Well. This is exciting.
I've been thinking about doing this for a long time...
Like, a loooong time--and the pieces are finally falling into place.
I've been an avid consumer of erotica for years, and I've dabbled, in small ways, in creating erotic stories for myself and small audiences: chatroom RP, phone sex, drabbles I've shared with friends and partners. I've always loved writing, and I've always loved sex, and writing about sex has always been a fulfilling way to relive some of my favorite memories and explore kinks I'm curious about.
But doing this for real--like, for real-real--has always seemed intimidating.
Then, a couple years ago, I had coffee with an old friend, someone I'd gone to grad school with and hadn't seen in ages. When I asked what he'd been up to, he told me he'd been ghostwriting for a living.
"Oh, that's fun! How'd you get into that?"
"It's easier than you think." And he kept talking.
Over the next hour or so, I listened to him spin about how he'd gotten into it, how the industry worked, what he loved, what had frustrated him about it.
Mostly I was just curious. It wasn't until I was lying in bed that night that I started wondering if I could do it, too. So I tried. Eight months later, I had a handful of published novels and novellas available on Amazon. Not under my name, to be sure. Only a tiny number of people knew I'd had anything to do with them. But still--I'd gotten paid to write. I had accomplished something I'd always wanted to try. I was getting good reviews. And--working under a deadline, with editors and publishers breathing down my neck--I'd learned how I write. (Which may be different than how anyone else writes. Creativity's weird like that. If anyone ever tells you there's only one way to write, or paint, or act, or play the oboe, just smile and nod and know they're wrong.)
Can I do this on my own?
That was my next question.
Then one night, goofing around online well after my bedtime, I saw something that finally got me past my doubts.
Some guy named Cameron D. James had written a book about it.
It was almost like I was back in that coffee shop with my friend. Here was some guy who'd been doing the thing I was thinking about doing, and who laid out the hows and the whys in a clear, conversational style.
I did some research. I read some of his erotica. (It's good, y'all. Check it out.) I listened to every episode of his now-defunct-but-still-excellent "Sex for Money" podcast. I got a Twitter account and followed him. (He's a sweetie.)
And then I started writing.
And now I'm getting ready to launch this website.
And in about a month, fingers crossed, I'm publishing my the first story in my first series. (More on that in a future post.)
And we'll see where it goes from there. But man-oh-man, am I excited.