Over the weekend, I finished the ugly word list for Midas, which will be the third of six stories in a series called The Fair Warrior Chronicles. Midas is almost ready to send to the editor. eXtasy Books has given me publishing dates to put out one of the Fair Warrior stories each month for the next 6 months. The stories concern friends who encounter a strange, dark power while on holiday in Crete, and come away with odd paranormal powers of their own. There will be a story from the point of view of each member of the group. The first, Minotaur, comes out on May 15, then Huntress June 15, Midas July 15, Cassandra August 15, and the final two stories September 15 and October 15.
I anticipate that all of these stories will be rated as highly erotic. eXtasy Books assigns a "flame rating" to every book they publish. My current offerings from them, Mandi and Clytie, received five flames, which eXtasy defines as "Strong content of all kind. Extreme love scenes. May contain subject matter objectionable to some readers. Menage a quatre, group sex." That pretty well sums up the action in the first three stories of The Fair Warrior Chronicles, and I don't plan to turn down the heat in the rest of them.
In other fiction, sex is one of the things a writer uses to move the plot along. In five-flame erotic fiction, the plot is one of the things a writer uses to move the sex along.
THE DIARY OF AN EROTIC WRITER
Sex is better. Love is better still. Few other sensations will tickle brain of a writer more than an email like this one:
From: Tina @ extasybooks
This email started my career as a published author of erotica. A week earlier I'd submitted Mandi to eXtasy Books, a Canadian publisher of erotic romance e-books. Like most writers, I know all about submission. Usually all it gets you is rejection. Here at last was a lovely lady saying Yes, yes, yes.
I've written enough fiction to fill a bookshelf. Until Tina's email, none of it had been offered the chance to see the light of published day. To some extent, the rejections didn't matter. I'm a writer. I write. I cherish every minute spent writing. Now, with a string of eXtasy Books contracts bearing my name, I've entered a different level of word love.
This morning I hit the keyboard at 5:30 AM, my usual weekday time. I worked the manuscript of Midas through part of the eXtasy editors' list of Ugly, Weak, or Overused Words. To me there are no ugly words, only ugly usages, but I won't argue. Searching the manuscript for each word on the list and ripping out as many as I can is a good way to tighten the language and take a fresh look at every sentence. It's one of the last things I do to a story.
From: Tina @ extasybooks
Subject: Submission
Hello
Valerie,
I
would like to offer you a contract for this story. How well it will sell, I can never
predict. That all depends on the author's
efforts to promote the story and how the readers take to it.
This email started my career as a published author of erotica. A week earlier I'd submitted Mandi to eXtasy Books, a Canadian publisher of erotic romance e-books. Like most writers, I know all about submission. Usually all it gets you is rejection. Here at last was a lovely lady saying Yes, yes, yes.
I've written enough fiction to fill a bookshelf. Until Tina's email, none of it had been offered the chance to see the light of published day. To some extent, the rejections didn't matter. I'm a writer. I write. I cherish every minute spent writing. Now, with a string of eXtasy Books contracts bearing my name, I've entered a different level of word love.
This morning I hit the keyboard at 5:30 AM, my usual weekday time. I worked the manuscript of Midas through part of the eXtasy editors' list of Ugly, Weak, or Overused Words. To me there are no ugly words, only ugly usages, but I won't argue. Searching the manuscript for each word on the list and ripping out as many as I can is a good way to tighten the language and take a fresh look at every sentence. It's one of the last things I do to a story.
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