1- How did you pick your genre?
Personally I think I’m probably writing in three genres and one of them isn’t even a real genre. Erotica, Sci Fi and Weird. Weird is self-explanatory, it’s the way I am. I’ve had so many people call me a nutter over the years it’s now a compliment. I grew up reading and watching Sci Fi for the escapism. I would like to take a moment to explain the erotica genre though because it has personal meaning for me. Writing erotica is one ways I deal with the bullies at school years ago. As the school’s “fat kid” the bullying made me feel like I was never going to amount to anything romantically. Although I didn’t know what it meant at the time I heard one parent use the phrase “left on the shelf.” Later I assumed that was what I was destined to be. Writing erotica, in my mind proves that wrong. I’ve been there and done a couple of things! Plus I cannot tell you how disapproving my mother was when she found porn in my bedroom when I was a teenager. It wasn’t even very good porn, heavily censored and so disappointing. Even I could tell the text needed work. The pictures were so censored you’d be forgiven for believing that certain male body parts were actually star shaped! Mum made the huge mistake of telling me “It’s not even a proper book” and in the next sentence said “And you shouldn’t write things like that in your diary.” I was incensed. I had not invited her to read my diary and at the time there was nothing of note in it other than the angry rants of a teenager. I put those two phrases together and promised myself that one day not only would I read what I wanted to read, but I’d write what I wanted to read. In the meantime back then as soon as I could get my hands on a Black Lace erotic novel-I did-it was a “proper book” and I left it lying around my bedroom. In my head I now dedicate every gay sex scene I will ever write to my disapproving mother who died over 12 years ago. She’d love that-not!
2- Explain how you use humor in your books.
The humour really just happens. I’m probably taking experience from stage work I’ve done in the past and scripts I wrote while I was at school. I never sit down and plan something to be funny and I don’t think I’m particularly hilarious, I just end up reading something back and thinking “that’s quite amusing.” The humour tempers the dark aspects of some of the subjects I write, but is a natural entity. Life is not just one thing or another, it’s a mixture of light and dark, funny and sad, love and hate. There are people with absolutely no sense of humour whatsoever, but the majority of people I have met over the years have the ability to say something that will amuse at least one other person. So much of the humour in what I write comes from the characters and dialogue rather than the narrative, just because that’s been my experience. I never intend it to happen it just turns up.
3- You said that Modified started out as a story in a mundane office and then you moved it into space, can you explain why.
Sheer terror. I am constantly looking at ways to reduce my stress levels. I had tried to write the story set in London and on our moon. A couple of weeks before I published I realised I barely had a grip on reality anymore and was terrified that someone would point their finger at my fictitious version or London or some piece of technology that I’d made up and take joy in pointing out that what I’d written was ridiculous. A lot of it is ridiculous, but that’s the point, it fires the imagination. Throwing the whole story onto a made up world just took away the stress of potentially dealing with people who think everything set on our world should be absolutely true to what we know about our universe. It’s my world, I created it, therefore my rules apply.
4- What are the challenges of being an indie and juggling your regular life?
Finding time. I read so much about how authors write until 4am or get up hours earlier than everyone else. I can’t do that because one of the symptoms of my hypermobility syndrome is fatigue. I need to sleep. I have a family and I run a small part time business, there are a few hours of the day, usually in the morning when I’m awake enough to get things done. Being an indie is hard work. It’s not just about writing the book. If you haven’t got the money, you’ve also got to edit the book yourself, format it, create the cover and do the promotion. It’s a huge amount of work. Another challenge is dealing with self-doubt. It’s there and I deal with it some days better than others. Modified should be available as a paperback by now, but my head is full of too many “what if’s” and not enough “oh for crying out loud woman, just do it’s.”
5- What life experiences have helped prepare you for being an indie?
I’ve run my own business for the past 16 years. It’s a people based business. I’ve spoken to and advised hundreds of people in that time. That form of communication, along with previous blogging experience and work I’ve done with online forums has helped hone an ability to get a story across in what I hope is an engaging way. It was gratifying years ago to read that my blog was the first thing someone would read when they got to the office in the morning. It gave me confidence. I have had a few knock backs in life, whether it was the abuse growing up or not quite being good enough to get into drama college when I was a teenager. These things have helped me remain more of a realist. I am not expecting to win awards or make a fortune or be remembered in 200 years for anything I write. All I want is to write things people think are fun to read and vaguely enjoyable.
6- Where do you see yourself in five years?
Writing full time and better. Better at writing, better at editing, better at covers, better at promotion. Or, better than that-better at writing and affluent enough to pay people better than me to do everything else.
7- What was the actual catalyst that made you jump into being an indie?
This is dark, but it’s the truth. I’d tried for a few years to be published by an erotic romance publisher. Despite their positive feedback and a couple of near misses, I wasn’t getting anywhere because there’s a difference between erotic romance and what I write. They require a happily ever after. I swear the happiest my ever afters will get will be someone saying “I can’t believe we survived that-shall we go to the pub?” I was tired of waiting for someone to take a chance on me. I’d been sent a contract for Modified by a publisher that did both forms of publishing, but they’d offered me the contract that needed me to pay them £2300 to publish, that money didn’t exist. May 2016 was the 30th anniversary of me being sexually assaulted by a female doctor in hospital. I needed to get something published, and have something positive happen for that anniversary to knock the brains out of that experience with a baseball bat. So I self-published erotica to prove no-one had broken me and became an indie author.
8- What would you tell your 21 year old self?
When you meet the guy you’re married to now and you’re looking to buy a house-MOVE AWAY! Go far and do not be tied to the abuse you grew up in. Escape. I really should have done that.
9- If you child tells you they want to become a writer, what advice would you give?
They both already write. I believe they have both published online. I won’t pry because I won’t do to them what my mother did to me. I would tell them to read widely and keep writing and if they haven’t produced it in bottles you can buy in the shops yet-learn patience.
10- What's next?
So many things. Nate and Day-which is the second book after Modified is in the works. I’m currently writing a whole sentence a week on that-so proud! It’s not quite that slow going, but it feels like it sometimes. Blue Lights needs an edit and will be my first gay erotica novella. Cop, medic, set in the future, there’s a stalker and an accident and a fair amount of sex. Its current form is probably too weird even by my standards. And coffee. I haven’t had a coffee in at least five minutes.
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