Here’s an author interview from [intlink id=”751″ type=”post”]Elizabeth Coldwell[/intlink].

Find out what she had to say…

• How did you start writing erotica?

I was working on Forum magazine, and the then editor suggested that all three of us on the editorial staff write a piece of fiction for publication. Mine was the only one that ever got finished – and yes, it did get published in the mag. I’ve been writing, first for Forum and its sister magazines, then for a variety of publishing houses in the UK, US – and now Canada – ever since.

• What’s your favourite published work of yours and why?

I’ve written so many, it’s really difficult to choose. I loved writing my novel about the erotic adventures of the England football team at a mythical tournament, Playing The Field (sadly now out of print), because I created a set of characters I was really fond of. As for short stories, I have a soft spot for At The Bottom Of My Garden, which tells of the romance between a failed rock musician who’s house-sitting in her sister’s country cottage and the big, armour-clad fairy who protects the cottage garden. Probably because I really like my idea of what a fairy should look and behave like, though what that says about me I don’t know. (Link: http://www.ravenousromance.com/fantastica/at-the-bottom-of-my-garden.php)

• What erotic authors do you enjoy reading?

Where do I start? From the old school, Cyrian Amberlake, Portia Da Costa and Lindsay Gordon, through to more current names like Kristina Lloyd, Charlotte Stein, Justine Elyot and Donna George Storey.

• Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Anywhere and everywhere. Dreams, song titles, snatches of conversation. A friend of mine is quite impressed that he made a comment about turning his garage into a den for his teenage daughter, and that became the starting point for a story about a man who hears that idea and decides to turn his own basement into a rather more adult playspace…

• Do you have any unusual writing rituals?

Only if you call writing while you have a cat sleeping in your lap unusual!

• Where’s your favourite place to write?

I make myself comfy on the sofa, open my netbook and wait for one of the cats to join me. Though the best place I’ve ever written (and the place I wish was actually mine) was a houseboat in the Eastern Docks in Amsterdam, watching the rain beat down on the water outside.

• Do your nearest and dearest know what you do, and if so, what was their reaction when they found out?

Everyone knows what I do for a living, and as far as I know, no one’s shocked by it. A few eyebrows get raised when people find out how much I enjoy writing m/m stories, mind…

• How do you get yourself in the mood to write?

I’m very rarely not in the mood to write, and when I’m not, I don’t force it. Instead, I go do some chores, bake or otherwise have time out. I get enough done the rest of the time that it doesn’t matter.

• Which author, erotic or otherwise would you love to meet and why?

I don’t think anything could be better than meeting Clive Barker, which I did quite a few years ago now. A friend and I queued in Borders’ on Oxford Street for about two hours, thinking the signing would end waaaay before we got to the front. But no. He was chatty and amenable with everyone, posed for photos, and I’m sure he kept signing till everyone in the queue (and there were a lot of people behind us) had met him. An example to authors everywhere and a top bloke.

• What’s your favourite genre within erotica and why?

Probably BDSM. I love all those mind games and truly dominant men (rather than the alpha jerks you get in a lot of mainstream romance novels!).

• What are you working on at the moment?

A novel I originally had the idea for several years ago, set on the Isle of Man, and a couple of stories to submit to Rachel Kramer Bussel for her fabulous Cleis anthologies.

• What’s your biggest writing achievement? Why?

Getting my first novel, An Innocent Death, published in 1992. It was a short pulp paranormal novel, and the news I’d had it accepted was just fantastic. It was the acceptance that proved in my mind I could write. The book was only on sale for a very short time, and the company who published it don’t exist any more, so maybe I ought to dig out the MS and try to get it back out to readers who missed it the first time…