Thank you, Julia, for hosting me today, so I can talk about my new book release, Rage - The Vampire's Concubine #2 and today I'm going to talk about how I came to be writing erotic romance.
As I mentioned in my previous post on April Margeson's blog, see the posting schedule below for details, I have been writing since I was young. One of those forms of writing was fanfiction. The Lost Boys, V, Street Hawk: I was writing (bad) fiction for these films and TV shows in the 80's before I knew it was called fanfiction and way before I'd even heard of the internet. I first came across other people's fanfiction through paper zines in the early 90's when a friend lent me a Beauty & The Beast zine where Catherine and Vincent were getting very intimate. :)
THEN, at uni, I discovered the wonders of the internet and mailing lists where I could share my fanfic with others. I was into Highlander and Poltergeist The Legacy then, and I was a het writer. I wrote prolifically for Highlander, including organising, writing episodes for and editing many other episodes of Highlander: The Fanfiction Season, which was a group of fan's reaction to the end of Season 5.
So, I honed my writing craft in public once I was in my early twenties (and I thank goodness that I did not have access to publish work from when I was even younger). I was, to put it delicately, a bit purple in my prose, and I still can be ;P, that's why I have editors. Towards the end of my Highlander fandom days, I began seeing stories about Methos and Richie, or Methos and Duncan, male/male pairings, and this was my first exposure to slash fanfiction. I didn't read a lot of slash while into Highlander, it wasn't until I got to Harry Potter that I started being really interested in any male/male relationships, and that for me was Harry/Draco. I have a few Harry/Draco fics on my LiveJournal, including an 'epic' called Moment by Moment. I fell for Harry/Draco because of the opposites attract idea. Harry is the hero, bold and noble. Draco is (and I am doing him a disservice using this term, I know, but bear with me) a villain, sneaky and mean. Yet, they are also very alike in other ways, and they are both more than a little broken by the pressures that their respective 'sides' put on them. I found that different-yet-the-same idea fun to play with and terribly erotic and it is a common theme throughout my Harry/Draco slash fanfics.
I do still indulge in slash fanfiction from time to time, my most recent being for a series of books called The Stein & Candle Detective Agency by Michael Panush. I enjoy writing slash, and I won't stop, but I decided to start writing original erotic romance stories as well, and, thanks to my slash baptism, I enjoy writing homoerotic love stories. I also write lots of other genres from horror to high fantasy, but I do love the passions and pain of writing a good romance. Sometimes even just a good old-fashioned PWP (plot-what-plot) comes out, especially when I'm joining in The Drabble Cascades, which is a weekly writing challenge I run with my twin sister, Tasha, over on Fantasy Boys XXX, our Wittegen Press fiction blog dedicated to speculative erotic fiction.
Something else that my slash writing habits have taught me is that erotic fiction is not just about plug a into slot b, it's not merely to do with writing sex. It's about emotion, characters and their relationships, in fact, some slash does not contain any sex. Erotic romance, by it's nature, does include sex, because, otherwise it would just be romance, but without that emotion and character to drive it along, it usually turns out to be very boring stuff. All in all, I'm glad I cut my teeth in the fanfic arena, because I learnt so much about writing in general thanks to feedback from other writers and readers in the big wide internet. They challenged my style, my characterisations and my plots, and it has made me a better writer, at least, I think so.
Rage is my latest erotic romance, although readers may wonder where the romance is at the moment, but I promise, I'm a happy ending junkie when it comes to romance, although I have been known to put my characters through the wringer first ;). There's a chance to win a copy of Rage and its prequel, An Amusement, below, and you check out my other work via the Wittegen Press website, and also on my own Blog, Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles, and, specifically for free erotic fiction, on Fantasy Boys XXX (and if you're a writer, why not come and join in our Drabble Cascades, they're short, fun and a chance to stretch those creative muscles).
Thanks again to Julia for hosting me today. I hope I've given you a little insight into my writing roots, and maybe even interested you in fanfiction. If you are interested, why not check out An Archive of Our Own (AO3), which is collecting transformative works from all over fandom.
Rage & An Amusement Giveaway!For a chance to win copies of Rage and An Amusement, check out the giveaway below.
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About Sophie Duncan
Other places Sophie would love to connect with you are:
- Google+ - https://plus.google.com/+
SophieDuncan - Her blog, Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles - http://
sophiesthoughtsandfunmbles. blogspot.co.uk/ - Erotic Fiction blog, Fantasy Boys XXX http://fantasyboysxxx.
blogspot.co.uk/ - Twitter @thwax and @wittegenpress
- Wittegen Press on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/
WittegenPress - Thwax on Tumblr - thwax.tumblr.com
When, Hieron, vampire lord of Harkham, is approached by a mysterious young stranger, he finds himself tempted by the bargain his bold visitor makes: ninety nine years of absolute service in return for vampire power. With no name and no explanation of the reasons behind the offer, the attractive enigma becomes Umi, Hieron's slave, concubine and vampire childe.
Yet, from the very first moments the bargain is sealed, Hieron discovers his concubine to be an erotic and obsessively maddening challenge.
The Vampire's Concubine is an erotic romance told in short-story episodes.
The bargain has been sealed, Umi is now a vampire and belongs to Hieron as his concubine. Yet, Hieron cannot reconcile himself to the secrecy behind his new slave, it makes him dangerously angry and the vampire lord lives up to his warning to Umi that he will be cruel.
Hieron's demands weigh heavily on Umi, who, it seems, cannot please his master. As Hieron's rage grows, Umi's time is running out. Desperately, he searches to find the key to salving Hieron's fury before the beast within his sire rises to destroy him.
Purchase 'Rage' and get 'An Amusement - The Vampire's Concubine #1' FREE - see inside the book for details.
Available at Amazon and Smashwords - for buying links, please see this entry on the Wittegen Press website: wittegenpress.com/rage.
Hieron, vampire lord of Harkham, is unaccustomed to visitors in his private bedchamber unless he has expressly invited them. Such an unsolicited intrusion should mean the interloper's death, but Hieron finds himself unusually fascinated by the stranger who appears before him unbidden. Offering no name and no explanation of his reasons, the young man offers ninety nine years of absolute service in exchange for the gift of vampire power.
Amused and aroused, Hieron agrees to the bargain, names his enigma, Umi and decides he will become his newest concubine. The only thing left is to seal the deal in a bond of sex and supernatural power.
Available at Amazon, Smashwords and iTunes - for buying options, please see this entry on the Wittegen Press website: wittegenpress.com/anamusement
Umi is no normal concubine. His master's gift of vampirism notwithstanding, there is much more to him than the Lord of Harkham has yet discovered. Hieron is no longer angry with Umi's secrets, but he remains intrigued and, demon-owned twice over Umi maybe, but it is his mind that interests Hieron the most.
Under Yan's tutelage, Umi is discovering the rites and skills to being a concubine, and Hieron is master when it comes to the night in his newest concubine's veins, mostly. That bond holds a limit that Hieron has never experienced before: his childe has resisted the most intimate of contacts, that of the mind to mind control that normally lies within a sire's remit.
There is power in his childe, power not of the vampire's giving and, before Heiron is ready to deliver Umi to the harem, he means to discover it.
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Thanks for having me today, Julia! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are very much welcome.
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