Interview With #Erotica Author Chloe Thurlow
Hi, Chloe, Thanks for stopping by my blog to
chat so me and my readers can get to know you and the type of books you write.
Let’s start with the basic questions first.
Where are you from and when did you start writing stories?
I am English, a London girl, but because of my dad's job,
I was born in Belgium, took my first steps in Italy and went to kindergarten in
Canada. It all sounds rather exciting, but the memory was wiped clean when we
returned to the UK and I was imprisoned in school in Kent. I came under the
fierce hand of habit-wearing nuns who carried 12 inch rulers at all times and
rapped your knuckles if they thought you were wearing mascara or had a button
undone. I hated writing. It was so formulaic, so bound by rules, and didn't
really put serious pen to serious paper until college.
Do you have another job besides writing? If
not, what did you do before you became a full-time author?
I work sometimes as a tutor, sometimes as an events
waitress where alpha males act like madmen at the zoo, and when I am not
writing I get depressed. Writing full-time is my goal.
How old were you when you first started
writing and what was your first story about?
All life is governed by cause and effect, coincidences
that are not really coincidences at all. At college, my tutor had a former
student who had become the editor of an erotic magazine. He encouraged me to
write a story for the magazine, I was nineteen, and wrote about something I was
quite ashamed of that had happened the previous year. I turned a real incident
into fiction. It was liberating. My mind grew wings. The story was published
and I had put my first step on the literary highway – with its bumps and cracks
and turns and dangers.
How long does it take for you to write a
novel?
A LONG time. Katie in
Love took 13 months. I worry over every little word as if they are blind
kittens that need care. All writing is re-writing. There are 3 secrets: editing
editing editing. If you can say something with 8 words instead of 12, then you
have made your text better.
Do you draft an outline beforehand?
No. In the park, a paragraph will fall from the sky like a
leaf from the tree. I grab it and run home to write it down. I have written 6
novels and each one has started this way. The first paragraph is a key to a
locked chest, I turn the lock and gaze inside to see what wonders are
there.
Do you edit as you write or do you get the
tale out in one shot, then go back and do your edits?
I edit as I write. It is like laying a mosaic, each word
chiseled and polished before being slipped into place – which makes it painful,
of course, when you edit and rip them up again. There is no point in writing a
book unless it is the very best that it can be.
Do you have a writing schedule?
I am a night person. I sit up from two to six with the
stars outside the window. That's the creative time. Then, all day, I think
about my characters like a mother with her children, and they lead me through
the story.
You write erotica. What made you decide to
pick that genre?
It's all down to the first short story. My earlier books
are about girls coming of age and
exploring their sexuality. Katie in Katie
in Love has been through that and is faced with the terrible mystery of
love.
When you published your first erotica book,
were you concerned with how people you know and your family would react towards
you?
It was a nightmare. First, my mother thought she was the
mother of Bella in The Secret Life if
Girls and didn't talk to me for two years. My father, in his diplomatic
way, was non-committal and my naughty uncle was thrilled. He bought copies for
his friends and gave me, inappropriately, sexy underwear for my birthday, which
I turned into fiction in Katie in Love.
Mother and I have a flimsy truce and I gave her Katie in Love to read before it was published. There is a scene at
the end of book between Katie and her mother and that is more fact than
fiction.
How many erotica books have you published?
With Katie, it makes six. I have also published a guide to
writing erotica called The Fifty Shades
of Grey Phenomena.
How did you market them?
The other books were published by big boy publishers. I
decided to go indy with Katie in Love
because I have never been entirely satisfied with the other books (I hate the
covers, for example). With Katie, I have done everything myself. I truly
believe in the book and, if it has any success, it will be that much more
pleasurable.
What are your future plans?
I suppose I will just keep writing. I can’t really do
anything else.
Would you still write and publish books if
you knew they weren’t going to sell, regardless of how good they are?
I don't allow that thought to enter my mind.
What would you do if you couldn’t be an
author?
I would like to be a dancer, but I am already too old for
that. Perhaps a mom, one day.
What inspires you?
I am inspired by contemporary life: politics, philosophy,
art shows, new movies – yes, and wars in the Middle East, internet dating,
nude-selfies, sexting, teenage fashion, TV anchorwomen (have you noticed, they
all have great legs). I grab handfuls of everything that's going on around me
and channel it into my books. Katie in
Love is romance with a spicy sprinkling of erotica, but in the subtext, the
underpinning, there is a lot more going on.
What are your favorite books?
A Spy
in the House of Love, Anais Nin, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Gabriel
Garcia Marquez.
What are your favorite movies?
I loved Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything; Nightcrawler,
with Jake Gyllenhaal, and The Wizard of Oz.
Just
for fun
If
you can spend the day with one person—past or present—who would it be and why?
I would like to spend the day with Eddie Redmayne. I am
not prepared to say why.
If you had one wish, what would it be? Oh,
and no cheating. You can’t wish for more wishes.
I care about people, so peace and equality. But those
things are beyond my capabilities and wishes, being self-interested, I would
have to say that Katie in Love
becomes a huge success, sells millions of copies and launches my career big time.
With all that lovely money, I would be in a better position to be more
practical when it comes to peace, equality and social issues.
If you came across a time machine and knew it
worked, what time period would you go to and why?
I'd like to go back to the 1960s. There was an explosion
in music, fashion, literature, lifestyles, freedom. After the wars and the
austere years of the fifties, the western world seemed to come to life. There
was full-employment, loads of opportunities to study, travel, to just be. The
guys grew their hair. The girls slashed the hems of their skirts and the
Beatles sang All You Need is Love.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Spanish cava – lighter than champagne, less bubbles, 11%
proof, so you can drink a lot, and it acts as an anesthetic, so when you fall
over it doesn't hurt.
If you had to be an animal, what would it be
and why?
A giraffe. They are vegetarians, partial to the sweetest
leaves that have been warmed by the sun at the top of trees, they have a
certain poise, a dignity, and they have beautiful long legs.
If you were stranded on a deserted island,
what three things would you want with you?
My laptop, a lifetime supply of batteries and a machete.
Okay, I’m done torturing you. LOL
Thank you so much for chatting with me. I
enjoyed it.
Cheers, mate!
Katie in Love is a page-turning, heart-pumping romance
with a surprise ending and one of my all-time favorite books -
Link for Amazon
downloads - http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00S1SMMIG
Link for Amazon books - http://www.amazon.com/dp/1503014908
Write to Chloe at - chloe.thurlow@yahoo.co.uk
Read Chloe's extraordinary blogs at - www.chloethurlow.com
This was a lovably interview that I thoroughly enjoyed and, re-reading it, I discovered things about myself I had forgotten. I must have been a bit tipsy at the time. Thank you xx Chloe
ReplyDeleteThanks, and you're welcome. My pleasure. :) <3
ReplyDelete