I’ve always been attracted to women (as well as men). My first three novels, Raw Silk, Miranda's Masks and Nasty Business, all include F/F scenes. As a neophyte erotic author, I wrote what I found arousing, and that meant including lesbian interactions.
Then,
around 2006, recognizing a new opportunity and a changing publishing
landscape, I began producing mostly erotic romance. I rapidly
discovered that the constraints in this genre are far stricter than
for erotica (which is how I labeled my earlier work). A romance novel
is identified first and foremost based on the genders of its
protagonists. Heaven help the author who strays away from that
primary identification! Romance readers (apparently) want to be
warned about what they’ll find inside the covers. If the book
claims to be M/M, you’d better not include the slightest hint of
heterosexual hanky panky (even involving secondary characters), or
you’ll incur the wrath of readers and reviewers. Meanwhile, I found
that compared to the enormous popularity of gay erotic romance, the
market for F/F erotic romance appeared to be tiny. When I asked the
people on my email list how they felt about lesbian stories, many
expressed zero interest and one or two went so far as to tell me they
found sexual interactions between women to be “icky” (a response
I found deeply depressing).
They
say you should listen to your readers. So for many years, I
suppressed my desire to write F/F tales or scenes. It was hard
sometimes. For instance, my romance novel The Ingredientsof Bliss has a bisexual character whom I
just adore, a kick-ass French police detective. As I worked on my
first and second drafts, Toni kept coming on to my heroine Emily, and
Emily so wanted to respond— but I knew I couldn’t allow
myself to give in to that temptation. Even so, my editor insisted I
further sanitize their relationship. I was so frustrated!
Things
have changed though. I’ve switched
almost entirely to self-publishing my work. That means I can write
what I want—what
inspires me personally. I’ve also concluded that my stories
actually sell better when I write from the heart, rather than
according to someone else’s formula.
So
I’m proud to say I’m an author of lesbian fiction (as well as gay
fiction, and soon I hope, transgender fiction). I’m delighted with
my three F/F books out this month. Meanwhile, my upcoming novella More
Brides in Vegas includes lots of
delicious girl-on-girl scenes.
Romance
rules are not going to keep me in the closet any more!
