For me, the greatest thing about writing Overdue for Pleasure was discovering the story while I wrote it.  I had no idea what would happen next throughout most of the time that I was writing the book. I didn’t even know which guy Mandy would end up with.  I knew who I wanted her to be with at first, but then he turned out to be a jerk, so I was back to square one.  At that point, I was getting concerned that I had lost control of the story, and felt a bit discouraged, only to find, after writing a few more pages, that she (and I) were both secretly in love with somebody else in the story, who was even more delightfully sexy than the other guy had been. But the fun part was that I didn’t know until I got there, and that was what kept me writing, and what made it so exciting. I would sit there, writing as fast as my fingers would let me, just to find out what would happen next.

My favorite moment was always that “What the!!!” moment, when I saw what had been hiding around the next bend in the story.  “I didn’t know THAT was going to happen! Wowzers, I really like that!” Or “Oh no, I can’t believe she did that–how is she ever going get out of that one???” And then I would have to wait until the NEXT DAY to find out. Maddening!

Then came the not-so great part of writing a novel, the part that I dreaded the most–the revision process. I’ve always hated revising, not because I don’t think my writing needs work, but rather because I know how badly it does need work, but I have no idea what to do to fix it. So I did my best, fiddling with it and struggling with it until I thought it looked pretty okay. And then I sent it in to Carina Press, who must have thought it was okay too because they wanted to publish it!

But then they had a REAL editor look at it, and I found out how much more work there was for me to do.  It was great, but so scary. I was convinced that I couldn’t possibly do it. After all, I was the person who had unknowingly used 122 semicolons in my supposedly polished draft (apparently that’s a few too many), and used the same words a dozen times on one page without even noticing, even after my editor gave me the hint that I should look for “repetitive language” in the manuscript! I literally couldn’t see it right in front of my face (thank goodness for my computer’s “find and replace” feature, is all I can say).

But eventually I got through the editing process without too many tears. Then on to the fun part, right?  Getting published, getting out there, coming alive on the internet, navigating the world of social media! Fun, right? Um… Yes? Fun with a bit of “scary” mixed in.  Fun with a bit of “what if nobody at all even reads my book, what then???” Fun with a lot of work involved! I fought with my computer for hours while I tried to build my website, all along convinced that nobody was ever even going to look at it so why bother? (www.shelleyaikens.com, in case you want to prove me wrong!) I banged my head against the wall thinking of promotional ideas, all the while longing to return to my latest work in progress, which was waiting just on the edge of a particularly tantalizing scene…

But then in the middle of all that work and worry, there was a wonderful moment when I finally got to experience one of the greatest things about writing a novel—I got to hold the actual finished book in my hands, open it up, and start reading! I was never so excited to read anything on my ereader (except MAYBE for The Girl Who Played with Fire—no, wait, not even for that!) as I was when I downloaded MY OWN book onto it!  Wow, there it was–that beautiful cover, that beautiful typeface, all those beautiful words! And it looked like a real book, not like the Word document that it had been on my computer for so many months.  I sat down and read it, and I couldn’t stop smiling. I was on the edge of my seat as though I really didn’t know what was going to happen next.  Why? Did I think it might have changed somehow in that magical space between my computer and the published version? Whatever the reason, I sat down and read the whole book without missing a word of it, and it felt like something new to me. I was discovering the story all over again, and I hope the sense of discovery is as exciting for you as it was for me.

Come to think of it, I have that same sense of breathless discovery whenever I’m working on something creative, like quilting or knitting or even puttering in the tangle of weeds I call my garden. Maybe that’s what creativity is all about? Or maybe it’s just me…

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Shelley Aikens is a writer of erotic fiction who also moonlights as a librarian in Vancouver, BC.  Readers can check out her latest fantasies on her website www.shelleyaikens.com, on Facebook, or see what she’s up to on Twitter.

www.shelleyaikens.com

@shelleyaikens at Twitter

So what happens when a librarian in a seemingly perfect relationship discovers that her life really isn’t that perfect after all? When she finds out that her boyfriend, the world’s most sexually unadventurous man, has been fooling around on her? Is it possible that’s she’s too boring in bed even for him? And what if it all falls apart on the same day that a gorgeous Brad Pitt lookalike walks into her library and starts flirting with her? You get a woman who is Overdue for Pleasure, and and her search for sexual adventures is my first erotic novel with Carina Press.

Here’s what the back cover says about the book:

Mandy is content with her job as a librarian, her longtime boyfriend, Martin, and the lovely home they share. So what if their sex life is vanilla? She’s not the wild type anyway.

But when she wakes up one morning—unsatisfied—from an erotic dream starring her favorite movie star, Mandy starts to crave sexual adventure in real life. Too bad Martin won’t oblige, because it’s not Tuesday or Friday. Then Mandy finds out what Martin’s been doing the other days of the week—or rather, who. And suddenly she needs to prove to herself that she’s not boring in bed.

Fortunately, there is no shortage of smoking-hot men willing to help her on her sensual quest: a nameless library patron who could be Brad Pitt’s twin, a coworker she suddenly sees in a different light, and the neighbor who usually rubs her the wrong way wants to show her he can rub her the oh-so-right way, too! Lucky for Mandy, her lovers are more than willing to share…

You can read an excerpt here.

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Shelley Aikens is a writer of erotic fiction who also moonlights as a librarian in Vancouver, BC.  Readers can check out her latest fantasies on her website www.shelleyaikens.com, on Facebook, or see what she’s up to on Twitter.

http://www.shelleyaikens.com

@shelleyaikens at Twitter

So it’s finally time for me to “come out of the closet…” Yes, I write erotica! And yes (gulp!) I love it!

Overdue for Pleasure is my first erotic novel, and I never had so much fun as when I was writing it (although revising was a bit of a different story–more about that later.) I enjoyed it so much that now I’m hard at work on another book, hopefully the second of many.

I decided to write under a pseudonym, partly to protect the guilty but mostly because in the other half of my life I’m a children’s librarian, and I didn’t think erotic author went very well with puppetry and storytime. I did, however, pick a name that’s very similar to my real first name, so I still feel like it’s “me” on the cover of that book. And the pics of me on my site are the real deal. I figured if you’re somebody who’s easily offended by the idea of an erotica-writing trollop singing songs to your preschooler, then you’d probably have some explaining to do about how you found my picture on my website in the first place. And besides, anyone who spends their spare time reading erotic fiction and going to erotic authors’ websites is probably going to be pretty supportive of what I do, even if they do happen to have a child in my storytime!

What made me most nervous about coming out of the closet was probably my mother’s reaction. My mom is the quiet, conservative type. She doesn’t even like to hear that I’ve been to the nudist beach–how would she react to the fact that her daughter was churning out smut, and rather explicit smut at that? But she surprised me by being almost more excited than anybody. (Although she may not be entirely aware of just how explicit the story it really is…) I love you Mom!

And of course, my partner is over the moon! He gets such a kick out of telling people that I write erotica–he’ll bring it up at parties, at the dog park, in line at the grocery store–anywhere. Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit, as I can read the reaction on people’s faces. One of the most awkward moments was when he told his 20-year-son, who at first laughed in total disbelief, and then blushed to the tips of his ears when he realized it was true. Not everybody is ready for the idea that the quiet librarian over there is actually an erotic author!

But it sure makes the hours pass when I’m at the library, dreaming up erotic scenes for my novels. Not that it’s something I do very often, as it can be a bit distracting. And let’s face it, the people you see in the public library aren’t exactly as hot as the ones I wrote into the book. Much to my chagrin, though not, of course, to that of my partner. But every so often, there’s a library patron who’s worthy of a fantasy or two, who maybe even makes it into the pages of one of my books…

But now I’m losing track of what I was saying. Where was I? Oh yes, I was just about to close that closet door behind me. The biggest surprise was that despite how nervous I was about coming out of the closet and writing erotica, it’s been such an amazing, supportive experience that I wish I’d done it years ago. Even people who might never read Overdue for Pleasure (like my brother, for example) are all super excited for me. Although I’m sure there are at least a few negative reactions lurking out there somewhere—after all, you can’t please everyone.

What about you? Are there any erotica readers/authors out there who’ve had to deal with negative reactions or who’ve had to justify why you love what you do? What happened when (if) you finally came out of the closet? For me, so far, it’s been a pretty amazing fantasy come true!

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http://www.shelleyaikens.com