Back in December while I was trying to avoid reality, I started writing a project that had been in the back of my head for a while.
I write mostly Fantasy and SciFi erotica. I know there are readers out there who are into this, because I used to sell them books. I’m sure I’ll find these people again. But fantasy erotica tends to confuse erotica and romance readers who are not familiar with fantasy tropes, angst and tragic backstories, not to mention characters who don’t have driver’s licenses and can’t prove they are over eighteen. It confuses fantasy readers…
Actually, that’s a good question. Why does fantasy erotica confuse fantasy readers? I mean, have you read any fantasy lately? Magic systems are really in. Most fantasy readers are used to reading books where the magic system is the main character, where describing it takes hundreds of pages. If you show them a book where much of the characterization happens through sex, they wander off to read another book about how red gems have different magical properties than blue gems.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
My point here is that my writing feels very niche. The correct way for me to deal with this is to meet readers closer to where they live. I decided to write something less niche, put it up on a new platform that I’ll mention in a bit, and see if people like it.
As I said, I had a huge incentive to focus on something other than the real world. I wrote a 100k word novel in five weeks. My left wrist is sore, but it was worth it. This book really wanted to be written.
It’s called:
Fraternity Alpha: A Genderqueer Love Story
I set some constraints on the project:
- Real world. I was originally going to locate it in a generic city, but I was unable to resist making fun of Milton, MA. I love Boston, but the in-jokes are funny for a reason.
- Traditional romance plot structure, because plotting a novel is one of my weak points. Adopting the structure helped me organize all the hot sex and messy emotions. That meant:
- A traditional Happily Ever After.
- Female protagonist. Yes, this was a challenge for me. This meant:
- Most of the characters are queer.
- The queer people have real world queer joys and queer problems.
- Their problems are human problems, human-sized with human resolutions.
- All characters are over 21 and have ID to prove it.
- The sex is the hot, kinky sort that gets me thoughtful reviews from people who say things like, “Her books are gutsy, emotional, well written, unusual, brave and just plain lovely.” The sex the characters are having is the sex that those characters would have. The sex tells you more about the characters than where they live, what they do for fun with their clothes on, whose kids they are, what they wear or what they eat.
There are some broader themes that people who have read my other fiction will recognize.
There’s a trope in romantasy where the MMC automatically understands what the FMC needs, because shadowdaddy with mind-reading powers. I’ve rarely found this trope fulfilling, though I couldn’t tell you if that was a problem I have with the trope or a problem I have with people who have read the trope and think they can pull it off in real life, with disastrous results.
What is far sexier to me–and far more worth writing–is characters who actively discuss what they want and how they can make each other happy. Relationships can come about through random acts of the universe. But they require active care and tending by all participants.
Someone very close to me once said that I have a trust fetish. He has a point.
The seed that sprouted this novel was planted in about 1992. I had to fill out financial aid forms for graduate school, and I was overwhelmed. By coincidence, I attended a house party where one of the hosts was a tax accountant and a rock singer. She offered to help me fill out the paperwork in exchange for some jewelry I was making back then. I visited her at her office at H&R Block, sat down and listened to her tell me that tax accounting is a fantastic job for creative people, because talking to people and solving their problems is part of the job, unlike waiting tables. She explained about getting laid off every year and rehired. She helped me fill out the paperwork, and I got a financial aid package that enabled me to get a CS degree.
I didn’t find out until later that she was a professional dominant.
So what’s it about?
Amy is a woman in her thirties, working in human resources and dodging attempts by family members to set her up on blind dates. But she dreams of being initiated into masculinity at the hands of a ruthless, paddle-wielding frat brother.
After meeting an old acquaintance at a disappointing kink convention, Amy goes home with the business card of a professional dominant who can help her realize some of her fantasies. All it will cost her is money.
There’s only one catch.
The dominant is a gay man, and sex is not on the menu.
But Amy will take what she can get while she dreams of so much more.
Fraternity Alpha is a high-kink, high-spice romance about gender identity beyond the binary.
A New Web Platform
There is a new way to read erotica and romance coming soon: TheoReads.com.
We’ve all watched access to erotica–especially queer erotica–be curtailed by major platforms and payment processors. If we want to see ourselves in books, we need more ways for authors and readers to connect.
Theo is a web based platform that will allow you to pick and chose among your favorite tropes and kinks so you can find and buy those stories that were written for you. You get something hot, and the authors get paid.
Right now Theo is still starting up. When it’s a bit more solid, you’ll be able to purchase access to Fraternity Alpha there. You’ll also be able to read Wishbone and some stories of mine that have been hard to find for years.
Stories are only exclusive to Theo for six months. That means that six months after Fraternity Alpha is available on Theo, you’ll be able to get an ebook or read it on my Patreon.
I’ll be sure to post as soon as I have news about Theo.
