This re-post of an interview I did with The Smut Report is the fifth in a series of blog interviews I’ve done over the years. The first post explains my purpose.
The Smut Report Interview
Today’s post is from a 2023 interview I did for The Smut Report with the goal of promoting my Harwell Heirs series. At the time, I had just released Book 4, A Delicate Seduction, and so applied to The Smut Report for a review of Book 1, The Pleasure Device. They said they would review The Pleasure Device later, but in the meantime, I could do this promo interview called “My First Smut”, so I did. By the way, The Smut Report hated The Pleasure Device. It seems my Victorian erotic romance was too smutty for a website with “smut” in the title!
The Interview
First romance novel you read
Lord Wraxall’s Fancy by Anna Lieff Saxby.
How old were you (or what life stage were you in)?
Early 40s.
How’d you get your hands on the book?
A friend had given me and my husband a gift certificate to a local adult store as a wedding present. There was a slim selection of books. I picked up a paperback published by Black Lace that they called an “anthology” but was really samples from their historical erotic romance backlist.
Life – moving, grad school, new career, etc. – got in the way and the book got buried. I found it one day, after I myself had started writing and was convinced no one else was writing historical erotic romance (a classic new author mistake). Suddenly before me was an entire book of sample chapters from people writing what I was writing! Only one of the stories really grabbed my attention – the writing was gorgeous, and it was set in the 17th century (I was writing 18th and 19th century set stories). I had to have that book, but it was out of print. After a determined search, I found a used copy of Lord Wraxall’s Fancy on Amazon.
What was the reading experience like?
I had never read anything like it before. The sexual situations were clever and unusual. The sensuous language heightened the erotic experience. The action-adventure plot was like a swashbuckler movie with sex. It wasn’t simply an arousing book; it was arousing and engaging and I wanted to know what happened next. Plus – and this is the most important part – it was historical, and I realized that particular component was arousing in and of itself.
What made the experience special?
The book was an introduction to this no-holds-barred world of sexy literature. I realized there were people writing what I was writing. I was inspired to find these books and read them and forge ahead writing my own. And, as a historian, I began researching historical erotic literature and historical sex practices.
What role does smut play in your life?
Of course, there is pure pleasure in reading a very well-written historical erotic romance. Beyond enjoyment as a reader, I am an advocate for the genres of erotica and erotic romance. I have proposed standard genre definitions for the publishing industry. I encourage authors to hone their craft when writing sex scenes. As a historian, I add a bit of sex history in my own stories. I want my readers to know LGBTQIA people have always existed; polyamory and non-monogamy have always existed; kinks and “unconventional” sexual proclivities have always existed; birth control has always existed. Still, writers of historical romance face this constant backlash of “they didn’t do that back then”. Well, I’m here to say, yes, people really did have sex back then. And, yes, they really did have sex *like that* back then.