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“Cream”

Flattery to the Extreme

by | September 15, 2016 | | 1 Comment

I have a friend who has a preternatural talent for clever
turns of phrase and pithy remarks. Spend any amount of time in his company and
bon mots go off like cluster bombs. I’m constantly telling him, “I’m going
to steal that one.” And he just brushes it off – yeah, sure, feel free.

I have stolen a
few of his best and included them in fictional dialogue of my own, but not
before Googling the phrase, just in case he picked it up from someone else. 

I
think we all pick up on clever remarks, and those of us who write are likely to
recycle them in the mouths of our characters. But a quick Google check might
reveal a phrase’s origin, or more importantly, whether it as fresh and original
as you thought. You don’t want to use it after it has become a meme or cliché. What’s
clever today has a briefer shelf life due to social media.

It might also keep you ought of trouble; what if it’s a
quote from a copyrighted work? There’s fair use, and then there’s being fair
and giving credit.

I think, though, stealing
lines is fairly common among writers. It may even be the sincerest form of
flattery, or homage. I think it’s the same as, for instance, using a locale
that figures prominently in the work of an author you admire. Or even borrowing
a minor character who inhabits that locale. Of course, you might want to do the
courtesy of giving the other author a heads up. The few times other writers
have asked me if they could borrow a
character my response was always, “Wow, sure.” It was fascinating reading
my own characters as interpreted by someone else. Truly, it can open your eyes
to another facet of a character you thought you knew inside-out … I mean, you
created them.

Outright plagiarism has surfaced in the news recently.
Taking someone’s unique creation and passing it off as one’s own is the
ultimate mortal sin among artists. The majority of such claims seem to arise
out of the music industry. The latest, Led Zeppelin’s exoneration of charges it
plagiarized it’s iconic “Stairway to Heaven.”

You have to wonder, though, with only so many notes at
one’s disposal, and with all the music already created by our species over
thousands of years, how anyone comes up with a distinct melody. Haven’t you
ever begun humming a tune and seamlessly segue into another tune with a similar
melody? And yet, we recognize each as a distinct song.

It’s a bit more difficult, I think, to plagiarize a known
written work, or a speech, for that matter. Changing a few words just doesn’t
do the trick. If the current political season has taught us anything, it’s just
plain stupid to try that.

Unless it’s a blatant rip-off, like lifting Michelle
Obama’s words wholesale, I tend to cut the accused offender a bit of slack
because of something that happened to me.

While writing a story that came to be called “What
Was Lost” – featured within “Cream” an amazing anthology of
stories written by members of the Erotica Readers and Writers Association and
edited by Lisabet Sarai – I took a break to watch a war drama, “The Lost
Battalion.”

Well, the movie ended in the wee hours, so I hit the
sack. The next day I finished my story in time to post it to the ERWA critique
list.

Among the responses I got was from a friend and an extraordinary
writer of erotica, Helena Settimana: “I bet you watched ‘Lost Battalion’ last
night.”

Huh? How’d she know that? Then she quoted a line I used
in the story. Think of what happened next as an epiphany delivered with a kick
in the ass. I had had the line in my head and it fit perfectly into the mouth
of my main character. The fact that I had, quite without intention, stolen a
line from the movie frankly scared me.

Nothing of the sort has happened since, but it does give
one pause, and perhaps a bit of empathy for the random artist who used a string
of notes, or a series of words in a particular order that turned out to be part
of someone’s else’s work.

They used to say, put a keyboard in front of a chimpanzee
and give him enough time, he’ll eventually bang out “War and Peace.”
I doubt either the chimp or its observers would live that long. But the human
brain insists on putting things in order as it recycles information it receives
all day.

Maybe whenever you come up with a great line, you should
try saying, “Gee, I wish I’d written that.” You know, just to reboot
your brain’s quality control.

Just sayin’.

Preserving the Author’s Voice

by | March 21, 2015 | | 13 Comments

By Lisabet Sarai

In addition to writing erotica and erotic romance, I’m also an editor. Over the past decade and a half, I’ve edited three multi-author anthologies, two commercial (Sacred Exchange and Cream) and one for charity (Coming Together: In Vein). As editor of the Coming Together Presents series, I’ve also been responsible for shepherding six collections of short stories by single authors into publication. Right now I’m working with Daddy X (whom many of you will know from ERWA Storytime and Writers) to help him put together his full-length volume The Gonzo Collection, to be released by Excessica in April.

Writing and publishing is hard work. From researching obscure details to wrestling the recalcitrant muse, endless self-promoting to surviving snarky reviews, being an author is not for sissies. You need the energy of teenager, the thick skin of a water buffalo and the self-discipline of a saint.

Sometimes, though, I think that the editor role is even more difficult. If a book you write sucks, that reflects on you alone. When you’re the editor, on the other hand, you hold the fate of others in your hands. It’s not just your own reputation that’s on the line. Your colleagues depend on you to polish their work and make it shine. If the book crashes and burns—gets horrible reviews, or turns out to be full of errors—you take the authors down with you. That’s a heavy responsibility to bear.

Hence I have to be far more careful editing others’ work than self-editing my own. After all, I can rely on my editor to catch those typos or repeated words or slips in logic that I don’t see no matter how many times I review my manuscript. When I’m the editor, there’s no backup. If I miss some mistake, nobody else is going to find it—except, of course, critical readers.

The trickiest part of editing is keeping a light touch. The utmost delicacy is required. Sometimes I want to suggest significant revisions, to improve clarity or flow, to tighten a description or enliven some dialogue. I have to hold myself in check, recognizing that every author tells a story differently. There’s a very real danger in editing—especially when the editor is also an writer—that revisions will dilute the author’s distinctive voice. Some changes I could recommend might improve the work from a technical perspective but do violence to the author’s characteristic style. There’s a constant temptation to impose my own vision on the manuscript, especially when the author’s approach to structure, language and punctuation differ from my own.

I hope Daddy X won’t mind me using his work as an example. I love the boundless sexual enthusiasm in his stories, the wacky scenarios, his over-the-top descriptions and his sly humor. At the same time, his prose tends to have less continuity than mine. Where I’d put in a scene break or an explicit bridging paragraph, he’ll jump from one outrageous set of events to another without batting an eyelash. He also tends to make far heavier use of dialect than I’d feel comfortable with. And he seems to adore ellipsis and interrupted speech. It’s rare for his characters to get out a full sentence that doesn’t include an em dash or two.

If this were my book, I’d strip out eighty percent of the ellipses. I’d avoid using “ain’t”. I’d add transitional paragraphs to clarify the shifts in point of view, and I’d never have a character emit vocalizations like “Anh” or “Ooooowee!” or “Ogeg.”

But it’s not my book. It’s Daddy’s book, Daddy’s stories. If I were to set my red pen loose the way I would on a student term paper, that might stop being true. The resulting book would be more correct, grammatically. It might be easier to read. It would certainly be more conventional. My heavy-handed editing process, though, might well extinguish the spark that makes Daddy X’s work special.

I’m picking on the current book because it’s fresh in my mind, but I’ve felt the same tension in all my professional editing work. I have to constantly remind myself that there’s no one “right” way to write. My job as editor is to refine the raw material of the author’s initial draft without reshaping it too much. Preserving the author’s distinctive voice is as important as fixing his or her grammar.

I know from working with some of my own editors how hard they sometimes push for changes that I think are wrong. The authors with whom I work know they can always push back—that almost every change I make should be viewed as suggested rather than absolutely required. I hope they feel free to debate those suggestions, or simply reject them, if they think those revisions weaken the story they’re trying to tell.

In the end, my name will be on the final result, but I don’t want anyone to pick up the book and think “Gee, this sounds a lot like Lisabet’s prose.” That would indicate a utter and complete failure.

Ten Years in Bed with the Best: The History of ERWA

by | June 11, 2014 | | 4 Comments

By Adrienne Benedicks (ERWA founder)

It’s
difficult to write good erotica. Authors in any fictional genre have
to master the elements of the craft: plot, characterization,
dialogue, and so on. Erotica authors need to go further. They need to
depict sexual acts, situations, and emotions that are believable and
arousing. To do this, they draw on their personal insights and
images. They delve into their imaginations, lay bare their sensual
fantasies, and share those visions with their readers. Authors who
dare expose themselves via erotica are brave souls, indeed.

To
my delight, I find myself today surrounded by these fascinating
people: the writers of sexually explicit fiction. These are the
people who populate the virtual world of ERWA, the world we have
built together over the past ten years.

In
1996, when I first plugged into the Internet, I admit that the first
thing I looked for was porn. I craved sexy stories. Much to my
disappointment all I found were boring, mechanical sex scenes, and a
lot of “Oh my Gawd, I’m cumming” nonsense. It didn’t take me
long to realize that much of the adult web was simply a digital form
of male-oriented one-dimensional smut, a cyber circle-jerk. I was
disappointed. As a woman I felt left out of the dirty stuff.

I
thought that surely I wasn’t unique in my desire for well-written,
hot erotic stories – real stories, not just bits and pieces of fuck
scenes. So I hit the chat rooms and asked, “Where’s the quality
sexy stuff?” That was like plastering a blinking “Who wants to
screw me?” tag on my emails. Live and learn!

For
my next attempt, I joined the Romance Readers Anonymous (RRA) email
list. I thought that surely romance readers would be comfortable
discussing erotic stories. In those days, though, we couldn’t talk
about sex in our public posts, even though many romances were highly
erotic.

A
few of us listers took to chatting off-list about the erotic parts of
romance. I suggested that we live on the edge and start our own list.
Great excitement greeted my suggestion, and on June 5th, 1996, the
Erotica Readers Association was born. ERA, an affectionate play on
the Equal Rights Amendment, was a sister list to RRA, and the
foundation of the current Erotica Readers & Writers Association.

At
that time my children were in high school, and I had the opportunity
to finish my degree in Anthropology. As a student, I had access to
various online options and with the endorsement of my professor, the
University agreed to host the ERA email list. My goal was to provide
a private, secure online space where women could comfortably discuss
erotic fiction and sexuality, away from the “hey baby, whatcha
wearing” crowd.

Subscription
was by request or invitation. Publicity worked via word of mouth.
Within two months we had sixty women onboard – fabulous, fun,
curious women who were eager to talk about sexy writings, and to
discuss the joys, problems, or disappointments of their own
sexuality.

It
didn’t take long before these readers decided to try their own
hands at writing sexy fiction. “I bet even I can write a sex scene
better that!” was a typical inspiration. We quickly learned that
writing good erotica wasn’t as easy as it seemed. The general
assumption was that if you were capable of having sex, then surely
you could about write it. Not necessarily true, but that didn’t
stop us from trying. We were having a lot of fun, even when our
fictional efforts fell flat.

Before
long, a few brave men who were friends of ERA subscribers were asking
to join. They liked reading erotic stories, and they liked the idea
of smart discussions about sex. So I opened the door; ERA became
inclusive rather then exclusive. Most women were pleased with the
change. A few stomped off the list, sure ERA would crumble into a
“hey baby” chat room atmosphere.

That
didn’t happen. Men brought their unique sexual insight into ERA,
and our horizons grew even more as people of all sexual persuasions
requested subscription. ERA became a dynamic robust community of
people interested in sexuality in the written word, and in their
lives.

Of
course, we had our fair share of narrow-minded confrontational types,
rigid view points, and egos too big even for the World Wide Web.
Overall, though, ERA-ers were non-judgmental, mutually respectful and
more then willing to get along.

ERA
grew quickly that first year. Subscribers suggested I started a web
site to house all the material we were accumulating: book
recommendations, hints about popular authors, discussions on where to
buy erotica (at that time erotica wasn’t sitting on book shop
shelves). A subscriber volunteered to build a site, and the domain
“www.erotica-readers.local” became an on-line reality.

We
decided to be really daring, and started putting subscribers’
original stories behind a password protected “Green Door” on the
ERA web site. We felt so very sophisticated, and risqué, with our
personal secret stash of erotica sitting right out there on the Web!

ERA
continued to grow, and so did subscribers’ interest in writing
erotica. Writers were taking a serious interest in helping each other
improve. Stories were shared on the list, and critiques and
suggestions on how to improve the works were cheerfully and willingly
given. ERA was evolving, moving from its readers’ base to a
writers’ base. More and more focus was on writers helping writers.

Around
this time, erotica anthologies were becoming very popular. The
Herotica series (Down There Press) had made a big splash, leading the
way to The Best Women’s Erotica (Cleis Press), Best American
Erotica (Simon & Schuster), The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica
(Carroll & Graf), Best Lesbian Erotica (Cleis Press), and
Ultimate Gay Erotica (Alyson Press).

Web
site magazines were springing up like grass (and weeds). There was a
growing market for erotic short stories, and many ERA subscribers
were ready to try publishing their work. They exposed themselves, so
to speak, behind ERA’s Green Door; the experience gave them
confidence. With support and encouragement from their peers, ERA
subscribers started to submit stories to various calls for
submissions.

ERA
already had a solid community feel. Subscribers really did care about
each other. We were a virtual family. Even so, I was pleasantly
surprised at how generous writers were in sharing calls for
submissions. Rather than concealing the information to reduce the
competition, ERA-ers said: “Hey everybody, look what I found! Let’s
give it a try.”

At
that time, the ERA web site was still a small dot in the adult web,
but there was no doubt our growing resources and stash of sexy
stories was drawing in a smart crowd. I took the plunge, and with a
lot of help and suggestions from the community, gave the ERA site a
new look that was sensual and classy, as well as easy to navigate.

I
didn’t realize the obvious: being out in the Web made my private
email list, nicely hidden and hosted by the University computer
center, suddenly quite visible. Subscription was still by request or
invitation, but now inquiries came pouring in. People landing on ERA
web site liked the resources they found there, and wanted to know
more. Subscriptions grew, the site grew, and soon ERA was pulling in
more then 13% of the university web traffic. ERA had to go, they told
me, and gave me two weeks to find another host.

Ah,
the price of success! Fortunately, an Australian subscriber
volunteered the help of her husband, who ran his own ISP service.
Kevin hosted ERA for free for several years until we once again grew
too big and had to move on to our present home, a major adult web
hosting company.

By
2000 ERA had grown so large and had such a varied focus that things
were getting out of hand. The sheer number of emails on the list
caused confusion and havoc. Writers were frustrated in their efforts
to have their stories critiqued because their works were lost in the
deluge of chit-chat emails. Questions and concerns about publishing
and marketing went unanswered because busy subscribers didn’t have
time or patience to dig through hundreds of emails, and were simply
deleting it all.

Meanwhile
the amount of information on the site was overwhelming. The
organization was on the verge of losing itself in too much of
everything. It would have been an ironic death by popularity.

At
this point I understood that ERA was no longer a simple hobby. Good
erotica had become a worthy pursuit. Erotica readers were hungry for
the good stuff, and publishers were geared up to provide it. I wanted
the ERA web site to be the place where erotica readers and
writers would come for the information they needed and where editors
and publishers would come when looking for talented writers. I wanted
ERA to be the premier web site for quality erotica. Finally, I wanted
to continue to provide an email list where erotica readers and
writers could network, and where people could comfortably discuss
sexuality.

The
first step was to change the Erotica Readers Association name to
better reflect what we had become: the Erotica Readers & Writers
Association (ERWA). The second step was to create a flexible
infrastructure for the site and for the email list, a foundation with
enough latitude for future changes. Here’s where ERWA subscribers
came to the rescue, once again. Suggestions poured in, and I followed
through. The evolution of ERWA was, and I suspect always will be, a
community affair.

ERWA
became three distinct parts that made up the whole: ERWA email
discussion list, ERWA web site, and the humorous and informative ERWA
monthly newsletter, Erotic Lure, currently written by the editor of
this anthology, Lisabet Sarai.

The
ERWA web site retained its basic design. The richness and utility of
the site grew as publishers and editors recognized ERWA’s
potential. No longer did I spend hours searching for viable markets.
Calls for submissions now came to me.

ERWA’s
story galleries became a source of quality erotic fiction. Editors
routinely mined the galleries’ content for their “Best Of”
erotic anthologies. Renowned erotic authors came on board as
columnists, providing advice in our Authors Resources section. The
luminaries of the adult literary world offered provocative articles
on hot sexual topics in the Smutter’s Lounge pages.

I
divided ERWA email discussion list into four opt-in sections; Admin
(for news related to ERWA, calls for submissions, events, and other
items of interest); Parlor (an open forum with a social ambiance);
Writers (dedicated to authorship and related issues); and Storytime
(an informal writers’ workshop where authors share their stories
for comments and critiques). The very best of Storytime works are
placed in ERWA Erotica Galleries, and many of them are showcased
right here in this volume.

Currently,
the Erotica Readers & Writers Association hosts an email
discussion list of over 1200 subscribers. Our newsletter goes out to
more then 5000 readers, writers, editors and publishers. The web site
is accessed over six million times each month.

ERWA
has been favorably reviewed by Playboy, Elle magazine,
AVN online magazine, Writer’s Digest, and recommended in a
host of books and articles as the premier resource for erotica
readers and writers. Every month, we entertain, educate and inform
millions people from all over the globe who are interested in
erotica.

Although
we’ve grown tremendously, ERWA’s strength is still in community.
We are diverse and far-flung, but tightly connected. The result is an
ongoing effort to understand and accept all persuasions, lifestyles,
and expressions of sexuality. We want to bring the very best of
erotica to readers, partly by helping writers excel in a genre that
is making headlines and causing the entire publishing industry to sit
up and take notice.

Personally,
I’m amazed at what we’ve built together, and extremely proud. Now
I can say to those frustrated folk who are searching, like I was, for
sex writing that is simultaneously intelligent and arousing: here we
are. Search no further. Welcome to ERWA. You’re home.

[This article is an afterword from the erotica anthology Cream: The Best of the Erotica Readers and Writers Association (Running Press, 2006, edited by Lisabet Sarai). Of course this written was almost a decade ago, and a great deal has happened since then. Still, the spirit of ERWA remains vital and – dare I say it? – lusty as ever. ~ Lisabet Sarai, blog coordinator]

 

 

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