Interview With #Erotica Author Chloe Thurlow

Interview with 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 downloadshttp://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












2 comments:

  1. 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

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, and you're welcome. My pleasure. :) <3

    ReplyDelete