HEA vs HEAT
READER’S CHOICE
The Magnificent 7
An anonymous former UC Berkeley professor turned Wall Street derivatives guru and current novelist interviews the fabulous novelist Hunter S. Jones:
1) The bursting new genre of femme erotica is evolving by the day. You have asserted that you, the author, are NOT anything LIKE what you write. Most of us who read D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly's Lover" felt it was autobiographical. Were we wrong or are female erotica writers coming from a different place than male erotica writers?
That’s a fantastic question. Someone said that male writers of the erotic tend to indulge in their fantasies or use their work to feature their own experiences and expertise. Didn’t D.H. Lawrence admit that Lady Chatterley’s Lover was based on one of his own affairs with a married woman? Some current writers of erotic materials openly say their books are memoirs or based on actual events—male and female. All my characters are fictional. I can’t speak for all writers but I will quote Faulkner who said (not about erotica but about fiction in general), “A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination, any two of which, at times any one of which, can supply the lack of the others.”
Having an imagination is sexy. Women are finding their voice, so to speak, in the current openness of self-publishing. There’s a wave of female writer’s which have no rules, we create badass bitches that do what they want on their own terms. My character, Liz Snow in September Ends, isn’t like that, but my other female characters definitely are—they make the rules. However Liz does find a way to overcome obstacles and find her way out of the confusion life gives her, she finds her strength through love.
2) So, can we assume that the highly charged and deliciously teasing texting sequence in "September Ends" has no autobiographical content?
Oh, everyone wants to get that little tingle of desire, don’t we? But, that’s the entire message of SEPTEMBER ENDS. When you love right (which is a verbal imperative, in case you didn’t notice.) everything is different. Love takes on a new meaning. Parts of SEPTEMBER ENDS are autographical, but I’m not going to let you know which parts, not yet anyway.
3) You say you never met your September Ends co-author. What, then, was the sequencing between his poems and your text? Which came first?
Thank you for asking this question! It was a really interesting, artistic experience. We are members of an online writers group and discovered we shared a mutual admiration for indie writers. Plus, we both share a love of classic British and American Literature. I needed a creative project to balance an interlude in my personal life so we decided to attempt the novel collaboration which became SEPTEMBER ENDS. We developed the three main characters first.
Next, The Story appeared to us. We developed the synopsis and basic outline of the book. He wrote the poetry for the book, which I used as the ‘spine’ for the prose. He actually did not want to use the two erotic chapters, which I wrote, but I felt strongly that they needed to be included as part of the message of the novel. Our editor, BZ Hercules, agreed that the chapters indeed made the characters much more flawed, which of course makes them much more redeemable in the end.
4) Where is your Cherokee connection?
My father’s family are direct descendants of a man who married into the Cherokee’s Wolf Clan—the female tribal leaders. At the time of the Cherokee Removal, part of the family went to Oklahoma and part of the family stayed in Tennessee. The Cherokees are a matriarchal society. I like to believe I inherited the women’s fierce independence. And, hopefully, a few of their other legendary qualities.
5) Why did you choose to consummate the erotic texters' relationship explicitly, then leave the erotica readers hanging forever after?
The story line of Liz and Pete—their sexual addiction to each other---ran its course in SEPTEMBER ENDS. It came to a screeching halt, like many sexual relationships do. Hence, she vilified him; he romanticized her. It fit into the plotline so well and it is a lot like real life. The entire book could’ve been based on their summer romance, however that was not the story for that particular book. There will be other books.
6) September Ends was so original and, you claim, not autobiographical, so what can your public expect next?
Well, parts of SEPTEMBER ENDS are autographical. There is another book currently in the works based on a couple of the characters, so who knows what direction it will take before those final edits are completed next year?
Plus, there’s a Fables Book 2, but I’m a little scared of it—it’s taken on a life of its own. I’m kinda shocked that I’ve created something so explicit. GULP.
7) What about this idea?
I have a concept for a short story or novelette. Let’s let the readers vote.
Will my next story be:
Happily Ever After - A small town Southern girl who plays guitar visits a tarot card reader to see if the winds of change blowing through her life will return her lost, true love and finally give her life a happily ever after.
OR
HEAT (Hot, Erotic) – A small town Southern girl who visits a tarot card reader, blows him, he decides he’s in love, she denies him any more sex saying it was a one-time-thing which sets him on a deranged killing spree of all her previous lovers in a neo-existential-nihilistic, sex, drug & alcohol parallel universe, only to wake up & find it’s all been a dream & the guitar player-next-door is asleep on her couch, or in her bed & she can’t get him to stop snoring. Who knows? Just some kinda crazee punked-out-FreeBird-Jonesian ending…
Reader’s choice.
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