Flying sex

My erotic stories Mandi, Clytie, and Minotaur all feature sex on private jets. Now I'm finishing the last few chapters of Circe, the sixth and final story of my Fair Warrior Chronicles series for eXtasy Books.  The characters are on the biggest and fanciest jet I've yet to imagine.

These sex jets all have bedrooms, but my characters don't confine their copulating to the private areas. They're fine with doing it in the passenger seats.  We have to assume first-class leg room.  I'm not sure I can describe how two people could contort enough to have sex in one of the cheap seats.

There's something inherently sexy in the mix of power and freedom that a private jet provides. The characters are suspended far above the world and its rules. In the flights I describe, they have plenty of good food and champagne, and nothing much to do for a few hours except play with one another's bodies.

The airplane needs to be more than a fun place to fuck. The relationship between the characters changes while they're in the air. When they're back on the ground, things are not the same. That's the difference between describing sex and telling an erotic story.

A fast girl

Every reader is like a one-night fling. They're not going to stick around unless they feel as if they're getting somewhere. They want it fast, and they want it now. In writing erotic fiction, I try to start in the middle of a sex encounter and then move ahead as quickly as I can. The get-acquainted chatter is minimal. This doesn't mean that you have to abandon all attempts to tell a story. You can have a lot going on, as long as you don't take too long between fucks to explain it.

The stories I've published through eXtasy Books start like this:  Mandi—in the middle of a blow job. Clytie—two people in bed. Minotaur—a wild bachelorette party. The Huntress—bringing a man under control.  Midas—a suggestively undone button. Only The Huntress isn't right in the middle of sex in the opening lines, and it starts with the words, The twang of the bowstring rocks my cunt.

Make it a quickie.  The reader wants to be done with you, and on to the next encounter.

Sex, love, and war

Erotic fiction explores the conflict of hearts as expressed by bodies. Ordinarily this means living, breathing (or undead) bodies. The problem with mixing armed conflict into a contemporary erotic romance story line is that erotic encounters seldom happen on a battlefield. When I try to keep erotic content on every page, it's pretty hard to squeeze  war into the eroticism.

In Cassandra, a story my Fair Warrior Chronicles series, I solved this quandary by equipping my Fair Warriors with erotic paranormal powers. Faced with a helicopter assault by paramilitary commandos, they get naked.  Group sex amplifies their powers.

This post would become way to long if I tried to explain how their powers work together. The result is that the helicopters go haywire and crash. The commandos are stunned and wounded. One of them turns out to be Cassandra's lost love.  Sex, battle, and a happy ending happen simultaneously.

I love what I do.

Delving

If you write erotic fiction, fantasies you would never share with anyone become the grist for your story. I try to turn myself on with what I write. I figure if it's making me hot, it might do the same for you. I work to turn my characters inside out, so that their deepest personal feelings and the most intimate reactions of their bodies are more visible than their skin.

For a native of the Midwestern US, this took some learning. A wonderful writing teacher—a fast talking and boisterous New Yorker—used to berate us for not baring the souls of our characters. In this part of the country, people tend to say little about themselves. We're considered intrusive if we ask any question more personal than "How are you?" (The accepted answer is, "Fine, thanks.")

The characters in my Fair Warrior Chronicles go through this. They've had an experience that leaves them confused and isolated. They want to keep their thoughts private. But they are thrust into situations that cause them to share their minds and bodies freely. Group sex is their key to power. Forced intimacy opens them to love. The shattering of their isolation leads to happiness.

The new way

Tired of computer games and reruns? Want to get back to reading books? Looking for better and more explicit entertainment?  The publishing business has caught up with today's way of delivering. You don't have to tromp to the mall and wander through a chain bookstore stuffed with paid promotions for bland, high-priced books cranked out by mega-corporate publishers who want to make selling stories as predictable as selling soap. Independent publishers of e-books are better all around.

Take a look at eXtasy Books, http://www.extasybooks.com/.  The selection is great, there's always something new, and the prices are low. Delivery is instant. You can read frank and lively stories for adults with the privacy of your tablet or e-reader.  

You'll find all my titles there:  Mandi, Clytie, Minotaur, Huntress, Midas, and Cassandra. And hundreds of other great reads.         

Snippets

Here's a test for whether you truly are writing erotic fiction: Scroll to any page on your manuscript. Your cursor should be close to a hot, explicit sentence. Do this six times in a row, and find an erotic line within an inch or two of where you stop every time.  If you can't, think about turning up the steam.

I try to arrange stories so the sex drives the plot. This doesn't always work. Sometimes I have to let other action take over for a page or two in order to get the story where it needs to go. When I finish a passage of that kind, I go back through it and find ways to add sexual references. Brief flashes of recollection do the trick, and are often realistic. If you have good sex in the morning, do you find the memory of it invading your thoughts in the afternoon? These short, hot flashbacks add another dimension to what the character is doing in the scene. Or sometimes I pump up the eroticism by adding sexy touches, looks, or postures. It helps to keep people naked as much as possible, and remind the reader of the nudity by references to their gorgeous bodies.

When one of my stories is published, I add pages for it to my web site, valerieherme.com. There's a page with the book cover, a brief description, and a purchase link to the eXtasy Books site, another page with the first chapter to read for free, and another page called Snippets. The snippets are five or six hot quotes from the story. I pick them from the first six places where I stop while scrolling rapidly through the story. So far, I've never failed to find a hot line.  

Villains

In order to make plot-driven fiction work, you need a villain. In erotic stories, the plot is driven by sex. So the villain must be messing with the heroine's love life. I try to draw my villains from contemporary events. In four of the five erotic stories I've published through eXtasy Books, I use a single villain--powerful, cold, murderous, amoral, inscrutable corporation.  That seems realistic enough.

 My novella Clytie has non-corporate villain, a whip-wielding, super-rich woman. She's easy to hate and hard to defeat. But I couldn't manage to make her as nefarious as the average real-life multinational corporation.  

In my Fair Warrior Chronicles series, the heroes slowly figure out that a big corporation is after them. They have paranormal powers that have enabled them to resist. But they haven't yet figured out why the corporation pursues them so malignantly.  Neither have I. I'd better come up with something pretty soon. I'm well along with the first draft of the last book in the series.

In the original draft of Clytie, the villainess suffers poetic justice when she's fucked by a bull.  The editors required me to rewrite this. They have a policy about bestiality. I tried to plead that it was an allusion to Greek Myth.  They weren't impressed. So in the published version, the bull doesn't get to go all the way.

 If I can come up with a corporate equivalent of being fucked by a bull, I'll know what to do with my evil corporation in the Fair Warriors series. Suggestions are welcome.

Guesting

Destiny Blaine, author of the Branded stories and other popular erotic stories, graciously invited me to be a guest on her blog. My appearance there is scheduled for August 1.  You can visit Destiny at http://destinyblaine.blogspot.com/ and at http://www.destinyblaine.com/.  She has several fine stories available at http://www.extasybooks.com/.  Thanks, Destiny!

Log lines

Describing your story in ten words or less is like any other skill in writing. It's a matter of practicing until the virtues of your work are strong enough to minimize your flaws to the point that the reader doesn't notice them.

I've written log lines for five published stories in the past eight months. Here they are:

           He can make gold, but can he understand women?

           The virgin huntress stalks her prey.

           The Minotaur will arouse your secret yearnings.

           The Fire Genie will make you burn.

           Bull leapers at a secret resort risk their lives for glory, riches, and love.

Are there some you like better than others? Why? My favorite is the first on the list. It says more about the story's main character than the others, and it asks a question that neatly describes the theme of the story.

Can you match my log lines to the story titles? (Hint—three of the five should not be hard.) The titles, in the order in which they have been published by eXtasy Books, are:

          Mandi

          Clytie

          Minotaur

         The Huntress

         Midas

There's no way to tell which log line belongs to Mandi and which belongs to Clytie. I think that's a flaw. If I had it to do over, I'd change the title of Mandi to The Fire Genie. The log line for Clytie describes the plot fairly well, but it's too long and it doesn't catch the special flavor of the title character, who might be my favorite among all the characters I've ever put on a page. If I had the Clytie log line to do over, I'd probably suggest Can Clytie the bull leaper live with a free heart? Shorter, but maybe a little puzzling.

I like to get the log line written, or at least take a stab at it, before I'm done working on the story. Writing the log line can sometimes give you a more concise idea of what your story is about, which might help you sharpen the final draft.

I hope this helps you, or at least makes a bit of sense. If I had to write a log line for this piece, it would be Can the log line writer explain his craft?        

New release

Exquisite piece, a delight to read. That's what the copy editor had to say about my newest release from eXtasy Books, Midas. 

 Evan Wall is called Midas because every investment he touches turns to gold. His power came to him after a supernatural presence swept through his mind. The gift was accompanied by a curse. He can understand finances perfectly, but he’s clueless about women. Then his old love, Chen, shows up with weird powers of her own.

Read the first chapter free at valeriherme.com.

What is erotic Part 10 Temptation

It's fun to write about someone who has set the boundaries of their virtue a little too tightly. There she is, walking home from the library. She crosses the path of a certain person. She barely nods. She carefully maintains her step, not seeming to be either hurrying past or lingering. She does not—DOES NOT—let herself imagine that burly hand sliding up her thigh.

The difference in how temptation is treated in erotic fiction and mainstream fiction is partially in the speed and depth of the fall from virtue. The hand, once imagined, is likely to be sliding up the fallen angel's thigh before dinnertime. Another difference is the explicitness of the description.  The hand doesn't slide to places we are left to imagine. It grabs a cunt.

In my story Midas, which will be published July 15 by eXtasy Books, the point of view character is obsessed with the undone top button of his receptionists' blouse. Before the day is over, he's in bed with her and a few other people. This being an erotic story, he's also been fucked by three other women in the meantime.

Golden sheers

Before eXtasy publishes a book, it gets edited by one person and proofread by another. I missed it, the editor didn't point it out, but the proofreader noticed I had used shear when I meant sheer. The sentence was, I look past the ebony desk and the Zuzunaga couch, to the wide view of Central Park and the towers of Manhattan turned golden by the gold-flecked shears on my floor-to-ceiling windows. Since shears is another word for scissors, the image I unintentionally created was of a big pair of scissors hanging over a window. Don't get too close to the glass, or they might swing shut and snip off your whatever.

Exquisite delight

"Exquisite piece, a delight to read." That's what the eXtasy Books proofreader said of my story, Midas, which is scheduled for release on July 15. I was anxious about how this one would go over with the eXtasy staff. Midas is the third book of the Fair Warrior Chronicles series.  The plot gets thicker, the setting is a big leap from the previous story (taking the characters from and English forest to a New York hotel suite), and the ménage lasts a day and a half.  I thought it all worked pretty well, but I wasn't sure anyone else would agree. So to hear the proofer's good opinion of the story was, to borrow the proofer's words, exquisite and delightful.

Keeping them straight

When a story brings a lot of characters together, a writer often uses tags to help the reader keep the characters straight. A tag is an identifying characteristic that is mentioned whenever a character who hasn't been around for awhile comes into a scene. My eXtasy Books series, The Fair Warrior Chronicles,is getting complicated in that way. Each story is told from the point of view of a new character. They were all friends once. The mysterious powers they inherited are drawing them together. The series involves five main characters, seven or eight co-stars, and all kinds of minor appearances. Tags I use include Marianne's streak of blue hair (and matching pubic hair), Greg's a cowboy hat (often the only thing he's wearing), Andrew's upper-class Brit accent (which he will use to charm your pants off), Tanisha's Olympic (and gorgeous) muscularity, and a bunch of others.

FAR interview

Here's my interview with one of the impish angles at Fallen Angel Reviews:

Valerie Herme' Interview

Today I have the pleasure of speaking with author Valerie Herme'. Thanks for being here today Valerie, welcome to FAR!

It's a pleasure to be talking with you.

To start, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Early morning is my writing time. For the rest of the day, I wear this hour like sexy underwear. I've got a loving family and an engrossing day job, but underneath it all I'm naughty Valerie the erotic writer.

Please tell readers a little bit about your contemporary erotic romance Clytie.

Clytie is my second title published by eXtasy Books, a thriving Canadian independent press. Here's what the publisher's copy editor had to say about the story after she finished helping me polish the final draft: Absolutely amazing, extremely well crafted story. First person present tense is hard to do and this is magnificently done.

What inspired you to write Clytie?

The Minoans, a lost civilization, left behind works of art showing men and women grabbing a charging bull by the horns and vaulting over the bull's back. I thought the bull leapers would make great erotic fiction characters, especially if I placed them in a contemporary setting. The story takes place on a secret resort island. The bull leapers, Clytie and Paris, are idolized as heroic athletes, but they're also consorts, constrained to answer the sexual demands of their super-wealthy mistresses and masters.

Is there a message in your story that you want readers to grasp?

There's an undercurrent of social justice in the story. The mistresses and masters, even the nice ones, are oppressors. But mostly it's a story of a woman who demands the right to live with a free heart.

What would you like to accomplish with your writing career?

I want the world to see my secret lingerie.

What is the best advice that anyone ever gave you?

The best teacher I've ever had, a writer whose splendid workshop I was privileged to attend one night a week for two years, said Write about what you are writing about. That advice guides me every morning, and carries over into my daylight life. I think it means stick to the point. In writing erotic romances, I try to make every page, and every paragraph, romantic and erotic.

While writing, how does the story develop for you? Do you go from start to finish or create scenes as they come to you?

I have a general notion of a setting or a character, and I dive in. Sometimes I have to circle back and add a scene to make sense of it all.

Can you tell us a little about your other upcoming works?

My first release from eXtasy Books was the novel Mandi, published last year. It revolves around an ambitious woman's involvement with a secret sex pill. Right now, I'm in the middle of a six-story series called The Fair Warrior Chronicles. College students on a holiday in Crete find a hidden cave, where they are granted strange powers and hyperactive sex drive. The first two books of the series, Minotaur and The Huntress, have been published. eXtasy Books has given me publication dates once a month for the next four months to complete the series. Now I have to finish the stories on time!

Where do you hope to take your writing in the future?

Erotic ebooks seem like a new frontier. Readers are more comfortable having erotic literature around, since they can keep it discreetly on their ebook devices. I'm riding this wave of liberation.

Since everybody needs a break, even when doing something they love, how do you like to spend your time away from writing?

My lover and I enjoy simple stuff-a walk down the gravel road to our rented farmhouse, or cuddling up with Netflix. And I love to read, of course. I bounce from light to heavy fiction. I just finished Fifty Shades of Grey and started Tess of the d'Urbervilles.

We all have one, so tell us yours. What is your favorite comfort food?

This is disgusting, but from childhood, whenever I feel as if my moorings are about to come loose, I resort to a glass of milk and a sandwich of white bread, peanut butter, and mayonnaise.

Describe yourself in 5 words.

Hopelessly in love with writing.

Do you have a website or blog where readers can learn more about you and your works?

Free first chapters of my stories are available at valerieherme.com, and I share my writing life at Valerie Herme's Erotic Writing Blog. I'm also on Facebook.

Is there anything else you would like to add today?

Fallen Angels Reviews is a great site. Thanks for having me.

Thank you for taking time to speak with me today Valerie.


Interviewed by: Tammy

What is erotic Part 9 Independence

The independent woman, not beholding to any man for financial support, free to pursue her own dreams, and to enter and break relationships as her heart desires, is largely a phenomenon of the past half century. Well, girls, we can be more erotic than our submissive  ancestresses. What is sexier than giving in because you want to, and not because your station in society leaves you no other choice? Let's write about and be women who are caring but not chronically dependent. Any man who isn't turned on by this doesn't deserve to mate.

What is erotic, Part 8 Submission

Submissive is defined as unresistingly or humbly obedient. Talk about a fantasy! Having your way, utterly, with another. To make a good story out of it, the submissive person ultimately has to rebel. In my story Clytie, the hero, Paris, is the pampered and submissive consort of a rich woman. His love for Clytie gives him the strength to resist. In the same story, the wealthy rulers play at being submissive. Whenever the man in the Minotaur costume appears, the power relationships are reversed and the slaves become the masters. But only for a short while, and with guardians nearby who will intervene if the masters are used too roughly. True subversion is so contrary to human nature that in fiction it is usually sought by a villain, or pursued as a perverse pleasure.

What is erotic, Part 7 Seduction

Seduction: si-ˈdək-shən. The enticement of a person to sexual intercourse. Entice: in-ˈtīs. To attract artfully or adroitly or by arousing hope or desire. These definitions get into the dark side of sexual persuasion. A seduction implies the overcoming of an unwillingness. This is the stuff of heady ertoicism—the proud beauty broken, the aloof man brought to his knees. And not necessarily by love or desire. Seduction is enticement, and enticement includes arousing hope. Of what? The artful seducer may win their prize by dangling the possibility of wealth, security, survival, diversion, love, or any other thing a human can hope for. The seducer, according to the dictionary definition, is not seeking love. The goal is sex. The erotic story lies in the seducer's quest to get what they want. The drama lies in the potential of disaster for the one seduced.