Something New

It’s official.  My latest book, an erotic futuristic entitled, Palace of Dreams has been accepted by e-publisher/small press, Ellora’s Cave.  Since my first book was a paranormal romance and the next two were historical romances, writing erotic romance is a big departure for me.  So how did I end up writing for ‘the dark side’ as a fellow EC author calls it?  To be completely honest, I’m not sure.  It certainly wasn’t part of my original plan.  I’d never even read an erotic romance until meeting my critique partner and fellow Cerridwen/Ellora’s Cave author, Kathy Kulig.  She’d published several erotic short stories and was working on a novel for EC at the time.  Reading her pages was certainly enlightening.  She lent me a few books.  Then I bought a few from Ellora’s Cave and started reading the free ones I received at conferences.  What I discovered was there were some pretty good books out there—steamy and explicit, yes, but also with great plots and engaging characters. 

Although I was learning more about my company and the huge success of Ellora’s Cave’s ‘romantica’, a word coined and wholly owned by them, I still had no intentions of writing for their line.  None of my story premises lent themselves to the careful blend of hot sex, plot and character required by the genre.  That is until the idea of a dream palace set far in the future where tourists could experience all their wildest fantasies popped into my head.  Some of those dreams (knowing human nature, more than just a few), I surmised would be of the erotic variety.  Shortly afterward, my main character, dream guide, Inari Rau began to take form, along with her love interest, the slightly younger, very hot, new guide, Kastel Fane.  Before I knew it, I was writing an erotic futuristic. 

Now reading or writing women’s erotica isn’t for everyone.  And of course I’ve had to put up with the endless jokes, comments and raised brows from friends (and some writers) who think erotic literature is nothing more than dressed up porn.  Since I pretty much had the same opinion before I began this adventure, I can’t exactly blame them.  Not that it’s deterred me.  I just started to work on my first erotic short story, a medieval entitled Winter’s End. 

Will I write ‘romantica’ forever?  Probably not.  But for the moment I’m enjoying stretching my writing wings and trying something new.