If you’re looking for this week’s snippets, click here. But wait! Read this post too, you could win a cool prize (and by cool I mean gift cards, jewelry, and a whole boatload of books!).
Welcome to my stop on the Absolutely Erotic Blog Hop, where we’re showcasing erotica and erotic romance authors from the Absolute Write forums. Each day, interviews will be posted, and when it’s all said and done, some lucky commenter will win a huge prize! Click here for the entire blog schedule and details about the contents of the prize, and how to win an armload of ebooks, a $25 Amazon gift card, and more.
Today, I’m hosting J.E. & M. Keep, author of dark, fantasy erotica and romance.
What appeals to you the most about writing romance/erotica?
My partner and I have always been drawn to writing erotic scenes. We met initially online, and got in the habit of sending titillating, handwritten stories and dirty letters through the mail. Online we took to doing some roleplay.
With romance and erotic stories in novels, however we couldn’t really find the niche we wanted. We love epic fantasies, and sprawling worlds like that of the lore of Forgotten Realms and World of Warcraft, or sci-fi like that of Dune and Star Wars but were always disappointed by the treatment – or the lack of treatment – of sex.
They always faded to black, and we wanted to know what happened, so we decided to write it. We get to read – in agonizing, gory detail – every millisecond of a fight scene, but the lovemaking is considered gratuitous and extraneous. We’ve been writing fiction for a decade now, and almost all of it has erotic passages, if not an erotic focus.
What is the most interesting thing you have learned from your research?
We’re actually in the process of editing our noir erotica, and that was probably the most interesting to research as it’s set in the 1920’s. We had to do a lot of research into the customs and traditions of the time so we could portray a New England, upperclass woman attending university. Specifically, she was studying the ways of Freud, and delved into the Electra concept quite a bit. It was absolutely fascinating to read about all of the women involved in psychology back in the 20s and 30s.
Is there any topic you find taboo?
There’s plenty we find taboo, but that only means we like it more. We write a lot of taboo themes like incest and reluctance, and very rarely do we shy away from a topic. We write what we enjoy and we enjoy writing stories that place characters in awkward and inappropriately erotic scenarios. Context is everything, and we adore the contextually taboo.
How do you come up with your book titles?
Usually we’ll bounce ideas off one another until something sticks. Our best titles are ones that we’ve come up with together, like our upcoming “The Warlord’s Concubine.” It perfectly captures the themes – the woman is a devotee and a willing slave to the Warlord, but she’s the focus of the story. It’s about her, but she is defined by being his.
That one was a relatively easy title. Some we end up tossing around ideas for days on end without resolution until we have an epiphany or just twist around a title-in-progress until it gets the right vibe for us. “Brought the Stars to You” was one we kicked around for weeks before we got it right. It’s a slight twist on a line from an important scene in that sci fi romance that encapsulates the story well.
If you had to include a soundtrack with one of your books, give us the book title and three tracks that would be on that soundtrack?
I’d probably go with Tiffany – a Naughty School Girl Series, because it’s definitely the easiest. It’s a tale, to be polite, of a young woman’s sexual awakening at the hands of her teacher, and how it’s soon twisted and exploited by the men in her life, much to her delight. “Pull Your Hair – Yin Yang Twins”, “Closer – Nine Inch Nails”, “Bad, Bad Thing – Jace Everett”. She’s a bad girl, and she likes it rough. And often.
Do you have any special writing rituals?
We write using Google Drive, working together as a team! Other than that, my partner tends to write up a plan for whatever story we’re going to work on ahead of time, then once we’re sat down to begin we kind of passoff back and forth depending on the nature of the work until completion. When he’s checking over my work and adding to it, I tend to work on things like our covers, and when I’m checking over his he tends to do things like play video games or read articles to spur his creativity. The end ritual, however, is always sex of some sort. Also sometimes a midway ritual.
If you could meet any of your characters in real life, who would it be any why?
I think I’d be terrified to meet most of them, honestly! To me, they all seem so much bigger than life. That being said, I personally wouldn’t mind having a run-in with Tiffany’s Teacher. He’s a bit rough, and controlling, and dominant… I’m sorry, where was I? My partner would probably say Velen, of “Hot Desert Daze”. He’s got a thing for devious but pleasing pretty boys, though he’s never had luck finding one.
What’s the one thing readers can always count on when they pick up a book written by you?
It’s not going to be traditional. No matter what genre we write, it’s probably going to be a bit dark and twisted, even if it seems light hearted. We write a lot of messy, screwed up romances, and a lot of really dangerous relationships that just work for the people involved despite the flaws.
Also, you can definitely count on there being more in the subtext or hidden away that we didn’t cover in the story itself that is somehow even more fucked up and taboo. My partner has a devious mind when it comes to intricate plot webs, and there’s always more there than finally makes it into the story, even in our more porn-y titles.
What’s one time and/or place (past, present, or future) that you’re dying to write about? Why?
We have really been hankering to write a story about a vampire couple through the ages, following them through the biggest revolutions of the last few centuries, like the French and Russian revolutions where women played a large role. My partner was a Historian before taking up the torch of our writing full time, but it will still require a lot of work and research. It’s something we really want to do well.
If you could be any mythical/fantasy creature what would you be and why?
I know it’s probably pretty cliché, but I’d like to be an elf. Agile, beautiful, graceful, eternal. I’m really drawn to them.
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
Hm. We started one story that we haven’t finished, and the female character had absolute control over her body and muscles. She could mimic any motion just by watching it, and was stronger and faster than anyone should be. I think that’d be pretty awesome.
If you were a porn star, what would your porn name be?
Who says I’m not already? 😉
If you came with a warning label, what would it say?
“Caution: Looks are deceiving.”
What are your daily must-stop blogs and websites?
I check my email, Darknest, OneHandedWriters, and then a bunch of forums for erotic authors, erotic art, etc. I also check Facebook, FetLife, and Twitter daily.
Speaking of online hangouts, where are yours? Where can your readers find you?
The Keep | Keep It Up (blog) | Newsletter | Facebook | @jmkeep | @jekeep
Is there anything else you would like to say to our readers?
Thanks everyone for reading! We don’t write much GLBTQ stuff, unfortunately, just a few freebies on our site and the one published male-on-male work solo-written by my partner, “Hot Desert Daze”, but if you enjoy straight stuff once in a while, check us out! ❤
Thank you for visiting this stop on the Absolutely Erotic Blog Hop! Please be sure to visit J.E. & M. Keep’s blog tomorrow to read an interview with M.C. Hana and comment for more chances to win the grand prize!
J.E. and M. Keep love dirty, filthy, smutty erotica. They explore the most sexual, titillating and sometimes terrifying encounters. The plots are contemporary, fantasy, or science fiction, but they all have one thing in common: They’re hot. From dark and taboo smut to coming of ages lust, from twisted love stories to tragic tales of self destructive needs, they explore the fact that not all Ever Afters are happy, and not everyone’s idea of happy is the same.
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Today I have two winners to announce! Thanks so much to all of you who participated in the Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia–I don’t think I’m alone in feeling it was a huge success.
Charley Descoteaux 