lot of discussion of this novel mostly because of its hero, aristocrat Sebastian Verlaine. Sebastian enacts a "forced seduction" of the heroine, Rachel Wade, who was imprisoned for ten years for the death of her abusive husband. Sebastian later allows his acquaintances to verbally torment Rachel; if Sebastian had not acted at the last minute, he would have tacitly allowed her to be raped by one of them. However, after and because of these actions on Sebastian's part, a switch flips in his personality and he becomes the Rake Reformed who's hoping to be Redeemed. From then on he is, like Mary Poppins, practically perfect in every way as a romantic hero; "He had two immediate goals: to make her laugh and to make her come."

I am vastly simplifying. It's difficult to do otherwise with this complex and rewarding novel, which I'm still thinking about (I'll no doubt have more to say a few months from now). Sebastian still has flaws in the book's second section but, well, I can sum up his character shift by saying he gives her a puppy. And a conservatory. Both of these are things Rachel desperately desires and was denied while in prison; he responds to her deep needs with deep acuity.

In return, Rachel gives him a copy of an opera libretto which he truly loves. Throughout, she can often interpret the motives behind his actions. She becomes an expert on him. I think part of her skill at interpreting him is that she suffers from PTSD, because of her experiences with her husband and in prison; she's hyperattentive to people who might be threats. However, she is also easily devastated by kindness and tenderness; after Sebastian's reversal, she gives him her trust, which to me is much more impressive than Sebastian's reform. The second section is the epitome of romantic fantasy; ultimate trust and ultimate knowledge of the other.

In both sections, Sebastian is extremely attuned to Rachel: first cruelly, then kindly; first focused on his own gratification through her, secondly on her gratification. But back to the eroticism. Rachel's sexual desires are shut away for the first part of the novel. She cannot fully access that part of her until Sebastian changes, so I feel her true journey towards wholeness happens more in the second section than the first, when her erotic feelings are tightly bound up with emotional/romantic feelings (something our society perceives as normal for women).

Therefore, I looked at Sebastian's erotic journey. At first, he can sense the barriers between him and Rachel. The only way he can allow himself to think of removing those barriers is with sex; he's a dissipated rake; seduction is what he does. He cannot change his character except through sex. He thus makes her into an erotic object, and seeks to break her down to his level. "Her passivity irked him." "He felt pity for her, and curiosity, and an undeniably lurid sense of anticipation." "She was in his power, a virtual slave. The situation was unquestionably provocative, but it ought to have been more so, more stimulating. He hadn't really gotten to her yet. She simply didn't care enough." "Because of her reserve, touching her seemed a daring encroachment, almost like the breaking of a taboo. But wasn't that what made her irresistible?" "...that master-servant simulation had piquant sexual overtones he found stimulating."

Then Sebastian begins to lose his emotional distance and is having trouble seeing her merely as an erotic object. He has to work harder at it. "He entertained himself by imagining her in lewd sexual situations, but the man in his fantasies was always himself; when he tried to put a deviant or a pervert in them with her, someone who hurt her or degraded her--someone other than himself--the fantasies evaporated, leaving him with a bad taste in the mouth."

His feelings of distaste lead him into a little more self-awareness, and realization that he wants more from her than her body. He's beginning to get the idea that there will be a form of exchange between them. "...he'd seen a change coming in himself for a while now. Out of boredom and cynicism, he was starting to become nasty. He didn't approve of it, but in some ways he saw it as inevitable...But the older he got, the less fun he was having. It took more every day to divert him, and lately he'd begun moving gradually, with misgivings, into excess. There were no vices and few depravities he hadn't tasted, with differing degrees of satisfaction. He worried that when he ran out, he would choose a few favorites and indulge in them until they killed him...he had some idea that if he could possess her, the essence of what he lacked and she had would be his. He would appropriate it." "...he alternated between wanting to save her and wanting to push her to her limit."

He doesn't go about seduction very well at all. His thoughts here are far from romantic. But his analysis of his seductive maneuvers made me think of erotica, the sort with a psychological bent. "Her silence and her manner--completely withdrawn--suggested that their first time together was not going to be particularly transcendent, and that his best course would be simply to get it over with. That was one way. Another would be to exploit her provocative unwillingness, use it to heighten his pleasure--and hers, too, if she would let it. For the hundredth time he wondered what her husband had done to her. Since he didn't know and she wouldn't tell him, it seemed he had no choice but to enjoy her in any way he liked...He considered stopping everything and letting her go, but only for a split second, before the thought flew off to wherever bad ideas go."

After the forced seduction (I use that term rather than rape because this is a novel, and a fantasy scenario), Gaffney complicates the encounter further with Rachel's thoughts. "She understood why her fear of him had diminished...It was because she'd discovered from the most intimate experience that, unlike her husband, he was not thoroughly corrupt. He spoke of the "piquancy" of her unwillingness, and she didn't doubt that he found it so, but he had never hurt her, not really, and she knew with a bone-deep certainty that he never would. His methods of coercion were subtler, and maybe it was sophistry to say that therefore they were kinder. But she had been used by men in both ways now, brutally and gently, and she could say without equivocation that she much preferred Sebastian's."

After they've been intimate, Sebastian tries to regain the self he was before, by encouraging himself to separate from her emotionally. While his acquaintances torment Rachel with invasive questions, he picks at the piano keys. "The unimaginativeness of his friends' preoccupations ought not to have surprised him, but it did. Had they always been this shallow and insipid? This vicious? What made him think he was any different from them?" "...this was different. This was worse. He was letting it happen, watching it grow more beastly by the minute, because he wasn't testing her anymore. He was testing himself." "The worst for Sebastian was recognizing his own soft, mocking tone in Sully's despicable cadence. He felt physically sick." "He felt the tear down the middle of himself widening, and that was wrong; it should have been narrowing. He'd just done a thing to make himself whole again."

And then emotion breaks through, and Sebastian changes. "He heard a snap in his head, exactly like a bone breaking, and at once the eerie fugue state evaporated. His past and his future had broken cleanly in two. This, now, was the present, a violent limbo he had to smash his way out of to survive."

The rest of the novel is all about emotional intimacy; even the sex scenes are about emotional intimacy. But in the first section, the sex and erotic thoughts are deeply tied with the hero's journey to self-awareness, and the heroine's journey towards feeling sexual desire through trust and intimacy.

Comments?

Erotica Under the Skin

I want to read erotica from the inside.

The surface elements are much less important to me than how the characters feel. A bland setting or one that is poorly realized is, to me, a flaw, and an intriguing one is a bonus, but I don’t absolutely require fabulous worldbuilding. For me, erotica is about the characters.

If the characters are bland, unoriginal, lacking in conflict, then what’s the point of me reading the story? If the characters are intriguing enough, they don’t need to be having sex while riding an elephant up the side of a mountain in the middle of a thunderstorm. If what they’re thinking and wanting and feeling while they have sex interests me, I only need a few key details of what they’re actually doing.

Some erotica, often touted as “literary,” might have other priorities, such as elaborate prose, political commentary, or thought-provoking plot elements. Sometimes I am in the mood for that. But overall, character is the most important element I look for.

I don't care what gender the characters are, or if the story is about a pair or a menage or simply strangers who've met up for a single occasion. I care whether they're interesting.

Adventures in Pronouns - Jessica Freely Guest Post

Please welcome my guest, Jessica Freely!

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Hi everybody and good morning! First of all, I want to thank Victoria for generously opening her blog to me -- again. I had a great time last time I was a guest here and I'm sure today will be just as much fun.

In a second I'm going to tell you a bit about my new release, Amaranth & Ash, and one particular challenge I faced in writing it. Before I do, I want to make a couple of announcements. We're running a contest today, right here on Victoria's blog. Leave a comment and you'll be entered to win a free copy of Amaranth & Ash. That's easy, isn't it? Secondly, a free short story featuring some of the major characters from Amaranth & Ash is up in the files section of my newsletter group. It's called Amaranth & Grail and it's available exclusively to newsletter members, so if you'd like to join, here's the link.

Okay, on to the matter at hand. Amaranth & Ash is an erotic male/transmale fantasy romance set on a highly stratified colonized world. Amaranth is a vasai, born with both male and female characteristics and forbidden from sexual relations with any but the ruling class. Ash is a chel, a member of the underclass. Their unlawful passion ignites a rebellion and transforms their world.

In my other life I'm a science fiction and fantasy author and with Amaranth & Ash I decided to create a full-blown world with all the bells and whistles. I created a society, a religion, an economy, and a geography, and I had a blast doing it. Harken's Landing, the setting of the story, is a city founded by colonists from earth who came to their new world to escape oppression back home. As these things sometimes go, no sooner had they landed than they began oppressing one another. The society is strictly segregated by caste, and each caste has its own distinctive physical characteristics.

When it came to the vasai, who are intersex, I had some decisions to make regarding pronouns. I realized I had an opportunity here to play with gender neutral pronouns. But before I'd even finished writing the book, I had people telling me I couldn't do that. Reasons given were that it's distracting to the reader and that gender-neutral pronouns "just sound silly."

I'm not real big on being told I can't do something, especially when the evidence summoned to support the sanction is subjective. Isn't speculative fiction supposed to be about imagining worlds and people radically different from our own? How far can we really get if we must constantly adhere to a gender binary system? I felt locked into a male-female dichotomy that I don't happen to think represents contemporary humans very accurately, let alone the people of Harken's Landing. Worst of all was the expectation that I was supposed to accept that as "just the way it is."

So, predictably, I started fooling around with all kinds of pronoun systems. A great resource I found is Regender.com. With this handy web tool, you can read any internet web page a variety of ways: with gender pronouns switched, with gender neutral pronouns, or with pronouns based on race instead of gender. It's a fascinating way to shake up your preconceptions and I recommend it.

I had a wealth of ideas to play with. My personal favorite was a caste-based pronoun system I devised. It made sense! After all, in Harken's Landing the most important thing that everyone needs to know about you, before anything else, is your caste. So it stands to reason that their language conventions would enshrine caste divisions instead of reproductive roles. To keep it simple, I created pronouns for each caste based off of the name of the caste. It looked like this:

Male - He smiled. - I kissed him. - His hands shake. - That is his.
Female - She smiled. - I kissed her. - Her hands shake. - That is hers.
Elai - Ei smiled. - I kissed Eir. - Eir hands shake. - That is Eirs.
Vasai - Va smiled. - I kissed var. - Var hands shake. - That is vars.
Pel - Pe smiled. - I kissed per. - Per hands shake. - That is pers.
Chel - Che laughed - I kissed chem. - Ches hands shake. - That is ches.

See? Simple!

Here is a section of Amaranth & Ash and how it would have read if I had gone with this idea:

Evanscar inclined var head. Even with var soul packed up tight as a fist, Amaranth could feel the vasai’s eyes boring though var back as va made var way to the refreshments. Va handed var empty glass to Build, the pel attendant. "Thank you," pe said.

Then, Parnal appeared. Amaranth went to Eir immediately, took Eir hands, and bowed over them. "Can you forgive me?”

Parnal was a middle-aged Elai of solid proportions, a hair shorter than Amaranth but wider and thicker. Ei was balding, and the hair that remained was dark with flecks of gray and trimmed short. Eir eyes were pale blue, Eir face rectangular and stolid. “I wondered if perhaps I had done something to put you off,” Ei said.

Hmm. Interesting? Perhaps. But readable? Well... even I had to admit that the pronoun business was distracting.

I had a decision to make. Was I going to market Amaranth and Ash as a romance, or as experimental science fiction? Call me mercenary if you like, but I had a pretty good idea of the respective markets for each. I knew I was choosing between getting Amaranth and Ash in front of a decent sized audience within the year, or in front of a tiny audience in two to three years, maybe. Since Amaranth and Ash began as a love story, I decided to do what I had to in order to keep the romance front and center for my readers. That meant scaling back on my adventures in pronouns quite a bit.

But I didn't want to abandon the idea entirely. I decided to compromise by having individual vasai adopt a pronoun of choice that can be male, female, or gender neutral. While Amaranth identifies as male, Grail, a third major character in the book, identifies as gender neutral.

Now the question became what gender neutral pronouns to adopt. I have a wonderful editor at Loose Id, and she worked with the copyediting staff and me on this issue. We considered keeping the va, var, vars pronouns, but finally decided to go with sie and hir. Next to the colloquial use of the singular they, sie and hir are the most common gender neutral pronouns currently in use in English. They look more like what we expect to see as pronouns too, making them less distracting. Hopefully my approach serves to introduce the concept of gender neutral identity without turning the story into a vocabulary exercise.

In the end, I'm highly satisfied with the way Amaranth & Ash turned out. The story is one of love across social boundaries and the backdrop of Ash and Amaranth's love affair is the breakdown of a rigid hierarchy based on class and race. Gender identity is actually a minor part of the story, but it's the part I struggled the most with because our own culture and language place so much emphasis on he and she as absolute and exclusive to one another.

You can buy Amaranth and Ash here.

I wonder what other kinds of ideas the conventions of our language make it difficult for us to have? What do you think?

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Thanks, Jessica!

I Don't Read It For the Sex.

I don't read erotica for the sex.

Well, not entirely. I know. I write the stuff, so why I don't I read it for its intended purpose? Possibly for the same reason that a pastry chef might not eat pastry at home. Back when I first began writing erotica, I read a lot of it, anthology upon anthology. I read with a critical eye. For the most part, these days when I look at an erotic scene I can't help but dissect it. Only a few authors are able to engage me enough with the characters that I can be lost in the scene solely for story's sake. Occasionally, something unexpected will serve the same purpose, some new way of writing or describing, but that happens even less.

These days, when I read erotica, I read it for the story. Go ahead and laugh - I'm not lying. What I'm looking for in erotica isn't sex. I look for what goes along with the sex. I like characters having problems and finding solutions; I like characters who are having adventures; and, most of all, I like when the characters and their actions challenge the status quo in some way. To me, any story that gives me characters outside of the ordinary run of stories, or outside of society's mainstream, is interesting. In other words, I want there to be more than just sex. Otherwise, there's no meaning.

What I want is simple, but it's surprisingly hard to find. A lot of erotica focuses so intensely on a single pair that it feels insular to me. I like having a sense of what they're up against, "It's us against the world." Or against the genre. That works for me, too.

What works for you?

Lydia Parks - Guest Post

Please welcome my guest, Lydia Parks!

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Thank you, Vickie, for inviting me to be your guest. I'm thrilled to be here, even if only virtually.

I know readers and aspiring authors like to hear how published authors got started. (I know this because I've been both! Yes, and I'm still a reader.) I'm happy to tell you my (semi-goofy) story.

I didn't start out to be a writer. Actually, I'm an engineer. One fateful night, I sat down to watch television--it was a cold winter night in Alaska, so it seemed like the thing to do--and I caught the first episode of "Forever Knight." Yow! Talk about a show before its time! I was a fan of Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire, and this show was created just for me. It had all the sexual conflict and darkness with a cast of wonderful Canadian actors. I was hooked. Big time.

This happened in 1992 when the Internet was a new thing. My DH was one of the first people I knew who managed to hook in. As the Net grew, I discovered a group writing fanfiction for Forever Knight (stories that use the show's characters--the "episodes that were never filmed" concept). I jumped in and started writing. We all shared our stories with others online we'd never meet (or so we thought, but that comes later). When the show was cancelled after three seasons and most of the characters killed off, we all went into mourning. Then a couple dozen of us got together and wrote "Season 4." It was a blast, and I was picked to write an episode. I can't remember the name of it at the moment…maybe it'll come to me. Anyway, each "author" was assigned an editor, and mine turned out to be a real editor from New York. Once we'd finished the episode, she suggested I write a romance novel, so I did. I wish I knew who that editor was. I'd like to thank her.

There's more to the story--hours of heartache, a hundred or so "dear author" rejection letters, the long, hard road of learning to write a novel, the excitement of selling, etc.--but I won't go into all the details. I managed to sell some romance novels and a couple of mysteries, and then was asked to try my hand at erotica. "Erotica?" I thought. Hmm. Hot sex, dark alpha characters…vampires! Of course! So I started with the Nathan Cotton series (published by eXtasy Books), then sold some hot, juicy vampires to Aphrodisia (Addicted and Devour Me). I also have a vampire in a Nocturne Bite ("Shadow Lover") from Silhouette.

Maybe because of where I started, I'm a semi-purist when it comes to vampires. I'm not into the Nosferatu kind of vampires, all warty and pointy-eared, but definitely the Nick Knight version. My vampires can't go out in the sun and they aren't part-anything-else. A stake through the heart definitely does them in. And most of them can't stand garlic. They exist in the normal world, not a fantasy place filled with other super-naturals. One thing they all want is human blood, and it's always a very sexual experience for both vamps and humans when they take it. I just love the angst-ridden vampire image, even if he isn't always full of angst. It's all about the Hunger.

My latest story out from Nocturne Bites, "Marked" – which is available right now on eHarlequin.com – isn't about a vampire, but a shape-shifter. It's set in New Mexico and has a Native American flavor (thanks to a good friend who agreed to be my advisor). I really like the story. Maybe because it, too, has the hunger factor. He doesn't want to drink her blood…he just WANTS HER!

What I've realized about vampire (or shape-shifter) erotica is that it's no different than any other writing. If there's no conflict, it isn't interesting for me as either an author or a reader. I'm not saying that reading hot sex isn't fun, it's just that I can't read 200 pages of hot sex without a good story in there, too. Vampires present an automatic element of conflict; he wants her but he might kill her if he gives in to his desires. That's pretty strong conflict. However, if you can give the conflict a twist, you'll have a much stronger story. He's a vampire…if he takes her, he loses his only chance to see the sunlight again…she's actually a vampire hunter…she thinks he killed her father…get creative! What's the worst thing that could happen to him? The answer should be "her." Romance is a great basis for erotica, with or without vampires.

Oh, and I promised you the rest of the story. For my 39th birthday (I'm not telling you how long ago it was, but the photos are fading), I got to meet my favorite vampire: Geraint Wyn Davies who played Nick Knight. What a hunk, and an absolutely fabulous person! A good friend and I went to a crazy weekend event with 80 women and Ger. I must admit, I had a blast, but it was kind of a strange thing to do. Several of us got together to swap stories about what we'd told our friends and family we were spending the weekend doing: business meeting, friend's wedding, therapy. Too funny. Anyway, I met a bunch of the people I'd been sharing fanfiction with. I even got to sign a few stories--my first autographs! I'll always remember that weekend more than just a little fondly.

One thing I got from that event was an important lesson: know that the people reading what you're writing are real, they're out there somewhere, and you just might meet them! [toothy grin with fangs]

If you want to find out about any of my vamps or other creatures, please visit my website. I love to hear from readers!

Thank you again, Vickie! [hugs]

"He was brought across in 1228...preyed on humans for their blood..."

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Thanks, Lydia!

Any other fans of television vampires out there? And do they inspire you to write?

This is the first post in a little Vampire Blogging Festival I'm hosting. My upcoming guests include:

5/18 - M.K. Mancos
5/19 - Gemma Files
5/20 - Cate Hart
5/21 - Suzy McKee Charnas
6/2 - Anna Katherine
6/4 - Evie Byrne

Sex for the Oppositional

I'm sure I've seen another discussion, somewhere on the Internet at somewhen, a discussion of villains and sex. If I could remember where or when, I would hunt it up and post the links for your reading pleasure. But since I can't, I'll just ramble in my usual fashion.

The villain of a story doesn't necessarily need to be Evil. They usually have more depth if they're like everyone else, and don't think of themselves as bad. There are villains in romance novels, and in erotica. Often, if the villian has sex, it's not ordinary sex. It's evil sex. Or cruel sex. Or sex that just isn't very good.

Is that fair? No, it is not.

Villains--or perhaps we should call them "Oppositional Characters"--need love more than the main pairing who are, after all, guaranteed a happy ending most of the time.

I know you're asking, "What can I do? How can I help these poor, lonely characters?"

You don't need to invite them into your home, or even donate money. Simply give them a chance! Or at the very least, a nice new sex toy that they and their partners will enjoy. Let these characters find a little tenderness as they strive to destroy the protagonist's happiness, or the world. Remember, Oppositional Characters need love, too.

"Water Music" free read!

I've put a new, downloadable free read up on my website. It's my first published story from December 2000, lesbian erotica titled "Water Music."

You can download it here.

When I participated in a reading for this anthology, at Bluestockings in New York City, not only did I meet other writers whom I still correspond with today, I was also privileged to see my story interpreted in American Sign Language. The interpreter told me she'd spent the day practicing the stories in a coffee shop, hoping desperately all the while that no one sitting nearby could understand what she was saying.

Contraception in World War One

A History of Contraception: From Antiquity to the Present Day. Angus McLaren. Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1990.

p. 183-184 "Bentham declared in 1797 that population could be controlled not by a 'prohibitory act' or a 'dead letter' but by 'a sponge', indicating that a range of contraceptives was already known to the late eighteenth-century, middle-class readers of the Annals Of Agriculture. Carlile, in the first book published in England on birth control--Every Woman's Book: Or What Is Love (1826)--described the woman's use of a sponge, the man's employment of a baudruche or 'glove' and partial or complete withdrawal."

Marie Stopes published Married Love in 1918, which eventually sold over a million copies. She published Wise Parenthood later in 1918. She opened her clinic in 1921.

"In Europe [condoms] were still being made of animal skins and silk into the twentieth century; French propagandists provided information on how housewives could make condoms or baudruches from intenstines purchased at butcher shops...by the 1850s relatively cheap rubber condoms were available in the United States, A.M. Mauriceau offering to sell them at $5.00 a dozen."

19th century: condoms were too expensive for many people, and were prone to bursting. Also associated with disease and prostitution.

p. 184-185 "The invention of the diaphragm did represent a significant innovation in fertility control." 1882: "a soft rubber shield." Expensive, and had to be fitted by a physician. Douching after intercourse was recommended, though it was less effective than coitus interruptus.

Spermicides in the form of powders or jellies began to be developed at the turn of the century. Soluble quinine pessary in use in the 1880s. Women also made their own pessaries from cocoa butter or glycerine.

Latter decades of 19th century both useful and dubious contraceptives and abortifacients could be bought by mail or in barber shops, rubber goods stores, and pharmacies. Salesmen went door-to-door in some neighborhoods.

p. 217 Margaret Sanger founded the American Birth Control League in 1916. Opened her clinic in 1923.

p. 186 "nineteenth century Europeans' first means of limiting births was..simply abstaining from intercourse." Upper classes could have separate beds and/or bedrooms for husband and wife. People married later at end of 19th century. Rhythm method also followed by some, once idea of fertile periods discovered; unfortunately, the truth of a woman's cycle was not discovered for a long time. Extended nursing another method of limiting births.

p. 195 "Holy Mother we believe / Without sin thou didst conceive: / Holy Mother, so believing, / Let us sin without conceiving." (Alexandre Boutique)

Saskia Walker - Guest Post

Please welcome my guest, Saskia Walker!

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When I started out on my writing journey I used to fret about how the fantasy or paranormal elements of a story would mesh with the more everyday aspects. As writers we want our stories to flow seamlessly for the reader, and for them to accept what is way beyond the norm alongside the more rational elements.

This is a skill that my hostess has, in spades! In Victoria’s novel, The Duchess, Her Maid, The Groom and Their Lover, I found I accepted the more unusual aspects of the society she portrayed because the writing was so solid overall. For example, Victoria describes the Duchy palace, its furniture, art works, the costumes and surroundings, in such vivid detail that I readily accepted the more unconventional things that happen within this society. That is skilled world building.

A few years ago I took an online workshop by best-selling paranormal romance author Angela Knight. Angela was talking about how to give your paranormal characters life and make them leap off the page. When she had a question and answer session, I raised my concern about making the fantasy elements mesh, so that they are instantly acceptable to the reader. Her response was to research and write the real-world elements solidly. For example, if your hero is a police officer who is secretly a werewolf, it's his everyday police world you need to get right, and the reader will go with the rest because she/he will be so grounded in the character and the story.

That notion began to sink in for me, and I was able to look at the issue from a different viewpoint. It also meant I worried a bit less and focused on getting the groundwork right instead! I think I’m getting there, at least I hope so.

In my latest novel-length publication, Rampant, I had a lot of genre cross over to deal with, and it set up a number of “believability” challenges as a result. The story draws on the history of witchcraft in Scotland, and the very real persecution of those who were ousted as witches. The story is divided between a contemporary setting and a historical one, and in both settings several of the characters are secretly practising witchcraft. The rich paranormal folklore of Scotland and the history of persecution was something I was able to draw upon, as was my love of the natural world and the area I chose to set the story in, the East Neuk of Fife. What I had to mesh with that was my own world building, in particular, the magic.

To close, here’s an excerpt from a scene set in the historical world of Rampant. In this part of the book it was important to get the period and setting right, as well as the atmosphere of suspicion and persecution, in order to ground my story and give it weight. See what you think.

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The master is leading me into the forest. He waylaid me as I was on my way to pick summer berries and ordered me to leave my basket and to follow him here instead. His mood is not good. With one hand locked around my wrist he drags me alongside him, his handsome mouth tightly closed.

“Ewan, what is it? Whatever is the matter?”

He does not reply.

We follow the path to the place where the coven meet, but the brethren are not here with us now. It is just the two of us, and the master is like a stranger to me. His head is bare, his hat who knows where, and his necktie is askew. His hair is uncombed, and he looks as if he has barely slept.

Beneath the trees the scent is high for it rained heavily in the night, an early summer storm, and whilst it is fresh down by the harbor, up here in the trees the musky smell of damp undergrowth fills the air. The ground is muddy and the path is damp and slippery beneath my boots, sending me skittering on the path.

He does not look back, does not seem to notice. Why is he bringing me here now, and why does he not speak? My heart beats hard in my chest, for I have a dreadful bad feeling about this.

“Speak with me,” I plead, “tell me what it is that you need. I promise I will do whatever you want, if only would look my way and speak to me.”

Still he does not answer. Instead, he drags me even faster across the ground, intent on some purpose known only to himself. I can barely keep up, my footsteps stumbling in his wake, my skirts snagging on brambles. Then I see our own place up ahead, the clearing where our coven meets. The circles of rocks mark the five points where we have set our fires, and the earth is burnt from our rituals.

He stops walking and pulls me up short in front of him, strong hands wrapped round my wrists. I have to stand on my toes and stretch, for he seems determined that I look him directly in the eye.

“Feel my ire,” he urges, “know it in your soul.”

I do feel it, I see it and I feel it, a churning vat of pain that he wishes to share with me. Betrayal, there is betrayal there too, amidst the rage in his expression.
“I see it, my beloved master, but I do not understand.”

“I thought you had more sense, Annabel McGraw. You are fickle, as unruly as a bored child. I scorn you for wasting precious time, for inviting trouble upon the coven by dallying with villagers when you should be honing your skills.” He kicks half burnt logs out of his way before he pushes me down in the ashes.

My body hits the ground, my spirit fast feeling what he wants me to know—humility, shame. He is showing me how he could break me. That I could be as easily fated by him as a woodland creature or a captured bird that he would sacrifice for some greater purpose.

Clumsily I sprawl, charred wood and rocky earth rough beneath my back, my left leg twisted beneath me. As his chosen woman amongst the coven, I can think of no greater shame that he could bestow upon me.

I try to rise up on my hands, my emotions unsteady and my thoughts running this way and that as I try to understand his actions. I resent him for this. “Why do you try to shame me this way?”

He drops to his knees beside me and shoves me to the ground with his hand hard against my chest. I cry out when the rocks and stones dig into my back. His eyes blaze and his lips are drawn back from his teeth. His anger is overwhelming. I feel it pumping violently from the hand he has splayed at the base of my throat where the skin is bare. His palm is so hot it makes me squirm for fear of being branded by him, a demon’s mark that I know he has the power to bestow. And yet it makes me lusty, too, for he is so handsome when his immense magical power burns in his eyes this way.

“You have been foolish, risking our secret, risking so much for a roll with an oaf of a fisherman.”

Was that it? That he is jealous of Irvine? I cannot fathom it at first, for he takes lovers where he chooses and it has not bothered him when I have done the same. But I am delighted, too, and I begin to see how I can turn this.

“Why do you do this?” he demands. “Is it not enough that together we could own all of the magic in Scotland?” He closes his fist around the air in front of my face, and I see the immense light that glows from within it.

I watch, secretly delighted by his actions. I am almost gleeful that his need for me has driven him to express himself in forbidden magical enchantments. He opens his fist and the light swirls out into the atmosphere, sparkling with colors, before darting away into the trees…

If you’d like to read another excerpt from Rampant, you can do so here.
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Thanks, Saskia! (Also, I am blushing because you liked The Duchess, etc. Thank you so much!)

Safer Sex in Erotica

Lisabet Sarai blogged on safer sex and erotic romance.

For me, it depends on the story's sub-genre.

In a fantastical setting, I don't usually mind if safer sex is not mentioned, because in science fiction or fantasy the issue can be easily covered by the worldbuilding (everybody has an injection! everybody has a spell!) even if the author hasn't mentioned it explicitly.

In historicals, I wish there was a bit more worrying about safe versus not-safe thoughts, but again I'm a little more accepting if safer sex is left out. However, I definitely appreciate it when historical characters think about the issue, even if it's only in the first intimate scene and left to the reader's assumption after that.

In contemporary novels, I prefer that safer sex be practiced, and if it isn't, that a reason I can accept is provided (obviously, not every writer can read my mind!). I don't mind if subsequent sex scenes aren't shown as safe, at least not so much, because I can extrapolate from scene number one, in much the way that I extrapolate the characters are eating, sleeping, and using the toilet even though those actions aren't necessarily described.

What do you think?