Here’s an author interview with Ralph Greco, Jr. Take it away, Ralph…
- How did you start writing erotica?
By typing on a keyboard….actually, way back in the day when 800 and 900 pre-recorded phone lines were all the rage I began writing ‘scripts’ on a lark for someone close to my home and from there I just kept writing more dirty stuff.
- What erotic authors do you enjoy reading?
I generally do not read erotica, I guess maybe because I write the stuff I don’t read it so much? But I do adore M. Christians smut, though he writes more than just erotica, as do I.
- Where do you draw your inspiration from?
Life, love and the pursuit of a good pizza.
- Where’s your favorite place to write?
Earth
- Do your nearest and dearest know what you do, and if so, what was their reaction when they found out?
Yes, they all know and seeing as I live a very staid suburban existence, often times people who don’t know me but come across the fact that I write dirty words think it’s odd, but my family and friends just accept it as you do anyone else doing any other job.
- What was your ideal career when you were a child?
Staying a child, which I have perfected to an art from in my adulthood.
- How do you get yourself in the mood to write?
I don’t. I just write…or don’t. I do not have a set routine of when or where, but then again I don’t sit around waiting for inspiration. I just tend to get to some writing every day in one form or another, have lots of stuff pending I need to finish, or paid assignments come in (though there’s always too few of those). I consider myself a ‘hack’ in the very best sense of that word, writing is not any more artful to me then the dude coming to pick up your garbage; it’s just something you sit down and do, like any other work. I have cultivated my skills for this job over the years of doing it and maybe I have a talent for it (maybe) but waiting for the ‘muse’ or inspiration is a not something I believe in.
- What’s the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?
My friend Bob is fond of saying “Writers write” and while not advice per say, I’d say what I hear most often from writers (or anyone for that matter pursuing their daily bread and hoping for some advancement in what they do for it) is to just get on with getting on with it.
- If you get writer’s block when you’re writing, how do you get around it?
Luckily I don’t get writer’s block, though I do get stuck sometimes in the middle of a story or an interview I am putting together, can’t get clear of a blog or article, so I just flip over to some other piece of writing I have yet to complete. I am a world class procrastinator-I put off procrastinating actually-so there is always something I have left undone.
- Which author, erotic or otherwise would you love to meet and why?
Edgar Allan Poe, though I fear I couldn’t afford the bar tab if we hung out…and I don’t drink at all, so I doubt we’d get along all that well. I got lucky enough to meet Kurt Vonnegut and shake his hand…that was a hoot! And I met Isaac Asimov and Harlan Ellison (at the same time) and alas, I would have killed to have met Ray Bradbury.
- What are you working on at the moment?
The weekly blogs I pen for various clients, some reviews, translating an interview or two, starting to think about the live theatre piece I will once again mount off-Broadway in NYC (I did one last year with fellow smut writers, musicians and actors and hopefully will cull the same crew) and putting a few erotic themed short story collections together.
- What’s your biggest writing achievement? Why?
Just being able to make writing my full time, badly paid, job.