Aphrodisia Authors :: Blog

I know you’re not embarrassed to read spicy books or you wouldn’t be here at our site.

But are you embarrassed to buy them? Do you order online? Do you slink around the bookstore? Here in Canada, Aphrodisias are shelved under Erotica, not Romance, so you have to go into a whole different section and basically proclaim, “Hello, my name is Susan and I read erotica.” (Which, actually, I rarely do. Especially not literary erotica. I much prefer erotic/spicy romance. But here it’s shelved as erotica.) I admit, in the beginning I was nervous about browsing the erotica section – and partly it was because there were so few books and the covers were, uh, kind of freaky sometimes. But that was before we Aphrodisiacs, and our colleagues at Heat, Red, Spice and so on began to dominate the shelves with our pretty, shiny, sexy covers.

Do you pick up your erotic romance and hide it under another book, then linger near the cashiers until you see a friendly looking female who might – gasp! – even read this stuff herself?

How about reading spicy books in public? Do you read your erotic romances at home, as a private pleasure? Or do you proudly carry them around in public, cover visible, and read them on the bus? (And if you do, do you ever get comments?) Personally, I’m not big on reading sexy stuff in public. It’s not so much that I’m embarrassed to be seen with it, as that it’s hard to really get deeply into the story and enjoy it fully (if you get what I mean ).

As for you writers, are you embarrassed by what you write? I bet most of us will say no. If we were embarrassed about it, we wouldn’t do it. But what do you say when, after you’ve told someone you’re a writer, they ask you what you write? My answer is usually, “Spicy contemporary romance.” It’s not because I’m embarrassed but because I think the general public doesn’t really understand what “erotic romance” means. They think “porn”, and that’s definitely not what I or my fellow Aphrodisiacs write. I figure, “spicy contemporary romance” gives the normal reader a much more accurate picture. If they ask, “How spicy?”, I’ll grin and say, “Pretty darned spicy,” and they get the picture.

So, now it’s your turn to fess up. Are you embarrassed? Or proud and bold?

It seems to be a common theme among authors, this sense of being overwhelmed by deadlines and projects and life in general, and that’s exactly how I was feeling today when we pulled into the driveway after a whirlwind visit to see our four grandkids. They aren’t always together, since our son and his family live in Hawaii, but Jon, Mel and Ella were here in California for a brief visit and my husband and I spent the weekend being grandparents with four amazing kids age six and under.

I have an amazing respect for our daughter, who claims three of them and who was also babysitting the fourth. She does it with such amazing aplomb that I asked her what kind of drugs she used…she just laughed and kept right on doing what young mothers do—being a mom.

Anyway, I’m getting off track here—something I do a lot! I got home exhausted, helped hubby unload the RV, carried stuff into the house, put in a load of laundry, watered some plants and started fixing dinner. I was feeling sort of blue because I never feel like I get enough time with the babies, when I came upstairs to check my email.

Went through a gazillion messages and then came to an absolutely wonderful note from a reader, telling me how much she enjoyed my books. And I will admit it, my depression was gone, my energy was back and that sense of always playing catch-up sort of faded away.

Oh, it’ll be back tomorrow, but for one brief moment, all was right with my world because a reader took the time to send me that very thoughtful note. I freely admit that I save all my mail from readers. They’re the proof I often need, a reminder that there is more to writing than just the creation of a story for my own enjoyment or to meet a deadline or make my editor happy. Ultimately, the reason we write is for our readers.

That’s probably why it’s so meaningful when they take the time to write to us. So that’s my question—authors, do you ever write fan mail when you read a book that really moves you? And readers, do you ever take the time to send a note to an author? I’m going to make a point to do it more often. Today’s note was a reminder just how important that very personal connection can be. Maybe I’m just needier than most, but it sure made my day!

First of all, take a look at my new book cover for Wolf Tales VI. Is this gorgeous or what? It comes out in July.

However, that’s not what I’m writing about!

This morning I packed up the finished manuscript for Wolf Tales VII, the thirteenth title in my series, and mailed it off to my editor. Then I immediately sunk into a deep and dark depression. Does anyone else do this? I think it’s the fact I’ve lived with the characters for so many weeks (or months, in the case of this one!) and when the story ends, my relationship with my characters ends as well…at least until I start the next book in the series! I keep thinking, when the time comes that I don’t write about my Chanku anymore, I’ll probably need therapy!

I’ve always been that way with every book I’ve written. I honestly think the fantasy world I write intrudes so heavily on my real world that it’s painful to get jerked back into reality. I look back over the months since I started this story, though, and there have been so many family and personal issues, that finishing the book became a major peak to conquer–my mother’s surgery, my own health issues, a computer crash, then Mom’s fall and broken bones, remodeling our kitchen, two weeks of snow in an area where snow is NOT supposed to come that often…it’s gone on and on and on. My story was the only thing I had any control over at all, and of course, once the characters gained a bit of power, I lost even that!

I will say, though, that through it all my readers have been absolutely amazing. I didn’t realize what a powerful support group I had until I sent out a whiny, grumpy plea for understanding on my newsletter, and got literally hundreds of replies from people offering me nothing but prayers and good thoughts. It made me realize just how lucky I am.

On that note, I’m going to close and head for the shower and bed. I need to get some sleep and start the next book, because I know I’ll feel better once I’m back in sync with my Chanku shapeshifters! Do you have the same issues? Sort of a post partum depression for writers? I’d love to hear how you deal with it if you do!

We write fiction. Yet we all know about the readers who insist that details be accurate and who’ll ream out an author if she gets something wrong – like the year a certain item of clothing became fashionable, or the calibre of a gun. This makes me wonder about a few things:

• If you’re a writer, when do you choose to bend the truth for the sake of the story?

• What details do readers want to be accurate? Vampires don’t exist (probably), but readers seem quite willing to accept them in fiction – and yet they’ll fuss over the accuracy of period clothing. How come?

• Do readers hold all fiction writers to the same standards of accuracy? Are they more lenient with paranormal, fantasy or futuristic? Less lenient with contemporary or historical?

• Do people nit-pick with TV shows and movies as well as books? For example, when CSI shows crime scene investigators trampling all over a crime scene in street clothing, shedding hair, fibres and who knows what all else, do a bunch of viewers write to tell them they’ve got it all wrong? Or when cases on Boston Legal go to court in a period of days, do viewers write to say that in real life the same process would take a year or more? (I don’t mean to pick on these shows – they happen to be two of my favorites! – and I’m quite prepared to accept the inaccuracies for the sake of great characters and an interesting story.)

What’s your opinion on the questions above?

Well, to begin, I’m posting from the island of Oahu in Hawaii, specifically my son’s home in Kaneohe where I’ve been watching my adorable almost two year old granddaughter, Ella. Mommy is away for a week, which means Dabba (me!) has both her thirty year old son and Ella to feed and spoil and play with. I’d planned to write when Ella went down for a nap, but I quickly discovered that chasing a toddler is exhausting work (proof that motherhood is truly for the young!) and I’ve been napping along with Ella.

Today, though, I “worked.” Well, sort of…there is a wonderful romance expert at the local Borders book store, here in Kaneohe. Kellie Chang is absolutely amazing, and she’s gone above and beyond the call of duty! It’s obvious she loves the romance genre and she is a font of information about the various authors and titles. I’m convinced that if every bookstore had a Kellie clone, we’d all enjoy our shopping experience a whole lot more. For the second time, now when I’ve been to the island, Kellie has organized a little gathering with many of the romance readers she’s gotten to know at her store. Today there were thirteen of us at the local IHOP, munching away and gabbing about books and having a wonderful time.

That’s us in the photo–Kellie is third from the left, back row, standing beside her parents. That’s me on the far right, back row. Work? I guess so, if you can call spending over two hours with a fascinating group of women who love the same books and authors I do, work. Yes, it was a great chance to promote my books, but it was even more fun just being surrounded by readers who love the same stories. We ended up with a quick trip to the bookstore where I managed to add to my TBR pile, and it was really hard to leave, knowing it will be months before I see them again.

This is one of the things I love most about a career as an author–the interaction with readers. I feel so lucky to have these opportunities to sit and visit and get to know people who read my books and those who don’t, but who love to read romance just the same. My thanks to Kellie for organizing such a special time for all of us today.

And totally off topic–I just read Vonna Harper’s blog–what a thrill, to finally be sharing an anthology with a talented author who has been a friend of mine for so many years. Ain’t it great, kiddo?

Damn but I love my job!!!

I’ve never in my life seen so many people trying to avoid my eye. Come on, folks, I’m not a gang member or a beggar, I’m just a romance author at a book signing.

This weekend I attended two multi-author signings. These were put on by bookstores where I’m guessing the customers do actually read and enjoy books. Wouldn’t you think they might like to talk to an author or two? Apparently not. Or is it that they’re scared that if they come anywhere near us and our books, they might have to – gasp! – buy one? God forbid, a fate worse than death.

Well, of course we’d like to sell books but mostly we’d just like people to be friendly and talk to us. If they take a bookmark or excerpt, or buy a book, that’s a bonus.

So, what’s the deal with signings? Why doesn’t anyone want to talk to me and my fellow authors?

At the end of the second signing, yesterday afternoon, two of us asked the store manager that question and he said, “That’s crazy. I mean, you can talk to romance authors about anything!”

Yes! He knows us. He GETS us! Now the question is, how do we get that same message across to readers? I suggested that next time we put up a banner saying, “Romance Authors – you can talk to them about ANYTHING!”

What’s your experience with signings, as a writer, reader or bookseller? If you do signings, why? Are they good or bad experiences? What do you think makes for a good signing or event? I’d love to know, because I have a bunch more coming up!

(Before I stop, I’d like to say thanks to the great store managers and staff at Borders Express in Cascade Mall, Burlington, and Chapters Metrotown in Burnaby, who were so wonderfully supportive this weekend.)

Susan Lyons (www.susanlyons.ca)