April 17th, 2009

My Swing! Blog Tour Interview

It is my pleasure to participate in the blog tour dedicated to Swing! Adventures in Swinging by Today’s Top Erotica Writers, published by Logical-Lust and scheduled for release April 24, 2009! I am delighted to have a story in this anthology and today am answering the interview questions posed to participating Swing! authors by its editor, Jolie du Pre.

Q: Why do you write erotica and what do you love best about it?

A: Writing erotica seemed to develop in me organically. I started writing it in my mid-twenties, and it corresponded with a significant period in my own personal sexual development. I had been writing in general since I was seven, so looking back I feel like it makes sense that since I was experiencing sexuality as particularly significant at that time, it and writing merged in me.

At the same time, when the idea first came to me to write explicitly about sex, it was almost as though I felt like I needed to be granted “permission” to do so — like I was looking around furtively expecting someone to say, “You can’t do that!” I had a friend who was quite a connoisseur of pornography, and I showed him the first story I wrote that included (what I thought was) explicit sex. He read it and said, “That’s it?” I laugh thinking about it now, because he was so right. I had written that story in the same furtive way, as though I was biting my lip and sneaking something in hoping I wouldn’t get caught. This friend of mine helpfully pointed out how little explicitness was actually there, and that seemed to serve as the “permission” some part of me felt that it needed. In the moment my friend offered that response, I believe something inside me relaxed, and I haven’t felt inhibited writing explicitly about sex since.

What I love best about writing erotica is the possibility that what I offer may enhance others’ sexual experience and/or deepen their appreciation/understanding of sexuality. Especially since for me the commencement of writing erotica coincided with a personal sexual evolution, I deeply appreciate the idea of erotica supporting or initiating others’ similar experience, particularly if it assists a reader in recognizing and/or relaxing out of sexual repression.

Q: Tell us about your story in Swing! Adventures in Swinging by Today’s Top Erotica Writers and please feel free to give us an excerpt.

“What We Do” is told from the point of view of Victoria, who has accompanied her husband Jackson on a business trip to a conference being held by his company. Jackson is working long hours behind the scenes, and when Victoria encounters an enticing young conference participant in the hotel elevator, she does her best to seize an unexpected opportunity.

From “What We Do”

“I met one of your conference participants today,” I added.

”Oh?”

“Mm-hmm. In the elevator. He was very cute. Young, a little tousled – looked like a college frat boy playing dress-up.”

Jackson snorted, aware of the effect such a look had on me. “Ah ha. Find something to keep you occupied while I’m so busy this week, did you?”

I smiled. I was glad he recognized so easily the interest at which I was hinting, though I knew his casual tone belied a true curiosity as to whether this was the case. And I understood that. I liked to know when he was planning to play too. In general, we let each other know in advance.

“It occurred to me. How do you feel about that?”

Jackson smiled somewhat ruefully. “Well, I like it better when neither of us has to resort to it simply because the other isn’t available, but I can certainly understand the temptation. I just wish it weren’t because I wasn’t here to take care of you myself.”

“But you know it isn’t, of course,” I pointed out. I knew he knew that. “If you want me to be available just for you this week, I completely understand. It’s no problem.” It was true. It had occurred to me that he might want my undivided attention this week amidst his busy and somewhat stressful schedule.

Jackson smiled. “Thank you dear. But no, it’s fine.” He handed me the room service menu and gave me a characteristic wink. “Though if you wouldn’t mind maybe confining it to the day so you can be here when I get back in the evenings….”

As I’d suspected. “Of course darling. And I didn’t even get his name. I might not even see him again.” I went to the bed and kissed him, climbing on top of him in my still-damp bikini. Jackson eased back, running his fingers along my bare skin. . . .

Q: Name some other books where we can find your work.

A: My story “With Random Precision” was recently pulished in Love Notes: A Music and Sex Anthology published by Ravenous Romance and edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. In addition I have stories in G is for Games and K is for Kinky of Alison Tyler’s Erotic Alphabet Series, Tasting Her edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, and Best Women’s Erotica 2006 edited by Violet Blue.

All of my publications are listed in the right sidebar and include websites such as Good Vibrations Magazine and Ruthie’s Club.

Q: What are you working on now?

A: I have numerous short stories in progress, which seems to be the case at any given time lately. At least one of them is for a specific submission call and has a deadline coming up, and there have been a few other recent submission calls for which I plan to write stories, so presumably I will be getting those started (and ideally finished!) soon.

Q: If you could offer one piece of advice to a new author, what would it be?

A: Alongside the practical and technical considerations attendant to writing, I would offer an invitation to appreciate the fundamental beauty and mystery of the creative process. Beyond the tangible product that you offer, there is an energy with which you create it. Take a deep breath and trust the authentic stillness inside you from which the organic creative process emanates.

Thank you for coming by! Tomorrow’s interview on the Swing! blog tour will take place at the Swing! website with author Karmen Red!

Xoxo,
Emerald

“I believe that trust is more important than monogamy…”
-Savage Garden “Affirmation”

13 Responses “My Swing! Blog Tour Interview”

  1. P.S. Haven says:

    Great interview, Emerald! I’ve got to go read the rest of “What We Do” now. I need to know what happens ouside of that excerpt…

  2. Neve Black says:

    Fantastic interview, Emerald!

    “…Take a deep breath and trust the authentic stillness inside you from which the organic creative process emanates….”

    How beautifully stated.

    I’m anxiously biting my nails waiting for my copy of Swing so I can read all of you…I mean your story. :-)

  3. Jolie du Pre says:

    So how is my sexy Swing author doing? Really, really enjoyed this interview and your descriptions of how you feel about certain things are exquisite. I’m going to make a plea for you to please submit to the my new Cougar antho. I absolutely loved your female character in “What We Do.” She’s sexy, confident and smart. I believe that you could write an excellent story of an over 40 woman who likes younger men for The Cougar Book. Please seriously consider it!

    Jolie du Pre

  4. Ashley Lister says:

    Beautiful interview Emerald. Great excerpt. And some sage advice.

    And, with you mentioning K is for Kinky, I remember thinking when I read ‘Wings and All’ that your writing was the bee’s knees!

  5. D. L. King says:

    Hi Emerald,

    Your explanation for how you got started writing erotica, as well as your advice to new writers were both so eloquently put. And I had to chuckle when you mentioned your friend saying, “That’s it?” after reading your first piece of erotica. It’s sometimes amazing to see what people think when we think we’re being so “out there.”

    Loved the excerpt and I agree with Jolie; you could write one hell of a cougar story!

  6. The sweet, horny setup of your story is so seductive to me, Emerald! Is it April 24th yet??

  7. I’m late today! I have good reason, though; putting the finishing touches to SWING! and the NEW Logical-Lust website for release on 24th!

    Emerald, I see in your interview the same wonderful handle on erotica and what erotica means to readers as I have seen in all the interviews so far. This is what is making SWING! such a sensational book – great authors who can write great erotica. It’s one thing to write a dirty story, but it’s an entirely different thing to writing an erotic story that calls out to every sense and sensuality you have as a reader.

    Hope to see you all at the SWING! release party at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/logical-lust on 24th April Noon til Midnight EST!

    Jim Brown (SWING! Publisher)
    http://www.logical-lust.com

  8. Emerald says:

    Thank you all so very much for coming by. I truly feel honored that you took the time and am blushing (seriously) from your comments.

    P.S. (as in Haven, not post script), Neve, Jeremy — thank you so much! I am so glad you enjoyed the interview/excerpt.

    Heh, D.L., you would probably have laughed even harder if you’d heard the way he said it. It really doesn’t translate here! I do still laugh out loud when I think about it and also find it interesting to look back now and see how significant that exchange was for me. I didn’t fully realize it at the time.

    Ashley, when I first read your review on ERWA of K is for Kinky, I was so thrilled and honored by your mention of my story that I wrote a whole blog post about it. (It’s here.) Thank you so much for coming by and for what you said here. I have admired you from afar for so long that really it feels rather giddily thrilling to me.

    Jolie! I am so flattered that you asked, and it does happen that The Cougar Book was one of the recent calls to which I was referring in my answer to question four. I was delighted to see that you’re editing an anthology on the subject, actually — like with Swing!, it’s a subject that (it seems to me) has tended to be misunderstood/underappreciated by society at large, and thus I appreciate seeing an anthology devoted to exploring and/or celebrating it.

    Thank you Jim! I really appreciate that. And thank you all once again. I feel so honored to have a story in Swing! and am so looking forward to its release!

  9. Hey Emerald,

    So sorry to be late to the best party in the district. As always your lovely words mesmerize me, and I find so much that is familiar, too. I also remember my first “sex” scene which felt so outrageously dangerous to me when I wrote it and my trusted readers rather thought it was cute.

    But for me it was a huge step, it was getting in touch with that energy you talk about. I just hadn’t given myself the permission to express it fully. And think about–there are so few models of this in the mainstream literature out there (although I had more inspiration when I started reading more erotica!). There are plenty of examples of how to tone down sex and speak in code, so that’s what I was doing. Somewhere along the way I guess I gave myself permission to go for it!

    I really feel the spirit in your work–it always touches me on so many levels. So I’d say your advice to writers really speaks to THE way you transform a plain old story into something more–like “What We Do”! (And please keep doing it!)

  10. ste says:

    good interview, Emerald! interesting to read how you got started, and that seems like advice worth remembering.

  11. Emerald says:

    Thank you very much, Donna and ste!

    Donna, I am so truly, deeply flattered by your comment that you feel the spirit in my writing. Thank you.

  12. JM Stone says:

    I’m just late to the party all over this weekend!

    Emerald – what an awesome interview. From your beginnings to your advice, everything was so eloquently put.

    Is it odd for me to say that reading your interview put me in a serene spot in terms of writing erotica?

    It seems a lot of people don’t credit erotica as bubbling up from the same fountain of creativity that creates all wonders of art. And if there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that you are certainly an artist! That excerpt was certainly gorgeously done!

    I had so intended to comment on Friday when I read this the first go ’round and somehow got sidetracked in blogland!

    ~J

  13. Emerald says:

    Hi JM! Thank you!

    “Is it odd for me to say that reading your interview put me in a serene spot in terms of writing erotica?”

    I don’t find it odd…I find it truly, breathtakingly heartening and flattering.

    I understand getting sidetracked in blogland! Thank you so much for coming back by and for your beautiful, generous comments. I appreciate them so much.

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