MIRANDA MERRIWEATHER TALKS EROTICA

I got the chance to interview my friend and fellow erotica author, Miranda Merriweather.  Get her thoughts on craft, inspiration, and what's sexy!

 

 

 

 

How long have you been writing erotica? 

 

Actual writing, only a few months. In my head...I've probably been writing this stuff ever since I read (and reread) a dogeared copy of Judy Blume's "Forever" as a teenager.

What's your writing process like? Do you come up with characters first? Plot? Do you discover where the story is going as you write or do you like to know before you start?
I think I'm inspired by themes, first and foremost. Both my novels so far explore repression -- I'm fascinated by the way women -- including myself -- hesitate to discuss, let alone try, any kind of sexual exploration. I've been amazed at the response from readers, who -- sometimes quite poignantly -- express how powerful and debilitating a force repression has been in their sexual lives.

As for the plot vs. characters question, it's a variable. Virgin Wife was inspired by a friend, who had to confess when her husband left that he'd been her one and only lover. I was intrigued by her odyssey, as she started dating as a mature woman.

Sex Assassins was inspired by the concept. I've loved games like Risk and Diplomacy since I was a kid -- games that require trust and betrayal as much as luck in order to win. Throughout college, I often thought how much those same qualities went into an evening hookup at a bar. When I started writing erotica, I couldn't help but think how liberating it would be to excuse your desires with one of those games as a template. You're no longer bound by social mores -- what your partner will think of you if you ask for what you want, or what they'll think of you if you do what THEY ask. All the toxicity of simply asking for your sexual desires to be fulfilled is removed: you HAVE to do this, if you're going to keep playing the game.

And I always know where I'm starting and where I'm ending before I begin. It's the middle that gets kind of murky. I have loads of ideas, I just have to test the sequencing a few times before I'm happy.

Both The Virgin Wife and Sex Assassins have streaks of darkness in them. At least some of the characters in both are going through tough times. Is that something you're drawn to exploring?

 

Absolutely. Why do we get on a roller coaster? To experience a dangerous thrill -- in hitting the height of fear, we achieve a greater exhilaration on the downhill. Extrapolate that out: there's no greater exhilaration documented in all of literature than an incredible orgasm. So much in the same way you ride the roller coaster, you look to take your partner to the greatest depths of fear, in order to achieve an even greater release sexually. And this seems to hold true throughout the course of our sexual lives. When we're young, just having sex is illicit. It's hot having sex in your parents living room, knowing they could walk in on you and your boyfriend any time. Once married, you explore with sexual toys to achieve that same sense of illicitness. And after years of being married, why do so many people have affairs outside of marriage? Because it's dangerous. A major rush, purely in the secrecy.
How many books do you have planned in the Sex Assassins series? 

 

I'm hoping there will be many, many books in the Sex Assassins series, some written by me, but also stories by some writer friends. it would be a literary version of a very drunken evening with your best friends, confessing all the things you've ever done, as well as the things you'd like to do and never have, played out in an arena where anything is okay. 

 Can you give us a hint about your next story?

The next one's Sex Assassins: Spanked by the Competition. I'm sure you can work that one out for yourselves. 
Is there anything special you do to get in the mood to write? Listen to music? Have a drink? ;) 

 

I cycle. It's very meditative. I do half of my writing on my morning ride and it's great. No phones, no one calling for me. Just me, off in my head.

Everybody's still talking about 50 Shades of Gray. Do you think it's something that will have lasting impact on what readers are looking for?

I do think it will have a lasting impact, but not in the way most people think, which is with the BDSM stuff. I think the lasting impact comes back to my theme of repression. How many women do you know will walk in and buy tampons from a guy cashier at the store? Not many, right? Now put those same women at the bookstore counter -- how many were willing to buy a book of erotica? Far fewer than would walk up to the convenience store counter. I think 50 Shades has liberated a lot of women to simply admit, "That's right, I like sex. I like to read about it, get new ideas. I even like to get turned on while I'm reading it. And you know what? I love it." 
Are the sex scenes the easiest part of a story to write or the most difficult. (You'll see I avoided the word "hardest." I have some self-restraint!)

 

What's the sexiest scene you've read or seen? Seen? 9 1/2 weeks when Mickey Rourke drips the ice cube on Kim Basinger. Read? I'm still turned on by the opening scene in Sex Assassins with my chocolate girl. A guy licking hardened chocolate off you until it goes gooey soft and he gets to...well, you'll just have to read it. :-)

Any advice for writers?

The old adage of 'write what you know' is taken to a whole new level in writing erotica. Because you have to write about not only what you've done, but what you've always wanted to do and never have. And yeah, it can be a little embarrassing, especially when you have friends read your story. It's an incredibly intimate thing to share, something you normally wouldn't, outside of a lover. But if it doesn't turn you on, how can you expect it to turn anyone else on?

You can buy THE VIRGIN WIFE at Amazon and Amazon UK

 

You can buy SEX ASSASSINS at Amazon UK and Amazon

 

DO MEN UNDERSTAND WOMEN'S FANTASIES?

I just read on Jezebel that a woman screenwriter has been chosen to adapt FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY.  (And doesn't it say something about the number of female screenwriters that this is news?  Or maybe it just says that any tidbit about SHADES is still newsworthy.)

It got me thinking.  Almost all of the spanking erotica I've read has been written by women (or at least with a female pseudonym).  I started wondering if more erotica was written by women and started jumping around the net, looking for info.  I found this article that said there are more women erotica writers, but also talked about a women editor of an erotica magazine who thinks men write it better, because women writers tend to complicate sex and add layers.

Which is part of what I like about the erotica I read.  I like the complications and layers.  I find it harder to feel connected to the characters without them, and without connecting to the characters and becoming invested in their relationship, I don't find the sex as sexy.

I don't think that's necesarily a woman writer thing though, as much as an individual writer thing.  Going back to FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY, if I'd had to guess, I'd probably have thought some of the sex scenes were written by a guy, just because of the amount of "slamming" that went on.  It seemed like Christian was always slamming himself into Ana.  I swear he even said something like "brace yourself" once.  That feels guy-like to me.  But, obviously, I would have been wrong. 

On the other hand, I would have definitely pegged all the internal backing and forthing in Ana's head as something written by a female.  (And as much as I like layers and complications, that started driving me crazy really fast.)  But if I looked around maybe I could find something similar written by a man.

So what do you think?  Is it a writer-by-writer thing?  Or do you think there is a sex that writes sex better?

HAPPILY EVER AFTER

I just finished writing a new Regency spanking story (now on to proofreading!), The Scheming Miss Sinclair.  In the course of three days, the heroine, Lucy, receives four hand spankings (all on a bare bottom, one on a bare, wet bottom), two hairbrush spankings, a whipping with a willow switch, and a whipping with a crop.

Her new husband, Lord Reece, is very angry with her.  (I'm sure you must have surmised she'd made someone angry.)  It's my opinion that he has every right to be furious with her.  Lucy concocted a scheme to be found alone with Lord Reece at a ball, intentionally ruining herself, so he would be forced to marry her, something he had no desire to do. 

And yet, by the end of the three days, three days!, even with all that punishment, even with starting out their marriage in such a manner, Lucy and Lord Reece are in love.

I thought about all the other stories I've written, and realized I always go for a happy ending, usually with the characters in love, although a few just have them on friendly terms.  I pretty much always have a sensual aspect to the spankings too, not in every spanking I describe, but usually in a story, the characters get to the point where there is pleasure mixed in with at least some of the discipline.

A happily-ever-after ending just makes me happy, whether I'm reading a spanking story or writing one.