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.

 

 

 

 

 

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!