While at first glance risk taking may seem a milder kink than voyeurism or exhibitionism, it’s also a more complicated one. The voyeur consciously enjoys looking. The exhibitionist takes a knowing delight in showing off. The risk taker gets kicks from uncertainty, possibility and getting away with it.

 Risk takers have sex in situations where they might get caught and get a kick out of doing so. That is, I think, the difference between people who are kinky about possibly being caught, and people who are horny and get it on despite the risk.

Dalia Craig’s Weathering The Storm offers a perfect example of the latter – two women who are so into each other they can’t wait, but who are very nearly caught by some passersby. The scene mixes excitement with a fear of humiliation and there’s a mixed emotional response – relief in having got away with it, and self consciousness because it could have gone very wrong.

 My tale Tight, Dark Places includes two guys having sex on a balcony – one of whom is a deliberate risk taker, getting a kick out of possibly being caught. They are visible, but it’s not obvious that they’re fucking. Remaining in control enough not to let on what’s happening can be part of the thrill and the danger of such a scene.

 Cheri Crystal has a number of stories about risk takers. Risky Pursuit offers a scenario where two women go climbing in order to have sex in a rather public and hazardous place. Here the risk of discovery blends with the physical danger to create an adrenaline high. Mile High Dare, as the title suggests, involves the possibility of sex on a plane – a fantasy for many people. The risk is deliberately sought, but the audience is not. It’s an interesting blend of wanting, and not wanting to be seen.

So what is risk taking about? It’s clearly not about showing off and being seen. Risk takers often make efforts not to be caught. Is it the sense of getting away with it? The thrill of doing something a bit taboo without getting caught? For people who get a kick out of being humiliated, the risk/possibility of humiliation adds spice to an encounter. Imagined shame that does not actually occur, has its own peculiar allure.

 Risk taking comes in many shapes and forms. How risky an activity seems depends on how private you are. I’ve encountered guys who claim they can’t get it up at all with someone aside from their partner in the house. You might risk being overheard and disturbed, or having the neighbours know what you are doing (approximately). Some people get a kick out of suspecting that others can hear them.

 It might be about finding a secret place where you hope not to be interrupted. As someone who likes to play outside, I’ve a fair amount of experience of that. There, the pleasure lies entirely in getting away with it. Then there are those who court risk, barely hidden – like a rather startled couple I encountered in a Birmingham park one day who clearly hadn’t expected a whole grove of druids to come ambling out of the trees… but who carried on regardless! Some people get more thrills for being closer to getting caught. It’s all about what happens inside your head – the fantasy of a sexy voyeur, or a public humiliation without the reality of dealing with any real complications. It puts an edge on things, an urgency that gets the blood pumping, and for some people that’s a real turn on.

We all like to look, to some degree. How far do you go? Anyone who is sighted probably spends some time eyeing up potential partners. No shortage of people appreciate barely clad models on book covers. The internet is full of erotic images, easily found at no cost. There are plenty of films out there, catering to all the kinks you can think of (and probably a few that most of us would never imagine). Do you like to watch your partner doing sexy things? How about professional striptease or lapdancing? If you stumbled on a couple having sex, would you be embarrassed, or turned on? Would you actively seek scenarios in which you could watch other people expressing themselves erotically?

Somewhere, there is a line to cross that moves a person out of the realms of ‘normal’ visual interest and into the world of voyeurism. I once read that the definition of a perversion is something that you do instead of having sex. For some, watching can indeed be a viable substitute. In many ways it seems safer, being outside of the action, not being asked to perform, respond, or feel. You don’t have to engage. You don’t even have to come. Those on display do not even, necessarily, need to know you are there. And at that point I think it gets a little bit sinister, and has the potential to become more like stalking than sex. Voyeurism as part of an active sex life can be a lot of fun. For people uncomfortable with relationship, it can offer alternative ways to find satisfaction. As with many kinks, taken to unhealthy extremes, it can get messy.

 The darker aspects of voyeurism are something I’ve explored a bit in Heaven and Hell, where the possibilities of cameras and short circuit television for illicit watching come into play. It’s also a theme Jon Michaelsen took up in his short story Voyeur, where watching has dangerous consequences. The story explores obsession, and has some great twists. Talking about this subject, Jon told me, “The idea for the story actually came to me when I used to travel a lot for business, and while in New York one evening and staying in a high-rise hotel, I happened upon a couple having wild, passionate sex while looking out my window and seeing their shadowy images in the highrise across the street.” Accidental seeing can so easily lead into intentional watching. We can impose our needs, desires, fantasies on the people we watch.

 New lyd author Barry Lowe also has a voyeuristic tale coming out soon – he told me, “My next story in the queue (I think) is Four on the Floor which is a voyeurism story (as well as cuckold and gangbang). Concerns a couple whose relationship has gone stale to the extent that one partner, Steve, spends more time jerking off while watching a neighbour through binoculars than he does he does with his lover, Billy.” Like Jon, Barry has considered the more troubling possibilities around voyeurism. He describes this tale as ‘taking an ominous turn’ in a direction that moves his character out of the relative safety of just looking.

 I think there’s an escapist element to voyeurism, getting away from yourself, and your own limitations. Friends who are actively into porn tell me that part of the kick is imagining yourself in the scenario. It allows a person to explore things they might be unwilling, or unable to do in person. It’s also a scenario on which the watcher can feel that they are totally in control of themselves. A feeling that proves illusionary in some of our stories. Consequently, voyeuristic kicks may seem a lot safer than they really are – both physically and emotionally. But, if things were always smooth, easy and happy, we wouldn’t have any stories to tell!

While I don’t always indicate that my settings are real places, usually I’ll have somewhere real in my head as I write. It helps me keep the details coherent, and gives me a sense of location. Places I’ve visited, and lived in, frequently inspire bits of story.

When I was working on ‘Dreams Come True,’ the setting in my head was Gloucester (UK). It’s a place I know well, having lived about 15 miles down the road as a child, clubbed there in my teens, and spent time visiting my father there as well. I like the city, it’s small, full of old architecture, history and atmosphere. I especially love the cathedral (which was used a lot in the Harry Potter films). My great grandmother once saw a ghost there!

The place isn’t mentioned by name in the story, and although the cathedral features, I hadn’t mentioned much that would absolutely pin it down as this location. Imagine my absolute surprise when I saw the cover Dalia designed for me! I know Gloucester cathedral well, and was sure that was a picture of it.

Startled, I emailed Dalia to check, and she said it had seemed like the right place to use!

It goes to prove that odd, psychic moments, strange insights and experiences of weird coincidence do happen in real life.

 Dreams Come True is a sweet, contemporary lesbian romance involving two buskers. It’s the first story of mine in a while not to have a paranormal element, which is some ways makes the business with the cover even funnier, I think.

I thought it might to be fun to share some histories of where my characters come from – some of them having enough story to be entities in their own right.

Jade, from Heaven and Hell, has been with me for quite some time. She first arrived in my life when I was about 17, via a magazine image of a blonde woman in a dark green velvet suit. Jade as a name, was there from the start. I tried writing her in a number of ways. I have embarrassing recollections of an angsty, bloodsucking vampire thing that I ditched very early.

Then there was a novel that never saw the light of day – Dragon Dreaming – urban fantasy. I put Jade in there, partnered by a sword wielding nutter called Richard. She was an anti-heroine, of sorts, appearing to be the bad guy until the actual plot became visible. During this phase, she acquired her amoral outlook and predatory inclinations. I did have a few goes at getting this one published, but it’s an odd sort of tale, and eventually I gave up, and re-homed some of the characters.

When I started playing with Heaven and Hell as a concept (quite some years ago) Jade seemed a natural addition. Along with her came Juliette, who had also been part of Dragon Dreaming, and the dynamic between the pair remained as it had been there – a mix of aggression and lust. I took it further than I had before, turning tension into full on fighting and fucking. I think it suits them well. They’re a wild pair, operating by totally different rules.

Jade is probably the most selfish character I’ve ever created. She does things because they amuse her, and her sense of humour is dark to say the least. She has almost no capacity for empathy, making her a sociopath at best. Causing chaos and fear is a turn-on for her, and she likes to make others suffer. She’s sadistic, and frequently psychotic, driven by powerful obsessions, jealousies and hungers. Werewolf Juliette is about the only being who stands a chance of keeping up with her and not getting torn apart.

Every so often, Jade bothers me. I find it too easy writing her, in all her cruel, psychotic glory. I made her up. She comes from somewhere deep in my own psyche, where the monsters live. It’s not something I feel easy about. Heartless and violent as she is, I can’t help but like her, and I get a kick out of the things she does. I suppose it’s better that I vent these things on paper than let them out by other means. We all have our darker sides, our inner villain. Jade is mine. She’s cool, like an ice storm is cool.

All six parts of Heaven and Hell are available from www.loveyoudivine.com

I love gothic, erotic horror, sensual nightmares and weirdness. I’m also fascinated by monsters.

Add in a taste for ménage and orgy scenarios and a love of things paranormal, shake for some years… pour. The result is Heaven and Hell, and it is the baring of the darker, nastier elements of my psyche.

Most of my erotic writing focuses on relationship rather than casual lays. Most of the time, it’s the emotional entanglements that fascinate me. Usually the character perspectives I write from are sympathetic. I don’t always write happily ever after, but most of the tales I have to my name are love stories.

 Heaven and Hell is a total break with that. It’s full of casual sex, friends with benefits arrangements, one night stands, and hook-ups with strangers. There’s lots of kink, even by my usual happy standards. I did a lot of research for this one!

 Perhaps most importantly, neither of the main characters are very honourable, ethical, morally acceptable people. One is a hedonist, intent on pleasure at all costs. One is a psychopath whose idea of a good party is a mix of death and debauchery. They were both disturbingly easy to write.

 The Heaven and Hell series runs to six instalments, each publication offering three tales of decadence and misdemeanour. It’s smut, and erotica. Darker, nastier and more depraved than much of my writing. So if you like warm and gentle, stay away from this series, because you aren’t going to like it. If the idea of getting very up close and personal with the monsters in my head, appeals to you, then come on in.

 Heaven and Hell is the kinkiest, most dangerous night spot in town. Many of the staff and clients aren’t human. It throbs with lust and unleashed possibilities. Tonight, there may be blood on the dance floor.

For sale now at Exotica

If you’d asked me a year ago, I’d have said that bleeding isn’t sexy. It’s messy, makes me self conscious, moody, heavy and not interested. Or at least, that had been my experience. It’s a time a deep emotional awareness and fragility, but in a supportive, nurturing relationship with someone who understands, that ceases to be a problem, and becomes something interesting to explore.

 I gather that for some women, menstruation is a time of heightened sexual interest. That swelling of breasts, physical sensitivity, and emotionality can combine in heady ways, especially if you aren’t self conscious about the blood. It helps if your partner isn’t put off by blood either.

Red Tides of Desire began, as a story, a few months ago. I was bleeding, and the image popped into my head, of seeing my blood smeared on my lover’s skin. It struck me how intimate a thing that is, how bound up with trust. Bleeding is such a primal, female thing, and having that accepted, honoured, wanted, even, is very exciting. It makes for incredibly intimate possibilities.

I don’t write about my own life. I take moments, concepts, feelings and then mix them up with a heap of other things. Partly to avoid getting bored, partly because I LIKE making things up, partly to maintain both my own privacy and other people’s.

One or two other thoughts and influences came into play – pagan ideas about relationship with the land, spirits of place, returning blood to the soil, and blood magic. Because bleeding is a feminine thing, I wanted to write in an f/f context, but I think it’s a theme I’ll revisit in an m/f context as well.

Out of these threads and images came the story of Tabitha, a farmer who loves the land but has a lot of issues with her body and gender identity. Bleeding makes her a bit crazy, and opens the way to some wild and life changing experiences. It’s out now from www.loveyoudivine.com

Author Jean Roberta

 Jean Roberta came to lyd as part of the To Love and To Cherish project. So I didn’t know much about her when we started the interview… she’s a fascinating person…

Bryn: Hi Jean, I see from your column at http://www.erotica-readers.com that you write philisophical essays as well as erotica. Which did you embark on first, and is there common ground between the two?

Jean: I’ve had a very varied writing career! I’ve always loved writing rants, um, opinion pieces. I did this long before I worked up the nerve to write stories with explicit sex scenes in them. No one knows this, but I’ve had at least as much non-fiction published (mostly in local publications that are eventually used to line bird cages) as fiction.

In the early 1970s, when electric typewriters were the cutting edge of office technology and I had only taken a few university classes, I got a job as a kind of apprentice journalist with a local public relations company. It was a fascinating introduction to the media world.

I wrote a book review column for a monthly publication, The Credit Union Way (journal of all the credit unions in the Canadian province where I live). I reviewed several groundbreaking books of feminist theory when they were new and widely discussed. (This was the dawn of Second Wave feminism.)

Years later, in the mid-1980s, I was an unofficial regular reviewer for Briarpatch, a leftist magazine that sent me books and tickets for live performances. For two years, I had at least one review in every issue. I was thrilled when my name was mentioned in an article in the national edition of The Toronto Globe & Mail (”Canada’s national newspaper”) in a series of articles about small, grassroots publications throughout Canada. According to the G&M, there were 2 good reasons to read Briarpatch: my writing and that of another regular contributor, a male political theorist who wrote lead articles.  

I wrote “mainstream” (for lack of a clearer word) short stories and poems for years while I also wrote articles and reviews for magazines & newsletters and the occasional skit. In 1985, I wrote and performed in “The Caucus Meeting,” a political spoof with dialogue in rhymed couplets for The Funny Pages, a cabaret-style evening of local theatre. (This is probably no excuse, but I was influenced at a young age by Gilbert & Sullivan operettas.)

In 1988, a paperback collection of my lesbian stories was published between slick, hot-pink covers by a one-woman publisher in Montreal as Secrets of the Invisible World. Alas, the publisher went out of business soon after, so my book went out of print. Several lesbian friends who said they liked my stories also complained that I was a “tease” – i.e. they wanted more sexual description.

Erotica in general was gaining in popularity and becoming combined with other genres. I wrote a few explicitly sexual stories which were accepted for anthologies which never materialized (as far as I knew). In the late ’90s, I joined the on-line Erotic Readers and Writers Association, read their calls-for-submissions and began submitting stories to editors and publishers who produced actual books and magazines.

So, to draw this epic to a close, I’ve actually been writing non-fiction much longer than I’ve been writing erotica. They’re very complementary. A flaming opinion and a hot sex scene can both relieve frustration, depending what kind it is.   :)

 Bryn: Wow! that’s quite some writing history. How ‘out’ are you about writing erotica?

Jean: I’m actually very “out.” I now have a business card, featuring the photo of me that accompanies my column at ERWA (www.erotica-readers.com), which includes the words “erotica,” “fiction,” “reviews,” articles,” “workshops” in that order (top to bottom).

I’m very lucky to have a tenured teaching position at a local university with a history of liberalism, so my published erotic fiction counts as “publications” when I report my accomplishments every year on a Faculty Review form, or apply for funding to attend a conference or a reading in some city that I can only reach by plane.

Here is where fiction and non-fiction fit together nicely. In 2000, some anonymous person complained to the secretaries in the English Department about the stuff I was running off on the office printer. I’m sure there were rumors about what I actually did in my office when the door was closed.

So I composed a 40-minute talk on the history of erotica (a sprint through the material) and got myself added to the schedule for the “OMADs” (Orlene Murad Academic Discussions, named for a departed colleague), a series of discussions by department members that are open to the public but usually attended only by fellow department-members.

I gave my talk, quaking in my shoes, in 2001. My parents were there, even though my father hated “porn.” (Later, he said he liked my talk. I don’t think he understood it.)  I used the overhead projector to show my audience an illustration (cartoon-like naked heroine), done in 1915 by American artist Clara Tice, for an English-language edition of Mademoiselle de Maupin, a classic French erotic novel. The talk was very well received – not a single person was offended, and several scholars in the crowd (my role models!) said they learned new things.

I developed my talk into an article which was published in several places, and spun it out into a talk on the history of censorship. I gave the censorship talk (without illustrations but with a free book list and historical outline) in February 2009 at a local chain bookstore as part of the “Coffeehouse Controversies” series, a joint project of Chapters Books and the local university. My talk was videotaped and shown numerous times on Community Channel TV.

I’m scheduled to give the same talk at a public library later in February 2010 as part of Freedom to Read Week.

At all these events, I’ve been honest about writing the kind of material which has been banned in various times and places. Once I put it in a social and historical context, no one threatens to put me in the stocks! (The publisher of Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure was threatened with this in 1749, but that is another story.)

It seems that my youthful reputation as a slut has been eclipsed by my current image as an intellectual. Life is good.  

Bryn: That’s excellent! I feel very strongly that being a slut and being an intellectual should not be deemed as incompatible anyway! Who do you like to read?

 Jean: OMG, that’s a hard question to answer because I have many favorite authors, both living and dead.

One of my favorite (relatively) non-erotic authors at the moment is the historical novelist Emma Donoghue (originally from Ireland but now living in Canada). As one of her reviewers said, “She inhabits the past.” Reading one of her novels or stories set in a past century, you feel as if you’re there.

I tend to like writers who have broken new ground. So I like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (first published 1818) and Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice (first published 1978), which set off the current craze for vampires as complex, almost-human characters, not just Evil personified.

I like the erotic fantasies of Pat (now Patrick) Califia, who helped found the real-life BDSM community of San Francisco as well as the current popularity of erotic fiction in general.

I like the erotica of M. Christian because he boldly goes where few other writers venture – into a whole variety of genres and sexual orientations, and always (to my knowledge) with respect for communities he doesn’t personally belong to. 

I like reading (and sometimes teaching) lesser-known books by authors who are better-known for something else.

Examples: 1) Sylvie and Bruno by Lewis Caroll, 19th-century author of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

2) The Third Life of Grange Copeland by contemporary U.S. author Alice Walker, who is probably best known for The Color Purple (made into a movie and then a stage musical).

I also admire a whole slew of other erotic writers, but I don’t want to start compiling a list because I’m afraid I would forget to include someone important.

 Bryn: A very interesting list. I did some anthology stuff with M Christian some years ago. A very engaging person. One final question then… where can people find you online?

Jean: I have a site that needs updating (I need help with that – I am so not a techie), but it still has a lot of information about me and my writing: www.JeanRoberta.com

My opinion pieces can be found every month in “Sex Is All Metaphors” here: www.erotica-readers.com (in the Smutters Lounge gallery).

 I am a staff reviewer here: www.eroticarevealed.com - look for my new review on the first of each month. My reviews can also be found here:  www.kissedbyvenus.ca

www.goodreads.com

www.velvetmafia.com

www.cleansheets.com 

& various other sites.

 I blog on Livejournal here:  http://lizardlez.livejournal.com. Or just type in “Jean Roberta” and see what comes up!

Jaime came to lyd as part of the Immortal Fire project. She contributed two very lovely stories – Windblown, and Black Roses to the collection. Since then she’s also released the erotic, seasonal story Muse’s Vacation.

Bryn: Jaime, you write m/m, pretty much exclusively. What made you decide to focus on this?

Jaime: When I first started writing, I naively set out to write a novel. (never did finish it). It had various familial relationships in it, a Prince, his cousin and best friend, and his sister, and their various love interests. In the beginning, the Prince’s love interest was a spy, who at first was mysterious enough to avoid being very gender specific. As the story progressed, it was revealed to me that he was a guy, and really, that relationship, rocky though it was, always rang the most true to me of the others on the story.

that was pre-Internet…

When I found Live journal, and the plethora of m/m slash and fan fiction, I found my home and my calling. It didn’t take long, less than a year, for me to branch away from fan fiction to writing about my own characters and their stories. They all, or mostly, seemed to be male. I suspect I have a strong affinity for the male mindset in some ways. I do find men easier to write than women, and I enjoy exploring relationships that explore power dynamics when those dynamics start out from equal, man to man, or, occasionally, woman to woman, and change because of influences other than gender.

Bryn: I find m/m relationships a lot more comfortable for power aggressive exchange. I know ‘Muse’s Vacation’ explores dominance and submission. Is that a theme we’re likely to see more of then?

Jaime: I would venture to say, yes, there will be more of that. While my men don’t tend to be very aggressive, in general, they do take on decidedly dominant or submissive roles lately. I tend to write blind, a pantser, some people call it. This lets stories and characters evolve very organically, and right now, the evolution of my writing seems to be leaning toward D/s relationships. I follow these trends in my writing, rather than lead them, taking things where the spirit moves me to go. that all sounds very esoteric and all, but really, it just means the characters write themselves and I listen. Right now, this dynamic intrigues me, and I’m willing to keep exploring it.

Bryn: Have you ever been really surprised by the direction a story has gone in?

Jaime: Usually, the surprise comes when I’m stuck, I get worked up and frustrated, and the surprise is how simple the solution turns out to be. I will say, though, that in the first novel I wrote, which I recently went back to re haul there was a great surprise in that one of the characters, who I blithely killed off near the end, turned out to be the love interest of the main character. I only figured this out after I decided he had to die, though. Now I’m troubled as to what to do. I could substitute in a red shirt for the death, and leave happy alone. Or I could reflect that in real life, sometimes, perfect couples are torn apart too soon. They are guards, and there is a war. Stands to reason…

In another story, the mc had sex with the wrong man. Out of spite. Not spite for his boyfriend, but spite for the man he fucked. Not pretty, but then broken characters rarely are. Fixing him is proving to be a challenge.

Come to think on it, a nice surprise would be fantastic… lol!

Bryn: I like dark and realistic, and the uncertainty as to what sort of an ending is likely. Do you have a clear sense of what your characters look like before you start?

Jaime: You’ll like the project I’m working on next for LYD, then. Dark, gritty, set in an alternate universe from our own, a very broken character, and uncertain love are all features of this next story. If the sun shines at the end, it will be through a crack in the overcast, I think. But it will shine. I require it to shine down on them, however uncertain it is to last.

Goodness. No. In some cases, I never get a really clear picture of what they look like. In one story on my website, Long Road Home (http://www.jaime-samms.net/), the characters don’t even have names. I don’t know what their names are, don’t really know what they look like. I just know they are meant to be together, however long it took them to get there.

Bryn: Ooh, this I very much like the sound of! Anywhere else online people can follow you?

Jaime: My Live Journal: http://dontkickmycane.livejournal.com/ has promo for fellow authors, book reviews, and sometimes, a personal rant or two. I also blog: http://jaimesamms.blogspot.com/?zx=767433e8e8796b26 though intermittently…

I’m a reviewer for Dark Diva Reviews, where we review romance nad erotica, and I tend to focus on gay romance, and at Kuriousity, where I review Yoai light novels.

http://ddrreviews.blogspot.com/

http://www.kuri-ousity.com/about/

I do love to spout my opinion about the books I read, which I read a lot of. I can’t get enough of the written word.

Bryn: Me too! I’m a total blog junky. Thanks for chatting Jaime.

The internet is full of free material. Some of it legitimate. Some is stolen and pirated. Everyone likes a free read, but the vast majority of readers do not want to rip off authors.

 How do you make sure the free reads you pick up are legitimate?

1)      Get it from the publisher. Many publishers, like www.loveyoudivine.com offer free reads as teasers and rewards for customers. Free stories picked up from publishing houses are a safe bet. In exchange for the free read, you might hear from the publisher with promotions, but you can always opt out of these.

2)     Get free reads direct from the author. Many authors give away examples of their work. They might do so on egroups, during chats, via forums. They might publish short stories on their homepage or blog. Ebooks are sometimes offered as prizes. If a story comes straight from the author, it’s going to be fine, however, ‘free’ does not mean ok to pass on. If you aren’t sure, check! Authors would rather be asked. Check that the name of the person offering is the same as the person who did the writing.

What are the warning signs that a site is offering pirated material?

1)      Posters of pirate material are often open about what they are doing. Motives vary. If they you they have a copy of someone’s book to share, it’s not legitimate. 

2)     If the name of the poster does not at all relate to the name of the author or publisher, be suspicious.

3)  If the focus of the site is giving away fiction by multiple authors from multiple publishing houses, be very cautious indeed.

There is a grey, hazy area on blogs and sites where it might not be immediately obvious if you are seeing a legitimate sight that an author has given material to, or a pirate site. If the site links back to author and publisher pages, the odds are it is legitimate. Equally if you got there from an author or publisher site, it’s going to be fine. Is the material offered in a way that supports the author? If it looks like a rip-off, it almost certainly is.

Piracy and book-theft hurts authors. Most writers are not wildly wealthy, but good writing depends on people being able to put it in the time. Authors need to eat too. It’s so easy online to pick up freebies without looking at the source. If you love an author’s work, please help by staying away from the pirate sites, and by letting authors and publishers know when you see them. We can get these sites taken down sometimes, and they only survive because enough people feel it is ok to support them.

There are a number of sites out there who legitimately sell ebooks on behalf of numerous publishers – kindle, ARE, Fictionwise and so forth. If you are in any doubt at all about the legitimacy of a site like this, then any publisher or author represented there would be happy to either reassure you, or thank you for alerting them to a problem – whichever turns out to be the case.

Pirate sites and forums can also be home to hackers. They are places where you run the risk of picking up viruses, spyware and such nasties – downloading a file is an act of trust, and when you take a file from a pirate site, you might well get all kinds of unpleasant things along with it.

And don’t forget to visit loveyoudivine for free and safe reads straight from the publisher.

Bryn: What started you writing fiction?

David: For decades I told and taught. Some subjects were the martial art Jujitsu, massage, relaxation and various subjects in police work. I had little interest in writing fiction. I retired from police work after almost 29 years in 2004. In early 2009 my first book, Wisdom is the Answer, Common Sense is the Way, was published. That’s about simple and relaxing tactics to live better. I was bragging to a friend about it. She had written a romance novel that was published by one of the big houses. She teased me. “Oh yeah, now try writing a romance.” 

Being a stoic American male, I took the challenge. 

Bryn: What kind of characters appeal to you?

David: Personality: Independent but not stubborn ones. Who can do things for themselves yet seek help from those close to them. No whiners or those who wallow in self pity and cry, “I can’t, I can’t.”

I like feminine women who are strong and can take charge. Men who are strong but can soften up and be in touch w/ their feelings.

Bisexuality is my theme in writing so men & women who go both ways, even if just a once in a blue moon event.

Physically: Slender to medium build men or women; athletic. A cute ass will lure me every time!

 Bryn: Are you comfortable writing bi women as well as men?

David: More than comfortable, I enjoy it. I’ve done little of it, but it’s fun to get into the heads of others. Try to learn their perspectives.

Bryn: What else do you particularly enjoy writing about?

David: I like writing commentary but with a moral, lesson or advice. I feel we are overloaded with information and left with, “Ok, now what do I do?” I take information from my first book, and inject it at the end of my commentary. So if there is a problem with ethics at a company that makes the news, instead of just bemoaning those corrupt people, I ask readers to look at their work situations, especially if they are supervisors or owners to see if they are ethical and fair. I present the question: “How Can I Be Better?”

Thus, I like to help people live better lives. Even in my fiction I add learning tools such as a troubled character learns the value of deep breathing, meditation, massage, acupuncture, etc.

 Bryn: Are you a very relaxed person in your own life then? Or have you learned these things in self defence?

David: I am relaxed but I had to learn it. I was born east-coast, hot-headed Italian.

I was such a schmuck that many people didn’t like me. When I was 28 I couldn’t stand living with myself and I asked myself to move out. GRIN.  I returned to the martial arts, that was a turning point for me. I had to learn to let the past go, keep the lesson, leave the pain.

For almost 30 years now, I am relaxed and in control. I keep an active child inside of me and let him out as much as possible.

As all authors we start with what we know. For me, one part of my life was being a police officer for almost 29 yr in San Jose, California, USA. Like the character in the story I was a pacifist who didn’t like guns and I thought the odds were I would never shoot anyone. I am bisexual and most police departments in the 1970s would not hire you if they thought you were gay. They didn’t note a difference between being bi or gay. Height discrimination was till a major issue. The legal standard of a minimum height was removed by the US Supreme Court but the predjudice lasted for decades. I am 5′4″. Good thing I had a good muscles build and had two years of Jujitsu under my belt when I was hired at the tender age of 22. Here is the blurb.

Sean Patton is a pacifist who doesn’t like guns but knows that statistically few law enforcement officers ever shoot anyone, so he plays the odds and loses. When a wife beater shoots him on a domestic-violence call, Sean is forced to shoot back. While his bulletproof vest saved Sean, it couldn’t shield him from the posttraumatic stress. His hidden bisexuality raises the stakes to risk his career and mental stability. As far as women go, he’s committed to being loyal to his loving and supportive girlfriend, Debbie. But can he swear off men? He’s knows the drive is inborn. How can he tell Debbie about his other side and still keep her? You’ll feel the heat when Sean makes love to his gay friend from college and later with his lawyer girlfriend in the shower. A tryst with his male supervisor furthers the adventures.

 Buy it here!