So, the other night I started talking about how I got into this whole "author" thing...
And I do feel like I have the right to use "author," since I have signed contracts, sold stories for money and even had a novel published... I spent as much as I made, if you take into account all my travels and convention fees spent to promote my books, but still... I had to report taxes and I am traditionally (not vanity) published, so "author", not just "writer."
I remember a time where the distinction bewtween the two was more than a little contentious between some people in the community... although I honestly know several writers who work harder than most authors and just haven't had the lucky break here or there to sell work and qualify under that short-sighted discussion as "authors."
I had gotten as far as talking about Literotica and the fact that I won an award or two there and had received some feedback that meant a lot to me, both at the time and now. I even won the Erotic Couplings Story of the Year in 2003, and I was nominated the next year for Sexiest Male Character in a Story. I think I lost that one to McKenna, but she's a very good writer and there is no shame in that. I really do feel like the honor was in the nomination. Not least because the character in question was a pretty thinly veiled self-portrait, so having him nominated for Sexiest Male Character kinda felt like a nationwide group of women calling me sexy. That was quite a rush.
Anyway, the next step in my journey was moving past that environment. That happened as part of a personal journey in more than just writing. But the writing part of it goes this way... I had a friend I had made at Lit, in the forum called The Authors Hangout, who I often discussed writing and other things with and she got published by a small electronic publisher called Phaze. The greatest thing to me about Phaze, at first anyway, was that it had been founded by the fantasy writer Piers Anthony, of Xanth fame. Alessia had sold them a story called Erotique, which centered around a woman who inherited a sex toy shoppe that had a museum style collection of sex toys. The various items in question carried pyschic imprints that could carry you back to a time where you shared experiences with former owners/users of the items. The protagonist and her boyfriend discovered the hard way that the energies were more than just mental images, that they actually had physical effects (and dangers!)
Alessia was quite pleased with her invention and wanted to continue using the two main characters. Her next story idea was that they would be having relations during an electrical storm and that somehow they would switch bodies, a la Freaky Friday, mid sex act. For perhaps obvious reasons, she wanted to co-write this with a man to get the male point of view accurately reflected. She chose to ask me to co-write with her.
It was understood by me from the beginning that she might try to sell this story to Phaze as well, but I didn't put much thought into that at first. I was too interested in what I felt was a pretty unique writing project.
When Phaze wanted to buy the story, I was thrilled to say the very least. "Switch" became my first contracted work and I was very proud and happy. The minor financial earnings were not nearly as important as the fact that I was being published! Things actually snowballed a bit from there. Soon we had invented another pair of lovers, who's adventures were set in Pittsburgh (Erotique was in Phialdelphia) and the novella that introduced them was sold to Venus Press. "Artistically Inclined" eventually spawned a sequle and the two works were gathered into a single volume by Phaze after Venus Press went out of business and became our second joint work in print, Passion In Pittsburgh. Our first work available in print was Artifactual, a gathering of four works featuring the characters and settings from Erotique. (Alessia had also had a volume of short stories and poetry published in print by Phaze.)
Thus I began a period that was to span half a decade or so where almost anything I wrote sold to someone in the industry, whether a publisher or a website. It was during this time that Phaze actually agreed to publish two novels by me, although I never delivered the second one. (The aptly titled 'Things Left Undone', an erotic ghost story, still has not been finished. It is my most egregious example of writer's block, which in this case consisted of me writing myself into a plot corner I still haven't been able to unravel.)
I also accepted the challenge of becoming an editor, which was a more financially rewarding experience and also led to me being the right hand man of Alessia in the production of the Coming Together anthologies, a series of works where erotica authors donated short stories to volumes centered around a theme which connected with a charitable endeavor. The first of these was themed around rain and storms and the proceeds benefitted the Red Cross fundraising efforts for Huricane Katrina. Coming Together was more successful than any of my solo work and I am quite proud of it.
During this period of time, I also had some impactful life changes, as did Alessia. We found ourselves both going through divorces at the same time, and it was perhaps inevitable, seeing as how we were working so closely together, that we would respond by becoming a couple. I reponded to that upheaval by leaving my beloved San Diego to live with Alessia in the Appalachian mountains, something I had certainly never expected. I remain a resident of West Virginia to this very day, and have come to love it as a second home.
It was the dissolution of Alessia and my romantic relationship that fueled the circumstances that resulted in me putting away my virtual quill for over a decade. I also completed my first and so far only full length novel during that time, an experience which led to me viewing writing as actual work. Writing a novel and getting all the loose ends pulled back together and resolved after spending 80,000 words going all over the place was difficult, a great challenge that made me a better writer but wasn't nearly as fun. Deadlines motivated me, but I never liked them.
More on that period and the reasons I have started writing again as I confess part 3. That could come as soon as tomorrow or it might be next week.... I'm not sure at the moment.
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