Okay, I’ve been hinting, hinting, and more hinting that today was going to be fabulous—and now it’s finally happening! Today marks the launch date for Pillow Talk: Erotica Writers Talking Dirty!
See, Malin James, Tamsin Flowers, and I—your host for the day, Jade A. Waters—have been telling so many erotic secrets about writing and sex in general behind closed doors, we figured it was time to share it all with you. We formed Pillow Talk for just that—inviting you to listen in on our dirty dish, too. In today’s post we’d like to introduce ourselves as well as share what you can expect from Pillow Talk Secrets. In future sessions, we’ll be posting a short intro and links on our own blogs to direct you to the Pillow Talk website, where the full session will be posted—but in honor of our lift off, today you can read it all right here!
So without further ado, I’d like to welcome you to the first…
Pillow Talk Secrets!
Jade: Good morning, ladies! The day is finally here. Our official Pillow Talk Secrets launch!
Malin: We’ve been so busy at it, it’s kind of hard to believe!
Tamsin: I think it might have crept up on some of us! So what’s on the agenda, Jade?
J: Well, I figured today we should let our readers know what we’re all about, and then a little about each of us and how we met.
M: Perfect. Who wants to start? Maybe with a bit about what we’re doing?
J: Exactly. What is Pillow Talk? How should we describe ourselves?
T: Starting with the obvious, three writers—of erotica, naturally—similarly dirty minded!
J: Which basically means, dirty dirty dirty talk. Yes?
M: Yes. It’s also probably the biggest reason we became friends in the first place—erotica definitely brought us together.
J: I just smiled when you said that, Malin. It’s true! I still can’t remember who I friended first—it was so fabulous in both directions—but was it you, Tamsin?
T: I think so—we met on Twitter over a discussion of a pair of boots Alison Tyler was lusting after—and you very quickly became my chief cheerleader.
J: Oh, that’s right! I was squealing and dancing all over the place, as I usually do (also, Alison Tyler has some wickedly good taste in shoes!). But I think we got closer once I realized you wrote a zombie erotica book—because I thought that was wild—and then we started emailing….
M: I had no idea you guys started talking over Alison Tyler’s awesome taste in shoes! That’s fabulous…. And then of course, Tamsin’s zombies are…well, let’s just say I’m not a zombie kind of girl, but it’s the sexiest, most inventive set of zombies I’ve ever seen.
T: Ah, I use those zombies to hook all my friends!
J: I knew you were up to something! 🙂 Meanwhile, as Tamsin and I became cohorts…
M: Jade and I met at a reading for The Big Book of Orgasms! It was the first reading either of us had ever done—at least of erotica.
T: God, you two are so brave! I don’t know if I could stand up in front of a room full of people and read out my very filthy words!
J: I think it worked out because we both have theatre backgrounds. Also, we were in the Good Vibrations Vibrator Museum, so it was inspiring.
M: Ha! Yes, it was. Plus, the audience was friendly, so it was easy to jump in.
T: So tell me, what was the filthiest sentence you had to read out in front of all the strangers?
M: I read “Hard Knocks,” which is all about coming from being spanked, so the whole thing was pretty filthy. That said, “More blows slapping my sensitive, soaking cunt” might win.
T: *Sniggers.*
J: See, this is a hard question (pun intended) only because my filth gauge is a little questionable. In my story, “The Flogger,” a woman discovers her prim and proper boyfriend has found her dusty old flogger in the closet. Still, I think for me it was “cupped her slit with her whole hand.” I get a total visual every time I read it.
T: Like I thought—totally embarrassing! So pleased I don’t live near enough to have been roped in on that! But back to how we all met…
M: Tamsin—I know we met through Jade, but I’m trying to work out how we started emailing like maniacs…
T: I probably found you through stalking Jade’s twitter feed!
J: Ha! I remember telling you, Malin, that she was adorable and delightful, so that might have been part of it. Tamsin’s a hoot. (Hear that everyone? A damn hoot!)
T: Don’t scare the readers, Jade!
M: I adore that you just said “hoot.” And yes! I remember that. I had a question about something, so I emailed Tamsin, and she was lovely enough to help me out. Then we started chatting and off we went.
J: I swear, it’s like destiny. *Clap of thunder.* *Parting clouds.* *Gentle rain ensues.*
T: Okay, moving swiftly on…
J: Yes, sorry. (Malin and I always get so damn gushy.) Let’s tell our readers a little more about Pillow Talk Secrets. What’s our goal?
M: I’d say to give readers a peek into a real friendship between real writers. Plus, sometimes people have interesting ideas about what erotica writers are like. I mean yes, we talk about sex.. kind of a lot. But we’re very well-rounded people, even discounting the filthy minds 😉
T: There are misconceptions about erotica writers, too—and we want to blast them out of the water. For example we don’t sit around writing in lacy lingerie sets. Well, I don’t. I can’t vouch for you two!
M: I’m more of a tea and glasses kind of girl…and yoga pants. Yoga pants are good.
J: Ditto.
T: You wouldn’t catch me dead in yoga pants!
J: Silly. I’m sure you look smashing in yoga pants.
T: But exercise clothes are for exercise! I like to sit at my desk in a smart pin-stripe suit!
M: Hmm. I need more power lunches. Possibly with martinis….
T: See, there’s the difference between us—I’m uptight London and you’re cool California girls.
M: And yet, we work so well together!
T: Hats off to that!
J: Oh nelly. I think our readers are in for a treat with the three of us—a bunch of goofs, I tell you. So…let’s tell them more about what we’ll cover. For example, we’ll be doing this piece—Pillow Talk Secrets—about once every six weeks, right?
M: Exactly. And each Secrets session will be a little different. Sometimes we’ll talk about kissing (in fiction, of course), or strap-ons (in fiction, of course)…
J: *Snort.* We’ll also be laughing a lot, clearly. 😉 But strap-ons are such a great topic.
T: Actually, I just wrote a story about a strap on…
J: Yeah you did. It was smokin’.
M: That’s why strap-ons were on my mind. Ahem…
J: We’ll also be talking about other erotica topics: limb arrangement, orgasms, couplings…
M: Pronouns! That’s a thing with threesomes…
J: We’ll have excerpts sometimes, too.
T: Maybe discuss books that we’re reading… And guests. What about the guests?
J: Yes! Definitely guests. Maybe even some competitions and prizes.
M: We’ll also talk about our works in progress or other exciting things that are happening to one or two or all of us.
J: For sure.
T: But as today’s our first time (we’re virgins?), the obvious topic is beginnings…. So how did you two get started as erotica writers?
J: Malin, you first.
M: Well, the short version is that I’ve been writing pretty seriously for about ten years, but I only started focusing on erotica about two years ago. Before that, I wrote the occasional bit of erotica, but only for myself. Then I stumbled over some open submission calls and started submitting to anthologies. Pieces started getting accepted, and suddenly, I was writing a lot more erotica.
T: Thank goodness!
M: After The Big Book of Orgasms reading, (where Jade and I met), I went to erotica full-time, and I’m happier as a writer than I’ve ever been.
J: Funny you mention “happier as a writer than [you’ve] ever been”—that’s exactly where I’m at, now. I started in spec fic (which I still love) and occasionally wrote erotica, but I didn’t know what to do with it. I ended up at a Fantasy/Sci-Fi writing conference having submitted a piece for a critique workshop. The readers flashed me raised eyebrows, and the workshop leader said, “Do you realize you’ve written a piece about a stripper werewolf?”
M: Did you realize you’d written about a stripper werewolf?
J: Honestly, it hadn’t dawned on me until he said it, and the group pointed out I had a flair for titillation…and suddenly, I’d found what really drew me! What about you, Tamsin?
T: I was dabbling in fiction, not too successfully, when I stumbled across a submission call for erotic short stories. So I thought to myself—yeah, I could do that. Despite the fact I hadn’t actually read any erotica at that point.
J: Whoa. Really?
T: Sure—I had read nothing! So I read one free short story, just to check how saucy I needed to be, and then I wrote one and sent it off. And…it got accepted—I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t because it was a really weird story, set in a dentist’s surgery…. Very strange. But I haven’t stopped since! And I’ve read a few more stories since then!
M: Your dentist story sounds great by the way. I love weird.
J: Me too. Spec fic background!
T: I wouldn’t say it was weird-good—just plain strange. A girl with dental phobia gets fingered by the nurse to make her forget she’s having a filling. It really made me feel squeamish about going to the dentist for quite a time!
M: Tamsin, you just cracked me up. I’d love to read it.
J: Me too!
T: Ha—one day I’ll send it to you both and you can see what I mean.
M: For what it’s worth, the first erotic story I ever sold had absolutely no sex in it. Lots of kissing (and it was hot kissing), but no sex. Go figure.
J: Well, I just have to say, I’m so glad we all made it to erotica—and of course, into each others’ orbs.
T: So am I—I’m having a blast with you two!
M: Likewise! Cheers to erotica and the people who read it!
J: Hear hear! Speaking of our readers, we should tell them about the newsletter.
T: Yes. Once a month we’ll be sending out a newsletter packed with all our latest updates—new releases, blog tours, details about forthcoming sessions and what we’ve been up to. Please sign up to make us feel popular.
J: Yes, please do! There’s a signup right here at http://pillowtalkwriters.com.
M: And you can also find us on Twitter and Facebook, as well. We’re everywhere. Everywhere! *Cue charmingly evil laughter.*
T: There’s simply no escaping us!
J: But we promise to make it a sweet experience.
M: Always…
T: You two sweet talkers!
J: Who, us? 😉 All right, I think that definitely gives our readers a good sense of what Pillow Talk is all about. Perhaps we should save more deliciousness for our newsletter?
T: You can sign up for the first edition now—and then it really gets going on 20th June…. Okay, I think it’s time to wind up proceedings.
M: I think so.
J: Agreed.
T: Hopefully we’ll see you at our next session—and please share your thoughts with us on Facebook and Twitter in the meantime.
M: Absolutely. We’d love to hear from you.
J: And thanks so much for joining us
XOXO,
Jade, Malin and Tamsin