Here’s an author interview from Tamsin Flowers. Take it away, Tamsin!

 

• How did you start writing erotica?

About two years ago I was surfing the net, looking at small publishers’ websites and I came across a submission call for an erotic anthology. At that point, I’d hardly even read any erotica, let alone thought about writing it! But with the sort of over-confidence born out of idiocy, I thought Hey, I could that…

And, surprisingly enough, it turned out that I could!

 

• What’s your favourite published work of yours and why?

I would have to say it’s my new collection of zombie short stories, Zombie Erotoclypse, principally because it’s my first solo collection. So far my work has appeared in a number of anthologies – for Xcite Books, Cleis Press, House of Erotica and Go Deeper Press – and there are plenty more anthologies coming next year, as well as three novellas in the publishing pipeline. But this title is the first one to come out with my name on the cover, and it’s got some great stories that I had so much fun writing.

 

• What erotic authors do you enjoy reading?

My own personal favourites are Alison Tyler, Kristina Lloyd, Sommer Marsden, Justine Elyot, Laura Antoniou, and any anthologies edited by Violet Blue, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Kristina Wright and Alison Tyler.

 

• Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Where don’t I get it from might be a better question? It can be anything – a person I see in a crowd, a throw-away comment someone makes, a story in a newspaper or something from my past. Anything and everything gets churned up in my brain and then reconstituted into a character, a plot point or a whole story.

 

• Where’s your favourite place to write?

For a long time it was sitting on the sofa looking out onto the garden – until I finally worked out that spending hours of the day slumped on soft cushions was what was giving me back ache. Now I’m back at my desk in a proper office chair, sitting up straight. I don’t like it so much but at least my back has stopped hurting!

 

• Who is your favourite character from one of your stories and why?

I really like the lead character, Jed Marshall, in my story Lucky Mascot which appears in Go Deeper Press’ anthology Huddle. In the words of editor Angela Tavares: “Tamsin Flowers’ narrative in Lucky Mascot reminded me at first of Bret Easton Ellis. This was the deal winner. There’s something, you know, a little Less Than Zero about it: a kid of some privilege; previous history with drug use; confident, but bored and wanting to be elsewhere, anywhere, than where he is—until he takes a walk and stumbles upon the superstar pitcher, who’s up too late for someone with a important game the next day. So, Jed, the narrator, and Dick (that’s right—Pitcher Dick Gunnison) negotiate a way to ease all nerves and get the potential MLB candidate off to dreamland. It’s glorious how quickly they move to the solution that ends in release and relaxation for them both.”

Lucky Mascot was the first m/m story I wrote and set in a world I knew nothing about – American college baseball – so to receive such praise was really mind-blowing. But why I think Jed Marshall works is, that for some reason, I really managed to get inside this character’s head, which can sometimes be hard when you’re just writing a short story.

 

• What was your ideal career when you were a child?

Being a writer – though obviously not of erotica!

 

• How do you get yourself in the mood to write?

I’ve been a copywriter for many years and when writing is your paid job, you get into the mood to write pretty easily, or you don’t get paid. So, to get in the mood – I sit down and switch on the laptop.

 

• If you get writer’s block when you’re writing, how do you get around it?

I’ve never suffered writer’s block – see the answer to the above question. But if I get to a tough plot point that’s giving me trouble, I sleep on it. Then I generally find when I get back to work the next day, the problem’s been solved somehow in my sleep. I wish there were other problems in life that could be solved that easily…

 

• What are you working on at the moment?

I’m working on the second instalment of my erotic vampire trilogy. The first one, The Crimson Bond is due to be published by Secret Cravings in the New Year, so now I’m working hard on number two, The Scarlet Bond. It’s a classic ménage a trois with a bloody vampire twist!

 

Author bio:

Tamsin Flowers loves to write light-hearted erotica, often with a twist in the tail/tale and a sense of fun.  In the words of one reviewer, ‘Ms Flowers has a way of describing sexual tension that forces itself upon your own body.’ Her stories have appeared in a wide variety of anthologies , for publishers including Cleis Press, Xcite Books and Go Deeper Press. She is now graduating to novellas with the intention of penning her magnum opus in the very near future.  In the meantime, like most erotica writers, she finds herself working on at least ten stories at once: while she figures out whose leg belongs in which story, you can find out more about her at Tamsin’s Superotica or Tamsin Flowers.