Interview with Marilyn Jaye Lewis (2001) by William Dean Marilyn Jaye Lewis is a pioneering and creative force in the world of erotica. She is a renaissance woman, in that her talents, skills, abilities, and dedicated hard work raise her far above the norm. Writer, editor, producer, business woman and executive, she is a recent nominee for “Best Erotica Writer for the Year in the UK.” Her credits include co-editing of The Mammoth Book of Erotic Photography and president of EroticBookSociety.com. Her first full-length book, Neptune & Surf, a collection of erotic novellas published by Masquerade Books in 1999, was called “a sensational debut” by London’s popular newspaper, The Guardian. The French language translation of Neptune & Surf will be published in fall 2000 by Editions Blanche, Paris. Her short stories have been widely anthologized, many of the anthologies appearing as featured selections in Doubleday’s Venus Book Club. Her award-winning web site, Other-rooms.com, was the first non-commercial erotica site to be entered into Playboy’s Online Hall of Fame (Summer 1998). Also in 1998, as president of Marilyn’s Room, Inc., she sponsored and/or produced live video and audio webcasts in conjunction with Broadcast.com and Pseudo.com, and was executive producer on dozens of erotic spoken word recordings for other erotica authors and poets. She has been interviewed on international television, radio, and internet radio, and her views on the current climate for erotica in America have been sought by reporters from such prestigious venues as The New York Times and The San Francisco Chronicle. * * * CS) The more authors I interview, the more it becomes apparent that many believe writing the novel is the easiest part of the process compared to what comes after; the promoting, book tours, struggles for payment, dealing with reviewers. Has that been your experience as well? MJL) No, that hasn’t been my experience at all. The hardest part for me is the writing, because I take it so seriously. I’m one of those writers who labor over every word-I write, re-write, revise, etc., etc. Once I’m satisfied with what I’ve written, I love to promote it. It comes easily to me. My mind definitely works along those lines naturally. I love what I write, what I create, and I’m more than happy to tell anybody about it who’s willing to listen. As far as book tours-I haven’t done one yet. I have traveled long distances to do individual readings, though, and that can be a lonely feeling-the traveling, staying with people you don’t really know. But it’s always great to reach an audience, no matter how or where. Regarding reviewers: so far, reviewers have been incredibly kind to me. I have noticed that everyone brings their own perspective to whatever they read, and I sometimes feel reviewers have read an entirely different book than the one I wrote, but as long as they enjoyed the experience, I don’t really mind. I like the idea of creating and then letting readers take from it what they will. After I write, my job stops; the reader takes over. Regarding struggling for payment, luckily that has not been my experience, either. And I have frequently been paid more than the amount I was expecting. CS) The old “adult book store” type novels were pretty trashy --- no real plots, cardboard characters, endless sexual escapades. While some of that type of publishing is still going on, recent erotica seems to have a more mainstream quality. What do you think was responsible for the change from “pulp” to “literature”? MJL) The Internet has had a lot to do with it-it has kind of “forced the traditional publisher’s hand” to take erotic writing seriously again. The anonymity of the web has allowed a lot of creative people, who might usually be hampered by the strict moral codes of their community, to express themselves sexually online. A surprising number of people express themselves-their desires, their needs, their experiences-very well. Only a few years ago, sex stories on the Internet were generally perceived as being really poorly written smut stories. That has changed substantially and so a lot of intrigued readers have flocked to online erotica. Of course, more and more people get online everyday, so that adds to the general “flocking.” Also, right now we don’t have strict obscenity laws in our culture. It’s legal for publishers to publish highly sexual content. That isn’t always the case-it depends on the political climate of any given era. I think all these factors have contributed to the change. CS) We continually see new medium ventures promoted for erotica authors, such as e-books, CD-ROMs, audio readings, and interactive computer programs and games. Do you think this is simply good marketing opportunities or a distraction to authors from the work of just writing good stories? MJL) The answer to that question would depend on the type of writer you’re talking to. Some writers love to experiment with different media, others are very solitary, isolated, or are interested only in the traditional publishing experience. I prefer the traditional publishing experience, but I’ve done audio erotica readings-and have been executive producer on dozens of those for other writers, by the way. I’ve written for a CD Rom production company, wrote an adult computer game, and written adult video scripts. I feel that the experience was invaluable, even though those jobs were extremely high-pressure experiences. Having those chops has helped me get accepted in the professional community. As far as e-books, I’ve done a lot to promote erotic e-books with other authors. I’m not personally a fan of reading on the computer so I have not gone into that realm yet with my own work. CS) With a lot of authors, a reader can easily detect literary influences on style, content, presentation. I don’t find I’m able to do that with your works. How difficult has it been for you to “write in your own voice”? MJL) As far as I know, I have nothing but my own voice to write in, so it hasn’t been difficult. My influences, though, are from the world of homoeroticism, in particular Jean Genet. I’m not a fan of straight porn or lesbian porn, but I’ve always loved homosexual sex stories, and still do. The humor, the passion, the level of sexual explicitness, and usually the level of intelligence-gay male sex writers have always delighted me as a reader and helped me learn as a writer. CS) One of the polarizing complaints about erotic literature is that the over-intellectualizing of some of it destroys the “get hard/get wet” reaction vs the “filthy words and fucking” takes away from the more esoteric or romantic notions that stimulate the emotions. Is there some happy medium to be reached or will erotica always be one or the other? MJL) The answer to this question, I think, depends on the reader. When I was president of The Erotic Book Society (an online bookstore), my experience was that there were two types of readers: those who liked dirty or trashy smut books, and those who were more interested in the literary prowess of the author. I didn’t see much crossover in tastes among readers. I do think that for literary erotica to even get published in the mainstream, there has to be a particular political tide within the population. It’s cyclical. Sometimes the public is receptive to sex; sometimes it’s not. A lot depends on the age group of the largest segment of the population at any given time-where they are in their life cycle. Are they young & horny? Or do they now have children they’re worrying about protecting? Sometimes, as a writer of sexually explicit fiction you get the door slammed in your face, or a patronizing rejection letter. Other times you get respect and a nice advance fee. It all depends on what society is preaching at any given time, and the publishers-large & small-then give the people what they want. But the trashy smut books will always have a market underground, regardless of what the mainstream is doing. CS) In mainstream literature (as opposed to genre works), the author’s “message” is often concealed in what’s written between the lines. How significant do you think the implied” is in writing erotica? Is what’s not explicitly written as important or more important than the simple narrative of action? MJL) I prefer writing that tells you plainly what’s going on sexually. But I also think it’s a mistake to underestimate the intelligence of a reader by spelling out every little detail. It’s boring, distracting, and you risk losing your reader’s connection to the sexual energy. I prefer subtlety and understatement that is also plain and clear-and also highly erotic. As a writer, I know this is a difficult effect to achieve so I have a lot of respect for an author who can create it. CS) Most writers claim that the writing of a story is their way of exploring their thinking, feeling, knowledge, or experience about a subject or theme. Do you personally feel writing erotica has helped you realize what you thought and felt about sexual desire? MJL) As far as I’m concerned, I write “fiction that has a lot of sex in it.” I don’t really label myself “an erotica writer.” I have chosen to specialize in writing about human sexuality because it was the only thing that really interested me as a human being besides quantum theory. Since quantum theory requires way too much expensive higher education, human sexuality is what I write about. For me, human sexuality is not solely about desire; it’s about a person’s belief system, a person’s spiritual frame of mind; a person’s psychological stance on life. Sexuality also deals with the idea of God, creativity, the physical realm, and the metaphysical realm. So it isn’t writing erotica, per se, that I’ve learned from. My characters have sex because in real life, people have sex. I write about that and that’s what I learn from. CS) Some authors say their major characters are pastiches of traits they’ve observed in others while some say their characters represent different facets of their own personalities. Where, generally, have your characters come from? MJL) My characters are all based on people I know or on myself. The plots come from experiences I have had, or friends or family have had. I rarely make something up exclusively from my imagination. I feel that if I’ve seen it, observed it, or experienced it, then it will connect with at least one reader somewhere and so my writing will serve a purpose. CS) You’ve recently been nominated as “Best Erotica Writer of the Year” in the UK. How important do you think awards like that are for erotica authors, apart from (hopefully) making publishers more anxious for your next work? MJL) I think an award like this is extremely encouraging. It helps add validity to the erotic genre-a thing it can never get too much of. I think the erotic genre is the least respected genre of all genre fiction. CS) What new projects are you working on now? MJL) I’ve just completed co-editing The Mammoth Book of Erotic Photography with Maxim Jakubowski for Constable-Robinson in the UK. I am just about finished with my novel The Curse of Our Profound Disorder, as well as a collection of my short stories, both of which are being shopped to the mainstream houses. I’ve sold a number of short stories to various erotic anthologies coming out this spring and fall. Editions Blanche in Paris is publishing the French language version of Neptune & Surf this October. I’m also the editor of a project that’s currently being shopped among art book publishers, called Fetish, Erotica, Tattoos: A Photographic Journey through the NY Body Archive. William Dean is an award-winning independent cable TV and media producer/writer who writes erotica under the pen-name Count of Shadows. His erotic fiction has been extensively web-published, and his erotic short stories appear in print anthologies including: Desires (AmarMira Press) and Tears on Black Roses. Back to home |
