Evasive Love is my first erotic sci-fi novel to be published. It will be released on Oct. 2nd by Ellora’s Cave, (with the help of a fantastic editor named Brianna St. James).
In 2004, I got my first professional job as a writing tutor for the college I was attending. Since then (to this day I am a freelance editor, ghost writer, and tutor), I’ve made money with words. I never dreamed how difficult it would be to edit a novel.
First Draft Hunted
I always meant to return to American Dreams and make Elliot into a serious character, a real criminal. I thought it would be fun to explore the moral dilemmas of falling in love with someone you are sending to prison.
Apparently, so did the people at Ellora’s Cave. One day back in 2012, I’m thinking sometime in October, I was scanning contests and content calls when I saw Ellora’s Cave asking for a story of any heat level, any pairing, about bounty hunters. I was intrigued because I remembered the campy old thing I had written in high school. With no serious thoughts of being published, I started to write it.
With in two weeks I had a first draft. I edited, pared down, read and reread until the deadline for submissions came. I spent the week before the submission deadline, checking and double-checking the guidelines, my query letter, my blurb. I submitted it and moved on. I’ve been submitting and moving on for a while now. I wasn’t expecting much.
Then in January, I found out I wasn’t rejected.
Revision
Once I got over the dancing and shouting at Skype (my partner was across the ocean when I received the joyful news), I puzzled over the draft I had sent. The one complaint I was given was that the language and sex scenes were too mild.
I was floored by this. I’ve been publishing pornography since I was in college and I always thought the difference between a romance novel and pornography was the language. I had no trouble fixing that; now it’s got reviews about how hot it is.
For the next eight months, my editor and I struggled through the monster that became Evasive Love. I was stunned by the sheer amount of errors that I hadn’t caught, little things I never thought about, and how incredibly inflexible the human body actually is during sex (oh yeah I guess that does kinda sound like he’s wrapping his spine around Kavan… hum, better fix that).
I can tell you I’m so sick of reading that novel I might never look at it again. But you should. It’s excellent. Bree told me so.
Coming Out as Gay Erotica Writer
By far the hardest thing that came out of this novel (besides your dicks, you sick freaks why are you reading this smut?) is explaining to my friends and family what all my work has been for. The inevitable question that comes after the statement, ‘I have a book coming out’ is ‘congratulations. What’s it about?”
I don’t think any other writer faces the potential embarrassment and judgment from that answer. Every writer faces criticism whether constructive of not, but few of us are actually risking revulsion with the answer. More than once I’ve muttered, “It’s a romantic sci-fi about a bounty hunter who falls in love with his mark” and quickly changed the subject to the writing process or anything else. I’ve never been so closeted. Yet, I can’t stand having something I’ve worked so hard for met with a sneer and a “Why would you want to write that?”
I have a lot more to write on the topic of shame and sex in America, the inequality given to romance and speculative fiction, and closets in general, but for now I’ll leave off with a very enthusiastic:
It’s a very explicit erotic science fiction romance about a bounty hunter who falls in love with the male criminal he’s after! Look it! Look it! Two dudes on the cover! And I didn’t make this cover!
Someone else made this cover, bitches!
Jumping Whatsits in the Empress's Bed 