Phoebe Alexander's Blog

This writing erotic romance thing is not for the weak.

It's not for the overly sensitive.

And it's not for the easily discouraged.

I am approaching the four year anniversary of publishing my first erotic romance novel, Mountains Wanted . By the way, it's free through 10.14 on Amazon right now, so pick it up if you haven't read it already. What have you got to lose?

Whoops, didn't mean to turn this into a promo opportunity, but on the other hand...what have I got to lose?

I try to judge my writing career on how far I've come rather than how far I have to go. In 2012, when I published Mountains Wanted, I had zero followers on social media (because I didn't have social media for Phoebe, my erotic romance-writing alterego); I had zero newsletter subscribers; I had been to zero signings; and I had zero reviews. And I had made zero sales. All I had was one book about to be published and a dream.

Now I can say in 2016, I've published six erotic romance books and two women's fiction books (under the name K.L. Montgomery), and I have thousands of social media followers and newsletter subscribers. I've been to a few signings and have some on the books for 2017 and 2018. But most importantly, I have made sales. Thousands of sales, actually.

But I'm still looking for that breakthrough moment, that moment where I become "known." Not famous; I don't actually think that's going to happen. But I'm still waiting for my audience to rise up, for me to find my people, my tribe of like-minded readers.

See, I write sex-positive, body-positive erotic romance, and I believe that gives me a bit of a distinction from what else is out there in the vast sea of erotic romance. My characters are real, relatable, everyday men and women, not rock stars, models, billionaires or the likes. They have average bodies; they are people you would meet in the course of regular life. The biggest thing that sets them apart from other ordinary people is that they learn to embrace their sexuality. They don't make apologies for being sexual creatures, nor do they abide by slut shaming.

Which is interesting, really, because lately there has been some talk about how romance writers and readers are essentially slut-shamed. Check out this article from Bustle.com, for example. As you can imagine, I'm not okay with that.

After four years, I wonder if there's actually a market for the type of literature I write. Maybe not. Maybe not YET. But as a fellow author told me recently, even if I'm not getting the sales I want or the best reviews, I am still sending a message, and it's an important message: the message that it's okay for women of all sizes to embrace and celebrate their sexuality. 

I may be taking a break from writing erotic romance, at least until my next women's fiction project is done, but I will be back. You know why? Because I know I have more sex-positive, body-positive stories inside me, waiting to come out. And if just a few readers enjoy my books and have their minds opened because of them.... well, then, I've done my job.

Please welcome the lovely Lisette Kristensen to the blog! 
When and how did you decide to become a writer?
I’ve always had a vivid imagination and fascinated with the “what if” idea relating to events.  The challenge I imposed on myself was the fear of the English language. All through school English was hard, not the reading part, the composition part. None of it made sense. To this day, I’m a grammar slob and the rules of the road of writing is Greek to me.  So the idea of ever writing was a dream. I ignored it for years. Then a friend threw down the gauntlet and dared me to put a story on paper.  I wrote a short story, Unveiling Façade, and then sold it to a small press.  (The rights reverted back to me and I self-published it). After I sold the story in 2009, I didn’t write anymore.  That same friend bugged me for years about writing and finally dove back in again.   This time I’m more comfortable with my weakness and focus on the story telling.
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
Other writers.   I read a great deal inside and outside of my genre.  Writers like Stacia Kane and Jacqueline Carey inspire me with theor character development.   Jeanna Pride and Casey Cane in how to weave sexuality through a character’s trials.  July Cumming for showing sex in a different twisted angle.  They inspire me to think differently, to take chances.
What makes you unique as a writer? What sets you apart?
I never thought of myself unique. If I had to chose one, I would say I’m a thematic writer.  Meaning I focus more on the theme than characters, background etc.  Currently, I am into the woman flawed internally, that through unlocking the darkness within her frees her from those flaws.  I think that approach set’s me apart somewhat.  My stories are about the journey of inner freedom by traveling down some seriously dark sexual experiences.  Like a reviewer said to me, you write a surreal fantasy in a real life context.
Where can we learn more about you?
Website: https://midnightdream2016.wordpress.com/
 Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/midnightdream2016/
Amazon: https://amazon.com/author/lisettekristensen
 E-mail: facade1250@gmail.com

Please welcome short story/novella writer Cathleen Maza to the blog! Cathleen writes contemporary fiction and young adult fantasy/adventure.

When and how did you decide to become a writer?
I honestly can’t think of a time when I wasn’t creating stories and writing them down to share with my sisters, cousins, friends, or whoever I could get to listen. Back in high school, I was excited to always be given a lot of dedicated space in the literary magazine. As I became an adult, it grew harder to make writing a priority. I spent a number of years working in corporate and educational office settings, where I would often jot down ideas during work days and save them to create stories in my spare time. When my daughter was in elementary school, I quit working outside of the home and dedicated myself to full-time writing. Now that she’s in high school, I’m happy to say that I’ve completely settled into my dream career as an author.

Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
I work mainly from life experience and the voices in my own head. I like to say that there’s a small piece of me in almost everything I write. When I publish traditionally in literary magazines, a story may be something I create around a specific submission call. More often, though, I’ll simply hear an interesting idea or bit of conversation and it will be enough of a catalyst to get my creative muse off and running.

What makes you unique as a writer? What sets you apart?
I think that my style of writing, as well as the material I write, both set me apart. I write short contemporary fiction and young adult fantasy/adventure.I know a lot of writers experiment with short stories, but I’ve actually chosen them as my main genre. I love the challenge of delivering a decent literary tale in a neat package of seven thousand words or less. I’ve had many editors refer to my writing as having “a uniquely eloquent style”.I write fantasy/adventure novellas for young adults as a break from my heavier adult material. I feel that the novella is a sadly under used format, so I’m hoping to revive some interest with a six part novella series. (Two have already been published and I’m currently writing the third.) If the novellas don’t catch on independently, I will probably re-publish them as a novel at the end of the series. For now, I’m not afraid to experiment.

Where can we learn more about you?
Website: www.camwriter.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/authorcathleenmazaAmazon: www.amazon.com/author/cathleenmazaE-mail: cathleenmaza@camwriter.com

 Please join me in welcoming K.M. Neuhold, author of the Sexy Nerd Boy series, to the blog.


1. When and how did you decide to become a writer?

I don't know if I ever decided to be a writer. I've been writing my entire life, but I didn't decide to publish until last year with a lot of encouragement from my sister.


2. Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
I get inspiration from a wide variety of places: songs, movies, a person I see on the street. I usually get inspired to write a certain character and then I let the rest of the story fall into place once I know who the characters are.


3. What makes you unique as a writer? What do you think sets you apart from other writers?
I think my characters are what set me apart from other writers. I really focus on the characters emotions and who they are as people. It's really important to me to stay true to a character. There's nothing that bugs me more than watching a movie or reading a book where the character acts completely out of character for no reason.


4. Where can we learn more about you? (Share links to social media, books, etc!) Author links:
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/awellwrittenwomanwebsite: kmneuhold.weebly.comTwitter: @kmneuholdGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14204017.K_M_Neuhold
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/K.M.-Neuhold/e/B016A7JZZ2

Please welcome Jamie Summer to the Mountains Wanted blog! Jamie writes YA Fantasy and her new book is called Dalysian Hope. Check out her answers to the interview questions below:

1. When and how did you decide to become a writer? 
 I started writing fan fiction with my best friend about a decade ago. I never thought that it would turn into more at this point. It was fun and I truly loved doing it. The escape from reality was perfect. Until one night I had a dream that vivid that wouldn't let go until I started putting it down on paper. That's how "Dalysian Hope"got started. Even then I wasn't sure about publishing. After all, I had no idea if it was any good. Again, my best friend was the one that told me it was a great story and it needed to be told. So it was. That was a year ago and the book released just a few weeks ago.

2. Where do you get inspiration for your stories? 
For "Dalysian Hope" I dreamt the beginning. I also get a lot of inspiration from covers. I have a pre-made cover addiction, and those covers as inspirational for sure. Other than that, things just pop into my mind at the most random times without any pre-thinking.

3. What makes you unique as a writer? What do you think sets you apart from other writers? 
English is my second language, so first and foremost I hope that everything is correctly written. Other than that, I hope that my writing style just resonates with people. I've never written with grammar or anything in my mind. I put the words down the way they come to me. And I hope the story I want to tell is something that people are interested in seeing. My characters are diverse and each have to overcome their own obstacle on their way. Plus, I have playing with the elements, so they have become a big part of the story.

4. Where can we learn more about you? (Share links to social media, books, etc!)Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorjamiesummerWebsite: www.authorjamiesummer.comTwitter: @authjamiesummerInstagram: jamiesummer911Spotify: Jamie Summer
Buy link for Dalysian Hope: mybook.to/dalysianhope

Please welcome Amanda Leigh to my blog. Amanda writes contemporary YA/NA romance. Be sure to check out her links below. Here's what she has to say:


1. When and how did you decide to become a writer?

I’ve been telling stories my whole life. When I was two I would tell them to my mom who would write them down for me then I would draw the pictures. My first “book” was about Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask. But I think I started really considering it as a career in third grade. Yup, third grade. I wrote a story for class. It was actually a biography on Walt Disney. My teacher called my mom in for a meeting. She thought that I plagiarized it. My mom was pretty offended at first. After she told my teacher that she watched me write the whole paper she was very impressed and told my mom that maybe I should consider a career as a writer.That was the first time I thought that this author thing might be something that I wanted to do when I grew up. I got published for the first time at 11 and then in high school I got really serious about my writing.

2. Where do you get inspiration for your stories?

Honestly, I can find inspiration anywhere. I have a file with probably upwards of 15 ideas for books/stories. Just tonight, I got an idea from the name of an X-Files episode. The trilogy that I'm working on now was never supposed to be a trilogy. And it started out because of a one sentence idea and a song that I heard that helped to inspire a big theme and part of the tone of the books.

3. What makes you unique as a writer? What do you think sets you apart
from other writers?

I think that part of it is definitely the genres that I write in. I write fiction, poetry and I'm even working on a piece for a non-fiction collection that I'm helping to compile. And when it comes to fiction I also write across genres.  My fiction debut, My Heart is Yours, is Contemporary Romance but the trilogy that I'm writing is YA Paranormal/Urban Fantasy with a romance in it. I think that that is probably the main thing.

Some others that I consider important is that I don't shy away from important issues or the darker sides of some things. I don't want to condescend my readers.

4. Where can we learn more about you? (Share links to social media, books, etc!)


I have accounts on many places online, but these are my most active. Plus, links to my books. Thanks for having me today!! :) 

Website: http://www.authoramandaleigh.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmandaLeigh
Twitter: https://twitter.com/APenAndADream
TSU: http://www.tsu.co/AuthorAmandaLeigh
Blog: http://girlwithapenandadream.blogspot.com/
Books: http://www.authoramandaleigh.com/books.html

Please welcome Amalie Cantor to the blog for this week's Fellow Author Friday! 

When and how did you decide to become a writer?

I think that, in one way or another, I’ve always been a writer. My first attempt at a novel came in seventh grade. I made it through maybe eight chapters before I decided I was already bored with the topic and dropped the whole thing.  I dallied with poetry and fiction on and off through the years, but I didn’t really become serious about it until a friend directed me to writing.com. I got more and more involved with that community, even moderating an intro to poetry workshop there a couple of times a year.  Maybe six months or a year into my membership, the site hosted a “query letter contest.” As a grand prize, the site was offering funding to self-publish the novel of the winning query letter.  I had been toying with a novel idea for a few months and decided to give it a shot. Somehow, I won.  A year later, I used the grand prize money to publish the paperback version of Choosing Her Chains . I gave it another editing and reformatting and published it in eBook format six months later. 
All that to say I’m still not sure I “decided” to become a writer. I just wrote, took some risks, and what had always been potential eventually became incarnate. I do still have a full-time day job, but would love the opportunity to make weaving stories a full-time career.
Where do you get your inspiration for your stories?
For me at least, character comes long before story, even before the world they inhabit. The characters in Choosing Her Chains came to me as I was enjoying a picnic with my (then) fiancée at a local lakebed. Alisandra stepped into my consciousness more or less fully formed, and it took many months of speaking with her to get her story to come out. I have met characters in some of my other short stories (and failed novels) everywhere from weddings to funerals. Eventually they all begin to tell me their stories, and voila. 
Elizabeth Gilbert writes about how inspiration is a literal physical force in the world. My own experience makes me inclined to agree with her. I think characters are real, but that they work with us as authors to bring their stories into the world. They cannot become incarnate without our assistance. In that sense, we’re just glorified mediums.

What makes you unique as a writer? What do you think sets you apart from other writers?
I very rarely write anything that doesn’t focus on LGBTQ+ characters and situations. Being a happily married lesbian myself, I find their unique struggles both familiar and intriguing. I also like to write romantic relationships that don’t turn out well, or at least don’t turn out in the way the characters would like them to turn out. I love a good love story as much as anyone, but I am not much for the so called HEA (“happily ever after”). Instead, I prefer to leave as much of the story as I can open to a reader’s interpretation.  A reviewer recently told me that, at the end of the book, she didn’t know whether the protagonist had made the correct choice, but that she thought that was kind of the point. She was totally right. I want to present a particular point of view to my readers and then let them make the decision for themselves, just as my characters have to do.

Where can we learn more about you?

I frequently blog at DaughterofKieran.comand am a social media addict. I’m oftentimes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads (even when I am supposed to be at my 9-5 day job).  Friend or follow me on any of them to stay up to date with all my publication information (and to see pictures of my cats).  I would also encourage any would-be-readers to check out my debut novel, Choosing Her Chains on Amazon.com.  The sequel, tentatively titled Homebound, should be out either late 2016 or early 2017.

 It's time for another Fellow Author Friday! Please welcome Carmine Blanche to my blog.


1.    When and how did you decide to become a writer?
When I was young, I learned that I liked to tell stories.  Not the kind that kids usually tell to get out of a scrape, but real fiction.  I must have been about nine when the teacher asked me to write a story about mankind’s first encounter with aliens.  When I completed it, not only did she read it and loved it, I was beat up by a couple students for getting the best scores in the class on the assignment.  Somehow I accepted this as confirmation that I was on my way as a writer.  Simple stories and tales came forth after that and I would find myself writing about anything and everything.


2.    Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
Some of my early work, when I was not trying to publish, would come from things I saw around me.  Events that I would try to make into something more than they were.  I would watch a couple talking and think about what was being said by their actions, then create a story around it.  Sometimes it would be happy, sometimes sad or violent.  I used these as exercises to stimulate thought.

When I chose to start writing in the erotic and erotic romance genre, I drew from observation and from my own past.  I led a rather active sexual life in my youth, many of the things I have seen and done have fed into my fantasies and helped create some of the stories I have written and have yet to write.


3.    What makes you unique as a writer? What do you think sets you apart from other writers?
I cannot classify myself as “unique”.  I think that we are all unique by nature, but people who have the wrong expectations of us, as writers, cause us to conform and become less and less unique by requiring that we write within a certain “scope of work”.  Anyone that has had the unfortunate experience of having to deal with a commercial publisher has experienced the whole, “We want you to be different, but not too different, but more like this person" routine.

My biggest effort to be a little different than other men that write in this genre is that I try hard to write my female characters in a positive and respectable light.  I love women, not just in the physical sense.  Too many male written stories seem to cast the female as merely an object, a tool or an ends to a means.  I like to try to give them a mind, a story and even if they are the “slut” of the story, I want them to HAVE a story.


4.    Where can we learn more about you? (Share links to social media, books, etc!)
Well… I am here on Facebook and spend an unhealthy, some might say, amount of time here.  But if you want to follow more of my digital outings, then you can go here:
www.carminethegreat.com
http://twitter.com/CarmineTheGreat   Yes… I still use Twitter.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/vi...

It's Fellow Author Friday again! Please welcome Bree Kraemer to the blog!

1. When and how did you decide to become a writer?When my youngest child started school, my husband pushed me in the direction of writing. He was great and said that since I loved to read so much, I should try and write. It took me several years to realize that I actually had it in me to write something that people would enjoy. So finally 2 years ago, I made the decision to get serious because this is what I wanted to do.

 
2. Where do you get inspiration for your stories?Oh God, everywhere. If a friend tells me a story, that could end up in a book. Or I could just have a dream and decide that needs to be written down. Since I write romance, sometimes it just comes from what I would want.

3. What makes you unique as a writer? What do you think sets you apart from other writers?I think something that helps me write romance is that I am in a very happy marriage and I see what HEA should look like. So I want that for my characters. Also, I have a silly sense of humor and those little quips or jokes end up in my books.

 
4. Where can we learn more about you?www.facebook.com/Bree-Kraemer-Author-1547122592226263twitter.com/krazykraemerhttp://www.amazon.com/Bree-Kraemer/e/B00NIU5ZCW

Please join me in welcoming Kathryn Harris for this week's Fellow Author Friday! ~PA
Thank you, Phoebe, for letting me share my story on your blog. 
The bio on my blog says I have a one-track mind and an eight-track heart. It’s a pretty accurate description. My love for writing is tied tightly to the many afternoons I spent in childhood listening to my older sisters’ 8-tracks and vinyl records. Oh, to be a rock star in the late 1970s. It’s the stuff my daydreams were made of. I mean, how incredibly cool were the female pioneers of rock ‘n’ roll: Ann & Nancy Wilson, Grace Slick, Janis Joplin, Lita, Joan and the rest of The Runaways, Carole King and Linda Ronstadt. What must it have been like to blaze the trails they set afire?
 To this day, I have yet to meet another six-year-old whose imaginary friends went on make believe world tours and (gasp!)got chased by invisible groupies. Alas, I had to grow up. My imaginary band broke up. Approaching adolescence forced me to face the fact that my chances of becoming a world-famous musician were as slim as the waistline of Bowie’s “Thin White Duke.” But I liked to write. In fact, when I wasn’t tuning my air guitar and getting ready to put on an imaginary sold-out show, I was plunking away on my mom’s old manual Smith-Corona typewriter.
One day – when I was about 10 years old – one of my sisters was watching “The World According to Garp” in the basement of our split-level home in rural Nebraska, and she made the offhand comment, “Who in their right mind would want to write a book? Talk about boring.”  I glanced up from the old Smith-Corona and smiled at her. “I’m going to write a book someday.” I’m pretty sure she didn’t believe me. I could tell by the way her eyes rolled. 
Not too long after that, I had an epiphany: I was going to write a book about a trailblazing rock star trying to hide her past.
I started writing longhand; the “N” key broke off of the manual typewriter (quite problematic when your heroine’s lover is named Nick). The original draft – which will NEVER see the light of day – was 26 handwritten pages of drivel, but it provided the outline of the story that would – many, many years later –become my first novel. 

There’s no way I could’ve known when I started writing how much the story would eventually mean to me, how my main character’s struggle with cocaine addiction and alcoholism would not only provide a mental escape from the turmoil in my own life but also help me understand the mindset of a recovering alcoholic, the mindset of someone like my husband (who, incidentally, will celebrate a full decade of sobriety in July).

The Long Road to Heaven is a story about letting go of the past and finding a reason to forgive the unforgivable. It’s available in both paperback and for Kindle. (Kleenexes sold separately.) :D
You can find The Long Road to Heaven on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Long-Road-Heaven-Kathryn-Harris-ebook/dp/B00Z4LRXMS/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr = I blog here: www.thelongroad2heaven.blogspot.com I’m on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Kathryn-Harris-Author-37255976889/ I’m on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/katharriswrites I’m on Goodreads at: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14106287.Kathryn_Harris