Writing F/F Romance – A Conversation with Kate Richards Part 1 & Contest!!

Hello! I'd like to introduce Kate Richards, a multi-published author of such titles as Finally, My Love and The Virgin and the Playboy, and she's also co-founder and an editor for Decadent Publishing's popular 1 Night Stand series.

Welcome, Kate, to Mark of the Stars! It's an honor to have you here with me today. First, I'd like to say congratulations on your recent release, Trail of Hearts!

Now, Trail of Hearts is your first romance story involving two women. What were the biggest challenges for you in writing this style of romance versus the usual hetero relationship?

Trail of Hearts is actually my second. My first is The Vampire's Bard which is a paranormal sort of historical where I cut my teeth in the genre. It was a challenge for a number of reasons. I kept putting off the actual erotic scenes, while building tension and finally I got worried that I wasn't doing a proper erotic romance…usually the couple gets intimate a lot sooner in my hetero stories.

So I did a bit of research and found that through instinct or dumb luck, I was following the pattern of many other authors who write these stories. Women are women and we like emotions, they are important to us and the flow for me and for many other authors involves building sexual tension and a strong emotional bond before any clothes come flying off. I hope the readers agree!

So, Jessica, you've been working on your first woman loving woman type story. I'd put the same question to you…how is it different from your other books. You took on alien love in Celestial Seduction!

Although my first is not a true romance, more a science fiction/dystopian story with romantic elements, I do have some female lovin'. I'd say the hardest part for me was to get the attraction between the characters just right, especially since the one character had never been with a woman before. There is a lot of emotion involved, including anger at a particular male. With my next two stories, they will be purely F/F, no men involved in satisfying these women.

This may sound funny, but since you're married to a man, where does your inspiration come from for writing the intimate scenes between two females? I know what I use, including the book Lesbian Sex 101 that you recommended.

I am indeed married to a wonderful man and we've been together for ten plus years. I can say I never had the specific experiences my characters have, but before my husband and I met I did a lot of dating and I am always fascinated by relationships. How people make things work. My Christmas story at Decadent Publishing, Avalon for Christmas is a ménage, one woman two men. I do not believe there is a one size fits all relationship and know people who are in all kinds of marriages and other situations. If they can make one another happy, be kind, meet each other's needs, the rest follows naturally. So that's what I try to explore in my stories.

[image error]So, you mentioned that getting the attraction between your characters was difficult. Was it hard for you to see what they might find in one another? The physical, the emotional?

The emotional, no. I completely understand that. We all need someone who we can talk to, depend on and to make us feel loved, wanted. It doesn't matter who we are. We turn to those people when we're happy, sad, bored, etc. They celebrate the good times with us and help us through the bad.

The physical, I pay attention to my husband, and what he's attracted to. I also look for strong male POVs in books, to see what attracts them to a female. But these sources are male. So, yes, the attraction is harder for me. And the sex. For me, most of my sex scenes come from my experiences. Even if I haven't been in the exact situation, I know what I like. LOL

From what I've seen available in the GLBT lines for many publishers, M/M is very popular along with ménage with a female and any number of males. Why do you think the F/F stories are only now being requested and bought?

Seems as though all things come around in our business and it's just the time for this genre. We like new things, new ideas and ways of looking at things. For me it was being contrary, if everyone is writing M/M, I don't want the girls to be left out, we Libras like balance.

Yes, we do.

But I do understand many of the larger E-pubs are looking for F/F, and it must be selling, which is great because I'm having fun writing these love stories between two women right now. But I keep hearing that women buy most of the M/M stories. If that's true I wonder who is buying the F/F? Women? Men? I have no idea but would love to hear from readers on the topic.

Be sure to stop by for Part two tomorrow!

Contest!!

Kate Richards is giving away an ebook copy of both of her F/F stories, Trail of Hearts and The Vampire's Bard. For your chance to win, answer Kate's question above. Or let us know what you would consider to be an important factor in writing F/F stories. Contest is international. Contest ends Sunday, October 9th at midnight EST.