Seven Genres I’ve Never Written - #SaturdaySeven #LASR #giveaway

I was going to title this post “Seven Genres I’ll Never Write”, but I decided that was unnecessarily rash. For one thing, I’ve been known to tackle a particular genre that feels alien just for the challenge of it. Also, I really don’t know how my tastes, or the market, will change. I don’t normally tend to be much influenced by the current trends or the latest hot selling themes, but it’s always possible that I’ll have a killer idea I just can’t resist.

So here’s a list of the genres I haven’t tried yet. I won’t try to predict the future.

Sports romance

As I noted in an earlier Saturday Seven post, I’m almost completely uninterested in any sort of team or organized sports. The closest I’ve come to a “sports” story was Crossed Hearts, a MM tale set at a competitive Scrabble tournament.

Western romance

For some readers, and authors, cowboys have an enduring appeal, but they generally leave me cold. I’m a born-and-bred Easterner, for one thing. I’ve traveled through the American West, but I don’t know it well and actually don’t feel that comfortable in those dusty, arid, wide open spaces.

Then there’s the smell. Whenever I try to imagine a sexy cowboy, I start thinking about what he’d smell like after riding a horse all day, or rounding up the cattle, or mucking out the barns... The question of olfactory stimuli becomes particularly off-putting when I think about historical Western tales. Back in the days of the Wild West, baths were at best a monthly activity!

Zombie romance

Vampires, yes. Shifters, sure. Ghosts, tentacled monsters, even Big Foot might make their way into one of my stories. But zombies? As characters? I’ve written a bit of erotic horror, but I can’t imagine how I could make zombies appealing. Again, decomposing bodies are going to reek, and bad smells put me in a very bad mood.

I guess I could imagine writing a scifi romance set in the context of a zombie apocalypse, though that’s been done so often I think I’d be bored. I will say that I’d be deeply impressed by an author who managed to create a sympathetic, non-disgusting zombie protagonist.

Secret baby romance

I’ve never written a pregnant heroine, let alone a classic (dare I use that term?) secret baby romance. This is partly due to the fact that I personally don’t have children (other than my fur babies) and have never been pregnant. I came of age after the advent of the Pill, so I’ve always had control of my fertility. I think the whole topic is less central for me than for many women.

I certainly can imagine writing a story where the conflict involved pregnancy, but I haven’t done so yet.

In fact, as far as I can recall, only two of my many heroines have children, Ruby Jones in Wild About That Thing, and Beatrice, the Victorian woman with the secret life in my novel Miranda’s Masks.

Regency romance

I love historical fiction. I love to read it, and I’d love to write more of it than I do—though to be honest I’m sometimes too lazy to do the research this would require. Still, I’ve written a few historical tales, set in the Middle Ages, in Elizabethan times, in the Victorian period and in the Gilded Age at the turn of the twentieth century. Somehow, though, I’ve never had the slightest inclination to write a Regency story, despite their popularity.

One factor is my unfamiliarity with the period. However, I have to say that in general, I have not found the Regencies I’ve read to be all that interesting. I guess I prefer ordinary, everyday people to the dukes and earls that seem to populate this sub-genre.

Military romance

This is another really popular sub-genre that doesn’t ring my bell at all. I grew up during the Vietnam war, and I’m certain that colored my view of the armed forces. Everyone I knew would do anything they could to avoid military service.

Futanari romance

In case you’re not familiar with the term, futanari refers to individuals who have the sexual characteristics of both genders. There’s a popular niche genre for erotica and erotic romance featuring such characters. Sally Bend’s Bending the Bookshelf blog reviews many of them.

I’ve never read any of this genre, let alone written any. However, I’ll be frank; I’m tempted, if only because I really like mixing things up in my stories.

So—let me ask you, my readers: are there any of these genres that you’d like to see me try? Leave me a comment with your thoughts. I’ll randomly draw the name of one reader who’ll receive his or her choice of Crossed Hearts or Wild About That Thing.

By the way, be sure to visit the other authors who have Saturday Seven posts today. You’ll find the full list of links at Long andShort Reviews.

It's Not About Sex -- #erotica #desire #genres

Let me start by saying that I have a bit of a problem with genre labels. My own work doesn't fit into neat pigeonholes, and often, the fiction I enjoy most is just as stubborn. I've found that the best books frequently defy categorization – or create new genres, which is basically the same thing.

Advocates of labeling claim that assigning books to particular genres helps readers find what they like. I'd argue that it's just as likely to discourage readers from picking up something new that they might actually love.

When I’m forced to be specific about my genre, I usually say I write “erotica”. But that can be misleading. What is erotica? There's a lot of sex between the covers of books that aren't sold as erotica. Some of that is marketing strategy, but is there a fundamental difference between erotica and a story with graphic sex?

You want my opinion? (Well, of course you do, or you wouldn't be reading my post...) I think that erotica is not about sex, per se. Erotica is fiction that focuses on the experience of sexual desire Sexual desire may be a concomitant or precursor to physical sexual activity, but it doesn't have to be. Desire in its many variants (arousal, lust, love, obsession) is fundamentally an emotional state or process. Thus, it's theoretically possible to write erotica that contains no overt sex at all. (More on this below.)

Conversely, a story that includes graphic sex does not deserve to be called erotica unless the author is primarily concerned with the characters' feelings about their encounters, and how those feelings affect the non-sexual aspects of the characters' lives. To the extent that sex is treated as a mindless, instinctual activity, a response to a stimulus that brings relief like a sneeze, it does not (in my view) merit the term erotic.

I've been a member of the Erotica Readers & Writers Association for almost two decades. ERWA has a list called Storytime, where members share their erotic fiction (and poetry) and ask for critiques. (If this sounds like something that would interest you, you can sign up here.) I don't participate in Storytime much now – I just don't have the time – but the three or four years that I did had a powerful influence on my own writing.

In any case, I still recall one story that was posted on Storytime – at least fifteen years ago. I don't remember who wrote it, though I recall that it was a man. The main – indeed, the only – character is a soldier, staying in a cheap rented room somewhere, maybe Paris. A woman lives in the next room; the walls are thin. Night after night he listens to the sounds she makes coupling with her lover. He finds himself terribly aroused by this unseen female. He masturbates to her cries. He fantasizes about meeting her, about taking her lover's place. His obsession grows, his desire is unbearable, yet he still can't find the courage to knock on her door. Finally, one day, she's gone – the room next door is empty.

I found this story to be one of the most erotic pieces I've ever read. There was no sex involved, or at least none that involved the object of desire. Yet the tale managed to convey such a sense of yearning, a desperate, intense need – manufactured entirely out of the soldier's imagination.

That story (I really wish I still had a copy) has become my touchstone for erotica. I enjoy writing about sex, but like the soldier, it's the idea of sex that really turns me on. I've experimented, trying to write (and sell) erotica that keeps the physical side of sex to an absolute minimum. One story that falls into that category is “Stroke”, which originally appeared in Please Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel. The male protagonist is a Dom who's bedridden in a rehab facility, partially paralyzed by a stroke. The heroine is his nurse, who suffers from kinky fantasies her boyfriend labels as sick and shameful. The dominant manages to fulfill Cassie's fantasies, without ever touching her.

***

"Look at me." His tone was softer but no less firm. I raised my eyes to his, which were the startling blue of glacial ice. I shivered and burned. "You're new, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Yes, Sir," he corrected me. My nipples tightened inside my bra.

"Yes, Sir." Just his voice was enough to make me ache.

"What's your name?"

"Cassie, Sir. Cassie Leonard."

"Don't look away, Cassie. Look at me. Do you know who I am?"

"No, Sir. I just started at Lindenwood this week. Before that I was in the rehab department at Miriam Hospital."

"My slaves call me Master Jonathan."

My earlobes, my nipples, my fingertips, all seemed to catch fire. I wanted to sink through the floor. I didn't want him to see how his words excited me.

But he did see. I stared at my hands, knuckles white from gripping the rail.

"You have a boyfriend, don't you?"

"Yes, Sir, I do." An image of Ryan rose in my mind, his brown curls and uneven grin, muscled chest and hard thighs. I did love him, truly I did, with his quirky humor, his gentle fingers and his boyish ardor. He was a fine young man. My mother approved of him.

"He doesn't satisfy you." It was a statement, not a question. Tears of remembered frustration pricked the corners of my eyes. "Why not, Cassie? Is his cock too small?"

I couldn't believe I was having this conversation with a stranger, a patient, a half-paralyzed man forty years older than I was. I stole a glance at Dr. Carver. His mouth was firm but his eyes sparkled with suppressed mirth.

"No, Sir. His cock is fine." Ryan was justifiably proud of his meaty hard-ons.

"What is it then? Is he a selfish lover? Does he come too quickly for you?"

Guilt washed over me. Ryan would happily spend hours licking my pussy and fingering me, trying to get me off. The only way I could manage it was to think about scenes from the kinky porn I hid from him. Whippings and spankings, gags and handcuffs, all the clichés that I couldn't stop myself from wanting.

"Well? Tell me, Cassie. What do you need that he doesn't provide? What do you want?"

My mouth filled with cotton. I couldn't speak. I was acutely aware of my rigid nipples pressing against the starched fabric of my uniform. My clit pulsed like a sore tooth inside my sodden panties.

"Cassie, I'm waiting." His sternness sent electricity shimmering through my limbs. "Don't disappoint me."

I dared a glance at his face. His left eyelid drooped slightly. His eyes snared mine. I couldn't look away. One eyebrow arched in an unspoken question.

"I—um—I want him to, uh, to do things to me. That he doesn't want to do.” I tried to break away from his gaze, but the force of his will held me.

“Things?” He sounded amused. A fresh wave of hot, wet shame swamped my body. “What sort of things?”

“Uh—tie me up. Spank me. Use me. Treat me like his slave.” It all came out in a rush, the desires I'd never shared with anyone except Ryan. Even then, I'd only shown him the tip of the iceberg, the least perverted of my needs. “He wouldn't, though. He was shocked when I told him. Disgusted. Said that I had a filthy mind.” The tears that had gathered earlier spilled out over my cheeks.

“I imagine that you do, little one, delightfully filthy.” His voice was a caress, soothing and seductive. “I knew that right away, just from your reactions to my voice. Your deepest desire is to submit to a strong master, isn't it?”

“Yes—Sir.” I felt relief, now that I'd admitted my secret. He at least didn't seem to condemn me.

“You want to be beaten and buggered, shackled to the bed and split open by a huge cock. You want to bath in your master's come, maybe even his piss. To be forced to service his friends.”

It was thrilling and horrible, listening to him enumerating my darkest fantasies out loud. My clit felt the size of a ripe plum, swollen and juicy, ready to burst. I nodded, still finding it difficult to expose myself so completely.

“I will do those things for you, if you'd like.”

“You?” The suggestion startled me enough that I forgot the honorific, but he seemed to forgive my lapse. I searched his handsome, ravaged face. “How...?”

"Don't underestimate me, girl. I may not be the Dom I once was, but I can still make you burn for my touch. I can still make you beg.” He snagged the button on the end of its cord and raised himself to full sitting position. He moved more smoothly and easily than before. “Remove your clothing.”

****

A while back, I tried a more extreme experiment. I wrote a scifi ménage novella which included erotic scenes where the protagonists have no bodies at all. Bodies of Light includes some normal, physical, tab-A-in-Slot-B (and tab-C-in-slot-D) scenes, but at the story's climax, Christine, Alyn and Zed couple in the astral sphere, as beings of pure energy.

(You can read an excerpt over at the Oh Get A Grip blog this week.)

Is it erotic? I think so. And I suppose at some level it is about sex – the kind of sex that happens in the mind.

I really do subscribe to the philosophy summarized by my tag line. Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac. For me, erotica deals, first and foremost, with the mental and emotional aspects of desire. The physical stuff is optional.

Versatile? Or indecisive? (#genre #amwriting #giveaway)

I've blogged in the past about my tendency to skip from genre to genre, and the problem that poses for building a brand. Marketing pundits argue that readers who enjoy one book you publish will want more of the same. As an author, though, more of the same is the last thing I want to produce. One of the great joys of writing, for me, is the challenge of new genres and combinations thereof. Hence, over the course of my twelve year writing career, I've published BDSM (M/f, F/m, M/m and F/f), ménage, GLBT (both M/M and F/F), paranormal, historical, science fiction, suspense, multicultural/interracial, steampunk and fantasy.

Should the diversity of my back list be attributed to versatility? Or lack of a market focus? Of course I'd rather believe the former. In any case, the reason doesn't really matter. If I had to stick to a single genre and style, I'd simply stop writing, out of boredom. I suppose that if I were trying to make my living through my writing, I could force myself to churn out one BDSM book (for example) after another. However, that would really kill the joy for me. I'd rather sell fewer books but have them surprise and delight my readers.

I'm versatile (or indecisive) in another area as well – the length of what I write. My first published work was an 80,000 word novel (RawSilk). My second publication was a 4,000 word short story (“Glass House” in the Black Lace collection Wicked Words 8 ). Over the years I've published nine novels, more than fifty short stories in various anthologies, and a selection of other work (novellas or whatever) that fall in between on the length dimension.

The target length of a work strongly influences both my process and my style. A short story (6,000 words or less, by my definition) is like a charcoal sketch, a few bold strokes that suggest rather than define – an intentionally rough framework that allows the reader to complete the picture based on his or her own imagination. I can usually draft a short story in a single afternoon (although I may have been thinking about the tale for days). In fact, I've found that the short stories I write quickly tend to be more effective and engaging than those I agonize over. For me, inspiration plays a major role in generating short fiction.

Novels require far more deliberation. I don't usually create a detailed outline, but depending on the book, I may have a scene list, character profiles and/or a time line. Furthermore, it takes me months to write a novel. Although each chapter tends to be short-story length, there are far more decisions to be made. My novels tend to have fifteen to twenty chapters, but I can't create one in three weeks of afternoon writing sessions!

When writing a novel, I am simultaneously aware of a whole range of issues. How much should I reveal about the characters and their goals, and how soon? How can I maintain suspense without confusing or annoying the reader? Will I have a single cataclysmic climax, or a building series of smaller resolutions? Who are the minor characters and what are their roles?

In addition, there are the issues of consistency and repetition. I sometimes find myself writing a scene and thinking, “Gee, this sounds awfully familiar...” Or I'll realize that I've totally forgotten to include some critical events, without which the story just won't make sense.

So novels are much slower and more consciously-crafted works, at least for me.

Novellas – tales between ten and thirty thousand words long, which seem to be very popular in the romance world – fall into an intermediate category. My main romance publisher calls a 10-15K work a “short story”, but wants the tale to be divided into chapters. Unlike what I would term a short story, there are usually multiple scenes and a plot arc, like a novel. On the other hand, there's not enough time to get into much detail about the context, setting or history. The romantic attraction has to occur more or less immediately. There's not time enough for a slow build.

So what do you prefer, long, short or in-between? Or are you like me, a fan of variety? Leave me a comment below – with your email – and you could win your choice of a novel (Exposure, an erotic thriller) or a book with two short stories (D&S Duos 1).

Let Me Entertain You

Let me entertain you.

Let me see you smile.

Let me do a few kicks,

Some old and then some new tricks;

I'm very versatile.

- Stephen Sondheim, from Gypsy

I grew up singing musicals. When I was still in grade school, I knew most of the lyrics from "My Fair Lady", "South Pacific", "West Side Story", and "The Sound of Music". We had all the records (LPs, of course). My mom, in particular, used to play them while she was doing housework. I've always picked up songs and verse, without really trying. So I can still sing "On the Street Where You Live", "I'm Gonna Wash That Man Right Out of My Hair" and "Tonight", as well as dozens more classics.

One of my mother's favorites was "Gypsy". I can see why, now—she was a bit like Gypsy Rose Lee's mom, flamboyant and stage struck. (It was her idea, for instance, for me and my two siblings to perform on a local TV amateur hour.) As for me, I was fascinated with the character of the famous burlesque star. I must have known even at that young age that there was something naughty about Gypsy's vocation. (I've always had instincts about that sort of thing!) Anyway, I would belt out "Let Me Entertain You" while I was doing the dishes, in between renditions of "Have an Eggroll, Mr. Goldstone" and "If Mama Was Married".

I realized recently that the song above could be my author-ly theme. I don't write to become famous (it'll never happen) or to contribute to the canon of great literature (despite my fantasies). For the most part, I write because I want to entertain my readers—and myself. And like Gypsy, I'm very versatile. I write in a wide range of different styles and genres, depending on my mood.

Want serious BDSM romance? Try Raw Silk, The Understudy, The Ingredients of Bliss, or one of my D&S Duos books. Do you like M/M stories? Pick up a copy of Necessary Madness, Quarantine or Crossed Hearts. If vampires are your thing, you might enjoy Fire in the Blood, my M/M/F vampire ménage set in Jamaica, or Fourth World, a collection of dark paranormal stories. Speaking of ménage, if threesomes get you going, check out Wild About That Thing (M/F/M), Truce of Trust (M/F/M with a touch of BDSM), Coming in Costume (M/F/M with a lot of BDSM) or Monsoon Fever (M/M/F historical). Are shape shifters your favorite genre? Let me entertain you with my cat shifter tale The Eyes of Bast or my Mayan paranormal Serpent's Kiss. How about steampunk? Get a copy of my outrageous multi-genre tale Rajasthani Moon.

(You can find buy links for all of these books at my website: http://www.lisabetsarai.com/books.html. Check out the covers in my cover gallery or browse my categorized index.)

I've noticed that many authors seem to specialize, to carve out a niche and stick to it. Not me. I'm easily bored, I guess. Or presenting myself in a more favorable light—I like to challenge myself by attempting to write in new genres. In addition to erotic romance, I also write literary erotica, stories that don't necessarily focus on a single relationship or have a happy ending. Some poetry, too.

There's another song from "Gypsy", sung by several of Gypsy's fellow strippers, called "You Gotta Get a Gimmick":

You can pull all the stops out

Till they call the cops out,

Grind your behind till you're banned

But you've gotta get a gimmick

If you wanna get a hand.

You can sacrifice your saccro
Working in the back row.
Bump in a dump till you're dead.
Kid, you gotta have a gimmick
If you wanna get ahead.

I sure hope that this isn't true. I'm too busy exploring to figure out a "gimmick". My stories have some common features and themes, I guess, but they are all quite different. That's both good and bad, I guess. A reader who has experience with one of my books doesn't really know what to expect from the next. On the other hand, if you're the sort of reader who likes things fresh and new, you might want to check me out. And if you're not ready to buy, check out my extensive collection of free stories and poems.

Meanwhile, I'll go back to working on a few tricks for my next books.

Maybe I should write a story that revolves around musicals.

Market Musings, and a Funny, Free Book

My husband and I are starting a new company, and doing a lot of traveling as a result. That means I have barely had time to be Lisabet lately.

In particular, I haven't been able to do much marketing (though I'm more or less caught up with the blog). On the other hand, I'm feeling rather clueless about marketing these days.

I've had five new releases in the past two months, in four different genres. Only one (The Eyes of Bast) is erotic romance. The others are lesbian erotica/romance (The Witches of Gloucester and Her Own Devices), dark paranormal erotica (Fourth World), and speculative erotica (The Last Amanuensis).

I have some notion about where and how to market erotic romance. Most of the readers on my VIP email list are romance fans. But how do I reach the readers of these other genres? There are no big review sites (that I know of) for these different types of books. I can try to get my current romance readers to try something new, but I know from experience that this can be a hard sell.

Right now I'm trying to get reviews. I figure that a couple of five star ratings on Amazon are bound to help draw people's attention, regardless of genre. And I have to say, I've been really grateful for the positive reaction of most of my reviewers.

Anyway, if you're reading this post (which means you at least know something about me and my writing!), I hope you'll give some of my new books a try. They're all pretty inexpensive, so it's not much of a risk!

Speaking of inexpensive...I recently read It's 10AM, Why Am I Still Sober, a hilarious and highly opinionated travel log by my friend and colleague K.S. Augustin.

 
In her more serious moments, K.S. writes amazing sci fi thrillers and romance, which she markets through her own micro-publishing company, Sandal Press. (Check out her gorgeous covers!)

The book It's 10AM... does not actually qualify as serious. Although I believe that it's sincere...

Anyway, she's giving the book away free. Just go here. Warning: this is not a book for those who are easily offended!

Have fun! And if you have any advice for me on marketing, I'd love to hear it.

A Genre I've Never Dared to Attempt

Anyone who looks at my back list will realize that I love to experiment with new genres. Easily bored, I really don't want to write the same sort of book over and over again. Instead, I'll branch out and try my hand in a sub-genre that is different from anything I've produced previously.

Gay erotic romance? Sure, why not?

Science fiction? One of my first loves.

Historical? Tough to do well, but given how much historical fiction I read as a kid, how can I resist?

How about a vampire book? No problem, though don't expect my vampires to follow all the traditional rules.

Steam punk? A total blast!

Humor? I'll give it a try, though my siblings used to ridicule me when I tried to tell jokes.

I realize this is not the best way to build a brand. Indeed, I'm sure that my diversity - or lack of focus, to look at it from a negative perspective - is at least partly responsible for my lackluster sales figures. That's too bad, but I really can't force myself to stick to just one or two genres.

I realized recently, though, that there's a genre I've never attempted. And now that thought is niggling away at me, tickling my sense of perversity.

I've never tried to write sweet romance.

Could I? Could I really keep the bedroom door firmly shut and still generate that sense of being swept away by emotion?

Should I? Or do my fans only want the explicit heat for which I'm known?

Would it be a waste of my time? Or an intriguing experiment?

What do you think? I actually have a couple of characters I've been working on and a setting back in the golden age of  Hollywood. I'd write the story for my beloved 92 year old aunt, who despite her own rather colorful life (three husbands) tells me she finds my books embarrassing.

Is it worth the effort? Should I take up the personal challenge? Do I dare?

Or is this a totally silly idea for someone whose tagline is "Imagination is the ultimate aphrodisiac"?

Something New

I've been publishing romance for about three years now. One thing that I've learned is that romance readers have strong opinions about what they want to read. Certain genres and story-lines are enduringly popular. Furthermore, once readers discover a particular sub-genre they like, they seem to want more and more stories in a similar vein.

I've had readers tell me that they don't read anything except M/M romance, or that they're happy to read only vampire stories. One reason for the proliferation and commercial success of series is that readers crave more experiences the same worlds and involving the same characters that they enjoyed in a first book.

I can understand the rationale. If you've found something that works for you, why not stick to it? Personally, though, I find the situation a bit frustrating. Maybe it's because I am easily bored. Having written one shape-shifter, I don't necessarily have the urge to tackle another one, at least not right away. I've so far never even attempted a series (though I am considering one set in the world of Necessary Madness). I'd generally rather move on to something fresh and new. My favorite stimulus for a project is to tackle some genre I've never attempted. Another pet strategy is to begin with a stereotyped, well-defined genre and try to turn it on its head. Serpent's Kiss, for instance, began with my asking myself, "What kind of shape-shifter can I come up with that nobody has done yet?" (Only later did I learn that Stella and Audra Price were also working on a snake-shifter universe--although Jorge in my book is not exactly a snake.)

I have another problem when it comes to satisfying readers' expectations. I like to mix things up. Some of my books, for example, include M/F, M/M and F/F interactions in the same story. I've discovered that this turns some readers off. I've actually had books rejected by review sites because they are not a "pure" example of a genre. I find this extremely annoying. The review sites justify their decisions by claiming that their choices reflect their readers' interests. Are romance readers really that narrow-minded?

This New Year's day, I'd like to challenge you to try something new. If you've never read any BDSM, get yourself a copy of Raw Silk or Rendezvous. Unfamiliar with F/F romance? Read my short story Velvet. Are you curious about ménage tales? I can offer you both M/F/M (Truce of Trust) and M/M/F (Monsoon Fever). Interested in a shape-shifter who doesn't have fur? Try Serpent's Kiss.

Like most writers, I also read voraciously. I have favorite authors, certainly, but I don't want to read the same thing over and over. The best authors surprise me with each new book. That's what I aspire to, also. Ring out the old, ring in the new. That's my mantra.

I only hope that my readers see things the same way.