When I started out writing, well writing fiction anyway, it was because I had an idea that simply wouldn’t desist. I had to get this idea out of my mind and that was it. As soon as I began writing it out, it began spooling. I began to become an author.
I never did it intentionally, but I realised quite early on that my books appeal to both men and women. Which is funny. I never sat down and said to myself, “This will be for both sexes.” What I wrote just ended up that way. I suppose I was a little influenced by the saying, ‘Write for someone, if not yourself, someone else.’ So I always wrote stories both me and my husband would get a kick out of. Which in itself is bizarre because my husband’s preferences are different to mine. He loves horror and classical music, I love pop and action movies. He can watch Citizen Kane on repeat, whereas I can happily watch a boxed set of Homeland or Bourne!
I do actually feel sorry for blokes though, you know. Perhaps a smidgen. Well, a puny smidgen. It’s fairly accepted in the erotic community that even most male erotic authors are not alphas who want to thrash you to Kingdom Come, ahem. If that is your definition of alpha, anyway. My definition of a real-life alpha is much different to most novels out there…!
Well. The reason women write male characters so strong and so mixed up and so, I don’t know, kinky… is just because… and I don’t want to quote Bill Clinton but… “because we can”. Yet at the same time, me… the erotic author as guilty as most… I still feel a tiny, little responsibility to give guys a little break.
My husband reads all my stuff. One friend of ours bravely voiced his concern when I first started writing erotica, notably A Fine Profession, and asked my husband if he was okay with it all. I believe said friend made a joke of throbbing and clenching or something!! He was the one snickering embarrassedly, neither of us were! I am not the easily offended sort so I took it all in good stead. Andrew, too, just laughed it off because he is able to distinguish me from the writing, because he knows me so well. He is my best friend and there is literally nothing we don’t talk about. I won’t explain why A Fine Pursuit is still my husband’s favourite novel, suffice it to say that novel went beyond the fantasy and delved into the plight of the man just looking for love, not knowing how to combine his fantasies with a real relationship—without compromising other more delicate matters of the heart.
As it happens, when I began writing A Fine Profession, I thought it was important to show that being sexualised is not inherent, it is learned. There are readers/writers out there for whom erotica will never, ever be their thing. You either veer toward sexual exploration, or you veer away. It’s a tricky path and one which Lottie herself finds herself jumping on and off between the books she features in.
When I first told people I was writing novels, pretty much all the male colleagues I had approached me, wanting to know where they could get it and what it was about. I wouldn’t say I am a tomboy but I have never and will never be a girly girl! It’s surprising because my daughter is a girly girl and she wants to do dress-up and stuff all the time, so she’s forcing me to do things my own mother could never get me into! I’ve also never been the *giggles* with a red face type either. We weren’t born on a nudist camp… but my three siblings and me never felt like we couldn’t talk about certain issues with our parents and each other! We’re all a pretty outspoken lot actually. Anyway my filthy, foul-mouthed nature and interest in the gritty stuff is certainly why boys want to know a little bit about what I write because they predict it won’t be all, “My god, I am pooling irresistibly in hidden places and my lady garden is dribbling and moist and I’ve never seen a willy before.” – – SIDE NOTE: Actually, god I wish I had wrote that sentence and published it, that’s ace! :-p
Hmm. Perhaps I should write books just for women or just for men or whatever, you know, but I am glad I write books that both men and women can enjoy. Certainly, some grown men have cried over my books and I love that. Anyway, I might just finish this zany blog with a little something-something. Boys… don’t feel bad when your girl is reading about the man with the massive shhhh-long and the perfect pecs and abs and all those other Bad Boy criteria… just take advantage of the fact a few words have got her all worked up for you, the real man in the bedroom! Because more and more each day, I am getting emails along the lines, “My husband says thanks!” OR “We got pregnant!”
Perhaps it is what comes next after the romance that we really need to write about, hey??
To finish this most bodacious blog, I want to leave you with this latest review of A Fine Pursuit (EROTICA FROM A COMPLETELY MALE PERSPECTIVE) – this was kindly done by Books and Beyond Fifty Shades… they gave A Fine Pursuit FIVE STARS!! Plus, this book is currently on sale at 99 cents in the AMAZON US Kindle store and can be read as a standalone if you wish:
We learned of Lottie’s life in A Fine Profession. Now we get to explore Noah’s mind in A Fine Pursuit. We get inside his head to see where he was coming from and his feelings on everything. Noah knows he has to come to terms with things from his past that he would rather leave buried. However, in order to get his love back, he must get to the heart of the matter. He has deep rooted issues and insecurities that make it extremely difficult for him to give himself completely.
He begins to see a therapist that is helping him figure out where all his deep feelings start and how to get over his past in order to have the future he so desperately desires. Noah and Lottie have an explosive connection. But is that all there is or is it truly something so much more deep and real. They learn that their overwhelming chemistry isn’t always enough to keep them connected forever.
I liked this book even more than A Fine Profession and I think that is because of getting the book from Noah’s POV. There were so many times that my heart broke for him and Lottie would push him away so that he could be able to figure things out. Which is what they needed since their sexual chemistry was off the charts. They needed that time apart to be able to sort everything out.
There were many times I wanted to strangle Lottie for the way she pushed him away and treated him. She would constantly throw leaving him in his face and I hated that for him. He loves her so deeply and his heart would break each time. Nevertheless, in the end she had her reasons for the way she acted and pushed. Will their love be able to survive both their pasts and the hurts that they both caused each other? One-click this book now to find out. You will not be disappointed. This was a wonderful sequel to A Fine Profession.
Sarah Michelle Lynch 