Bryce Calderwood's Blog

I listen to a lot of music and my tastes skew heavily toward the electronic. When I was a kid, Gary Numan's Cars was a transformational religious experience for me, imprinting me thereafter with a love for electronic music.

Electronic music sounded like it came from a future in which I wanted to live. The stuff I like the most still does, but the future I imagine now is a bit different from the one that made me starry-eyed as a child. More sinister and post-human.

To say my favorite music "give...

My biggest source of inspiration for the erotica I write is simply the hentai I enjoy looking at or watching.

There's a lot of it I could never "steal like an artist" for written erotica because it's too taboo or extreme for Amazon to publish. But there's no shortage of hucow and futa hucow on Amazon, so I'm good there. But yeah, lactation and hucow hentai/porn has always turned me on. A lot of people think it's gross and disgusting and it kind of is but that's why I like it. Wet, messy, kind...

Short answer: No.

Long answer: FUCK no.

Explanation:

You like the kind of sex and sex fantasies you like, and I like the kind I like. The difference between what you like and what I like is like the difference between the color red and the color black. Is there a difference between red and black? Technically, yes, in the light waves that are absorbed and reflected back to our retinas. But is black worse than red? Is red better than black?

No.

They get off their way and I'll get off my way and if t...

Keep politics out of things when you're a writer just trying to get by and sell some books, we are told. You mean, like Stephen King does? Like Chuck Wendig does? There are writers whose politics I don't know, and there are some whose politics I do know, even though they never make mention of it.

Every time I hear this phrase, this cartoon springs to mind.

All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. If I remain silent, am I doing nothing? I want to entertain peop...

I hope you'll forgive how self-indulgent this post is. If you wanted a peek into the inspiration and process behind this story, you'll get that. Whether you're a writer, too, or an appreciative reader, maybe you'll get something out of this.

I've had a rough time writing contemporary erotica. I like the idea of writing something that sells well, but most of it doesn't sound interesting to me nor does it fit the Bryce Calderwood brand. Yeah, I could write it and I'd be good at it, but I also li...

Getting new readers to discover your books is one of the biggest struggles we face as indie authors. 

Last year I wrote People Don't Buy Books Because They're Written Well, and in that post I list 8 things that in my opinion influence people to like your book:

The cover offers the promise of a good story insideThe title is both descriptive and intriguing The description/blurb appeals to the readerOther people (especially other people the reader trusts) rate it and review it highly or recommend...

If nobody uses a cellphone, a computer, or email, you're failing your stories and your readers.

Maybe you'll say such "techy" things aren't romantic enough for your contemporary romance. Cars and landline phones were once new, too, but you don't seem to have a problem with those? And I hate to break it to you, but mobile phones, computers, and email are now decades old. Is every romance/erotica author over 65 years old?

Back in ye olden days, people's lives could be in danger because someone di...

 This is from my current WIP, Revenant: Futanari Vampires 2. There's no sex in this scene, but a different kind of wickedness. Musette is searching for the revenant, a vampire drained of all blood and imprisoned in a kind of suspended animation as some kind of punishment. She's in the American Southwest among the iconic mesas and native peoples reservations. It's a group of the latter she runs into, and damn is she thirsty...

 

Back in the time Jakob had lived here hundreds of years ago, the Ho...

Somebody stole my book!

You spent all that time writing your masterpiece. You're understandably proud of it. And you get the dreaded whisper in your digital ear from a fellow author: "My book was on this piracy site and yours might be too!" You check (mistake number one, you shouldn't even visit these sites) and lo! There it is!

Your baby.

Booknapped.

You feel physically ill and you're not sure what to do.

The last answer you want to hear is... nothing?

ARE YOU FUCKING SHITTING ME SOME BASTARD STOL...

People absolutely judge books by their covers

Watch the video to see, step by step, how I make book covers quickly and at no cost using online resources. This is exactly what I would do if I were making a real cover: you get to see a bit of experimentation as I try various things to get the look I want. This makes the video a little on the long side.

What I didn't say in the videoMake your cover fit the genre for which you're writing.

Thriller covers have a different look than fantasy covers or...