Writing for a new audience��� sort of
Lily Quinn drawn��by Gwynn TavaresToday, I edited the first chapter of Lily Quinn #1.��This is so strange��� I’ve been writing erotica for years. Seriously, it was the first writing I did that wasn’t assigned in class, long before I started writing books. Aron and I must have written over a million words of smut by now. That’s a far higher word count than our mainstream books. The point is, I’ve been writing this stuff for years, but never for anyone but Aron. The huge folder on my hard drive of erotica was only ever intended for Aron and I to read.
But this is different, somehow. Now we’ve committed to writing twelve books of smut for the public. Suddenly, we have a bunch of other people to consider. Do any of them share our kinks? Will anything we include freak out or turn off our new audience? This shit keeps me up at night now!
On the other hand, artists like Erika Moen and Jesse Fink inspire me. They show sex as it really is ��� fun, beautiful and something to handle responsibly, but not to fear. After a lifetime of being taught that I needed to be frightened and ashamed of sex (by society, not particularly my parents, who were great), Erika and Jesse helped me feel free to love it. (And I do.)
Lexi Maxxwell, too, played in instrumental roll in creating Lily Quinn. These three women showed me that there’s a place for anything fun and naughty, and people who will love the hell out of a good story with lots of wet, squishy bits. Prior to reading some of Lexi’s books, I had toyed with the idea of writing sexy stuff a few times, but when I asked friends for recommendations of their favorite erotica, it was all very soft-focus, over-poetic stuff that I neither found very stimulating nor felt��at all inspire to��write. So I sighed and figured I would just keep writing just for Aron, who didn’t mind when I used the word “cock.”
Then, thanks to The Self Publishing Podcast, I discovered Lexi. She��described her own fiction��as “fucking filthy.” I was intrigued, so I grabbed a few of her books and discovered that Lexi��wrote just like Aron and me. Unabashed smut, sexy and smutty fun without the need to gentle it with a lot of silly purple prose. And readers loved Lexi’s stuff.
To say I was delighted would be an understatement. I believe I was jumping up and down as I shoved XXX Files into Aron’s hands and told him that we could write like that.��And people would read it.
So now I’m working on that project. Twelve books of Lily Quinn getting into trouble and bed. It’s going to be a wild ride. I’m excited and nervous.
